Wyndham Clark has looked more like Roy McAvoy on the PGA Tour practice range this year.
Numerous training aids, alignment sticks and even coat hangers have accompanied his practice sessions.
But Clark has also been the hottest golfer in the world over the past four months, racking up three wins, including his second U.S. Open title and last week’s BMW Championship.
One training aid in particular, the new ProSendr Widener, has also been a boon to my own game since I started using it earlier this month.
What is the Widener?
The Widener is one of the newest training aids from ProSendr. The device works by attaching to the golfer’s lead arm with a strap just above the wrist. The key is a unique curved arm that extends into a “U” shape that you press against your lead shoulder.
The “U” shape at the top allows a good bit of range of motion for getting your hands above your head, as inventors and GOLF Top 100 Teachers David Woods and Sean Foley explain in the accompanying videos.
As the name implies, the bar between the lead arm and the trail shoulder helps create width in the golf swing by pushing the hands away from the body. This is useful both in the full swing, by creating a longer arc, and in the short game as a wider arc encourages you to be more shallow.
One characteristic of the device that I really like is the unique S-curve shape. Not only does it allow you to place your trail arm on the club and feel normal, but it also encourages you to externally rotate your trail arm (rotate outward), promoting more stability in the swing.
How I’ve been using the Widener
We’ve seen Clark use it with all the clubs in his bag, up to even the driver.
Given that I got the Widener at the beginning of my busiest competitive stretch of the summer, I actually haven’t done much full-swing work with it.
But where I have really found it to be a great tool is around the greens.
Because the Widener keeps your arc wide, it also keeps your hands the same distance from your body throughout the swing. For me, that really helps make my low point extremely consistent and allows me to rotate more aggressively through the ball.
The result is that I can play with more speed and different face angles around the green, knowing I’m going to clip the ball off the turf the same way every time.
This really came in handy this week when I shortsided myself in a tournament, but then was able to play an open-face pitch from the fairway that landed 3 feet short of the cup, grabbed and then nearly went in the hole, stopping 3 inches away. That was immediately after I had just holed a flop shot on the previous hole.
Also, since starting to use the Widener, I recorded my first-ever competitive round where I was 100% in scrambling (5-for-5).
Having that structure locked in, but not in a forceful way, lets me just focus on turning and using my body while not getting handsy.
Bottom line
The ProSendr Widener
ProSENDR WIDENER — Elevating Golf Performance & Scoring Precision Building on the success of the original ProSENDR™ Wrist Cradle and engineered by golf performance experts David Woods and Sean Foley, the ProSENDR WIDENER is the next evolution in training aids designed to transform your golf swing. Whether you’re striving for greater distance, more consistent ball striking, or lower scores around the green, the WIDENER gives you pro-level feel and repeatability that sticks long after practice.
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The Widener has already proven to be a very effective tool for my chipping, and in just a month it’s turned me from a player who thought he had a good short game into one who knows he has a good short game.
While I still have one more tournament left on the schedule this year, I’m excited to start working on my full swing with the Widener afterward to see if the benefits I’ve found in my short game can show up in the long game as well.
