The 1 fix amateurs should make, according to the Tour’s most accurate driver

Russell Henley is accurate. A dart thrower. Then there are some of his amateur playing partners. And, well, yeah. 

To be fair, even the pros weren’t as precise as Henley was last year on the PGA Tour. The 34-year-old from Georgia was first in driving accuracy, at 72.57 percent of fairways hit. He was tied for second in proximity to the hole after approach shots, at 33 feet, 4 inches.    

All good stuff. But then there are the ams. The non-pros. But lovers of the game just as much. Who want to improve, even fractionally.

Who want just a nugget from dudes like Henley, to help them find just another fairway, or hit it an inch or two closer. 

With that, we share this, from Henley’s recent appearance on the On the Mark podcast (which you can listen to in full here): The host, Mark Immelman, himself a teacher, wanted to know Henley’s thoughts as to why amateurs struggle with distance with their irons. And Henley first noted that it could be as simple as hitting the wrong club, and that’s all and good, and Justin Thomas recently shared as much to GOLF’s Dylan Dethier on Breakthrough (which you can watch here.)

But maybe there’s more going on. Henley had a thought about that. 

Here is the complete exchange:

“Hey, look, you hit the drive in the fairway [and] from there you’re dynamite with the iron game, as well,” Immelman said on the podcast. “In fact, your proximity is currently, in 2023, second on the PGA Tour, at about 33 feet. That talks to me about someone who controls distance well. You play — you just come off a pro-am. Why do amateurs not hit the ball the right distance with the irons more often?” 

“Typically they don’t hit enough club, it’s what I’ve noticed,” Henley started. “At least that’s what was going on today. But I would say a lot of it is poor fundamentals, but typically — and you know this, as well, Mark — the path that some guys swing it on is so far left or so far right, you have to do something crazy with your hands to match it up, match the face up to make it go where you want. 

“I just think if guys could just try to somehow understand, get a little closer to a neutral path, I feel like it would be so much easier. And that’s easier said than done, for sure. I know you know that. It’s tough teaching somebody to find that. But that’s what I see. I see guys swinging way left, or I see guys swinging way right; usually way left with their path and that makes the wedges steep, that makes the driver slice and pull. Eventually you’re going to get tired of slicing it so you’re going to not let it go right, and you’re going to pull it. 

“A neutral path, to me, would be the direction I would go.”

So there you go: Struggling with accuracy? Look into your swing path and fix it! Easy game! 

LOL. Henley himself noted that it’s one thing to say it — and quite another to swing it. So what’s a player to do?

Get a lesson. Go! Have your game looked at by someone in the know. 

And have a read on these stories, wonderfully published on this website:

— Here’s this piece, entitled: “This drill will improve your swing path and produce more solid contact.”

— Here’s this piece, entitled: “The swing fix that turned this golfer’s huge over-the-top slice into a draw.”

— Here’s this piece, entitled: “Find out which of these backswings is the best for your game.”

As for anything else you may be needing with instruction, this site is a treasure trove.

Golf Magazine

Subscribe To The Magazine

Subscribe

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.