Instruction
The important relationship between your lead wrist and the club face
The most important part of any golf swing is the club face. You can do everything right in your golf swing, but get the club-face positioning wrong and you have a flawed swing. After all, the definition of a good swing is simply one that can control the club face, period. So the question we need to ask is simply this: What controls the club face?
Any discussion of the club face has to begin with the grip. A good grip is one that controls the face by being compatible with your swing. Does it match “your action?” Any teaching pro should begin there. I’ve helped a lot of golfers simply by having them hold the club a little differently. We could discuss grips all day and still not say enough about them, but for purposes of this article, I’ll leave it at this: see your pro and be sure your grip is functional for you.
Flat/Neutral Left Wrist Position
The thing I’d like to explain this time is keeping your grip throughout your swing. For example, if you start with what I’ll call a neutral grip, your lead wrist (left for right-handed golfers) will be fairly flat, or perhaps slightly cupped if your grip is strong. If it stays that way throughout the swing, you’ll maintain the face angle. But if it cups, or dorsiflexes, you have just opened the face relative to its starting position. The same can be said of bowing your wrist, which closes the club face.
The lead wrist IS the club face in golf. I have seen more problems caused by cupping the wrist than almost any other swing flaw. As soon as the the wrist cups, you have opened the face, steepened your swing and added loft to the shot.
Cupped Left Wrist Position
Try this as soon as you can: get in front of a full length mirror with a golf club, move to the top of your swing, and observe the club face. Now simply cup (bend back, dorsiflex) the left wrist. Look at the club face now; it’s considerably more open than it was. Now start your downswing, and check the incline of the club. If the wrist is cupped, the club is pointing straight at the ground, and it is considerably more open than it was it address.
Bowing, or flexing the wrist has just the opposite effect. It is much more uncommon and, in my opinion, not as destructive because it slightly flattens plane and even de-lofts the face a bit — not a bad idea for most to initiate the downswing.
Bowed Left Wrist Position
The other position you’ll notice is this: when you cup the wrist, you have effectively moved the handle of the club well behind the face (lofted it). Do the same exercise you did a minute ago: stand up at address and simply cup your lead wrist. Where did the handle go in relation to the head? BEHIND IT! If this position does not change in the downswing, and for many it does NOT, you have little to no ability to hit DOWN on a golf ball. It would be a perfectly good position for a greenside bunker shot, but not a shot off the grass.
As many of you have heard me say so often on GolfWRX, if you want to make a change, you have to go practice something 180-degrees differently than you’re doing it now. Exaggeration is the key to change, rarely modification. So if you discover that you’re cupped at the top, or worst of all, coming down, and you want to square that face, you’ll need to practice serious flexion, or bowing of the lead wrist.
Beacuse golf is such an individual game, some will actually cup the wrist or bow it to open or close the club face in their backswing. So when we discuss grip as a fundamental in the golf swing, it is just that. But if and only if you can maintain that position throughout your swing.
If you’re interested in my online swing analysis program, click here for more info, or contact me on Facebook.
The LPGA Tour is kicking off its 2026 season this week at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, and the pros are dealing with something most Florida golfers rarely face: freezing temperatures.
“It’s colder here than in the UK at the minute, which is a first,” said England’s Charley Hull during Wednesday’s media day at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Even Lydia Ko, who lives at Lake Nona, seemed surprised by the cold snap. “We’re pretty much getting to below zero in celsius here, which maybe in other parts of the country they would be thankful, but when you’re in Florida it is a little bit of a surprise,” she said.
If the world’s best players are adjusting their games for cold weather, recreational golfers should, too. Here’s how to play smart when the mercury drops.
Understand What Cold Does to Your Game
Before you change anything, you need to know what you’re fighting against. Cold air is denser than warm air, which means your ball won’t fly as far. Period.
Hull noticed this immediately during practice rounds at Lake Nona. She mentioned hitting a gap wedge into the 18th hole during a previous win but needing a 4-iron during Tuesday’s practice round. That’s a difference of four or five clubs for the same shot.
Action item: Expect to lose 5-10 yards on every club in your bag when temperatures dip below 50 degrees. Plan accordingly and don’t be stubborn about club selection.
Layer Up Without Restricting Your Swing
Hull admitted she wore three pairs of pants during practice. While that might be extreme for most of us, staying warm is critical to playing well in cold conditions.
Your muscles need warmth to function properly. When you’re cold, your body tightens up and your swing gets shorter and faster. Neither of those things help you hit good golf shots.
Action item: Wear multiple thin layers instead of one bulky jacket. Look for golf-specific cold weather gear that stretches with your swing. Keep hand warmers in your pockets between shots. And don’t forget a good hat because you lose significant body heat through your head.
Take More Club Than You Think You Need
This is where ego gets in the way of good scores. When it’s cold, the ball doesn’t compress as well off the clubface. Combined with denser air, you’re looking at serious distance loss.
The pros at Lake Nona are dealing with a course that measures 6,642 yards but plays much longer this week. If they’re adjusting, you should too.
Action item: Take at least one extra club on every approach shot. In temperatures below 40 degrees, consider taking two extra clubs. It’s better to fly the ball to the back of the green than to come up short in a bunker.
Adjust Your Expectations on the Greens
Cold weather affects putting in ways most golfers don’t consider. The ball is harder and doesn’t roll as smoothly. Your hands are cold, making it harder to feel the putter. And if there’s any moisture on the greens, they’ll be slower than normal.
Ko mentioned that she still sometimes reads the greens wrong at Lake Nona despite being a member for years. Cold weather makes that challenge even tougher.
Action item: Hit putts more firmly than usual. The ball needs extra speed to hold its line on cold greens. Take a few extra practice strokes to get a feel for the speed before you putt.
Embrace the Mental Challenge
Hull said something interesting about cold weather golf: “I like the mental toughness of it.”
That’s the right attitude. Everyone on the course is dealing with the same conditions. The player who stays patient and doesn’t get frustrated by the extra difficulty will come out ahead.
Action item: Lower your expectations by a few strokes. If you normally shoot 85, accept that 90 might be a good score in 40-degree weather. Focus on solid contact and smart decisions rather than perfect shots.
Warm Up Longer and Smarter
This might be the most important tip of all. Cold muscles are tight muscles, and tight muscles get injured easily.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul revealed she’s been protecting a wrist injury that bothered her late last season. Cold weather makes those kinds of injuries more likely if you don’t prepare properly.
Action item: Spend at least 20 minutes warming up before your round. Start with stretching, then hit easy wedge shots before working up to your driver. Keep moving between shots on the course to maintain body heat and flexibility.
The pros at Lake Nona this week will adapt and compete at the highest level despite the cold. You can do the same at your local course by following these tips and keeping a positive attitude.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour, and whether you love him or hate him, the guy knows how to win when it matters. After his LIV Golf stint, the five-time major champion returns this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.
What makes Koepka fascinating? He doesn’t fit the mold. His swing isn’t textbook. He doesn’t obsess over mechanics. Yet he’s won three PGA Championships and two U.S. Opens, regularly making it look easier than guys with prettier swings.
So, what can average golfers learn from someone who treats the game so differently? Quite a bit.
Stop Overthinking Every Shot
Koepka describes his approach as “reactionary” rather than mechanical. While most tour pros grind over swing thoughts, Brooks sees the target and hits it. No mental checklist.
This might be the most valuable lesson for weekend golfers who’ve watched too many YouTube swing videos.
How to actually do this:
On the range, hit five balls where you stare at the target for three seconds prior to addressing the ball. Don’t think about grip or stance. Just burn that target into your brain. You’ll be shocked at how pure you hit it when your brain focuses on where the ball is going instead of how you’re swinging.
Next time you play, give yourself a rule: Once you pull the club, you’ve got 15 seconds to hit. Koepka is one of the fastest players on tour because he doesn’t give his brain time to sabotage him.
If you feel tension in your hands at address, you’re trying to control too much. Koepka’s grip pressure is famously light. Loosen up until the club almost feels like it might slip, then add just enough pressure to hold on. That’s your swing thought: soft hands, see the target.
This approach works better under pressure. When you’re standing over that shot with water left and OB right, the last thing you need is a mental checklist. See it, feel it, hit it.
Play to Your Strengths (Even If They’re Not Pretty)
Koepka uses a strong grip that wouldn’t pass muster in some teaching circles. But he’s built his game around what works for him, elite driving distance and recovery skills. He doesn’t try to be someone he’s not.
Here’s how to build your game like Brooks:
Look at your last five rounds and figure out where you’re actually gaining strokes. Bombing it off the tee, but can’t hit greens? Lean into it. Play courses where distance matters more than precision. On tight holes, grip down on your 3-wood instead of trying to thread a driver through a keyhole you’ll miss seven times out of ten.
Koepka knows he can scramble, so he’s not afraid to miss greens. If you’re deadly from 50 to 75 yards, start leaving yourself those distances on the par 5’s instead of going for them in two every time.
Know when to take your medicine. Koepka in the trees at the PGA? He’s punching out to 100 yards, not trying to bend a 6-iron around three oaks. You’re in the rough with a flyer lie and water short? Hit your 8-iron to the middle and move on. That’s not playing scared, that’s playing smart.
Save Your Best for When It Counts
Here’s a wild stat: Koepka’s putting average in majors is often more than a full stroke better per round than in regular events. He elevates when pressure is highest.
How does an amateur tap into that gear? It’s not about trying harder, it’s about caring differently.
Here’s what actually works:
Decide which rounds matter to you. Club championship? Member-guest? That annual trip with college buddies? Circle those dates and treat them differently. Koepka doesn’t care much about regular tour events, but majors? That’s when he locks in.
Two weeks before your big round, change your practice. Stop beating balls mindlessly. Play nine holes in which every shot has consequences. Miss the fairway? Hit from the rough on the next hole too. Three-putt? Twenty push-ups. Koepka’s practice intensity ramps up before majors because he’s rehearsing pressure, not just swings.
Develop a between-shot routine that resets your brain. Koepka is famous for his blank expression after bad shots. Try this: After any shot, take three deep breaths while walking, then find something specific to notice, a tree, a cloud, someone’s shirt. That’s your reset button. By the time you reach your ball, the last shot is gone.
The Bottom Line
Brooks Koepka’s return reminds us there’s no single path to success in golf. His “substance over style” approach proves that results matter more than looking good.
You don’t need a perfect swing; you need a reliable one that holds up under pressure. You don’t need to hit every shot in the book; you need the shots you can count on. And you don’t need to play great every time; you need to play great when it matters.
Welcome back, Brooks. Thanks for the reminder that golf is ultimately about getting the ball in the hole, not winning style points.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Blades Brown made a big impression last week in the California desert, and not just because he’s only 18. He put up numbers that would catch any weekend golfer’s attention. Most of us won’t hit 317-yard drives or find 86% of our greens in regulation, but there’s a lot to learn from how Brown managed his game at The American Express.
Here are three practical lessons from his performance that you can use on your own course this weekend.
Step 1: Give Priority to Accuracy Over Distance Off The Tee
Brown’s driving stats are impressive. He averaged almost 318 yards off the tee, ranking 12th in the field. More importantly, he hit 76.79% of his fairways, tying for fourth place in the tournament.
Think about that ratio for a second. Brown could have swung harder, chased more distance and tried to overpower the course. Instead, he played smart golf and kept his ball in play.
Your Action Item: Next time you’re on the tee box, ask yourself a simple question before pulling the driver. Do you need maximum distance here, or do you need to be in the fairway? If there’s trouble lurking or the hole doesn’t demand every yard you can muster, take something off your swing. Grip down an inch. Make a three-quarter swing. Do whatever it takes to find the short grass. Brown’s approach illustrates that fairways lead to greens, and greens lead to birdies. He made 22 of them last week, along with an eagle.
The math is simple. When you’re hitting three out of every four fairways like Brown did, you’re giving yourself legitimate looks at the green with your approach shots. That’s when scoring happens.
Step 2: Commit To Hitting More Greens
This is where Brown really separated himself. He hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation, an 86.11% clip that tied for first in the entire field. Read that again. An 18-year-old kid tied for the lead in one of the most important ball-striking statistics in professional golf.
How did he do it? By keeping his ball in the fairway (see Step 1) and giving himself clean looks with mid-irons and wedges.
Your Action Item: Start tracking your greens in regulation. You don’t need a fancy app or a statistics degree. Just mark down whether you hit the green in the regulation number of strokes. Par 3s in one shot. Par 4s in two shots. Par 5s in three shots.
Once you know your baseline, set a goal to improve it by 10%. If you’re currently hitting five greens per round, aim for six. The beauty of this approach is that it forces you to think strategically about club selection and shot shape. Brown’s strokes gained approach number was positive (0.179), meaning he was better than the field average. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be on the dance floor more often.
When you hit more greens, you eliminate the need for heroic short game shots. Brown only had to scramble 10 times all week, and he got up and down 70% of the time. That’s solid, but the real story is that he rarely put himself in scrambling situations to begin with.
Step 3: Minimize Mistakes And Stay Patient
Here’s the stat that jumps off the page: Brown made only three bogeys all week. Three. In four rounds of professional golf against the best players in the world.
He also made just one double bogey. That kind of clean card doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you play within yourself, avoid the big miss and trust that pars are never bad scores.
Your Action Item: Before your next round, decide that you’re going to play boring golf. No hero shots over water. No driver on tight holes just because you can. No aggressive pins when there’s a safe side of the green.
Brown’s performance shows us that consistency beats flash every single time. He didn’t lead the field in any single strokes gained category, but he was solid across the board. That’s how you post numbers and cash checks.
Give these three steps a try. Your scorecard will thank you.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
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Phil
Jan 13, 2019 at 12:46 pm
Bowing my risk is really helping me strike the ball more consistently and the ball is flying straighter. Bowing my risk has had the most dramatic improvement on my game.
I was typically a cupper. “Not Good” Leads to very inconsistent strikes.
Greg
Aug 3, 2016 at 12:10 pm
I’ve never believed in a flat wrist at the top is best. slightly cupped is IMHO is the best position. It’s a more powerful position. Just like hammering a nail.If i grab a hammer and begin nailing, my wrist is cupped,not flat. Its due to the natural hinging of the wrist. Just my 3 cents. There is no right or wrong way to do this. There are a thousand different ways to swing a golf club. We as a golfer must understand our own swing and learn from it.
dennis clark
Aug 3, 2016 at 12:20 pm
no question the hinging (cocking) and unhinging is easier and more powerful when cupped (dorsiflex) And a slightly stronger than neutral grip has the hand in this position. But…the problem occurs with the face. its easier to cock the wrist if its cupped but it DOES have an opening effect on the face AND begin the downswing too steeply. Fine line like most things. My swing cups too much coming down and I fight right because of it. Thx
Bobalu
Aug 3, 2016 at 10:08 am
Good article Dennis…however, I really wish that we could transition to more GolfWRX instruction videos rather than written articles. For swing instruction it is so much easier to learn motion, position, and exaggeration moves by video. Written golf magazine instruction articles are now supplementing with direct links to video using apps. GolfWRX on a computer is perfect for direct audio-video learning, and I would think that this is much more effective way to learn for most golfers. Some articles are still perfect for the written media- reviews, golf stories, image rich pieces, etc, but swing instruction is just tailor made for video. My 2 cents.
Dennis Clark
Aug 3, 2016 at 11:51 am
I agree. good idea Bobalu, and I think we are doing some of that. I may do that for this one…
sprcoop
Aug 2, 2016 at 11:50 am
Dennis, I have found that going to the top cupped, then consciously bowing in the transition flattens the club and keeps my swing/transition dynamic. I tried jut setting the wrist bowed at the top and maintaining but lost the feel in transition and was unsure of face angle at impact and became inconsistent. Bowing in transition seems easier to maintain face angle through the hitting area. I know it sounds like it would be more consistent to just bow at the top and keep it that way (that was my thinking) but it didn’t work out that way for me. Any thoughts on going from cupped to bowed in transition?
Dennis Clark
Aug 2, 2016 at 2:56 pm
Well i think what you’re doing is great. Bowing in transition, does “re-plane” the swing and is ideal. If that is working, definitely stay with it. The opposite of that is what causes most problems….
Conor
Aug 4, 2016 at 3:36 pm
I think this is similar to what Hogan preached. I try to have a bowed wrist at impact in order to press the ball a little more. For me, that was probably the most important lesson in Hogan’s book. It can lead to hooking the ball, if you get too handsy, but it’s much better than leaving club face open and shooting it right.
Not Scratch
Aug 2, 2016 at 11:32 am
Yes having no gap in the v’s. Instead of putting my right thumb and index finger over touching like so many do I tried to place it the other way to create a wrist angle at address. Seems to work but I hope to find a better way
Bill Wood
Aug 2, 2016 at 11:02 am
Dennis – I understand that. But how do we get there. What excercise can we do. Many thanks.
Dennis clark
Aug 2, 2016 at 11:37 am
SKLZ Smart glove is fairly effecive. Making backswings cross handed is another way to feel a flatter wrist. I also like a headcover tucked under right arm pit IF a flying elbow is causing the wrist to cup.
Dennis Clark
Aug 2, 2016 at 2:57 pm
i don’t like to recommend drills sight unseen, but if you send me a video, I’ll take a look at it…
Not Scratch
Aug 2, 2016 at 10:47 am
Thanks you for this great stuff. How important are the v’s in the golf grip. Also I have been trying to keep v’s on both hands tight so I can hold my right wrist angle. Does this make sense. Any tips for holding the right wrist bent
Dennis Clark
Aug 2, 2016 at 10:55 am
well everyone’s Vs are slightly different, stronger, weaker grips etc. Right wrist bend is significant for hitting down on the golf ball and controlling the face. You do not want to lose the angle of the right wrist too soon OR too late. By “Tight”you mean no gap between index knuckle and thumb?