1.8 Tiger Woods Tee Drill

Once you've gotten a couple hours under your belt of practicing your trail, hand on, only putting stroke, It's time to start purifying that stroke and start building in fundamentals that are going to build into your chipping game, your pitching game, your bunker game, your wedge play, your iron swing, and eventually your driver.

These fundamentals you're going to learn during this drill.

This is Tiger's famous T -drill that I've got set up here.

I'm going to explain how this works in just a moment with the importance of it is.

But what you're really going to start building on is these fundamentals of setup, of grip, of posture, of stroke, of concentration, of feeling that trail hand and feeling your core engaged.

So the first thing you're going to focus on, and perhaps the most important one, is your posture at setup.

This is one that's super easy to get wrong, but it's one thing that Tiger's always done better than everybody else.

He's always looked perfect at setup.

And it really starts right here with your putting stroke.

Because the fundamentals you're going to learn right here are going to carry over to every single club in the bag.

So first let me explain the setup drill, and then I'm going to explain how to get the T -drill and then your posture and so on.

So first of all, again, Don't try this drill until you've got a couple hours under your belt of swinging with your trail hand only.

And you can start to make a lot of putts like that because this drill might frustrate you at first, because it's a very, Very precise drill, And Tiger has relied on this for years and gives a lot of credit to a lot of his wins, to this very drill.

So what you're going to do is set up a couple of tees on the ground, on the green, and they're basically going to be only a couple millimeters from either side of the putter.

So you can see if I slide the putter all the way over, there's just a tiny little gap between the toe of the putter and the tee.

And what this is doing is it's going to help you understand how far you should stand from the ball, how to make a proper stroke, and how important posture is to both of those.

So you're going to set up very, very snug at first, and this is going to ensure that you start making a proper pendulum-based stroke.

So once you're set up, the most important thing is understanding how to get your body, your spine, your hips, your legs, and your shoulders and arms to all be set up properly.

The simplest way to explain this is like you're doing a sit-up back in high school.

If you're not tucking your head forward, holding your head forward, or holding your head back, and you're going to do a sit-up, and you started to contract your core like you're doing a crunch, and pulling your core in, you're going to round your back just a little bit, And this is going to engage your core versus standing up like this where you're popping your chest out.

Then your abs are actually lengthening.

You want to contract them a little bit, and then as you start to hinge forward to get into your posture, what you'll find is that your chin is naturally going to want to tuck back.

If you're somebody who's set up really rigid like this, and your chin is back, you can't really see the ball, so your head's going to have to round forward.

But the moment you start contracting your abs, engaging your core, and rounding your spine just a little bit, you'll see that you'll be able to keep your chin back, and this is key for mobility in the stroke.

So when you look at Tiger's posture, he's got this little bit of rounding, and what this is going to do is you round your back.

It's going to help your legs stand nice and tall.

This is going to make room for your arms to have room to swing.

If you're, again, setting up like this, you're going to tend to squat down like this, and your stroke's going to feel really weird.

Your arms are going to be pulled back too far into your shoulders, and so you're not going to have any freedom for your arm to swing.

So again, here's where you're looking for, and now, once you're in this posture, as you're going to start to get ready to make your stroke, one thing I want to emphasize is the importance of your trail hand grip.

Your grip, your thumb, should be either down the shaft or slightly to the side of it, and you'll see Tiger throughout the years, he's done both.

There's nothing, anything necessarily wrong with one way or the other.

This way, with a slightly stronger grip, as we get ready to make the stroke, will make it easier to feel more of a hinge back of your trail hand, because that's really what you're trying to feel in the putting stroke, is a slight hinge with your arms swinging with the one hand only, and then as we add both hands on, and we'll talk about in the next video, that's going to get the shoulders rocking.

But at first, you want to feel that you're making a simple hinge back with your right hand, and letting it re -hinge and release on the way through, while your right arm is, or your trail arm is swinging.

So grip and posture are super important.

The other thing that you're going to focus on as you're setting up to this tee drill, is having the ball forward in your stance.

What this is going to do is help you get more pressure on the lead side, which is going to make room for your lead arm to set up naturally, and it's going to also help you start to make a strike on the ball on a very slight upstroke.

I'm exaggerating that here, but you do want to catch the ball slightly on the upswing, and that will help the ball roll end over end, whereas if you're hitting down on the ball by having the ball too far back in your stance, it's going to want to skid and bounce around a lot.

So as you're setting up, make sure that the tees, or where the ball is going to be, is up in your stance off the inside of your lead foot.

So once I have my posture, my grip, and my ball position, now I'm ready, and my weight.

I want to have my weight forward, if you want to call it 60, 70, 80%, whatever you want to feel is most comfortable for you.

I feel about 65, 70% on my lead foot.

Square stance, rounding into my posture, so I'm just doing a little crunch to get into my posture, and now what I've got to find is how far do I want to stand to the ball.

Now, this tee drill is excellent for that.

A lot of times people will tell you just drop the ball, and it should be, if you drop a ball on top of the other ball, your eye line should be just to the inside of that ball, or over it, just like it was there.

Now, that's great, and I agree, but you can do that lots of different ways.

I can squat down like this.

I can stick my rear out like this.

Posture comes first, and once your posture is set up correctly, and your weight's forward onto the lead foot, you're biasing towards the balls of your feet, so your legs are nice and tall, you're rounding forward, that should give you, and the tee feedback is going to, I'm going to show you in a second, is going to give you how far you should stand from the ball.

So, if I make a stroke here, I'm just going to swing my arm back and a little bit of hinge and let it come through.

If I clip the tee at all, which I'm not here because I'm set up in the right spot for me, for my build and my size, but if I was too close, my club's going to want to go outside, and I'm going to probably likely clip the tee on the way through or come across with an open face.

If I'm too far away, my heel is going to catch it.

Most of the time, what I see is golfer standing too close to the ball, and so they clip the outside of the tee.

So, as you're practicing this drill, as you start to make this little wrist hinge, your elbow pit is facing out, you're letting your arm swing, you should miss both tees.

Even though it's very, very close, you should miss them when you're set up correctly, and you have the right spacing from the ball.

So, now that's my spacing, and if I drop the ball, it dropped just to, oops, I'll drop it from back here, right on the center of the putter face.

So, that's where you want to be.

If your head is set up correctly, again, a lot of times I see golfers with their shoulders really open or really shut, you want to set up very square, and then obviously a little bit of openness here or there for personal preference is fine, but you still want your head back behind the ball.

If you set your head up way over here, you're going to drop the ball, and it's going to be way out in front of the ball, and that's not going to help you see the line.

So, Your head being slightly back behind the ball allows you to look down the target line a lot more easily, and this will help you get a better read of the green.

Now, let's work on the stroke mechanics.

One of the main benefits of getting this slightly rounded posture is that it gets your arms in a position to hang freely from your shoulders.

As you pull your shoulders back and kind of have a rigid, really stiff-looking, straight-looking spine, your arms don't have any room to swing, and so it really kills your feel.

So, One of the things I want you to pay attention to as you're getting used to this stroke is that as you're set up, make sure that your hand feels like it's hanging pretty freely.

You shouldn't feel like you have to pull it in.

You shouldn't have to feel like you push it out.

If your shoulders are rounded forward and you feel like your chest is kind of pointing more down at the ground versus kind of popped out like this, this will get you in a position to where your arm will be free to swing.

And so, you won't feel like you're fighting it or needing to take it outside or yanking it in.

You'll find that you can swing nice and free and not clip the tees as you're going through.

So, now, once you have that and you've made some strokes, make some practice strokes before you put a ball down here, because again, This is going to be challenging at first until you really get a feel for this swing mechanics of this trail hand dominant move.

Now, once you put a ball down in here, there's two basic ways that you can feel the way you're going to strike the ball.

The first one is what, and again, I've seen Tiger do both throughout his multi-decade career.

So, there's not necessarily one wrong or right way to do it, but what this is going to do is help you find the preference for you.

So, the first way is letting the wrist and arm swing back, wrist hinge, and then letting it release on the way through.

And the release is, the way that you release this is very important.

It's more like a hinge.

It's just going back and forth like this.

It's not rotating like this.

That's impossible to time consistently.

As you're hinging back and hinging through, the putter face is staying quite square relatively.

It's moving on an arc, it is opening and closing, but you're not trying to open and close it that much.

You're simply trying to let it release.

And part of the release is happening through the strike.

So, as you're doing this, this is what's allowing the putter face to bottom out behind the ball.

So, again, why it's important for your head to be back.

If your head's over here, you're going to hit down on the ball.

But as it's starting, as your wrist is starting to release, the putter face is just a couple degrees coming up.

And that's going to give you a really pure roll on the ball.

The second way is what is more like your basic hinge and hold chipping stroke.

And you can do the same thing with the putter.

As you're swinging it back and you let this wrist hinge and your arms swing, as you come through, you start to feel that your wrist is staying arched back more.

And then as you're doing that, you're going to feel the putter, the butt of the putter, start to work slightly up.

Now, this becomes a lot easier once you put the lead hand on there.

But if you want to get a feel for practicing both releases with your trail hand only, this is a great time to do it.

So, you're just going to feel a hinge.

You're going to hold it through a little bit more.

It is still going to release on the other end.

But through the strike, you're not getting as much release.

You're getting a little bit more of a hinge.

But you do want to feel that you are actually hitting the ball with your trail hand.

Now, I know that sounds terrifying for so many golfers who've had the yips or what have you, But listen to this clip of Tiger talking about the importance of this drill for him before we get started and how he feels his trail hand working in the strike.

Again, I'm going to keep saying this, hit the ball in the middle of the face.

I know it's the smallest swing we make, but we all miss hit putts, which we really shouldn't.

It's the only reason why I do the T drill all the time.

I do it incessantly before every round.

I do it at home.

I do it everywhere.

I always do the T drill.

And that's just a simple little thing of having two T's, one on them.

They basically lean up against the putter.

And it's just to ensure that I hit the putt solid.

Well, it's a very simple drill.

I go about four feet from the hole and I put it right off the toe and right off the heel of putter.

As you can see from, you know, the back camera here, if I rest the putter up against the heel T, there's really not a lot of room on the toe.

So it ensures that, one, I have to hit the ball flush.

And I have to be able to make sure that I present the club face square every single time.

How I get there, it doesn't ensure that.

I can still take it back way inside.

I can take it outside.

But in order to get through the T's, I have to swing it where I hit the ball right in the middle of the face.

And I like starting with, with my right hand.

So I do with my right hand.

And I'll probably hit at least 20 or 30 of these just with my right hand.

Try and get a feel for it.

I like feeling the face rotate.

I like feeling my right hand hit.

I like feeling loaded in my stroke going back, release coming through.

When I then do enough of those where I feel comfortable, then I'll put my left hand on and try and simulate the same feel with both hands.

And then I'll go bounce back and forth between right-handed and both hands.

And I'll do this for a while.

And I, as a kid, I used to spend hours doing this.

As you begin to work on this drill, what you're really seeking is fundamentals.

You've got to video yourself and you've got to check each little piece that we talked about, your posture, your stroke, and your eye line, your setup, etc.

So from down the line, you're going to see everything that we just talked about going to fruition here, missing the T each time.

Face on, you're going to see the same thing.

It's just a very simple, small stroke.

What you're trying to get a feel for is controlling that putter face with your trail hand in a properly, fundamentally sound setup position.

Make a very basic stroke and you should be hitting the ball.

Of course, the T's are going to force you to hit the ball in the center of the face every time.

You can't do this enough.

The last thing that you may be wondering about with this drill is what about a forward press? A forward press is absolutely okay in doing this drill.

In fact, it's even desirable.

It helps preload this right hand, your trail hand, to get some wrist set in there.

So many golfers have been afraid of letting their wrist move at all.

And just kind of made this really awkward body movement that letting this trail hand hinge back is awkward at first.

So by doing a little bit of forward press, you start to get that preloaded and then it makes it natural for it to swing back.

So as I'm doing this drill, I do like to put a little bit of a forward press in there.

It's not totally natural for me.

I'm one of those people who was told not to use your hands at all, and I've always thought that that was the right way to putt.

But as I've gotten more comfortable with this, I have started adding a little bit of a bump to take that loft off the putter face, hinge the right hand back.

And then as I'm coming through, I, once I put my lead hand on there, I do like to hit some with a very kind of hinge and hold feel where I'm not as active releasing it.

Again, both ways work perfectly fine.

But if you want to have a little bit of a forward press to help you get the feeling of getting this right wrist to hinge back, it's perfectly okay to do that.

And that'll give you a feeling of keeping the hand delofted through the strike and give you more sensitivity and control in your trail hand.

Now, this drill is not just about repetitions.

It's truly about quality and concentration.

It's getting a feel for this hand and associating this hand and this face, and the angle of that face is pointing because as you start going to longer shots, as we go to chipping shots, pitch shots, bunker shots, full swings, et cetera, getting a sense of control with this hand is super important.

So it's very, very important that you get reps in and time in and quality reps in.

And so you can, the cool thing is you don't have to be at the golf course to do this.

You can do this at home with a putting mat.

And I found the perfect putting mat that'll help you guys be able to practice anytime, anywhere in the office, at your home, wherever.

So I'm going to show you that indoors right now and show you how to do this, set up the same drill indoors on a putting mat.

So, this putting mat from Eyeline Golf is about eight feet long, and it's got a specially designed cup in it.

That if you hit it too hard, it will miss.

It'll roll over the edge of the lip here.

So what's interesting about this is not only does it have that specially designed cup, but it's got lines on here.

And I like to practice what I consider kind of these diagonal putts starting from the outside, but it gives you a line to see where the center would be.

The reason this is, is a lot of times it's very easy.

Like once you kind of get set up to a putting mat, that's got a straight line on it to just hit the same shot over and over again.

But the moment you set up to this one, it's got to be just a little bit angled, you know, just like one degree, a couple of degrees to the side, it makes it much, much harder.

And so practicing from both of these slide angles, and you can practice on these lines as well.

And it's also got marks on it, four foot, six foot, and eight foot.

And Tiger practices these tee drills at four feet.

So that's where we're going to start today.

So I'm going to put a ball there.

And the way that you do the tee drill, when you're on a mat, you can't stick a tee in the ground.

This is with two extra golf balls.

So you just take two balls and stick them in just a couple millimeters outside of your putter face.

And that will give you the exact same effect of having tees in the ground.

So now you can start to practice.

If you hit a ball, if you make a mistake, it's just going to knock it off the mat.

But this will give you the feeling of the same, same effect as the tee drill.

But also because these lines are on here, you can start to see if you're taking the putter face to the outside, if you're taking it too much to the inside, it should work back slightly on an arc.

And again, depending on your grip, the more stronger your grip is, the more you're going to have a tendency to take it slightly to the inside, because as the stronger grip is going to hinge, it's going to hinge back to the inside.

So this will help you start to see what your putter face is doing, how much you're, you know, if you're pushing it down the line or what have you.

So a putting mat like this is perfect to practice.

If you can't get to the course all the time, you can't get to a putting green, this is the best way to practice.

So grab one of these if you can, I'll put a link down in the description.

Again, you can practice with these anywhere.

And what's really cool because the mat material, there's two things that are special about this.

One is it's, it's got a grain to it.

So it comes with a little, uh, Little cylinder that's got some fuzz on it.

That allows you to roll the mat, one way to make it slower, and roll it the other way to make it faster.

So what's cool about that is if your greens at your home course are not that fast, you can make it.

So if you roll it back like this with the little device that comes with it, it'll slow the green down by two or three feet on the stint meter.

And then as you keep putting on it, it starts to speed up because you start to get a line rolling down here.

You'll see, you can see how I'm changing the color of the mat there.

And then you just go back over one swipe instantly in two seconds, and it's back to the speed that you want it and so on.

So that's really, really helpful for this, but also the material that it's made out of allows it to take the contour of your floor.

So if you've got a floor that's not perfectly level, like most people do, this thing will break.

And what's interesting because of the material of it, you can bend it.

So you can actually take it and angle it.

And now you can start to play breaking putts and you can angle it both ways.

So it's really cool if your floor isn't perfect or you want to, you find a spot on the floor that gives you a little left or right putt, You can actually take this and move it to the side one way or the other, and actually play it as a breaking putt.

And it's really affordable.

You don't have to have some big expensive fancy putting green in your backyard.

This will give you a lot of the same effect for way less money.

So, Click the link in the description if you need a putting mat to work on your putting on this putting stroke at home.

Phase 1

1.1 The Most Important Video You'll Watch - Learning

1.2 Introduction to The GOAT Code

1.3 The GOAT Delivery Position (GDP)

1.4 The GOAT Grip

1.5 The GOAT Setup

1.6 GOAT Ball Position

1.7 Trail Hand Putting Drill

1.8 Tiger Woods Tee Drill

1.9 Add Lead Hand to Putting Stroke

1.10 Skills Assessment Challenge: Putting

Phase 2

2.1 Clubface is KING

2.2 Trail Hand Chipping Stroke

2.3 Trail Hand Ripper Chip

2.4 Add Lead Hand to Chipping Stroke

2.5 Progressive Drill to Add Lead Hand

2.6 Add Lead Hand to Ripper Chip

2.7 Skills Assessment Challenge: Chipping

Phase 3

3.1 Transferring Power from the Core to the Hand

3.2 The GOAT Takeaway

3.3 Fundamentals of Compression

3.4 The GOAT Pitch Shot

3.5 Pitch Shot Starting Line Drill

3.6 Skills Assessment Challenge: Pitching

Phase 4

4.1 Core Activation - Chair Drill

4.2 Core Activation - Medicine Ball Throws

4.3 Core Activation - Slam Ball

4.4 Core Activation - Punching Bag Power

4.5 20 Yard Wedge Shot Basics

4.6 Skills Assessment Challenge: 20 Yard Shots

4.7 40 Yard Wedge Shots - The Magic!

4.8 GOAT Power Sequence

4.9 The GOAT Drill

4.10 How to Increase Hand Speed - J Release

4.11 The Importance of the Waggle for Speed

4.12 How the Lead Side Works for Power

4.13 Magic of Supination

4.14 80 Yard Shots - Down the Line

4.15 80 yd Shots - Face On

4.16 Tiger Woods 80 yd Face On Reference Video

4.17 How to Coil Around the Trail Leg

4.18 GOAT Backswing

4.19 Rotation & Footwork

4.20 GOAT Downswing - The Whip Effect

4.21 The GOAT 9 to 3 Drill

4.22 160 yd Shots - GOAT Speed Sequence

4.23 Instant Over the Top Cure

Webinars

Webinar 1: The Core

Webinar 2: Core Power & Putting

Webinar 3 - Compression & Clubface Control

Webinar 4 - Fascia & Effortless Power

Webinar 5: The GOAT Hands Webinar

Q-n-A Webinar 1: May 7

Q-n-A Webinar 2: May 14

Q-n-A Webinar 3: May 21

Q-n-A Webinar 4: May 28

Q-n-A Webinar 5: June 4

Q-n-A Webinar 6: June 11

Q-n-A Webinar 7: June 18

Q-n-A Webinar 8: June 25

Reference Videos

Is Tiger Woods Golf Swing a Baseball Swing? Pt. 1 of 3

Throw the Club or Push the Club? Pt 2 of 3

Squish the Bug for Effortless Power - Pt 3 of 3

The GOAT Release

The GOAT Release Intro - Endless Conveyor Belt

GOAT Code Secret to Effortless Power - Pt 1 of 4

GOAT Code Effortless Power - Head Movement - Pt 2 of 4

GOAT Code Effortless Power - Using Your Head - Pt 3 of 4

GOAT Code Effortless Power - Take it to the Course - Pt 4 of 4

Creating Torque in the Swing - Pt 1 of 3

Creating Torque in the Golf Swing - Pt 2

Creating Torque - The Magic Pill for the Feel - Pt 3

The GOAT Code Podcast