Being able to find fairways consistently is one of the most valuable skills in an amateur golfer’s toolbox.
According to Shot Scope data, the average amateur hits around 48% of fairways, meaning in a round of 18 holes on a course with 14 par-4 or par-5 holes, they are finding the short grass around seven times per round.
And when a golfer misses the fairway, their average score to par increases by 0.37 strokes. That might not seem like a lot, but over an 18-hole round, that is going to add a number of shots onto your handicap.
With this Jason Day swing tip, you can see those additional strokes disappear from your scorecard. The 13-time PGA Tour winner has advice for amateurs on finding more fairways off the tee, along with a drill to practice it.
Jason Day tells amateur golfers how to find fairways off the tee
When you’re first learning how to hit the driver, most advice comes as follows: Wide stance, tilt your shoulders back, and swing. And naturally, with the big stick in your hands, you tend to swing hard.
But Day said that to find fairways consistently, that’s the wrong advice for amateurs. Speaking on The Lads, he said, “We are going to narrow the stance. I am not going to be standing there with a big, wide stance, having a nice, stable base, because that promotes a big, full swing.
“What we want to do is bring some speed off that club speed, so we want a slower swing to not only hit it lower but also create a little less spin so that once it hits the ground, it starts rolling.
“We want a narrower base because then you can’t have a big full swing, where you are swinging off balance. From there, we are also going to push the weight forward, instead of being back here [with shoulder tilt].
“I envision a wall going down my left shoulder, left body, and left leg, and it’s like I am trying to nudge into that wall so I can start trying to feel a bit more pressure in my quad and feel more left-sided.
“Once I get in, I want to make sure that I grip down on the club a little bit more and from there we are going to get left, have a bit more of a narrow stance, grip down and as we take the club back.
“Because we are swinging in shorter, we want to make sure that [the chest] all turns together and you feel like the center line of the body gets more forward of the ball, so that way you are covering the shot a little bit more and that is going to promote that low shot that you are going to see.”
Now this isn’t advice for how to hit the ball further with your driver. Instead, Day tells amateurs how to get the ball in play. And he has a simple drill for you to practice his technique.
Jason Day’s drill for practicing fairway finder
Day has a simple drill you can try at the driving range to practice getting the ball in play.
“A really quick way of learning this because you are taking a lot of speed off the shot and you are not going to be hitting a full shot,” he said.
“What I want you to do is go to the range, go through all those technical aspects that I was just talking about and I want you to get in there, with a narrow stance, be on your left side and when we turn we want to make sure we stay on the left side as coming through we are going to cover the ball a little bit more.
“But what we are going to do is only try and hit it 100 yards, and we are going to try and hit it low. We are going to hit full swing for 100 yards, so it’s going to be very soft swings.”
So to practice, slow down your club speed by swinging softly, and focus on getting the ball on the “fairway” at the range. Then you can work more speed and distance into the technique.
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