This Pre-Shot Drill Is Used By A World-Class Ball Striker On The PGA Tour... And It Will Drastically Improve Your Golf Swing!

Striking the golf ball perfectly takes plenty of practice, but much of the hard work comes before you even swing the club. These 3 expert tips explain how...

Justin Thomas hitting a tee shot at the Players Championship 2024, with inset image of Josh Mayo demonstrating the correct position in the takeaway of the golf swing
Justin Thomas is an elite ball striker, and his pre-shot routine could help plenty of amateur golfers...
(Image credit: Getty Images/Future)
Joshua Mayo
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Starting the golf swing in the correct way is vital if you want to see a beautiful penetrating ball flight, but this crucial aspect is something all golfers have to work on in order to perfect it.

Even the best professionals on the world's top tours practice and rehearse this aspect of their swing, but without a few expert tips you can easily get a bit lost and allow some common swing faults to creep in.

Fortunately, we enlisted the services of Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Josh Mayo, who has shared 3 brilliant tips to help you master the fundamentals of the golf swing...

1. Posture

One bad strike and some golfers ‘lose it’ for the rest of the round. To start the swing correctly you need to groove good, solid habits. Firstly, it's important to set yourself in a strong and engaged posture.

Good posture requires a neutral (straight) spine and a bit of flex through the knees. Hinge forward from the hips to send the chest towards the ball. The arms should be relaxed, hanging under the body.

2. Starting The Swing

Josh Mayo demonstrating the incorrect takeaway position in the golf swing

(Image credit: Olly Curtis)

The first part of the golf swing, the takeaway, can set off a series of events in the rest of the swing that make it difficult to square up the clubface at impact. You can see, in the image above, that my hands have started the backswing too quickly, rolling the clubface open and behind the body. If this happens, it can often lead to a big slice, rather than the penetrating flight that you get from a nice square clubface.

3. Pre-Shot Routine

You may have seen Justin Thomas using this drill as part of his pre-shot routine. Start to push the club back using the lead wrist and lead shoulder and try to get the leading edge to match your spine angle.

Josh Mayo demonstrating the correct position in the golf swing takeaway

(Image credit: Olly Curtis)

The shaft will also be parallel to the target line at this point. Think ‘gentle push’ as you start your backswing. Jason Day is slow and deliberate here – a good example to follow.

Rehearse and rehearse again. Once you get into the position in the image above, stop, check and then complete your swing. And repeat!

Joshua Mayo
Joshua Mayo
Top 50 Coach

Location: Windmill Leisure

Joshua has been playing golf pretty much his entire life with his dad, Paul, being a former Amateur champion and Walker Cup player. He brings a holistic approach to coaching for all ages and abilities and he will use a combination of modern teaching methods as well as the traditional methods. Is an all-round sports fanatic.

Teaching philosophy: 

As a whole I like to consider my teaching to be holistic. With qualifications in sports psychology and strength and conditioning I like to consider myself able to deal with any scenario. On a daily basis I see people need to improve their physical well-being just by watching them swing a club. Some other people have issues that can’t be seen physically and can only be found when you dig a bit deeper into their mindset. Some people just want to have a friendly chat and the smallest of improvements in their golf can make their day. Everyone needs specific and individual attention but from a golf coaching perspective having good posture and trusting your own swing from that point is crucial. 

Assessing a student's needs:

Ask them how they learn best. People learn in different ways. Asking them what job they do can often be a good indicator of how they learn. Some people love seeing video analysis with trackman data whereas other people like to feel the movements and learn from the feedback of the strike and ball flight. Others like to see explanation demonstrations so showing and explaining can be useful. 

Greatest teacher:

My dad, Paul Mayo. He was fortunate enough to play in the Masters with Jack Nicklaus so that alone means he has plenty of experience and stories to tell. His lessons are always engaging and he keeps things extremely simple. He coaches by eye and has an amazing understanding of people's needs. He has developed young golfers as well as elite and lady golfers. His attitude towards the game is inspiring and contagious. 

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