Rory McIlroy’s Favorite Golf Drill – The Pete Cowen Split Grip Drill

Rory McIlroy is the best driver of the golf ball. But just like you he battles some swing flaws. Here is shows how this split grip drill, from Pete Cowen, helps him hit the ball more consistently and solidly. Not to mention a mile.

Here is Pete Cowen’s Chinese Fighting Stick drill or better known as the split grip drill. It really is an excellent tip to force your hands to stay in front of your body, get your right shoulder in the proper place and prevent the club from being stuck behind your body.

Getting stuck is a common fault of mine and this split hand drill has been a savior for my golf swing. This is a common fault among amateurs and is often why you see golfers coming over the top to slice the ball. The club gets caught so far behind you that it is near impossible to get the club on the ball without a big early extension or throwing the club out (casting) with a big over the top move. The result for me was always a push to the right but often with other golfers it leads to that over the top slice.

I suggest doing the split grip drill on the range between shots. It will clean up your takeaway and start your club on the right path. This start makes the entire swing just that much easier.

Good luck.

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00:00 Introduction
00:18 Rory’s Swing Flaw
01:01 Pete Cowen talking about split grip drill
01:18 Pete Cowen’s Chinese Fighting Stick Drill
01:42 Rory Talking About Split Grip Drill

Rory is the best at driving the golf ball but he has a few flaws let’s hear what he works on and later on I’ll show you the drill Rory does constantly to fix his issues it will work for you as well for me I think one of the biggest keys in my swing is making sure that the club stays in front of my body on the way back um so anytime you know if I keep the club in front of me here that just makes the the rest of the swing a lot easier sometimes if the club Gets behind me early then it makes it more difficult and I the club has to travel a lot further to get back to the ball um so for me what’s really simple I just try to keep the club in front of me and then from there it works up on uh on the right plane and then it makes the down swing easier so uh it’s a very simple thought but one that I think is really important for me I’m probably important for a lot of people I think once the club Gets behind you early it just is becomes more of a struggle this is something Pete Cowen Rory’s former coach talks about all the time you have to spiral your body ins spal your shoulders so you get in a position where your arms and your Club are actually naturally coming down to move where the ball is you can improve on 15 minutes a day but most most people out there won’t do it here is Pete Cowen again illustrating the split grip drill what this golf drill does is it forces your hands to stay in front of you it promotes a proper right shoulder set it illust illustrates the plane if you are off plane you will see it this is what Rory works on again here is Rory explaining why he does the split grip drill when practicing at the range so I I love this feeling of you know I you get the right hand under the you know the the left hand’s on top the right hand’s underneath and it gets it gets everything in a really good position I feel like it gets your right arm in a great position so that when you turn to the top and you turn back down into it I feel like that’s a really for me that’s a really really good feeling of getting to the top of the back swing and then down into delivery and just gets you in a great position and it’s a great feeling to then go ahead and try to replicate that when you hit a driver for me what’s there’s a couple of great things about it so when I go to the top I feel like my right arm is in a great position my right elbow and right arm doesn’t get behind me so much so I I love the feeling at the top and then on the way down it the my right elbow is staying in front of my body the entire time it’s not sometimes what happens is I’ll get to the top and it’ll it’ll it’ll get trapped behind me give this split grip drill a go just maybe you will start hitting it something like this here keep the club nice and in front of you on the way back and then from there you just you just swing