PURE YOUR IRONS

Jordan Smith is one of the best ball-strikers on the DP World Tour – in 2022, he led the greens in regulation stats.

The 30-year-oldMhas been coached by Simon Shanks since he was 13 and now has two wins on tour, including last year’s Portugal Masters, where he was 30-under for the week.

“You need your swing to be repeatable,” explains Shanks. “We’ve never had an overhaul with Jordan and it’s generally more of a polish to keep on top of any bad habits. We’ll always have a look at the basics, like ball position, alignment and swing sequencing, to make sure that he’s on the right lines.”

In the following pages we take a look at how Smith and Shanks keep the swing working as well as it does.

Takeaway check

We’ve used the Gravity Fit Band on and off for a while now. The main reason is to help with Jordan’s takeaway. He has a bit of a habit of standing up and losing the wrist angle between his left hand and his forearm. The shaft drops away, he gets it a little behind his hands and, from there, he tends to lift it up from the top. With the band, he’s able to get the butt of the club down and his takeaway becomes more on plane and one piece, rather than getting the clubhead behind his hands and shut at the top.

Adding tension — in a good way