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Justin Thomas is one of the best pick-makers of this generation. From pull-ups and fades to high-bombs and low-blows, a two-time home winner can make the ball do anything he wants. That skill has led Thomas to 15 PGA Tour wins and he claims to be one of the best ball tackles in the game.
As he makes it look easy these days, Thomas wasn’t always a complete striker of the ball. For the first half of his contract in the major leagues, he had some Shots in the bag, but he didn’t have it everyone who are they. His good friend Tiger Woods noticed this, and when Thomas asked him what he saw in his game, he was quick to answer.
“He said, ‘You don’t move the ball enough,'” Thomas said last year. “To me it was like, ‘It’s so good,’ he said, ‘Maybe I should give it a try.'”
Thomas took the advice to heart, and reshaped the way he practiced it. When he was in range, his focus became molding the ball in different directions and creating every form of shot he needed.
The reimagined practice philosophy has done wonders for Thomas. Since that conversation with Woods, Thomas has racked up eight wins, including hitting clinics at the Players Championship and PGA Championship that have allowed him to separate himself from the pack.
One of the ways Thomas has honed his shooting ability is by using drills that he calls one of his favorites. Best of all, the exercise is simple and requires nothing more than a few balls and a club of your choice.
“I tend to go from the inside down,” says Thomas. “And I like to cut the ball, so swinging inside is not good.”
To prevent himself from swinging too far from the inside out, Thomas takes two balls and creates a gate to swing through. He puts the ball on top and hits it as normal and then puts one slightly inside the swing path behind the ball. Then he takes the second ball and places it slightly outside the swing path in front of the ball. You can see the setup in the image below.
“If I had something in there, I must be missing it,” says Thomas. “However I miss it, I don’t care. If I miss it, that means I swing far enough left… I do it this way with two balls to stress them out [my swing path.]”
If he has the opposite problem and wants to swing more in-out, Thomas flips the positions of the two balls and swings through the gate again.
This exercise may be simple to work your swing trajectory, but it’s used by one of the best ball forwards in the world. If you struggle with your putter’s path through the hitting area, this can be a great option to get things moving in the right direction.