6 Golf Tips From Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy has thrilled golf fans with numerous victories on the PGA and European tours. The Northern Irish pro is winner of the 2012 and 2014 PGA championships. He also took tournament wins in the 2011 U.S. Open and the 2014 Open championships.

McIlroy’s international tour victories earned him European Tour Golfer of the Year titles three times in four years, according to PGA Tour. He’s currently second in the official world golf ranking.

The 27-year-old golfer won four majors by the time he was 25 and had already achieved the world No. 1 ranking by age 22. “I didn’t think I’d get to that point so early,” he told Golf Monthly.

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Here are six golf tips from Rory McIlroy to improve and maintain your game:

1. Mental approach — Reassessing your goals becomes important when you realize your game is off, he explains. He recommends staying in the present on the course, concentrating on hitting fairways and greens to find opportunities. This allows golfers to focus on the goals they set for improvement.

2. Quality over quantity — McIlroy prefers spending about an hour during a practice session at the range, rather than spending three or four hours there. Too much time in practice could lose focus on your game. You can get better by spending more time on the course.

3. Comfortable stance — Tilt from the hips and flex your knees in the address position, McIlroy told Golf.com. Allow your arms to hang freely in front of you so impact is made without your body interfering with your swing.

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4. Pushing the club straight back — He imagines a wall that’s parallel to his toe line and straight up through his hands. As he swings by pushing the club straight back, he keeps his hands and the clubhead on that wall.

5. Maintaining height — McIlroy keeps his head from dipping when taking the club back, he wrote in Golf Digest. By maintaining his head height, he avoids making unnecessary adjustments on the backswing.

6. Activating the lower body — As he completes his backswing, McIlroy braces against the inside of his right leg, pushing into the ground and feeling the leg resisting his upper body as it turns. That brings power to the second half of the swing.

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