There’s no better shot for gripping a tight fairway than the high power fade. It’s great under pressure too.
Actually the title is a bit of a misnomer, as I’d like to teach you how to hit a better power fade than even Brooks Koepka. Cocky? Maybe a little.
You see, Koepka hits downward on his typical drive, thereby losing about 15-20 yards over a fade where the angle of attack is more upwards. He’s not as distance efficient as Mike Austin was when curving it left to right. You can have both distance and accuracy!
On tour, when you can fly the ball 310 consistently, losing a bit of distance starts to become only a small factor in tournaments won and money earned. It’s simply long ENOUGH. But how many golfers reading this can hit the ball this far through the air? You can’t afford to give up this much distance.
We will still typically give up a little yardage by hitting this shot, as it has more backspin. Therefore it will ‘bite’ in the fairway upon landing and thus make the fairway play a little wider. It’s also handy to have a fade on command when playing a dogleg or, if you are an advanced low handicap golfer, a pin tucked in the right side of the green.
When executed correctly, this shot takes the left side of the course out of play, and is great for playing away from trouble on the right.
We will simply need to modify the basic setup and hand action to make sure the path is more left and the face stays slightly open to that path. This face to path relationship is what makes the golf ball curve.
The key muscles involved are the pronators and supinators of the forearms, which will slightly under rotate compared to a straight shot or a slight draw. These are your ‘radio tuning’ muscles – if you can imagine a big old style radio dial that you are tuning the static out of to get to your favorite channel.
To encourage clubhead speed and an upwards angle of attack, we will still flap the wrists freely to throw the clubhead from near the top of the swing.