Driver salute
Harman is among the most accurate drivers on the PGA Tour. One of his go-to drills is to tee up 28 balls in a straight line 6 inches apart and grip it and rip it machine-gun style until he’s hit them all. Why 28 balls?
“You only hit at most 14 drives in 18 holes,” Lumpkin said. “I make him play 36 holes.”
For Harman, the benefit of this drill is simple.
“I’ve gotten more technical as I’ve gotten older. I used to be all athletic and natural and swing like there were no consequences,” Harman said. “This drill gets me back into that mindset. It’s more about getting into a rhythm and see how many in a row we can hit into the fairway.”
Sometimes, they take this drill to the next level and Lumpkin has Harman run 150 yards to another tee where 36 balls are waiting for him to hit second shots at various targets. Lumpkin will call out a scenario: “It’s a par 5, you’ve got 260 to the green, the flag’s on the left over there, keep it to the right. Let me see you get there.”
“In less than 20 minutes, we have played the equivalent of all the shots he’d play in 36 holes,” Lumpkin said. “It’s been very helpful to him because you have to be repetitive. The purpose of the drill is to get him so comfortable with his driving that he doesn’t even have to think about it.”