Make Driver Your Best Friend, Score Lower, Play Better Golf | Michael Leonard (Part 2)

"Driver sets the stage for everything."

In Part 2 of our conversation with Michael Leonard of Wicked Smart Golf, we get into the stuff that can genuinely move the needle for club golfers — from speed and distance to strokes gained, practice, tempo, course management and the mental side of actually playing better golf.

Michael explains why you don’t need to keep changing your swing to improve, how tracking your stats can expose the weaknesses you don’t even realise you have, and why simply hitting more balls isn’t necessarily making you better.

We also get into:

• Why distance is scoring potential — and why more speed doesn’t necessarily mean less accuracy
 • How Michael added around 5mph of clubhead speed and what speed training has done for his own game
• Why strength training can be the engine behind speed
• The importance of analysing trends rather than obsessing over individual rounds
• Why you should never analyse your stats during the round
• How to turn your data into much more focused practice
• Why golfers need to stop guiding the driver and start committing to their shot
• The surprisingly powerful role of tempo
• Why “slow and slow” might be terrible advice for many golfers
• How to use a simulator or TrackMan to practise the shots you actually need
• Why you shouldn’t abandon the golf course completely during winter
• The myth that hitting 3-wood automatically means hitting more fairways
• Why driver should potentially become your best friend rather than your biggest fear

And Michael gives Dave some fairly clear marching orders for the winter…

This is a brilliant conversation for any golfer who wants to play better without getting trapped in the endless swing-fix cycle.

Part 1 of our conversation with Michael Leonard is also available now — go and listen to that first if you haven’t already.

ABOUT THE SHOW

How Low Can You Go is a golf improvement podcast exploring how amateur golfers can improve their game, lower their handicap, shoot lower scores and understand what actually moves the needle — without wasting time on the wrong things.

Chris Donaldson and Dave Alexander speak to leading golf coaches, performance experts, sports psychologists and some of the smartest minds in golf to discover practical golf tips and strategies that everyday golfers can use to play better golf.

Whether you’re trying to break 100, break 90, break 80, reach a single-figure handicap or get closer to scratch, How Low Can You Go is about finding out what really helps golfers improve.

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