The Sunday Bag: Do LPGA Players Outdrive You, The Shadow Trick, Bird’s-Eye View
6/7/2026
Happy Sunday everyone.
Let’s get into it.
Today’s quote:
“What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.”
- Arnold Palmer
LPGA Players Outdrive You
Last week, I posted a video on X of LPGA players teeing off at Riviera with this caption:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
Watching and emulating LPGA swings instead of PGA swings would do most amateurs a lot of good.
The post is currently at 850K views — which I’m choosing to believe is a reflection of its truth.
Still, I was shocked by the flood of comments claiming that LPGA swings just don’t generate enough distance.
I couldn’t disagree more.
So, I followed up my original post with this:
This post generated even more debate. Currently sitting at 1.2 million views.
I guess that’s what happens when you dare to question the driving distance of the male amateur golfer lol…
While the vast majority of users agreed with me, a surprisingly large group still refused to believe that professional women drive the ball further, on average, than young amateur men. Key word: on average.
I asked Grok, and here was the answer I received:
Is it possible for a young 30-year-old 15-handicap to get ahold of one and drive it 290? Absolutely.
But is Nelly Korda’s drive landing beyond his drive 90 out of 100 times? Absolutely.
Long story short: you don’t drive the ball nearly as far as you think you do.
Record Your Swing
How many of you regularly record your golf swings?
Well, if you don’t, you need to start. As most of you know, feel and real are very different things, and seeing your swing on camera is the only way to reconcile them.
I haven’t accepted sponsors on the newsletter because I don’t want to promote something I wouldn’t use. But KineVision is one I genuinely recommend.
I’ve used dozens of swing analysis apps over the years, and they all felt a little bit laggy and cheap. But not KineVision. The interface is sleek and easy to use, and it has every tool you need to analyze/compare your swings. And for the coaches out there, it makes exporting analysis to students extremely easy.
You can download KineVision on the App Store HERE.
This Week’s Premium Post
This week’s premium post will be about using the line on your ball when you putt. Should you use it?
A preview:
Against this backdrop, the line is an entirely logical response. If you can’t trust your eyes to aim the putter, give yourself something external to look at. Translate your read into a physical direction, set the ball down with that instruction literally encoded on it, then simply execute.
The decision is made. The doubt is resolved. All that remains is the stroke.
This post will be for premium subs only. If you’d like to upgrade, I offer a special discount for The Sunday Bag readers HERE.
The Shadow Trick
How many of you have heard of the “Shadow Trick”?
Below is a video from the 2021 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play where this “trick” is in full display. Watch it below:
I was shocked when I saw this. I’d never heard of the “Shadow Trick,” so I immediately started doing some digging.
Turns out, it’s mostly a golf superstition, but it has a kernel of plausible physiology behind it.
The “scientific” explanation is that direct sunlight keeps grass blades more upright (due to photosynthesis and warmth), while casting a shadow cools them slightly, causing the blades to “relax” and lay down.
This supposedly reduces friction just enough for a teetering ball on the lip to drop.
It’s pretty rare that any of us are faced with a ball teetering on the lip, but you can bet your ass that I’ll be trying this trick every single time it happens from here on out lol.
And for those who might be wondering, you only get ten seconds to sit and wait for a ball to drop. After that it becomes a one stroke penalty if you’re playing by the official rules.
Bird’s-Eye View
We’ve all seen swings from down-the-line and face-on. Those are the two primary ways to study and analyze the golf swing.
However, an underrated angle that rarely gets shared is the bird’s-eye view.
Below is a video of Ben Crenshaw:
The major benefit of this view is being able to see just how far behind the ball he gets.
I’m not sure it’s physically possible to record yourself from this angle lol. But regardless, it’s a great reminder of how the head and body should move during the takeaway.
That’s it for today. Hope you all have a great week and can get out and play!
If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.
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If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most popular Scoring Letter posts below:
I was at an LPGA event a couple of weeks ago on a course I had played. Those ladies are hitting the ball a mile when they have to. They would have easily out driven me back when I was a 2 handicap and do now at a 6. There have been maybe 4 people I have played with in my life who could out-drive the average LPGA player. They were college or mini-tour players. I’m talking averages here, not that one lucky shot a round.
You have to keep in mind that pros will often play shorter shafts than amateurs and most of the time they don’t go at a driver 100% like amateurs do. They also choke up on clubs more often than the typical amateur does, and most of them have shorter, compact backswings. In most shots they aren’t going for maximum distance.
Rory can hit a drive 30 yards past his official PGA tour distance if he wants to, and the same goes for the LPGA players.
If KineVision made their app Android compatible I'd give it a try.