It doesn’t have to look pretty to win
IN THE BEGINNING
My golf swing originally started from reading that Tiger Woods book, How I Play Golf.
I know it doesn’t look anything like it, but that’s how it started. I never had any lessons as a teenager. I literally just read that book, whacked some golf balls around in the backyard, and I didn’t take golf overly seriously at that point.
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I got my first proper lessons around the age of 18 when I started taking golf seriously. I’ve been through a few different coaches since then, but I’ve settled on Marcus Wheelhouse back home in New Zealand.
I’ve been working with Marcus basically since I turned pro, since about 2012 and we’ve always worked on function over form.
My golf swing is not technically perfect by any stretch. It certainly doesn’t look pretty, I know that.
We work really hard on keeping the club in front of me, controlling the face, turning hard through the ball and having control of the golf ball. For the most part, I feel like we’ve achieved that over the last few years especially.
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THE EVOLUTION
My swing used to be quite a bit more behind me, with a flatter swing, and I used to hook the ball a bit, for want of a better term.
When I first started working with Marcus, we worked hard on getting the club more in front of me and hitting more of a fade as a stock shot. That got the club more upright and my hands a lot higher than they were.
I don’t think it’s changed too much in the last few years.
I also did quite a bit of work with Jamie Gough while I was in Europe for a few years, which was really good. I made big strides under Jamie. He and Marcus would work in tandem, Jamie on tour and Marcus back in New Zealand.
It was a lot of the same principles, maybe set slightly differently, but both wanted the same thing: club in front of me, plenty of room, space and time to hit the ball, with a stock shot being a little fade.
That’s what I’ve played with and played well with over the last four or five years.
I finished up with Jamie last year, purely because he’s Europe-based and I was playing predominantly in the States, so it didn’t really work logistically. But I really appreciate everything he did for me.
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THE STRUGGLES ARE REAL
The biggest struggle I had was in 2024, and that was due to injury. I tore the labrum in my right hip.
I’ve always gone down and back, but I’ve also always been good at holding my right hip and spine angle and getting through the ball well. Even though I’m down and back, I could still hold the face nicely.
With the torn labrum, I couldn’t hold that angle in my right hip. I basically fired early, got up and out of the shot, and missed it right routinely for most of the year.
The frustrating thing was that there wasn’t really any pain. It just stopped working properly.
It took a while to get that sorted, with rehab and a cortisone injection. At the beginning of 2025, a lot of the work was about getting rid of the bad habits I’d picked up in 2024 and getting back to what I do best.
I remember talking to Marcus and Jamie during 2024, with them wanting me to do certain things in the swing, and me saying, “I can’t. I don’t know why, but I just can’t do it.”
In hindsight, obviously I couldn’t do it because the labrum was torn.
Thankfully, all of that’s behind me now, and I feel like I’m getting back to where I was swing-wise in 2022 and 2023, which were probably my two most consistent years.
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GAINING CONFIDENCE
If you went through my phone, I don’t have many videos of my swing. The only time I’ll take one is if I don’t have someone with me at a tournament and I want to send a video for feedback.
Even then, I won’t look at it myself most of the time. I’ll get Dean, my caddie, to take the video, send it on and see what feedback I get.
I’m someone who gets confidence from the ball doing what I want it to do. I try to be as “out there” as possible rather than thinking about my swing or getting too technical.
Obviously, it’s not pretty, and I’m not worried about hitting certain positions. I know there are some things I need to do well in the takeaway, the set-up and the feeling on the way down to get the swing working at its best, but I’m certainly not worried about how it looks.
CALORIE COUNTING GOES OUT THE WINDOW
Fitness has become much more important over the last couple of years, especially after the injury, which was a bit of a scare. I’d always been a bit hit and miss with it before.
Tournament weeks are generally lighter than off weeks. In off weeks, I’ll go to the gym four or five times. During tournament weeks, that drops to one or two sessions, plus my daily warm-up.
Food is something I can definitely be better at. I like food a bit too much, and when you go somewhere like Dubai with so many great restaurants, it’s easy to get carried away.
I’ve never been someone who counts calories or eats the same meals with exact portion sizes. But I’m trying to get away from pizzas, burgers and chips the night before I play. They don’t generally work very well.
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MY GO TO SHOT
I like to fade it most of the time.
With my irons, I don’t mind working it both ways, mainly for yardage control. If you want a bit more distance, it’s easier to draw it slightly and take some spin off. I tend to hit draws with the ball a bit further back in my stance, which flattens the flight and adds distance.
It’s rare that I’m trying to draw a driver. There aren’t many holes where I stand there thinking I need to draw it or feel comfortable doing so. If I really have to hit a draw off the tee, I’ll probably hit a three-wood because I’m more comfortable with that.
Thankfully, there aren’t many holes where you’re forced to draw a driver.
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FEELS VS REALS
I spend a fair bit of time chatting with Karl Morris, who I’ve worked with since about 2019. A lot of that is about being creative, creating shots and being more reactive on the golf course, rather than being internal and worried about the swing or where the ball might go.
Every golfer fights that stuff. You’ve got too much time to think, and it’s easy to get stuck on, “I need to feel this,” or “I need to set up like that.”
For me, the swing is always about finding a good feeling rather than worrying about positions. I just need to find something that feels good.
Often it only takes a couple of shots with that feeling to think, “That’s it,” and then you can have a good week with it.
Most of the work with Karl is about finding something that works, focusing on a couple of mental things for the week, and sticking to that whether I’m playing well or badly.
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WHAT I HATE
Trying to draw a driver brings both sides into play. I can block it if I don’t turn it over, or I can get a bit handsy and hit a big hook. Neither of those tend to work very well.
The miss I really don’t like at the moment is right. I fought that all through last year and a bit of this year, and it was a product of the injury. When you see the same miss over and over, it gets frustrating.
I’m slowly getting rid of it now. For a while, it wasn’t much fun with that left-to-right window, because it felt like I couldn’t aim far enough left to keep it on the course.
That’s probably the shot that irks me most.
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AROUND THE GREEN
I’ve worked hard on my wedges over the last few years, and they’ve definitely improved, especially from inside 120 yards.
I had a little patch at the start of 2025 where I struggled with chipping, but I found a couple of things and that’s come back.
I wouldn’t say I’m one of the best chippers in the world, but it’s very serviceable. I feel pretty confident around the greens for the most part. Not Jordan Spieth-level or anything like that, but it’s a solid part of my game and something that does its job well.
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CONSISTENCY WITH THE FLATSTICK
Over the last couple of years, my driving has been a bit erratic, which is unusual for me. A lot of that was down to the hip, and I’m still tidying up some of the mess that came with that.
The other thing I’ve probably battled my whole career is the putter. It’s been streaky.
When I first got on tour, I used a short putter. I’d have weeks where I made everything, but most weeks it felt like a fight.
A few years ago, we realised I didn’t need to be the best putter on tour. I just needed to be average, and not down the bottom over a full season.
I switched to an armlock putter, which tidied things up, reduced face rotation and made everything more consistent. I still have good weeks and bad weeks, like everyone, but they’re nowhere near as extreme as before.
A decent chunk of my success over the last few years has come from being more consistent on the greens and getting my hands out of the stroke. I’ve holed some important putts in wins, play-offs and down the stretch, and having confidence in the armlock has made a big difference.
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