Your Exit Plan: The perfect release to pure every shot

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:14 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, Michael Jacobs/Golf.com

The technology built into modern drivers requires you to release them quite differently than you do your irons. Think of releasing a given club as exiting from a highway onto a curving off-ramp.

With your driver, you're behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer—you exit slowly and start "turning onto the ramp" sooner, smoothly rotating the clubshaft the whole way.

An iron is a Maserati— you hit the ramp at speed and make a quick turn (that is, a quick shaft rotation) near the apex of the curve. The result? Two very different release positions (right) and two very different feels. The takeaway: With your driver, begin to smoothly release the club as soon as you transition into your downswing. With an iron, quickly release it once the clubhead reaches waist height.

- Michael Jacobs, Rock Hill C.C., Manorville, N.Y