What is a ‘governor’? The mental speed bump that costs you distance

Welcome to Play Smart, a game improvement column and podcast from editor Luke Kerr-Dineen to help you play smarter and better golf.

As strange as it sounds, a huge component of clubhead speed has nothing to do with the way you swing the golf club.

It’s in your mind.

As professionals from all backgrounds try to unlock more distance off the tee, they quickly reach a speed bump of sorts: They physically able to go faster, but their brain prevents them from doing so. There are a few things that can cause this, but mainly your subconscious is worried about getting hurt, or you’re just generally afraid of hitting the ball off the planet.

But while that fear is legitimate, it is not always rational. That’s why Bryson DeChambeau endorses a speed training regimen that involves hitting hundreds of golf balls in a single session (although average golfers should start much smaller).

“What most people don’t understand is that it’s neurological,” he says. “Your body can go a lot faster than you think it can, it’s your brain telling it to slow down.”

What Bryson is referring to here is what TPI’s GOLF Top 100 teacher Dave Phillips calls a “governor.” A kind of internal clock that keeps your ability to go back quickly.

Speaking at a recent TPI session, Phillips revealed that was exactly the problem three-time major winner Padraig Harrington was struggling to overcome. His swing speed had been in the wrong direction as he got older, hitting a low of 113 mph in the 2018-19 season, leading to a 296-yard average.

But this season? At the age of 51, Paddy’s club head speed is up to 116 mph, with a driving distance of over 300 yards.

How did he do it?

“I asked him, ‘dude, what did you do?’ He said ‘honestly, I convinced my brain that it’s ok to go fast and you can go fast on the golf course. So many players have this governor where when they get on the golf course … they start guiding the.”

Getting comfortable with going faster

This was, of course, in addition to some nice technical work GOLF Top 100 teacher Michael Jacobs.

As for how you can try to remove your governor? The easiest way, according to teachers and instructors, is to spend a few minutes each range swinging as hard as you can. It could be as little as five golf balls, or it could involve hitting no golf balls at all, just swinging. Employing the use of a speed training aid, such as The Stack or Super Speed, will also help.

But in the end, it’s about creating a new level of comfort for yourself. Get comfortable with going fast and you’ll enjoy the benefits it brings.

Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role, he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the NAIA national rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to earn his master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.