Improve Your Connection with the Hogan Towel Drill

The Hogan towel drill is one of the best ways to train connection in your swing. In simple terms, connection means your arms, shoulders, and trunk work together instead of each part moving on its own. When that relationship breaks down, you tend to get “throwy” with the arms, the club path can pull too far left, and contact becomes unreliable. That is why golfers who struggle with pulls, fat shots, and thin shots often benefit from this drill. By placing a towel high under both armpits, you give yourself immediate feedback on whether your body is truly swinging the club—or whether your arms are taking over.

How the Drill Works

The towel creates a simple checkpoint: if your upper arms stay coordinated with your torso, the towel stays in place. If your arms separate and start acting independently, the towel drops or feels impossible to keep secure.

This matters because an efficient swing is not built on frozen arms. It is built on the right kind of connection. Your shoulders and shoulder blades stay active enough that when your trunk turns, your arms move with it. That gives you a more repeatable radius, better control of low point, and a release that happens from the forearms and wrists instead of from a frantic shoulder or arm throw.

To set it up correctly, use a small towel, closer to hand-towel size than a large bath towel. Place it high in both armpits. That “high” position is important. If the towel sits too low, it can pin your elbows to your sides and make the drill too restrictive. You still want room for a proper impact window, where the right arm can work down and the left arm can work up through the strike without losing connection.

Once the towel is in place, your first task is simply to address the ball and pick up the club without dropping it. That alone gives you a feel for the amount of upper-arm pressure and shoulder-blade engagement needed.

From there, the drill can be used in two valuable ways:

Short swings, such as a 9-to-3 motion, to train your arms and body moving together through impact.
Three-quarter swings, roughly 10-to-2, to improve both your backswing structure and your release through the ball.

Many golfers stop at the shorter version, but the larger version often reveals even more. It shows whether you can rotate your arms properly in the backswing, and whether you can release the club in the follow-through without your elbows flying apart.

Step-by-Step

Choose the right towel. Use a smaller towel that can fit comfortably under both armpits without bunching up too much.
Place the towel high under both arms. Tuck it as high into the armpits as possible, then gently pin it in place by letting your upper arms rest against your sides.
Grip the club and check your pressure. You want enough pressure to keep the towel secure, but not so much that your arms feel locked down. The goal is connection, not stiffness.
Start with a 9-to-3 swing. Make a small motion where the club moves back to about waist-high and through to about waist-high. Focus on your chest, shoulders, and arms moving together.
Keep the handle in front of your body. As you swing, feel like the grip stays more in front of your torso rather than getting yanked behind you in the backswing or pulled across you in the follow-through.
Notice the release. Through the ball, allow the club to release with some forearm and wrist rotation while the towel stays in place. The release should feel soft and natural, not held off.
Build to a three-quarter backswing. Once the short motion feels manageable, lengthen the swing to about a 10-to-2 or three-quarter length. This is where the drill starts to expose whether your backswing is built on turn and arm rotation, or on lifting and disconnecting.
Rotate the arms in the backswing. If you normally pull the club across your chest and then lift it, the towel will feel very restrictive. Instead, feel more arm rotation as the club works to the top. This usually shortens the swing slightly, but it improves structure.
Release into the finish without losing connection. In the follow-through, let the club work up and around while staying in front of you. Your forearms and wrists should rotate; your elbows should not separate wildly.
Add speed without adding arm throw. Keep the same three-quarter length and gradually swing faster. The challenge is to create more speed from your body rotation and sequencing, not by lifting or yanking with the arms.

What You Should Feel

At first, this drill often feels restrictive. That is normal. In fact, if you are used to creating speed and timing with disconnected arm action, the towel may feel almost impossible to keep in place during your first few sessions. Stick with it. The restriction is often exposing a pattern you have been using for years.

As you improve, here are the key sensations you should notice:

Your trunk moves the arms

You should feel that your core and chest are helping transport the arms, especially in the shorter 9-to-3 motion. The swing starts to feel less handsy and less like you are independently steering the club.

The grip stays more in front of you

Instead of the handle getting trapped behind your body or pulled too far inward, it feels like the club stays organized in front of your torso. That usually improves strike consistency because the radius of the swing becomes more stable.

The backswing feels shorter but more structured

With the towel in place, many golfers discover that their old backswing was long only because they were lifting their arms. A connected three-quarter swing may feel shorter, but it is often far more efficient. You are learning to create backswing length through turn and arm rotation rather than disconnected lift.

The release feels softer

One of the biggest benefits of this drill is what happens after impact. You should feel the club release with forearm rotation and natural wrist motion, while your upper arms remain connected to your torso. The finish should not feel jammed or held off.

Speed feels easier

When connection improves, speed often starts to feel less violent. The swing can look smoother while the ball still comes off with authority. That is a sign that your body is contributing more and your arms are no longer doing all the work.

Good checkpoints include:

The towel stays in place during the swing.
Your elbows do not fly apart through the strike.
Your follow-through looks connected rather than cramped or rigid.
Your contact starts to move away from fat and thin misses.
Your pulls become less frequent because the path is not being yanked left by the arms.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using a towel that is too large. A bulky towel makes the drill awkward and can over-restrict your motion.
Placing the towel too low. If it sits near the elbows instead of high in the armpits, you can accidentally trap your arms and lose the natural impact window.
Squeezing too hard. You want connection, not tension. Excess pressure creates stiffness and can ruin the release.
Stopping at tiny swings forever. The 9-to-3 version is excellent, but the three-quarter version often reveals the real issues in the backswing and follow-through.
Trying to make a full backswing by lifting. If you force length with arm lift, the drill will feel miserable. Let the swing be slightly shorter and more organized.
Holding off the release. Some golfers keep the towel in place by freezing the wrists and forearms. That is not the goal. The club still needs to release.
Letting the elbows separate through impact. If the elbows fly apart, the path often gets pulled left and contact quality suffers.
Adding speed with the arms. Once you start swinging harder, do not revert to yanking the club down or up with your arms.
Assuming discomfort means the drill is wrong. If it feels unusually restrictive at first, that often means the drill is exposing a disconnect pattern you need to improve.

How This Fits Your Swing

The Hogan towel drill is not just a “keep something under your arms” exercise. It ties directly into a larger swing concept: your body swings the arms, and the arms deliver the club without taking over.

If you struggle with pulls, this drill can help by reducing the tendency to drag the handle left with disconnected arms and shoulders. When the arms stay synced to the torso and the release happens more naturally, the path usually becomes less across-the-ball.

If you struggle with fat and thin contact, the drill can help by improving the width and stability of your swing arc. A disconnected motion often moves the widest point of the swing behind the ball, which makes low point difficult to control. Better connection helps you return the club more predictably.

If your swing feels overly arm-driven, this drill teaches a different source of motion. Instead of creating speed from a big arm lift in the backswing or an aggressive arm throw in transition, you begin to feel speed generated by your hips, trunk, and chest, with the arms riding along in better sequence.

This is especially useful if you have an athletic background that encourages independent arm action. Players from throwing or hitting sports often rely on a powerful arm move to create speed. That athleticism can be helpful, but in golf it often needs to be blended with more connection so the club bottoms out in the right place and the face-path relationship stays under control.

The drill also helps you understand an important truth about efficient ball-striking: a connected swing does not mean a restricted swing. In the beginning, it may feel that way. But over time, the motion starts to feel simpler and more powerful. The club stays in front of you, the body organizes the motion, and the release becomes something you allow rather than force.

That is the bigger picture. The towel is only the training aid. The real goal is a swing where your shoulders stay engaged with your trunk, your arms rotate instead of lift, and your release happens without your elbows flying apart. When those pieces improve, your motion looks more effortless—and your ball-striking usually gets a lot more dependable.