Improve Your Clubface Control with the Screwdriver Drill

The screwdriver drill teaches you how to square the clubface with your wrists and forearms instead of throwing the entire clubshaft at the ball. That matters because many pushes, flips, and weak strikes happen when you leave the face open too long and then try to save the shot by moving the shaft backward or scooping through impact. This drill gives you a simple way to rehearse the correct release pattern using a harmless object like a TV remote or marker, so you can learn the motion without the distraction of hitting golf balls.

How the Drill Works

The goal is to feel the clubface rotating around the axis of the shaft rather than the whole shaft changing position to square the face. That distinction is critical.

If the face is open in the downswing, you have two basic options:

You can rotate the face by changing the wrist angles and turning the shaft.
You can move the whole shaft behind you to make the face look square at the last second.

The first option is the one you want. When you square the face through proper wrist action, you can keep the handle forward, place the low point ahead of the ball, and strike the ball more solidly. The second option often leads to a flip, a scoop, and inconsistent contact.

That is why this drill uses a TV remote, Sharpie, or similar object. With a golf club, the motion can feel awkward and you may instinctively revert to your old release. With a small object in your hands, it is easier to focus on the movement itself.

For a right-handed golfer, the key action is:

Left wrist flexion — your lead wrist bows
Right wrist extension — your trail wrist cups back

Those two motions work together to help the face square earlier in the downswing, so you do not need to rescue it at the bottom.

Step-by-Step

Grab a safe training object. Use a TV remote, marker, or similar object that you can hold like a golf club. This keeps the drill simple and removes the urge to hit something.
Take your normal grip. Hold the object with your usual golf grip so the movement transfers more naturally to your swing.
Rehearse the wrist motion in front of your body. Without making a swing, practice bowing your left wrist and extending your right wrist. Imagine you are turning a screwdriver. The object should feel like it is rotating, not like your hands are shoving it backward.
Move into a delivery position. Bring your hands down to a downswing delivery position, where your arms are in front of your trail side and the club would be approaching the ball. From there, repeat the same wrist motion.
Add arm extension. Once you can control the wrist action, extend your arms as if you are moving through impact. Try to keep the lead wrist flexed and the trail wrist extended as the arms lengthen.
Match it with your body motion mentally. Even though this drill focuses on the hands and wrists, remember that in a real swing your body is also shifting, rotating, and side-bending. The drill isolates the face-control piece, but it fits into a full-body release.
Repeat in slow motion. Do multiple slow rehearsals until the motion starts to feel less strange. This is not a speed drill. It is a pattern-training drill.

What You Should Feel

This drill should feel different from a throwaway release. In fact, if you are used to flipping the club, the correct motion may feel surprisingly closed or bowed at first. That is normal.

Key sensations

The lead wrist feels flatter or bowed, not cupped.
The trail wrist feels bent back longer into the release.
The face feels like it is squaring earlier, before you get to the ball.
The handle feels stable instead of backing up to save the shot.
The object twists like a screwdriver, rather than being thrown underhand.

Checkpoints

In your delivery position, the face should not feel wide open.
As your arms extend, you should still feel some lead wrist flexion and trail wrist extension.
The motion should feel like rotation of the face, not a last-second scoop.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Moving the whole shaft instead of rotating the face. If the object is just falling behind you to square up, you are rehearsing the same compensation you are trying to eliminate.
Letting the lead wrist cup. A cupped lead wrist tends to leave the face open and encourages a flip through impact.
Straightening the trail wrist too early. If your right wrist loses its bend too soon, the clubhead can pass your hands and add loft unnecessarily.
Doing the drill too fast. Speed hides errors. Slow motion is what helps you actually learn the release.
Confusing the drill with a full swing. This is a face-control drill, not a complete swing model. Do not try to manufacture every body movement at once.
Expecting it to feel natural immediately. If you have spent years squaring the face with a flip, the correct motion will likely feel unusual at first.

How This Fits Your Swing

The screwdriver drill addresses one of the most important pieces of impact: how the face gets square. If your clubface is open in transition and you do not rotate it properly, you are forced to make a compensation near the ball. That compensation is often a scoop or flip, and it can produce pushes, weak shots, and poor contact.

When you learn to square the face earlier by using the wrists correctly, several good things happen:

You can keep the handle more forward through impact.
You can place the bottom of the swing ahead of the ball.
You reduce the need for a last-second hand throw.
You improve both ball flight control and strike quality.

This drill also connects well with release concepts like the motorcycle move. Both are teaching you that the face does not need to be rescued at the bottom if it is organized correctly earlier in the downswing.

In the bigger picture, your body still has to do its job. Proper pressure shift, rotation, and side bend all support a good release. But if your face control is poor, strong body motion alone will not fix it. The screwdriver drill gives you a simple, repeatable way to train the missing link: squaring the face without flipping the club.

Use it as a short daily rehearsal, especially if you tend to hit pushes or add loft through impact. Over time, you will start to feel that the clubface is under control much earlier, and that makes the rest of the swing easier to organize.