Driving tips 8 Oct 2026 9 min read

Why Does Linn Grant’s Golf Swing Work So Well?

Linn Grant takes the driver back with a shaft that looks unusually vertical, then reroutes it on the way down. It is easy to watch that backswing and wonder whether you should change yours to match.

Look a little farther into the swing. Her early move onto the trail side, return towards the target and connected arm motion give you more useful things to practise. Her approach to ball flight matters, too: she knows the drive she trusts and does not spend every round trying to manufacture a different shape.

Here is how to use those lessons in your own practice, without making Linn’s individual backswing a position you have to copy.

Who is Linn Grant?

Linn Grant is a Swedish professional golfer competing on the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour. She is 27 as of October 2026. She became the first woman to win a DP World Tour event at the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed in 2022, then won the event again in 2024. She has six LET victories, as recorded in her AIG Women’s Open profile. Her official LPGA profile provides further career information.

She turned professional in 2021 after playing at Arizona State University, where she earned First Team All-American honours twice. Her breakthrough professional season brought the 2022 LET Order of Merit and Rookie of the Year awards. See Arizona State’s account of her college and rookie careers.

Her two LPGA titles came at the 2023 Dana Open and The ANNIKA in November 2025. She also represented Europe in the Solheim Cup in 2023 and 2024: Europe retained the cup after a tie in 2023; the United States won in 2024. Most recently, she went unbeaten in Europe’s 2026 victory, as reported by the LPGA’s Solheim Cup coverage.

For more about Linn, visit her official management profile at Creekhouse and follow @linngrant on Instagram.

Why does Linn Grant’s backswing look so unusual?

Linn explains that her motion developed through feel. She has long delivered the club from the inside, and her work with her coach has been about making that pattern less extreme and moving it closer to neutral. Taking the club out on the way back gives her a feeling of creating space.

The shaft looks steep in the backswing, but it changes direction as she starts down. A vertical-looking backswing does not tell you how the club will arrive at the ball. Backswing appearance and downswing delivery are different parts of the motion.

That does not mean every unusual backswing works well. It means you need to judge yours alongside the strike, starting line and curve it produces. If those are repeatable, changing the look alone may give you a problem you did not have. If they are not, find the delivery issue with your coach rather than forcing Linn’s positions into your swing.

Linn allows some parts of her technique to evolve while keeping the ball flight she wants as her reference. You can use the same question in practice: What is the ball doing, and is this change helping me repeat it?

Load your trail side early, then recenter

Andy Proudman and Piers Ward highlight the timing of Linn’s lower-body movement. She starts with a little more pressure on her lead leg, moves onto her trail side early in the backswing, then begins to recenter as she approaches the top.

For a right-handed golfer, the lead side is the left and the trail side is the right. Reverse those directions if you play left-handed. The useful sequence is load early, then start returning towards the target before the downswing is fully underway.

Treat this as a timing exercise. You are not trying to slide a long way away from the ball, and you do not need a fixed weight percentage at address. The coaches describe Linn’s pressure sequence while reviewing her movement on video; the hip-position view does not directly measure pressure under her feet.

If your body moves onto the trail side late and stays there as you start down, the step drill below gives you a way to rehearse an earlier return. Keep the movement small enough that you can turn and stay balanced. For a separate look at delivery faults, our advice on how to hit driver straighter explains why the downswing deserves attention alongside the backswing.

Try the step drill before hitting a drive

Piers demonstrates a simple rehearsal that makes the order of movement easier to feel. Give yourself enough room to swing safely and start without a ball.

1. Stand with your feet together and hold the club out in front of you.
2. As you take the club back, make a small step away from the target with your trail foot.
3. As the club approaches the top, step back towards the target with your lead foot.
4. Swing through and finish balanced.

The return step is the key check. Begin the return towards the target while you are still completing the backswing. If you wait until the club is already coming down, slow the rehearsal and work on the coordination.

Andy and Piers recommend two or three practice swings to get the sensation, then a shot from your normal stance. You do not have to hit balls while stepping. Take the feeling of load, return, swing through into the shot and check whether your strike and balance stay consistent.

If the stepping makes you lurch, lose balance or rush the club, make the steps smaller and rehearse more slowly. The drill should help you coordinate movement, rather than add a bigger sway.

Use the glove drill to feel connection

Linn describes a period when her arms became too separated from her body. She and her coach worked towards a more compact, controlled motion using a glove tucked under an arm, especially with wedges, before building that feeling into longer clubs.

Start with that shorter-club context. For a right-handed golfer, tuck a spare glove lightly beneath the right/trail upper arm, as Linn does here. Reverse that side if you play left-handed. Then make a short, easy rehearsal and feel the arm and body move together. Keep enough freedom to turn; do not squeeze the arm hard against your chest. When the motion feels coordinated, try a short shot and compare the contact with your usual swing.

Linn says she has not used the drill much with driver, even though she tries it with one here. Build towards longer swings only if the shorter rehearsal helps. Do not make holding the glove through the finish the goal. The coaches accept the glove coming free during her through-swing; keeping it trapped can turn a useful connection feel into a restricted motion.

Use it if excessive arm separation is a pattern you and your coach have identified. If you already feel cramped or struggle to let the arms swing, forcing more connection may be the wrong adjustment.

If you prefer a dedicated practice tool, explore our Training Aid products. Choose one for the skill you are working on; a product is not needed to try the spare-glove rehearsal.

Trust the driver shape you can repeat

Linn’s preferred drive is a small push that stays fairly straight or comes back slightly with a draw. She aims to allow for that starting line. It is her pattern, rather than an instruction for every golfer to aim left or try to draw the driver.

She can hit a fade, but does not trust it as much. She also finds her driver straighter than her three wood, so taking less club on a narrow hole is not automatically her safer choice.

Apply that decision to your own game. Choose the club and shot pattern you can repeat, then select a target that allows for its normal starting line and curve. If a fade is your dependable shot, work with it rather than forcing a draw just because Linn prefers one. Our guide to hitting driver straight gives you another way to assess the ball flight you are producing.

Under pressure, Linn says she would rather hit a really hard drive than force a shot. That is her response to nerves; it does not mean you should suddenly swing harder than usual. Pick a practice target, use your normal routine and see whether you can keep your familiar rhythm without changing the shot at the last moment.

Take the lesson into your next practice session

Start with the part of the lesson that matches your pattern. If your movement back and through feels poorly timed, try the step rehearsal. If your arms separate too much, discuss the glove drill with your coach. If you keep changing shape on the course, spend a session finding the drive you can trust.

Film a normal swing before and after the rehearsal so you can compare the movement as well as the shot. Explore Swing Coach if you would like to review your swing with the app used by Andy and Piers.

A launch monitor provides a different kind of feedback from a swing video. If you are looking into that option, visit the Full Swing KIT information page; keep ball-flight measurements separate from what you can see about body movement.

For help choosing and practising an adjustment with a coach, explore our in-person Golf Schools. You can also learn more about The Grand Golf Club.