Driving tips 12 Oct 2026 16 min read

Michael Thorbjornsen’s Driver Swing: Speed, Flight and Control

If your driver gets less reliable when you try to hit it harder, Michael Thorbjornsen’s approach gives you several useful things to check. Comfortable setup, arm depth and a smooth transition are central to his driving. When a hole calls for more control, he changes the flight and intention rather than simply trying to repeat his biggest drive.

Michael explains those choices with Piers Ward and Andy Proudman, from the high draw he likes to hit to a lower fairway finder. His speed is around 120 mph in the session, but the most useful lessons are the decisions behind the shots: prepare a position you can swing from, choose the flight, and give centred contact priority.

Who is Michael Thorbjornsen?

Michael Thorbjornsen is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour, born on September 16, 2001, in Cleveland, Ohio. His official PGA Tour biography also records his connection to Wellesley, Massachusetts, where his family moved during his childhood.

He completed his four-year Stanford playing career in 2024. He was the 2023 Pac-12 Golfer of the Year, and finished No. 1 in the 2024 PGA Tour University rankings, earning Tour membership for the remainder of 2024 and the 2025 season. Stanford’s account of his route to the Tour explains that pathway.

After turning professional in 2024, Michael earned his first PGA Tour victory at the 2026 Rocket Classic, closing with a seven-under-par 63 to win by two shots. The Rocket Classic’s report of his first win gives the tournament context. The PGA Tour career profile reviewed for this article on October 12, 2026 listed more than $7.4 million in official career prize money; that figure changes as he competes.

You can follow Michael on Instagram at @michaelt_1, an account identified in his USGA player profile. His driver lesson is especially useful because he explains both the positions he wants and the tendencies he has to manage.

Start with a comfortable driver setup

Michael’s current priority is easy to overlook: how he stands to the ball. He has a tendency to get too far away and become too hunched over. For him, that changes the backswing, encouraging steeper shoulder movement and a clubface that gets too closed.

His first correction is a more comfortable, neutral address. He lets his hands hang rather than reaching excessively for the ball. He likes a small bump into the left hip, his lead hip as a right-handed golfer, which the coaches connect with getting his upper body behind the ball.

Michael describes a setup he could comfortably stay in for five to ten minutes. Treat that as a comfort check, rather than a timed exercise. You still need an athletic posture from which you can turn; standing fully upright would miss the purpose of his adjustment.

Try settling into address, letting the arms hang, and checking whether you have to stretch them forward to reach the club. A down-the-line recording can help you compare your normal position with a more comfortable one. For another practical way to check address, our driver setup guide includes a golf-ball-box drill.

Keep Michael’s personal tendency in mind. A posture change that helps his closed-face pattern is not automatically the right change for every golfer. Use your own contact and ball flight to judge whether the setup is helping.

Build arm depth for Michael’s high draw

Michael wants his arms to work around him and gain depth behind his body during the backswing. He feels that a more upright, comfortable posture allows this more easily. When the hands climb too much above his head, he finds it harder to arrive in the position he wants.

Arm depth describes where the hands and arms travel relative to the body. It is not an instruction to wrap the club as far behind you as possible. Michael is looking for a useful top position from which he can release the club and play his preferred high draw.

If your hands finish too far forward at the top and you struggle with a steep delivery, see how a more rounded backswing can help. That lesson addresses a specific amateur pattern; Michael’s top position remains his own example.

His “right field” release feel

Michael likes to feel he is sending the shot towards right field. Combined with his lead-side movement into the left hip, which he calls posting up, that helps him release the club rather than hold on to it. Piers and Andy explain that depth can make an inside-out delivery easier, while his setup helps him get behind the ball.

For a right-handed player, this is a feel associated with his high draw. Do not turn it into a fixed aim line or assume that sending the hands farther right will solve every miss. Watch where your ball starts and how it curves. Those results tell you whether the face and path are working together as intended.

Use tee height and intent to shape the flight

Michael varies his tee height with the shot he wants. For a normal driver, he likes some height; a particularly low tee belongs to his lower-flight option. There is no exact tee measurement to copy from his explanation.

His first analysed high shot gives a useful example of what an upward driver strike can produce:

Session measure	Reported result
Clubhead speed	121 mph
Carry distance	295 yards
Attack angle	6.7° upward

Attack angle describes the clubhead’s vertical direction at impact. Launch angle describes the ball’s initial flight. The 6.7° value here is upward attack angle; the monitor displays clubhead speed as 121.2 mph, rounded to 121 in the conversation.

Michael’s broader driving context in this session is clubhead speed in the 120–122 mph range and carry around 310 yards. Those figures should not replace the 121 mph and 295-yard result of this particular shot, or become a distance expectation for your own swing.

The launch-monitor numbers describe the shot. Swing Coach is used separately to look at his body position relative to the ball. If you want information about launch-monitor equipment, you can explore Full Swing.

Driver and iron intentions differ

Michael thinks a little less with his driver and tries to feel the clubhead. With irons, he is more precise about his positioning and what he wants through impact.

That distinction matters when you work on the later spine drill. The driver intention is to help launch a teed ball with an upward strike. It does not mean every driver feel should be carried across unchanged to an iron shot from the turf.

Rehearse the trail-elbow position before you hit

Michael uses a rehearsal to feel more comfortable with his right elbow and arm depth at the top. For the rehearsal, his left hand stays near the butt end of the grip and his right hand sits farther down the handle, with space between his hands. He slowly rehearses the backswing to a raised top position, then returns to his normal grip and practice swing to reproduce the feeling.

His concern is subtle. An elbow position can be unhelpful without looking dramatically flared, and a small difference in the elbow and shaft relationship can matter to him at full speed.

Use the rehearsal slowly. Make one or two repetitions to explore the top position, lower the club, then make a normal practice swing with the same feeling. Michael says he previously used this sequence as part of his driver pre-shot routine before hitting.

The useful feedback is whether the normal practice swing retains the arm depth you rehearsed. Compare it from down the line, then judge the shot. Avoid forcing your elbow into a fixed angle or twisting it simply to match a still photograph.

Why he starts with the backswing

At the time of filming, Michael says he had been working with Sean Foley for a few months. Their priority was to organise the backswing before worrying about the downswing.

That is a useful order when your delivery problem begins earlier in the motion. Setup influences how Michael turns; the turn influences his arm position; that position gives him a better opportunity to move through the ball. A better backswing can make the next part easier without guaranteeing that every delivery issue disappears.

Add a lower driver fairway finder

Michael also wants a shot he can choose when the fairway matters more than maximum carry. He describes starting to use it at Bay Hill earlier in the year, then using it down the stretch at Rocket, including the 18th hole.

In his recollection of that hole, the wind was into him and from the left, with trouble on the left. His intention was a lower ball flight that reached the ground sooner, with the starting direction taking priority.

Make relative setup changes

For this shot, Michael:

• Tees the ball lower.
• Uses a slightly narrower stance.
• Moves the ball slightly farther back than for his normal driver.
• Keeps a comfortable address and feels more like he is making an iron swing.
• Wants the clubface to remain square during the backswing.

These are changes relative to his normal driver setup. He gives no universal stance width, tee height or precise ball location. Begin with modest changes and see whether you can produce a lower flight with reliable contact.

Michael estimates that this option can carry around 280 yards and potentially run out towards 300 in suitable conditions. His demonstrated shot carries 278 yards, with the coaches reporting an attack angle about one degree downward. The lower flight lands sooner, but actual rollout depends on the ground and conditions.

“Half speed” is a feel

Michael says this shot feels as though he is swinging at half speed. The measured clubhead-speed difference is only about three to four mph compared with his fuller driver.

That is the revealing part of the example. Half-speed effort does not mean half the measured speed. A calmer intention can feel dramatically different while the club still moves quickly.

When you test your own fairway finder, compare the strike, flight and starting direction as well as the effort. If you have reliable launch-monitor feedback, compare carry and speed too. You may give up more or less distance than Michael; his 278-yard carry belongs to his swing and this session.

The coaches also see a top position less tilted behind the ball for his lower shot than for his high draw. His changed tee height and intention go with a different movement pattern.

A lower flight still needs a well-controlled face and strike. It can curve or react to wind, so build confidence in the shot before relying on it around trouble. Our driver start-line drill gives you a way to practise the starting direction and curve.

Keep the transition smooth when you want more distance

Michael sees a familiar mistake when amateurs try to reproduce Tour distance: they put so much effort into the start of the downswing that the upper body launches forward. The club can then move over the top, sometimes with an early release, producing a steep delivery and a slice.

He deliberately rehearses that poor pattern for the coaches. His upper body moves forward while his hips remain farther back.

His preferred feeling is a smoother transition, with time for the club to find the position he wants as he posts into his left side. In the contrasting rehearsal, his spine stays more behind the ball.

Give yourself time to change direction. This does not require a fixed pause at the top. Start with a relaxed rehearsal, then see whether the same rhythm survives when you hit a ball.

Michael has worked on reducing the urge to hit every driver as hard as possible. He feels less tension lets his body move more freely. Use that as a tempo experiment: can you maintain centred contact and your intended start line with less forced effort? A slice can have several causes, so the upper-body lunge is a pattern to check rather than a diagnosis to assume.

Try the driver turn-and-reach drill

Piers and Andy use Michael’s top-of-backswing position to explain how a spine tilted away from the target can make an inside delivery and an upward strike easier. They contrast that with a golfer whose upper body tilts towards the target at the top, making a steeper, outside-in delivery more likely.

The useful question is whether your own top position helps the driver shot you want. Michael’s extreme example is not a number everyone should chase. The Swing Coach comparison is positional feedback at the top; it is separate from a launch-monitor attack-angle measurement at impact.

Set up the rehearsal

Andy demonstrates this for a right-handed golfer:

1. Take a driver address posture without trying to hit a ball.
2. Hold the driver near its clubhead with your right hand, with the grip end resting on the ground to your right. Your right arm is almost straight.
3. Keep your posture as you turn back and reach across towards the held club with your left hand.
4. Feel your left shoulder work back towards the trail leg, rather than tipping the upper body towards the target.
5. Return to a normal two-handed rehearsal, then test a comfortable driver shot.

Andy feels the trail leg load as he turns. You can use that sensation alongside a face-on recording: does your upper body turn back while maintaining posture, or tip towards the target? The drill gives you a way to explore the movement; it does not measure a particular pressure percentage.

This is a driver drill for an upward strike. The coaches specifically caution against applying the same exaggerated feeling to an iron shot. If your top position already has plenty of tilt away from the target, adding more may be the wrong task. Aim for a useful change in your own pattern and check the resulting contact and flight.

For feedback on your own movement, explore Swing Coach.

Prioritise centred contact when you need carry

When Piers and Andy pose a demanding carry challenge, Michael’s first priority is contact. He considers whether warmer conditions, a helping wind or a slightly higher launch might make the shot possible. He still wants a clean strike from the centre of the face.

Trying to swing faster can be counterproductive if the strike moves towards the heel or elsewhere off centre. Michael explains that poorer contact can reduce smash factor and ball speed, so the extra effort may not produce the carry you need. Smash factor describes ball speed relative to clubhead speed; more club speed is only part of the distance picture.

The final launch-monitor display reads 307 yards of carry. That is a powerful drive, but it does not reach the hypothetical 320-yard target. The joking discussion of a bounce or skip should not be counted as extra carry.

For your own game, check dependable carry before choosing a forced carry over trouble. Use repeated solid shots and allow for the conditions, rather than making the decision from your best drive. A shot that bounces or runs beyond a hazard distance has not necessarily carried it safely.

Put the two driver flights into your practice

Choose the shot before choosing the swing thought. For Michael’s high draw, the priorities are comfortable setup, depth and a free release. For his lower fairway finder, they are a lower tee, relative setup changes and a calmer, iron-like intention.

Use this practice sequence to compare your own options:

1. Establish your normal driver flight and the carry you can repeat.
2. Rehearse one relevant cue, such as comfortable arm hang or a smoother change of direction.
3. Test the lower-flight setup with modest changes, keeping contact as the priority.
4. Compare where each shot starts, how it curves, how high it flies and how consistently you strike it.
5. Choose the option you trust for the hole in front of you.

This sequence is a way to organise the lessons into your practice, rather than Michael’s exact practice prescription. If you want equipment for those sessions, browse the Me and My Golf Training Aid products and choose an aid that fits the task you are working on.

For in-person help with your driver, explore our Me and My Golf golf schools. You can also find out more about visiting The Grand Golf Club.