Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

There are few players in the game with a smoother swing than Fred Couples. It looks as if he’s not even trying, yet the ball always explodes off the clubface. When he’s hitting balls on the range, you can’t help but stop and admire.

The way Couples swings the club makes golf seem easy. He simply takes the club back and lets it rip. It’s the perfect mix of balance and power. If there’s a swing to model your own after, Couples’ is a good place to start.

Couples’ swing keys

When Couples makes his backswing, he’s only thinking about one thing: completing a full shoulder turn to the top.

“I think every good player or every good amateur wants to do that,” he says. “And once I get the shoulder turn back, I don’t think about the change in direction, it just happens.”

On the downswing, Couples feels his hips open up past impact — but he doesn’t allow the clubhead to follow. Instead, he wants the clubhead to release down the target line after he makes contact with the ball.

If he were to let the clubhead start following his hips after impact, he’d be swinging severely from out to in, which can make it difficult to generate power. So instead, he wants to focus on releasing the clubhead down the target line.

“I release the club going down the line,” Couples says. “So learn to clear your hips and let the club go down the line and release it.”

When Couples does that, it makes it easy for him to generate effortless power.