Prospective

Tiger Woods: The Hands Are Crucial In The Golf Swing

I found this video of Tiger Woods, perhaps the greatest player to ever walk the planet, extremely interesting.

He’s clearly the most dominant player over the last 20-plus years, during which time technology has ruled golf instruction.

During this same period, we have heard countless “swing authorities” tell us to use our big muscles. They’ve also told us things like “quiet” our hands, or suggest that the hands should not play any major role in the golf swing.

The hands, frankly, have been portrayed as the evil little brother of the big brother muscles.

During my entire career I have fought those notions. I first learned the importance of the hands from the late, great Jim Flick. I furthered my beliefs in the importance of “educated hands “listening” to the also-great Bob Toski and Gardner Dickinson.

We brush our teeth with our hands, type on our smart phones and computers with our hands, feed our faces with our hands, shave with our hands. These two parts of our anatomy are pretty well-trained and very coordinated. Shouldn’t they be able to, at the very least, play an active role in aiding the delivery of the club face?

In the meantime I’m holding my ground that my left friend and my right friend are in fact great friends and a big part of all my past golf success. In fact, I believe I got lost as a player when I drank far too much of the big muscle Kool-Aid.

Have a listen to the GREAT Tiger Woods from the Club-Focused Golf Instruction Facebook page of my fellow teaching pro and Golf Tips contributor, Henry Stetina, and you decide. I’m here whenever you’re ready.

P.S.—This is the second time I have heard Tiger reference the use of his hands to influence his performance.

Tom Patri is former Met PGA as well as South Florida PGA Teacher of the Year. Tom is the Director of Instruction at The Hawthorns Golf and Country Club in Fishers , Indiana, May-October, and November-April he is based at The Esplanade in Naples, Florida. You can reach Tom via email tpatri@mindspring.com Text 239-404-7790 Visit him at www.tompatri.com

How Did Tiger Woods Win Again?

Now that Tiger Woods is fully, magnificently “back” after the most-followed (and hoped-for) PGA Tour Championship win in recent history, the 80^th of his career, it’s a great time to take a couple deep breaths and ponder how he turned 2018 into his year, swallowing every other story line whole as he relentlessly trudged his way back to the winner’s circle with grit and skill, as only he can. This Tiger Woods win was a true earth-shaker, even by his standards. Just ask Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka or Francesco Molinari.

From the casual modern golf fan’s perspective, Tiger is and has always been the only game in town. If he’s playing, people are talking about it — even people who can count on one hand the number of rounds they’ve played in their lives. As one headline read in the wake of Sunday’s amazing scene at East Lake Country Club, Tiger doesn’t just move the needle, he “is the needle.”

Now that he has surmounted four back surgeries, prescription drug addiction and a series of personal travails that would (and have) felled many other athletes, the army of otherwise semi-engaged fans that he has built over the past 20 years is back in full force — with a new generation of young faces in tow.

From the golf philosopher’s point of view, Tiger’s pothole and detour-ridden comeback only reinforces their contention that the game is, indeed, a metaphor for life itself: Rise to power, triumph, downfall, regret, repentance, reinvention, redemption, triumph again. He emerged from that massive crowd on the 18^th fairway a new, different champion, as powerful as ever but more humbly and blessedly human, fighting tears, letting his vaunted guard down when the tap-in for par dropped and his arms raised in relief and joy. Life will do that to a guy. Even this guy.

Think about it. A year ago, on the heels of the spinal fusion surgery that would decide his fate, Tiger could barely get out of bed much less swing a club or even stroke a putt. He was staring at a life of pain with the chance of competitive golf fading fast. Yet here we are.

So, what do professional golf instructors think about Tiger’s resurgence? To what do they credit his long and arduous journey back not only to relevance but to potential dominance (dare we bring Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors back into the conversation)?

Golf Tips put that question to a few of its Top 30 teachers.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Tom Patri, former Met (New York) and South Florida PGA Teacher of the Year whose driving lesson headlines Golf Tips’ current Power Issue, was, at one time, sure that Tiger’s career was over. “I’ll be the very first to admit I didn’t think he’d ever be back,” he wrote on Facebook. “I thought between the injuries, the short game ills, the personal strife, it was simply too much — I was completely wrong.”

In a text message, Patri now says that Tiger’s return directly results from his re-mastering a few inviolable and necessary golf fundamentals — simple but powerful fundamentals built on a mix of physics, talent, hard work and mental toughness.

“I think his ability to quiet his hands in those incredibly difficult short game touch shots is nothing short of miraculous,” Patri said. “Few who suffer [the ‘chip yips’] ever find their way back. It’s a testament to his mental strength.

“Also, he clearly has simplified his golf swing thoughts,” Patri continued. “Let’s face it, he worked with several very talented coaches. I’m sure each is extremely talented, but that said, each pounded him with a slightly different approach. To again be able to stop the merry-go-round and step back and hit the proverbial restart button is absolutely amazing. I believe Tiger went back to a place all golfers should revisit on a daily basis as they practice: The land of time-proven, sound fundamentals. Why do we all have to make [playing this game into] War and Peace?”

Added Florida-based Top 30 teacher Barry Goldstein, who joined Patri for a great Golf Tips discussion on “old school” teaching recently, “I see one major difference in Tiger’s game. His balance is so much better, he is SWINGING through the ball again, rather than lashing at it. And he made tons of putts like the Tiger of old! His brain, his will and a healthy body make Tiger beyond special. His balance, in golf and life, seems much improved.”

Alison Curdt, 2015 LPGA National Teacher of the Year, concurs. “Tiger seems more clear minded in his vision. Without officially working with a coach, he’s going back to the things he knows and is taking an intuitive approach to his game. I feel like he has found himself as a golfer and is at peace with his abilities, yet is still passionate to perform his best.”

SHOW AND DOUGH

PGA teacher Dale Abraham, who splits his director of instruction duties between Bighorn Country Club in Palm Desert, California and Telluride Golf Club in Colorado, pointed specifically to Tiger’s driving and putting at the Tour Championship.

“I think there were two things Tiger did better this week that propelled him to the win,” Abraham wrote in an e-mail. “No. 1, he dialed back a bit off the tee, allowing him to be more accurate and hit more fairways, which was crucial with that two-and-a-half-inch high Bermuda rough. No 2, Tiger used his old putter and made a ton of putts in all four rounds, leading the field in one-putt percentage at 51.4 percent, and second in strokes gained putting.”

THE HERO RETURNS

Jeff Ritter, who heads up the Pronghorn Academy near Bend, Oregon as part of his popular Make The Turn Performance program, took the more philosophical, emotional tack in his e-mail response.

“What I saw from Tiger was a different kind of personal fulfillment, peace and appreciation that can only come from the challenges and struggle faced on the hero’s journey,” he wrote. “The Hero’s Journey is a rite of passage tale rooted in mythology, which forms the basis of many of the books, films and storylines we enjoy and learn from in popular culture. Very often this journey resonates through sport as the elements and lessons within the story are clear and easy to see. Rocky, Rudy and, yes, Tiger Woods, provide us with powerful lessons for making the seemingly impossible become possible.

“A younger Tiger Woods was among the world’s greatest athletes, who unapologetically launched an assault on each player and every record. A gifted athlete, free of restriction in mind, body and soul, pushing the limits of greatness with laser focus.

“This older version of Tiger is filled with a calming sense of wisdom. He’s softer, but not in the way we negatively attach such labels to others who have presumably lost a step on the competition. This softness is welcome. We can and should all appreciate it as human beings; it’s the culmination and recognition of the time, effort, support and compassion for self and others that lead to such accomplishments or milestones in one’s life. Tiger is now a man who appears proud of himself in a way he couldn’t be before, without the presence of struggle.

“We don’t know what will happen next, but Tiger proved that even if for a single day, you can decimate the competition, be the best player in the world and still have a loving appreciation for yourself, your competitors and everything that makes up the greatest game there ever was.”

John Hughes, PGA Master Professional from Orlando, hopes this is the start of a new Tiger trend.

“My take is two-fold. First, as a true champion, Tiger certainly showed in the past his ability to sustain a performance level, and now has shown that he can come back from adversity. We all should applaud his efforts. Second, for the industry and for those who look up to Tiger, I hope he can sustain his recent success, injury free, and without distraction, while maintaining the humility he has shown. Doing so will calm all his critics, including myself in the past, and further cement his place in the history of all sports, not just golf.”

Got your own take on Tiger 2.0? E-mail me at vwilliams@madavor.com or comment here and we’ll compile your thoughts into a follow-up story.

The Big Golf Teacher Breakup

Brad and Angelina may be headed to court, but their split is nothing compared to the anguish of when student and golf teacher part ways.

Nick Faldo sending a terse fax to David Leadbetter ending a 13-year relationship that produced six majors. David doesn’t even get to visit the trophies. Tiger Woods and Butch Harmon’s split — two greats in golf with egos to match. Tiger left Butch for another instructor who ended that relationship when Tiger needed him most, and then wrote a tell-all book about Tiger’s foibles and passions. Butch recovered by bringing Phil Mickelson into his fold. They had a lot of good times including the 2013 British Open, but they drifted apart when Phil couldn’t find a fairway. At least Phil told Butch face to face that he’d been seeing another instructor. Afterward, they issued statements saying they would always be friends, but Butch, having suffered two major losses, seemed shaken.

These breakups must have been hard. I should know. I need to break up with my golf instructor, Bruce. I just can’t find the right words or time to say goodbye. I think he knows that our relationship is over, but we are staying together out of respect, and for the sake of the money I have spent. Although I have been playing golf for several decades, Bruce was the first instructor with whom I made a serious commitment. Sure, I’ve been with other instructors, but Bruce felt like the one.

I had lived a sheltered golfing life. My parents didn’t have money for golf lessons, and I was a bit shy and awkward around golf professionals. Like many aspiring golfers, I tried to figure it out on my own, usually with a golf magazine in hand and imagining what it would be like to be with some noted instructor. I was a golf instruction romantic, hoping to find the one that would propel me to golfing bliss or at least to a scratch handicap.

In the 1980s, I read Jimmy Ballard’s How to Perfect Your Golf Swing and was smitten. The weekend after reading the book, I shot 67 and 65—never to be repeated. (The course was not hard.) Of course, hoping to have Jimmy Ballard as my instructor was a lot to ask. He had been with plenty of other golfers, and he had a reputation for being difficult, but I found myself attracted to “rebel” instructors. Jimmy had taken on the golfing establishment with his radical connection and “fire the right side” philosophy. Of course, the fact that he charged $250 per hour and only worked with some of the best players in the game was going to be a challenge. Okay, I probably had as much chance of Jimmy becoming my instructor as I had scoring a date with Nicole Kidman, but a fella can dream. (Nicole, call me.) Jimmy did let me come and visit him, along with a dozen other students at Doral. We spent three wonderful days in the Florida sun, but we knew it would never last because I couldn’t afford to see him and he had no interest in seeing me. I will always cherish the time we spent together.

After two decades of golf instruction abstinence, I fell for another instructor. My golf game was a hopeless mess, and on the advice of a mutual friend, I was introduced to David Lee via his book Gravity Golf. Although David had produced a video series about his theories, I only knew about his method from his sales booth in Concourse B at the Atlanta Airport. I don’t want to sound snobbish, but I was hesitant to work with an instructor I met while waiting in a boarding line, but David was another golf instructing rebel with concepts like “counterfall” and tension-free arms. Despite endorsements from Nicklaus and Trevino, establishment instructors said he was no good — just what I was looking for. After reading his book, I immediately started finding fairways, and a few years later met up with him in a remote location in the Arkansas woods. David had a golf course and driving range in Royal, Arkansas, which was so remote that my GPS couldn’t find it. Several winding country roads led to an opening in a patch of trees; it felt like a golfing Deliverance. David and I were the only ones there. I paid for a one-hour lesson, $150, but David spent at least three hours with me. What followed was several months of the best ball striking of my life, but David and I were destined for a long-distance relationship, and like most of these relationships, we didn’t last. I sent him a few videos, and we talked on the phone, but whatever we had was lost. Unable to spend quality time together, my game slowly stagnated and fell into a state of unsatisfying mediocrity.

Several years later, after playing 36 holes of hapless golf that included one birdie and five double bogeys, I made a 30-minute appointment with a local pro. Dean was top-ranked instructor, and I walked onto the lesson tee, forlorn.

“You have 30 minutes to straighten me out or I’m quitting the game,” I blurted out.

He laughed. Dean worked on my alignment and gave me a putting tip, but it didn’t help. I should have quit the game, but I was still a fool for it. Although Dean could not help me, he was fun to work with, and this fling made me believe that I could still find “the one.” I still see Dean every once in a while on the driving range, and we smile like friends who shared something special, but know we could never be together.

One night while surfing YouTube, I came across a three-minute video with Bruce. Bruce was a well-established instructor who taught a number of professionals and noted amateurs. He was also just 15 minutes away, and I made an appointment for the next day.

Bruce was probably in his early ’60s, but appeared at least 80. He looked and acted like Max Von Sydow in a bright yellow golf shirt and plaid pants. Wearing a white boonie golf hat, he watched me hit a few shots. He was a serious instructor who provided no entertainment, or praise for that matter. My jokes were met with silence. He filmed me from a couple of angles and then he took me to his office. When he displayed my swing on his television next to Tiger Woods’, it was obvious why one of us was the greatest golfer who ever lived. My posture was too upright, my swing too long, my arms too all over the place. We went to work, and I was infatuated. Bruce put me in positions I never imagined I would try, and by the end of the lesson, I was convinced I had found my match. What he wanted me to do would be difficult, but I was ready to do whatever he asked. I texted my wife to say I had found the one.

“I think I am in love with an 80-year-old man,” I wrote.

“If he likes to cook and clean, bring him home,” she replied, showing little concern that this fling would last.

I signed up for a series of five lessons. I practiced for hours and struck the ball with an authority that made me believe I was destined for greatness. Like any relationship, however, there were some early signs of problems. While my range-ball striking was excellent, my on-course performance was pathetic, and I started to experience back pain, which had never been a problem. Still, I knew we were on the path of instructor-student bliss. I signed up for 10 more lessons, even though Bruce seemed surprised by this. Was he a commitment phobic? I was giving our relationship my best effort, but he seemed distant and disinterested.

My game slowly got worse. Hitting a fairway was now novel. A green in regulation was a surprise. The relationship that had started with such promise now felt stifling. I began to think more and more about other instructors. I would surf the net, just out of curiosity. Then one day on the range, I watched Raoul, another local instructor, giving a lesson. I snuck up and hit a bucket of balls next to Raoul and his student. His student’s swing was impressive, clearly the result of Raoul’s knowledgeable instruction. Was it wrong of me to stare? Every golfer looks occasionally, right? As my game drifted into freefall, I thought more and more about Raoul, and after one particularly frustrating nine holes, I picked up the phone and called him.

I felt a little guilty, but Bruce and I had grown apart when it came to my golf swing. Raoul was glad I called and offered me a discrete 7 a.m. appointment at his indoor facility. I had never taken a lesson indoors and was a little nervous, but Raoul put me at ease. He was probably the same age as Bruce, but lookeded much younger. He drove up in a pristine Toyota Highlander and was dressed in a bright orange shirt with matching shoes and white shorts. His black hair was firmly in place and contrasted with his bleached white, crooked smile. Raoul’s studio used multiple cameras from different angles. The videos quickly revealed my problems—my stance was so wide that I could not turn my hips. I told Raoul about my frustrations with Bruce, but he didn’t judge. “Sometimes you just need a different set of ideas,” he said. His gentle, caring manner was a refreshing change from Bruce’s humorless admonishments. At the end of the lesson, I knew that Bruce and I were through, but I was not willing to get into a committed relationship with Raoul just yet. Raoul offered me a series of lessons at a discount, but I told him I had been hurt doing this before. We needed to take our relationship slow.

How could I tell Bruce that we were through? At breakfast the next morning, my wife looked at me and said, “You’re thinking about Bruce aren’t you — and what’s for dinner.” She knows me well. I confessed she was right. I had been thinking about what to say to Bruce. “Bruce, you are a great instructor. You are really just too good for me.” Or “Bruce, it’s me, not you. I am just not willing to work hard enough to make this relationship work.” My wife rolled her eyes. “You are not going to breakup over a text,” she scolded. Alas, I owed him an explanation, plus I had paid for seven more lessons.

I would like to say that I was honest with Bruce, got my money back, and parted as friends, but I can’t. I am still with Bruce although we are in separate places in regards to my swing. Someday I will use up the remaining lessons and move on. I will always treasure the time that Bruce and I spent together, but in the end, this relationship, like most, just cost me a lot of money and left me literally lost in the woods.

I have learned a few things about golf instructor relationships through all of this. First, I learned that I was putting too much pressure on my instructors. No golf instructor was going to complete me as a golfer. We enter our golfing life alone, and no one can hit the ball for us. The only person who responsible for your improvement is yourself. I wanted to find “the one” who would take me to golfing paradise, but the best any golfer can hope for is a few tips that will help them on their journey. Another thing I learned is that no instructor has some secret to great golf. I just Googled “golf secret” and got 121,000,000 hits. Either golf’s secrets are not secret or there really aren’t any secrets, and pursing some magical solution to golfing woes will cost you a lot of time and money. Golf is still a game of stance, grip, and posture and swinging the club and hitting the ball. Beyond that, it is figuring out what works for you. Finally, I realized that I just need to start having a little more fun playing golf. After all, it is just a game.

Who am I kidding? I just read about this pro in Denver who promises to cut your handicap in half in four easy lessons. Where did I put my Mastercard?

What Tiger Taught Us

Tiger Woods is 40 years old, and that’s cause for many a golfer to take stock of how he changed the game – how it’s played, taught, learned, how it’s now considered a true sport rather than a staid, stolid, plaid-plagued pastime.

By every measure, his influence has been seismic. He brought millions of new fans to the game, and for more than a decade was the most popular athlete on the planet. He took the reins from the likes of Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Nick Price – all major winners, stellar tacticians, great thinkers at their best – and added a new dimension of power to the championship-winning equation. Everyone knew he was coming, that he was a star from a young age, that his dad had groomed him to be the best ever, that he ran roughshod through the amateur ranks. Still, he truly took the sport to a new level. When he was at his best, which was most of the time, he not only blew the ball by everybody off the tee; he put mid-iron shots into a thimble, performed awe-inspiring feats from within 50 yards (that chip on No. 16 at the 2005 Masters the most famous example), and, crucially, putted with an assassin’s eye and nerve.

Be like Mike, said the marketing minds at Nike when Mr. Jordan was in his prime, about the same time Mr. Woods came on the pro scene. Well, now Nike had young Eldrick in its stable, too, but they didn’t have to repeat that phrase. We already knew it by heart: We all wanted to be like Tiger. Countless rank-and-file PGA teaching pros evoked his name when giving knowing full well that most mortals could never come close to matching his moves, while millions of kids sporting Swoosh caps and new sets of sticks believed they could. Golf became cool across the spectrum, thousands of courses were built, a healthy new crop of teaching pros came on board and, at the highest level, tournament purses and TV contracts exploded. By the mid-2000s, even middling Tour players were pulling down more bucks in a year than Jack Nicklaus made on the links in his four-decade career. All because of one skinny Cablinasian from Cypress, California.

Now the kid ain’t a kid anymore, and it shows. Sure, 40 is just a number like the one we mark down on our scorecards, but for a guy who’s arguably the greatest player of all time – Nicklaus, it appears, will retain his title as greatest champion – it’s a weighty figure indeed, an undeniable middle-age milepost. In fact, given Tiger’s recent physical setbacks and psychological woes, most would consider him an old 40. At his offseason event in the Bahamas in mid-December, he said as much when asked how he gets his exercise these days.

I walk, he said. Then I walk some more.

No swinging even gently, certainly no legendary range grinding, nothing close to playing a complete round of golf. A full golf bag’s worth of knee, leg and back surgeries will do that to a guy. Happens to all of us, eventually. Body parts fail. But after a decade and a half of unprecedented golf dominance from ages 21 to 35, Tiger’s parts gave out with alarming regularity. His swing, at its core, has always been about extreme torque and stress; through several teachers, from Butch Harmon to Sean Foley to whoever that last dude was, he never lost that familiar and powerful sequence: super-wide backswing, huge weight shift at the top, leg-loading crouch coming down and violent up-thrust at contact. Even an avowed gym rat like Tiger – he remains a true specimen in terms of body fat percentage – couldn’t fend off the effects of such tectonic grinding forever. His left knee took an incredible brunt. The lower back followed. Surgeries laid him low, and that led, sadly, to a clear loss of the supreme confidence and grit that led to 14 professional majors and nearly 80 official wins overall, plus those three straight U.S. Amateurs two decades ago. He played at a physical level that puts him in a league with the greatest football, basketball and tennis players. Boxers, too. Pure, brute athleticism and extreme mental toughness make for a winning cocktail in any sport. And now, at the crest of his fifth decade, more fans and pundits than not believe he’s done. The glass of greatness is finally empty.

I have plenty of first-hand proof to back up that conclusion. Indeed, I’ve seen Tiger at his best and worst, up close, at the same spot on the globe. In June 2008, I followed him for a full week at the U.S. Open on Torrey Pines South as he put together what remains the gutsiest and most impressive major win of his career, on one leg, with a journeyman named Rocco breathing down his neck. Tiger simply willed in that famous, wobbly putt on the 72nd hole to set the stage for a thrilling 18-hole playoff the next day; I stood behind the huge grandstand when it went in, and the place shook like a SoCal quake while, in the scorer’s tent, I watched Mediate shake his head. I knew he’d make it, he sighed, adding a completely apropos expletive before heading off for the media tent. He nearly beat the wounded superstar on Monday, but it wasn’t to be. Tiger dug deep and found his familiar gold.

Fast-forward six and a half years, to Torrey Pines north, Farmers Insurance Open, January 2015, as Tiger – who’d won this event seven times, as recently as 2013, when he also won four other Tour events – attempted to prove he could get past the previous week’s debacle in the desert, where he chunked and skulled his way to an early exit. It was a strange, twisted type of d_©j_Ê vu, watching him walk somewhat gingerly from the practice green to the first tee as the coastal fog just began to lift and the crowd began to swell. He pulled a 3-metal, teed up and blew his opening drive out to the right, on the treeline. He put on a game face, and the fans followed him out onto the course with high hopes, but within a dozen holes he was done, his glutes not firing, his game in ruins. And it didn’t get much better from there. Tiger played in a handful of Tour events through the year, 11 in all, missing four cuts, notching one top 10 and three top 25 finishes – which, incredibly, was an improvement over 2014, when he played in only seven events. He made nary a wave in any major last year, missing the cuts in the final three after tying for 17th at the Masters. He’s now ranked 299th in the world as today’s young guns – Jordan, Jason, Rory and Rickie – have officially, ruthlessly brought a close to the Tiger Age.

But is he completely done? I have my doubts. Yeah, Tiger is beat up and an old 40, but c’mon, he’s Tiger Woods. He’s come back before – from personal trainwrecks, myriad swing changes and, yes, various physical ailments. He can still be a force, just as Nicklaus and Tom Watson have been well into their middle (and even golden) years. He could capture some of the Vijay Singh fortysomething magic, but he has to believe it himself, put the back surgery in the back seat and find a way to the range again. From there, anything is possible.

Perhaps that’s Tiger’s greatest lesson, and the ultimate Golf Tip: Never give up, at any age.

Vic Williams is editor of Golf Tips magazine. Contact him at vwilliams@madavor.com.

Jordan Spieth

Jordan Spieth is one of the up-and-comers on the PGA TOUR. What’s so amazing is the consistency Jordan has displayed since his breakout on Tour. He seems to be in contention every week. How does this young talent get it done? For starters, he embodies an unbelievable golf swing. Golf Tips Top-25 Instructor John Stahlschmidt will break down five key positions that unlock the secret to Jordan’s success.

1. The obvious point here is how much shoulder turn Jordan has achieved with minimal hip turn. This will provide an unbelievable burst of speed during the downswing and thru impact. Most golfers strive to get their shoulders turned 90 degrees and the hips 45 degrees or so. Speith is working with an insane 90/25 ratio. That’s crazy good!

2. Judging by this photo, you can see that Jordan has initiated his downswing move by shifting his weight to his left side and bracing his left leg. You can clearly see in what direction his momentum is moving, which is toward the target. Also, check out the 90-degree angle he’s holding between the clubshaft and his left arm. That’s what you want.

3. This position is a staple of touring professionals. Notice how much separation has been created between Jordan’s hips and shoulders. This is necessary in order to create speed through the hitting area, which Jordan has plenty of, by the way.

4. At impact, Jordan has most of his weight on the lead foot. Also, I love how his glove logo is pointed at the target. This will ensure your ball will start on a good line.

5. Two things stand out to me here: Look at how Jordan is still tilted or has maintained his side bend to the right. This allowed his head to stay behind the ball thru impact. In reaction to the side bend, Jordan has released his lower body with a fully extended right arm. That’s very powerful!

6. Chicken wing? Nah…Retief Goosen has a similar action with his left arm, too. And even with a delayed release and folding of the hands, Jordan’s upper torso has rotated and is practically facing the target well before he finishes his swing. That’s serious flexibility.

7. The right hand is finally over the left, and again, Jordan demonstrates his powerful swing action. Just look at how he’s able to keep the arms and hands in front of his chest, even well after making contact with the golf ball.

8. Just like every other Tour pro, Jordan has all the weight posted on his lead foot. I also love the balanced look of his finish, indicating the swing was performed with good tempo.

John Stahlschmidt, PGA, is the Senior Head Instructor at the Tour Academy at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Verde Beach, Fla. Visit touracademy.com.

Jim Furyk

Say what you will about Jim Furyk, the man knows how to play some extraordinary golf using a homegrown swing that’s truly one of a kind. Despite recent heartaches in a handful of big-time tournaments, Furyk remains a fierce competitor on the PGA Tour. He has amassed 16 wins on Tour, including a U.S. Open in 2003, thanks to a swing that delivers more than 70% of his drives in the fairway. How does he manage such incredible accuracy with such an unorthodox swing? Let’s check out a handful of key components of Furyk’s swing and see what makes it work.

1. Furyk is known for the loop in his golf swing, meaning he takes the club almost straight up and away from his body on the backswing, then reroutes the club back to the inside of the target line on the downswing. Notice his vertical top-of-the-backswing position with his hand above his head and his high right elbow. It’s almost as though Furyk uses a little reverse psychology on his golf swing, that is, the more he swings outside-in on the way back, the more he has to swing from the inside-out on the way down. More on that in the next photo.

2. Here, Furyk proves that the backswing really doesn’t matter as long as you’re capable of getting in the right position as you initiate the downswing. Here, he drops the club down onto the plane line by rotating his lower body toward the target while keeping his upper body back. This instinctively helps Furyk reroute the club back onto the right plane. Notice that he doesn’t get to this position by directly manipulating his hands–he uses his body to get him here. Check out that knee flex, too. That’s what you want.

3. Furyk continues to rotate his lower body toward the target while remaining passive with his arms. Notice the lag in his wrists. This is where Furyk develops some extra power in his golf swing. Now, Furyk isn’t exactly a long hitter, but he probably could be if he wanted to swing a little harder. Instead, he swings with more of a moderate tempo. I’d guess this is one reason why Furyk is still competitive despite being 10 to 20 years older than many players on Tour. He doesn’t strain his body like so many others do.

4. Here, we’re at the moment of truth. Furyk’s lower body has cleared (by a whopping 45 degrees) while his right elbow is close to his right hip. Check out how much room he has to swing the club toward the target, which Furyk actually does! Most golfers who swing in a circle immediately swing back toward the inside after impact. But Furyk actually swings more in a line than he does in a circle, helping him hit straighter shots more often. And, when he’s swinging well, Furyk hits it as straight as anyone who has ever played on Tour. That’s why he’s atop or near the leaderboard on tough golf courses, year in and year out.

5. Furyk keeps the clubhead low through impact due to his slight descending angle of attack. His weight is on his lead leg, and all he’s doing at this point is allowing the club to swing down and through. Hard to believe that such a unique swing is actually a pretty effortless one!

6. Furyk’s arms swing past his body as the club fully releases. Check out that extension of the arms.

7. He finishes with his weight on his left side and his arms high, matching the top of the backswing position. Notice how his right knee is pointing toward the target. As crazy as Furyk’s swing may be, the lesson you can learn here is that you need to get the body, especially the lower half, to rotate toward the target. If you hang back and/or don’t rotate, you’ll have a hard time creating the necessary room for the arms to drop in the slot and hit straighter shots. And, by the way, give Furyk’s backswing a try if you tend to swing across the ball from outside-in. You may find it easier to swing from inside-out by looping the club like Furyk does!

Top-25 Instructor Dale Abraham, PGA, is the director of instruction at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz. For information, visit daleabraham.com.

Left To Compress

On the LPGA Tour, it’s imperative that you hit your wedge shots as close to the hole as possible. To do that, you need to be able to control both your wedge trajectory and spin. Personally, I like to prevent my wedge shots from flying too high in the air, since that makes it harder for me to control my distances. Instead, by managing my trajectory, I actually can get more aggressive, knowing my shots will fly on a flatter trajectory with a consistent amount of spin from wedge shot to wedge shot.

How do I do this? Simple. Unlike a full-swing shot with a driver, where the body naturally shifts over my right leg, with shots from 120 yards and in, I actually try to keep my weight centered (maybe even a little to the left) through the entire stroke. Here’s what that does:

First, staying centered (or, in my case, a little to the left), steepens my angle of attack, adding more spin through the shot. This is what I want, since staying a little left also helps me compress the ball with my hands slightly forward of the ball at impact. This knocks down my trajectory and prevents the ball from ballooning out of my control. In the black-and-white photo above, if I let my weight shift too much, I’ll have to really time the release of my hands and weight shift, making sure everything is where I want it to be at impact. It’s possible to do, but relying on timing in the heat of competition usually results in more mistakes than successes. Instead, by keeping my weight favoring my left side through the shot, I can concentrate more on swing length to determine distance and not so much on weight shift, hand speed and so on to hit my wedge shots successfully.

Make sense so far? I’ll bet one of the reasons why many amateurs are so inconsistent with their wedge games is because they shift their weight too much during their wedge swings. Like I said, on a good day, where your timing is working, you can get away with that weight shift. But on days where your timing is a little off, any excessive weight shift with your wedges will lead to a whole lot of inconsistencies from short range.

Practice hitting shots with your wedges and keep your weight either centered, or like me, favoring your left side through the shot. You’ll see some more speed come from the hands and hit shots a little lower, but the added consistency and spin will make up for it. Once you dial in and get comfortable hitting wedge shots like this, do what I do and adjust your swing length depending on your distances from the hole. You’ll find this way of managing your wedge shots a lot easier than relying on the timing of your hands and body through the stroke.

Paige Mackenzie, LPGA, is in her seventh season on the LPGA Tour. Learn more about Paige at paigemackenziegolf.com.

Keegan Bradley

Keegan Bradley, ranked 9th in the world, is one of the best drivers of the golf ball. When he sets up, he’s well balanced, bending from his pelvis with a slight knee flex and his arms hanging straight down from his shoulders. This is a setup position every type of player should try and emulate.

Another reason why Keegan is averaging more than 300 yards per drive is because he takes the club back on an arc inside the target line, which helps his body rotate more effectively. As he continues his backswing, his hips work on a slight angle, with the right hip being higher than the left hip, which helps him maintain his spine angle. As the club reaches the top of his backswing, the left knee gains flex and the right knee loses some flex to maximize torque and use the ground as leverage. In the sequence, notice Keegan’s connection with his left arm to his chest and how his right elbow stays in and tight to his side at the top. That’s the stuff you want for real power!

Once he starts his downswing, Keegan creates a tremendous amount of force by getting his lower body to start the motion down. Keegan then gets his left arm to pull away from his chest, which gets his right arm to extend in front of his chest. As he reaches three-quarters of the way down, the club is approaching the ball on an inside path, and he squares the face by tilting and turning his body through the shot. At impact, his hips are opening to the target, with his shoulders fairly square to give him maximum power.

Another component behind his powerful swing is what Keegan does through the ball. He gets his pelvis to push through the hitting zone and his spine fully extends with a tilt toward the ball. This is what you’ll see all long ball hitters do. His arms and club work on an arc around his body, with his legs extending to have maximum force and leverage. Keegan’s balance through the ball is perfect for finishing on the right toe and left heel.

Only good things will happen from copying Keegan’s swing. Having a solid setup position and keeping a good connection through the swing by maximizing rotation will lead to a full, extended followthrough. Keegan maintains consistency by reproducing body alignments time after time. Get your body to move in the same pattern and direction, and you’ll start developing more power and consistency.

Greg Baresel, PGA, is one of the Chicago area’s top young instructors. To get more information, visit his website at golfwithgreg.com.

Ian Poulter

This swing analysis of Ian Poulter was updated May 16, 2017

There’s no doubt Ian Poulter can golf his ball. Surely everyone remembers the 2012 Ryder Cup when Ian single-handedly propped the Euros on his shoulders. Ian’s play was the catalyst for one of the single greatest comebacks in Ryder Cup history. In fact, Poulter has logged several epic Ryder Cup performances over his career. So how does this confident player do it? Golf Tips Top-25 Instructor John Stahlschmidt breaks down four key positions in Ian’s motion.

1 Take a look at Ian’s positioning here. This is indicative of the modern, more centered pivot. Yes, his weight has moved into his back leg, but you can see his head has stayed relatively passive during the backswing. Nice width, too, thanks to Ian’s long, lanky build. He’s poised for making a powerful move into the ball.

2 You want to hit it farther? Take a look at the amount of lag. This is the angle between his lead arm and the shaft. As you can see, Ian has at least a 90__ angle. This will set up good impact conditions with forward shaft lean and a tremendous amount of clubhead speed through the golf ball.

3. Impressively, Ian still has tremendous lag at this point in his swing. And he’s hitting a middle iron! Added lag also means he doesn’t have to lose his spine angle and lift his upper body until well after impact with the ball.

4. The club is right on path heading into into impact, and Ian’s hands are right where they were at address, signaling that his timing is spot-on and his balance is sharp.	5 Notice how the shaft is an extension of Ian’s left arm post-impact. This is an awesome position, indicating he hit down on the ball with no scooping motion. Ian trusts his lofts, meaning the ball will get up on its own and there’s no need to flip the hands and arms to get the ball airborne.
6. Ian’s sightline stays “through the ball,” even though the ball itself is long gone. This is because he has kept his posture, his head over the impact zone and allowed his hands to fully release.	7 As with all the Tour pros, Ian has moved into a balanced finish in which the majority of his weight favors his lead foot. This is a great position for everyone to mimic–hold this position until the ball lands!

John Stahlschmidt, PGA, is the Senior Head Instructor for TOURAcademy TPC Scottsdale. To comment, you can email John at johnst@touracademy.com.

Bubba Watson

We all know that Bubba Watson is one of the longest drivers on this planet. Listed at 6′ 3″ tall and 180 pounds, he has a lanky, flexible physique, which allows him to smash it out there. And he does it with such ease, hitting shots that bore through the air and hit the ground rolling forward. What is it about this swing that creates such massive power? There are several reasons why Bubba has such power, and I’ll break down two key positions that will answer these questions and give you more insight on what makes Bubba so freakishly long.

(RIGHT)
The first thing that stands out to me is how his front foot comes off the ground at the top of the backswing. Most Tour pros today keep the front foot firmly planted on the ground for stability. Not Bubba. He allows it to come up, which increases his ability to turn his hips, which increases his ability to turn his shoulders. Bubba has one of the biggest shoulder turns on Tour, as you can see here. His back is practically facing the target! Bubba also swings the club past parallel. This allows him to store more potential speed that he will unleash into the back of the golf ball at impact.

(LEFT)
One of Bubba’s trademark moves occurs at the start of the downswing. As you can see in the picture, Bubba has a ton of flex in both knees. It’s as though he has “squatted” a bit to start the downswing like a power lifter performs a deep squat. This is one of the major reasons Bubba is able to generate so much clubhead speed, which, in case you’re wondering, is an insane 128 mph.

Finally, take a look at the big differential between his hips and shoulders. This “separation” is a trademark of power hitters. The more you can separate your hips from your shoulders preimpact, the greater the chance of producing serious jaw-dropping speed. And while I don’t expect any of you to swing the way Bubba does, strength-building and stretching exercises both help to maximize your swing turn and place greater torque and separation between your upper body and lower body, driving your swing. Do that more effectively and you’ll start seeing longer, more powerful golf shots.

John Stahlschmidt, PGA, is the head instructor of TOUR-Academy TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Ariz. Visit touracademy.com for more information.