As long as Johnny Miller insists on saying stupid things about Tiger Woods I will insist on making these videos that point out his ridiculous statements. It is my contention that what Miller says is important, and that when he (unintentionally) misleads the viewing public on matters of swing technique I am doing those viewers a service by pointing out his errors and hoping that someday he will view one of these and see that he should stop carrying on about lowering during the swing. I mean, can I make it any clearer? I mean, Miller himself lowered a tremendous amount in his downswing, at least as much as Tiger if not more. That in itself is more than revealing: it means that Miller has no real idea of what made him so great, only what he “felt” that he did. I am dealing with what is in front of me. It is my contention that video does not lie, and that if you do the homework and study your subject matter these items that I continually point out are fairly obvious. The great players have not “maintained their level” during their swings. Not in the past, and not now. The best players of any generation you want to view lowered during their swings, some only in the downswing (Nelson, Miller), and some only in the backswing, and most both back and down. Why this is so hard to accept I can’t begin to tell you. I happen to believe that it is a tremendous benefit to all golfers to learn to use the ground to help create powerful pivot movement. Having Miller, Gary Koch, Bill Kratzert, Peter Kostis, Brandel Chamblee and whoever else you want to name continue to mislead the public on this important point is something I intend to continue to address. So if you watch the telecast and hear one of these guys spouting off on someone’s “dipping” problem you can expect another video from me.
Posts Tagged ‘tiger woods’
Johnny Just Doesn’t Get It
Thursday, March 29th, 2012Brandel Chamblee Keeps Hammering on Tiger
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012This little clip should come as no surprise to anyone who watches The Golf Channel with any regularity. Brandel Chamblee has a major problem with “modern instruction”, meaning any type of instruction that involves video analysis and technique work, and his feelings come out loud and clear (and obnoxiously) in his criticism of Tiger Woods and his coach, Sean Foley. What is mildly surprising is Chamblee’s admission that yes, great players lower during their swings (he mentions Miller and Hogan), but he then adds that neither Hogan nor Miller “popped up” like Tiger as they hit the ball.
It occurred to me that it would be interesting to look at Brandel’s own swing, as he was a good enough player to stay out on Tour for over a decade. You can imagine my delight when I saw that Chamblee “pops up” as he hits the ball almost exactly the same way Tiger does. Once again, it becomes apparent that these TV guys say things that they believe are true, but have not done the work necessary to make sure that what they are saying has any merit. The videos are out there and the opportunity to do enough homework to back up statements about technique is also readily available. I fully intend to keep these announcers on their toes and accountable for their statements. People are watching, and there is a responsibility to get this stuff right.
Golf Swing Analysis: Rory and Tiger at the Honda
Friday, March 9th, 2012
In this somewhat rambling video I take a look at Rory’s pre-shot routine and try to dispel the popular notion that he “just gets up and hits it” in some sort of child-like, non-thinking manner. That is hardly the case as he takes exactly the same amount of time to hit the ball as did Louis Oostheuzin in his British Open win and as did Charl Schwartzel in his Masters victory. It has also been reported that McIlroy has trouble flighting the ball in the wind, a notion he somewhat dispelled at the Honda as he navigated blustery winds in the last round with a variety of cut-off swings to hold on for the win. And as surprising as it may seem given the hysteria over his ball striking prowess McIlroy actually led the field in putts gained, bunker play and scrambling, and certainly would not have beaten Tiger or Tom Gillis had he not gotten it up and down from all over the place on Sunday. He will be a formidable opponent indeed should he match up his brilliant hitting with the kind of game he displayed around the greens. Indeed, such a combination has not been seen since the heyday of one Tiger Woods.
And speaking of Tiger, here we see that his swing is really coming around as his hands finally begin to track outward toward the ball starting the downswing instead of moving straight down. A good friend of mine who used to play the tour knows Brandt Jobe quite well, and when he asked Jobe how it was playing with Tiger on Sunday Jobe replied that he “would just like to hit it like that”, meaning that Tiger’s control of the ball in the wind was impeccable while bombing it off the tee as well. If you think about it each time Tiger has reworked his swing it has taken about this long for it to gel, and if you add in the time lost due to injury and the assorted personal issues he is about overdue to begin playing Tiger like golf again. It may take McIlroy firing on all cylinders to keep Tiger from regaining his perch at #1. It will surely be a fun year to watch golf.
Tiger at the 2011 Chevron: Finally, a Win!
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012Here we have Tiger’s swing at this year’s Chevron where he birdied the last two holes to finally pull off a win. The most amazing thing to watch is the huge difference from last year to this year. Watching the radical change in rehearsal swing mechanics you would think that Tiger had a new coach and a whole new swing theory, but the truth is that Sean Foley is smart enough to see the reality of the Trackman numbers and change his tune on Tiger’s downswing hand path, and Tiger likes and trusts Foley enough to go along with the change of direction. This swing is looking awfully good now, I would say as good as it has ever been, and I see Tiger having a good year next year and contending in the majors. I can’t tell you how much I am rooting for him (although my wife has serious issues with that) if only because I can’t wait for the naysayers like Brandel Chamblee and Dan Jenkins to eat their words.
Brandle Chamblee At It Again
Monday, February 20th, 2012(scroll down for video and a must read Facebook conversation between Wayne and Brandel below the video)
Now, I don’t spend my days watching the golf channel in order to catch Brandel Chamblee saying something ridiculous about a golf swing. But every time I tune in (and it’s not all that often) I have to sit back in amazement at the things that come out of Chamblee’s mouth. I instantly turn on the DVR so that I can play it back and not miss anything, and before you know it I have another video.
How could anyone who knows anything about the golf swing say on national TV that Tiger Woods is “coming over the top”. Are you kidding me? Tiger has never “come over the top” in his life. All you have to do is take a minute and watch his swings. I mean, come on already – here they are, right in front of you. How obvious is it that his hands are not moving out and over anything. They are, in fact, moving in a trajectory somewhere between the toe line and the ball. In 2009 they were falling straight down in transition, almost behind him. In 2000 they were more out than they are now. Tiger is trying to get back to a hand path that will encourage his lower body to rotate and make it easier to do so. His rehearsal is most definitely “over the top”, and then, of course, he does nothing like that when he hits the ball. I say of course, while of course Chamblee fails to see any of this. He sees Tiger’s swing coming “over the top”. Yikes.
The other thing Chamblee claims is that Tiger is too steep on his wedges due to the forward lean of the shaft, producing what he says are the “deepest divots of his career”, and certainly much deeper than Mickelson’s divots, which are “much shallower”. Again, this is nonsense. Mickelson steepens his shaft on the way down, leans the club forward and takes massive divots. The shots from the last round prove this. Tiger shallows his club starting forward, then leans the club forward and takes massive divots of his own. These are two of the best players of our generation, probably the best two, and they are both great wedge players. There is nothing wrong with taking big divots on soft fairways with wedges. Ever watch video of Trevino? He takes divots the size of small animals.
All these TV guys talk about Tiger as though he died and came back as some chump who stupidly took his swing apart and can’t put it back together, while they constantly allude to all the specific mechanical problems that are making Tiger lose, as though the greatest player of our time doesn’t have the intellectual wherewithal to know exactly what he is doing. I mean, the guy gets no credit for what he has accomplished, and the manner in which he went about doing so. Woods is a cerebral golfer, the opposite of a Couples or Bubba. These knuckleheads on TV are so far behind Woods in the “golf IQ” category that it’s comical. He will laugh at them all in the end. I can’t help but root for him.
Brandel and Wayne D engage in a Spirited Conversation on Facebook:
Nick C
Did anyone catch Mr. Chamblee’s comments about Tiger’s excess FSL and his swing being “too complicated” during the Golf Channel’s recap of Sunday at Pebble?
Nick C
Wayne: Since I consider you to be among the smartest golf swing analysts online, I’d love it if you would check out the thread going on in the Golf Teaching Professionals group about Brandel’s comments regarding Tiger’s swing and where he feels he’s going off track.
I’ve seen some great analysis of Tiger’s new swing on your YouTube channel. Brandel specifically doesn’t agree with the amount of Forward Shaft Lean he’s seeing from Tiger and thinks his new swing is ‘too complicated’ for Sundays.
Wayne DeFrancesco
A couple of things are at work here. Tiger made it look easy from the time he won his first US Junior up until he ran into the fire hydrant. No one is used to seeing him struggle, although we have gotten used to it a bit over the last 2 years. We are especially not used to seeing him struggle on Sunday when he has positioned himself to possibly win. Every pro goes through that, except Tiger, until now. Then add that no one on television is going to miss commenting on Tiger’s progress or lack thereof because that is pretty much the only thing any listener wants to hear. TV is inherently hysterical, because anyone with a rational, calm perspective is seen as “boring”.
Thus, we have the Brandel Chamblees of the airwaves, all following in the “tell it like it is” (or like it isn’t) style of Johnny Miller. Chamblee is a thoughtful guy who can make some interesting observations when he is not talking about swing mechanics. As soon as he ventures into swing analysis he loses all credibiltiy. I have done a few videos debating his insights into Tiger’s swing, and the more I see of him the more I am convinced that he a) has it in for Sean Foley and anyone else he perceives as teaching swing “technique”, and b) he sees his criticisms of Tiger as cutting edge and something that is elevating him in the business. The truth is that Chamblee is not a teacher and has not done the prerequisite study required to present a coherent argument regarding golf swing mechanics. He has gone from Tiger’s “dipping”, to Tiger’s “popping up”, and now to Tiger’s overly leaned shaft. I have shown that almost all great players lower during their swings (Chamblee finally admitted as much), then showed that Chamblee himself elevated during the impact interval (as do tons of other greats), and I will show that his assertion about Tiger’s forward lean and the size of his divots (“way bigger than Phil’s) is more nonsense. Lee Trevino, one of the greatest wedge players in golf history, took divots the size of small animals. To argue in front of millions of golfers who suffer from clubhead throwaway that forward leaning the shaft is a bad thing is not helping anyone. In fact, such stupidity sets back the efforts of teachers all over the country. At least Miller is entertaining. Chamblee is simply annoying.
Brandel Chamblee
Wayne,
A couple of things are at work here, you take a generalization that I give to paint a broad picture of a point I am making,( like most majors have been won by guys standing tall and who hit the ball high, or that Tiger has more shaft lean than he had in 2000, hence the bigger divots), and then you take an exception, like Keegan winning a major bent over or Trevino taking big divots, and try to prove your relevancy by pointing out the exception as if you’ve discovered the pyramids.
I’m aware of these exceptions but given the time constraints of TV I have to get the point across in a very short period of time without access to the video tools that you use in your analysis.
Secondly, I’m unaware of a “prerequisite” study that must be done that exceeds the 36 years I’ve spent studying what works and what doesn’t work in this game. Perhaps it’s sitting in a darkroom filled with machines and computers to tell me what I can learn empirically if that’s the case then I will willfully accept my plight.
Forward shaft lean is necessary, but I have watched countless, very good players, lose their ability to drive the ball well, all because they want a”line of compression” whatever that means. If one transferred their weight properly in the downswing , lag happens naturally as a by product of proper sequence, one doesn’t need to create it, forcibly .
I have no bone to pick with Sean personally , in fact he seems like an interesting man. I do, however, believe he, like you, try’s to over complicate things in an effort to appear valid. The golf swing is as simple or as complicated as one wants to make it. People used to love to say that Mac O Grady was a genius because he could talk esoterically about the swing as you try to Wayne, but meanwhile Harvey Pennick has several players in the hall of fame and Harvey could explain the swing in 3 sentences . Which is quite a contrast to you war and peace video analysis.
Butch Harmon can similarly describe the swing in a short uncomplicated manner, his prerequisite study was to observe, not to sit in a dark room drawing lines on a video screen hence why he is has touring pros fighting to have lessons from him and you have to post videos that are 10 mins long to try to be relevant.
My observation of Tiger’s forward shaft lean was based upon not only bigger divots but poor wedge distance control and shots of his that didn’t stop quickly like his 2nd shot into 6 on Sunday.
Wayne DeFrancesco
Brandel: You have millions of people watching you. What you say counts.
You have an obligation to be correct, and that means that if you’re going to generalize you should include the exceptions. When you speak of time constraints you are making excuses. You know who’s playing in the tournament and my guess is you know fairly well what points you are going to make before you make them. Why not make them better? If you want to claim that Tiger is over-leaning the shaft then find something to back you up. I never just say stuff, I show it. My lines don’t make things more complicated, they make it easier to compare and discuss, because I always draw the same ones. That way I can tell you for sure that Tiger is not ”coming over the top” even though he is rehearsing it as such, and I can also tell you that his hands are not “more out” than they were in 2000. I can also show you side by side of Mickelson hitting wedges with a steeper downswing and just as big divots as Tiger. It’s right there for you to look at. You would rather rely on your sense of things than on the evidence.
As for my “sitting in a darkroom” I actually spend the vast majority of my time on the lesson tee, and have done so for the past 25 years. The rest of the daylight that I have available I use to practice and play, because I still play competitive golf. I take my stuff out on the course and post scores. I don’t sit in a television booth and make comments about how the best player of the generation is an idiot for trying to improve his game by taking instruction. You may not think you have a bone to pick with Sean but how do you think he feels when you state on TV that it is “outrageous” for him to think he can teach Tiger anything? You may not see your attitude and your attacks as hateful or mean spirited but I can promise you there are many who do. Taking lessons is 100% voluntary. Tiger chose Sean, not the other way around. Sean will simply give Tiger whatever Tiger wants, just like Hank did and just like Butch did. Your taking of sides with Butch over anyone else is obvious and inappropriate for someone in your position.
I don’t know what kind of bad experience you had with “technique” instruction, but there are more ways to teach a complex game than sitting in a chair encouraging your student to “relax”. I have heard you go on about who you consider the great teachers, Ernest Jones, Harvey Penick, Butch Harmon, and I have heard you savage the “modern” instructors such as Leadbetter, O’Grady and Foley. You have hopped on the “simplicity” wagon and are riding it for all you’re worth, and that’s your right. But to insist that everyone else is making the game more complicated than necessary is ridiculous. And when you insinuate that teachers like myself are doing so to extend lesson times and jack up lesson rates (yes, I heard you say that) I find that highly insulting. You try spending 8 hours on the lesson tee with people who can’t hit the ball and have no concept of what they are doing and ” keep it simple”. But oh, that’s right, you’ve never taught before. You wouldn’t last, and you wouldn’t help half of the people who were paying you. You fear complexity even though it exists, and you long to make simple what is not. If it were so simple you would still be out on Tour, and everyone would be good.
Brandel Chamblee
Wayne,
You keep doing what you do, I wish you well.
I don’t know who you are or what you do, but if you say you’re good at teaching and a helluva player well then I tip my cap to you.
As for you continuing to play, and making claim to some superiority because you do still compete, all I can say is I’m sure there is a lot left undone by you as a player that you are trying to make up for.
All the best to you,
Brandel
(Editor: the Facebook conversation happened on or about Feb 18th 2012 and the “I don’t know who you are” comment with it, now the following email Brandel wrote to Wayne on June 2, 2011 obviously showing he knows who Wayne is and that he has seen his videos. Maybe Brandel forgot who Wayne is since then, eight months is a long time.)
Brandel Chamblee’s Email Responding Wayne D’s Video Regarding Brandel’s Golf Channel Side-By-Side Analysis of Tiger and Hunter Mahan
New Message from WayneDefrancesco.com Contact Form: June 2, 2011
Name: Brandel
Name: Chamblee
Subject: Comments
Message: Wayne,
After hearing from a few people that you had taken issue with my analysis of Tiger’s swing alongside Hunter’s I watched the you tube video that you had made.
I thought it was very good. I look at a lot of these breakdowns on you tube and various other web sites and I always learn something.
Errors that you made were as follows: when I said on camera that his take away wasn’t turned back to the inside, it was in comparison to Hunter’s not Tiger’s in 2000. I don’t think that Tiger should turn the club to the inside, not one bit. He didn’t in 2000 as you pointed out, and as I have pointed out numerous times. Doesn’t take a great eye to see that. I don’t think Tiger should swing like Hunter, I think he should swing like he did earlier in his career when the right arm was higher in the backswing.
When you show Tiger at Pebble, he is trying to hit a fade in that video and you make a point of trashing me, saying he was taking it away in the same manner that he is now. Agreed, but in 2000 at Pebble he wasn’t trying to swing like Hunter Mayhan (sic).
When you throw up Nicklaus and say he was taking it outside, well yes, no great insight there, he was, again he carried the right arm higher into the backswing as Tiger did in 2000.
When you compared the laid off position of Tiger to Hogan and put words in my mouth saying that I said laid off is bad and by reference that Hogan’s swing was bad, Hogan was hitting an iron, so of course he would have the club more laid off and Hogan had a cupped left wrist by the way, which if Tiger could pull off would help him as long as he is going to swing this way.
When you put Tiger 2000 at the British Open up and said he snapped up, I hope you can see that he didn’t not snap up anywhere near the amount he does now. You insinuated to your audience that they were the same and it was at least half as much to the good in 2000.
When I said Tiger ruined any chance of swinging well in the first 2 feet, it was in reference to swinging like Hunter Mayhan (sic) which he can’t and never will be able to pull off.
When you said that when someone says “fundamentals” they are really searching, well, I am not searching at all. In the same way Hogan wasn’t searching or Herbert Warren Wind wasn’t searching when they titled the best selling golf book of all tiem, entitled The 5 fundamentals. Grip, posture, stance, ball position and grip pressure are fundamentals and I am not reaching when I refer to them. Not one bit. Nuances are waggle; takeaway, tempo, rhythm among others.
When you said I was taking a shot at methods, however, you were right. I have seen players all my life, the best players, destroy their games, confidence and careers at the behest of those that think that all should swing one way. Sean Foley does this. Ben Doyle does this. To name two, which is not to say that these two gentlemen are not knowledgeable about the golf swing, they must be, but they don’t seem to be knowledgeable about golf. There is a difference.
Something you need to know is your analysis took over 10 minutes I believe, and you took pains to point out that my camera angles were off and that I should have let Tiger finish his swing. Never in TV does one have the luxury of neither the time that you took nor the tools that you used to dissect the swings and my analysis. The camera angles were courtesy of TV, about 20 minutes before I went on air.
I continue to study the golf swings of great players and enjoy gathering information from as many sources as I can. From time to time I look at your stuff, it’s comprehensive and informative.
Yours and Sean’s attempts to discredit me based on my record are pointless. Sean never played a Tour event and you played 20, making 3 cuts and averaging just under 75. The point is it’s idiotic to think that experience is necessary to speak intelligently about anything. I wasn’t at the Boston Tea Party, but I can tell you about it because I care enough about history to have studied it passionately as I have the golf swing.
Brandel Chamblee
Wayne DeFrancesco
Well, so much for “I don’t know who you are or what you do”. Oh yes, and Hogan’s book happens to be titled “Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf”. I always know I’m talking to someone who doesn’t know Hogan when I hear “The Five Fundamentals”, which was the title of a nice book by Steve Elkington.
Oh, and one other thing, about having things left to accomplish as a player: isn’t that why we all continue to play?
Most Great Players Lower During Their Swings: So Wouldn’t You Figure It To Be a Good Thing?
Monday, January 2nd, 2012
If you think about how many different ways great players have gone about being great you might surmise that finding common ground wouldn’t be easy. How can anyone agree on what the best method is when all sorts of crazy combinations can be made to work? Certainly that is a legitimate question, and it can only be answered by saying that if I am teaching and I want to help someone to improve I have to identify what I think is hindering them and then offer specific things to remedy the situation. Through a combination of playing, practicing, studying golf swings (both great and not so great), and teaching every teacher comes up with their own “method”, which is really just a compilation of preferences about every element of the swing. One thing I have observed over and over is the fact that a great majority of great players lower during their swings. Some only lower going back, some only lower coming down, and some lower both back and down. Finding a player who stays perfectly level or who raises up in the backswing and doesn’t lower below their starting point in the forward swing is exceedingly rare, so rare in fact that it would seem obvious that the old standby adage that you must “maintain your posture” during the swing is simply wrong, but in a way you would not expect. The odd thing is that while it is not OK to rise up, what you actually should be doing (if you want to be like most of the best players) is trying to lower. I call it compressing into the ground, and I see it to be both athletic and powerful. It is evident in almost all high level acts of throwing and hitting, and if you buy my contention that the swing motion is most like side-arm throwing it becomes obvious why lowering is almost always present.
I’m sure that Mike realizes good players lower during the swing. I’m also sure that after watching this he wishes he had been a little clearer on just what he was discussing, as it certainly seems like he’s saying Scott’s head is not going down at the exact moment that it is. The point I am making here is not that Mike doesn’t know what he’s talking about (he does), it’s that everyone on TV should try to be more careful and attentive to what they are saying, because this stuff is being taken as truth and it goes by so fast that there is no time to rectify confusing information. And while Mike is certainly a high level instructor whom I respect, in this case it sounded like he was agreeing with the other talking heads who consistently pound on players (especially Tiger) for “dipping”. As you all know one of the important aspects of my teaching philosophy is “pivot compression”, which means lowering, so I am especially sensitive and attentive to how that element of the swing is portrayed in the media.
Swing Analysis: Brandel Chamblee Keeps Hammering on Tiger
Friday, December 2nd, 2011This little clip should come as no surprise to anyone who watches The Golf Channel with any regularity. Brandel Chamblee has a major problem with “modern instruction”, meaning any type of instruction that involves video analysis and technique work, and his feelings come out loud and clear (and obnoxiously) in his criticism of Tiger Woods and his coach, Sean Foley. What is mildly surprising is Chamblee’s admission that yes, great players lower during their swings (he mentions Miller and Hogan), but he then adds that neither Hogan nor Miller “popped up” like Tiger as they hit the ball.
It occurred to me that it would be interesting to look at Brandel’s own swing, as he was a good enough player to stay out on Tour for over a decade. You can imagine my delight when I saw that Chamblee “pops up” as he hits the ball almost exactly the same way Tiger does. Once again, it becomes apparent that these TV guys say things that they believe are true, but have not done the work necessary to make sure that what they are saying has any merit. The videos are out there and the opportunity to do enough homework to back up statements about technique is also readily available. I fully intend to keep these announcers on their toes and accountable for their statements. People are watching, and there is a responsibility to get this stuff right.
Tiger at the Australian Open: Looking Way Better
Sunday, November 20th, 2011The video starts with a side by side view of Tiger at last year’s Chevron and just last week at the Australian Open in Sydney. What is quite amazing is the difference in the rehearsal swings he takes before each shot, one practicing dropping the hands straight down and almost behind him from the top, and the more recent ones having the hands move well out toward the ball, almost the complete opposite pattern. It has been my contention that since working with Hank Haney Tiger moved towards the vertically dropping hands, and that Foley continued along those lines as they first worked together. The problem with Tiger’s knee has made it difficult to clear his hips in the fashion he has always been accustomed to, and slower leg action makes the dropping hands move problematic in that it discourages upper body rotation. If the lower body is slow and the upper body doesn’t want to open then the chest tends to face the ball more at impact which leads to blocks and flipping hands.
In these swings, which are the best Tiger has made in years, he is, as I mentioned, rehearsing an outward hand move (remember Corey Pavin’s over the top practice swing?) and continuing to swing left through the ball. In his real swing he has gone from having the hands moving straight down from the top to actually having them start down between his feet and the ball, and as a result his left knee is clearing far quicker than even a month ago and his right arm has a ton more room on the approach to impact. This is exciting stuff, and I could see Tiger return to greatness if he stays on this track and keeps improving the technique. It also doesn’t hurt that he seems to be getting the ball up and down again like the Tiger of old. Now, if the putter comes back, watch out.
Why was Tiger Woods Struggling (And it’s Not Because He Dips His Head) ?
Sunday, November 20th, 2011
All right, so everyone is talking (still) about Tiger and his swing. Here I have taken Tiger’s most recent competition (the Frys.com Open) and compiled swings to compare with his swings of years past, especially those of the Harmon era. What I have noted are a few basic elements: first, he is not dropping his head any more than he used to. It’s not hard to draw a line on top of his head in order to measure the amount of drop during the swing. Why the knuckleheads on television can’t seem to accomplish this small task, which incidentally would persuade them once and for all to leave the “head dip” thing alone, is beyond me. I have to attribute it to a degree of stubborn adherence to conventional (incorrect) wisdom (lowering is bad), but even more sadly to total lack of study and preparation. If they would take the time to look a bit more closely they would see what I am showing you here. Second, Tiger’s clubface is way more shut at the top than it ever has been. He went from a neutral face in the 2000-2006 period, then a more open face with Haney’s weak grip (even with a bowed left wrist, which tells you just how weak the grip really was), to what is now almost pointing skyward (closed) at the top. Third, Tiger’s hips are now “out of the box” for the first time, as his left leg doesn’t appear able to snap back ultra deep like it used to. Lastly, Tiger’s hands are still in vertical drop mode a la Haney again, and although Foley started out with the same idea I believe he is now (most likely due to his Trackman data) teaching Tiger to bring his hands more outward toward the ball in transition to encourage more rotation in both the upper and lower body in the forward swing. It is apparent that Tiger is working on not having the face closed at the top (he cups his left wrist in an exaggerated fashion during all his practice swings) but from the video you can see he is struggling with all of this. One thing he has going for him is his incredible work ethic. I still think he can turn it around and get back to number one. It will certainly be interesting to watch him try.
Tiger Woods Now vs. 2000 Golf Swing Analyzed
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Granted, Tiger Woods has a lot on his mind. There is a popular thought that his poor play is totally a result of the fact that he has essentially blown up his life and that all he has left is money, but since we are golfers and not psychiatrists we will focus on what I believe to be the major change he has made beginning in 2008 and which I think is hindering his comeback. So, what is this mystery move? Brandel says he is too bent over, that he has no room and thus has to jump up through impact, but he has been doing that all his life. Chamblee followed that up with the brilliant observation that no one could win a major that bent over until of course Keegan Bradley, more bent over than Tiger has ever been, just went ahead and won the PGA. Nobilo is focused on Tiger’s left wrist, which he (Nobilo) wants to be cupped, while Tiger has won every tournament he ever won with at least a flat, and sometimes bowed, left wrist.
No, our Golf Channel pundits don’t have it right, but if you watch the video here I think you will agree that this particular change is huge and has had a great impact on Tiger since his body began to give him extra trouble. The key move is his hand path from the top. In 2000 and all the way to 2008 Tiger moved his hands outward toward the ball in transition, which allowed him to rotate his upper body fast enough to stay up with his lower, while moving the arms out in front of his body, lessening the tendency to get “stuck”. Then, somewhere during the 2008-2009 period, Tiger began to drop his hands vertically, which retards the opening of the chest and makes it harder to “get around” on every shot. While Sean Foley has made some changes to Tiger’s swing he has not addressed this vertical drop of the hands, and it is my opinion that they will struggle until they incorporate more of a “side-arm” approach, a la Ben Hogan.
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