Having had a depressing look at the current state of affairs in today’s pro game with driving accuracy, I was actually a little but not very surprised that Rory McIlroy came in 157th on the Tour, because I didn’t know this until I had looked at his driver swing.
When I saw what he was doing, I thought to myself, “he can’t be hitting that many fairways with this move,” and proved myself right when I went looking for the just-completed season’s driving stats.
Again, the setup is pretty solid and his top position is fine, except for that hyper-twist in the lower back area:
But let’s have a look at this swing:
Lots of speed and power in that move – now, I’ll slow it down and I’ll invite you to spot what I’m talking about with regards to his pivot being an absolutely accuracy-killer before I tell you what it is:
OK, if you didn’t cheat and check below, let’s just draw a line on Rory’s left hip at address (blue), at the top (red) and at impact (yellow):
If you see it now, yes – that is a lot of lateral movement on a powerful swing that also requires precision, and the lack of precision is in good part due to that sliding back and forth.
It takes a lot of practice, a lot of hitting balls and to be in complete sync when swinging this way..
It certainly helps the slighter Macs generate speed and power that rivals and exceeds his larger and stronger associates on Tour but this is why he is on fire in some events on some days and a dumpster fire on others when it comes to getting the ball in play.
You can blame the Modern Golf Swing instruction and business for this, I’m sure – because Rory is not letting the left or leading leg move naturally (the knee comes in and the heel detaches on the back swing), he’s got to slide back and forth to generate more momentum, the momentum that comes naturally with a proper Classic Golf Swing pivot.
You’ll remember I coined the term “floating pivot” to term a Classic Golf Swing pivot where the head remains stable or floating in position while the pivot occurs below the C7 vertebra, and the only lateral motion is the shifting of the hips over the leading foot on the down swing to generate that effortless leverage:
If you draw a line on either the left or right edge of the hip, it shouldn’t be shifting, because it is a barrel-turn motion which you achieve with a Classic Golf Swing pivot, just like Ben Hogan’s above, which was so nice I termed it the “Perfect Pivot.”
Now, Hogan wasn’t a long driver for reasons that had nothing to do with his swing action (he was nearly killed in a car collision with a bus that severely restricted his lower body strength and leveraging ability afterwards but even that action above is post-accident), but I can show you someone who was pretty long and who used the same method of stable pivot:
Jack Nicklaus
It is this exact pivot action that I of course built into the MCS Classic Golf Swing, which has allowed me to easily drive the ball 325 yards and beyond even in my 50’s, and there is no secret to it other than knowing how to do it:
It doesn’t matter what size Rory is – with a Classic Golf Swing pivot action, he’d be just as long or even longer than he is right now, and likely a good deal more accurate, if you look at the accuracy of the big boys back when the golf swing was a proper one.
Oh – and it would take virtually no work to maintain once the proper pivot action was established and understood.
The simpler an action, the less work to maintain.
I prefer to be efficient, myself.
WAX Golf 
Minimize lateral hip sway to pivot properly. Would that sum it up? So is it conceivable that NONE of the Rory posse see his lack of accuracy as actually being a product of the way he swings??! It would seem that this is the case and that is simply…ridiculous..
“Minimize lateral hip sway to pivot properly. Would that sum it up?”
In a word, PA – yes!
As for the coaching, it’s probably a tricky thing to tell a player, “Oh, this swing we’ve been working on is flawed…”
Remember that Tiger Woods still has kind things to say about Sean Foley, who never met a player whose back he couldn’t mess up.
The fact that these gurus are still pushing and teaching the Modern Swing principles leads me to conclude that they don’t actually have the kinesiological knowledge to figure out what’s going wrong.
If one thinks that’s a sound way to swing, then I don’t put much faith in their trouble-shooting.
Another point is that today’s players are robots repeating moves and doing things they’re told to do. Self-analysis and critical thinking… not a strong point with these guys.
“Move off the ball…” Check
“Aggressive shift to the target…” Check
“Miss the fairway…” Check!
indeed! While McIlroy has little financial incentive to re-tool his swing, the conventional measure of pro golf success – majors won – will not prove easy to compete in much less win if he doesn’t address the driving stat as you so ably have done. Honestly, it is all about ego – If your car is pulling left and your gas mileage is demonstrably down, do you check the windshield wipers and headlights or do you check the air pressure in your left side tires and think about getting an alignment job??!
Again, eeesh!
Agreed on the ego comment- I also think pro golf instruction is a closed shop and many pros only move from flawed swing model to flawed swing model because they’ll only listen to someone who is already inside the gates.
As for seeking a mechanic to fix that pulling left issue – Once the crowd went along with the Modern swing, proper mechanics and principles went out the window and now everyone is simply chasing fairy dust.
Even when Classic swingers come along, like Vijay, Phil, Bubba – they are almost viewed as exceptions to the rule, and I’ve stopped banging my head over it.
I’ll just tell anyone who wants to know how golfers used to swing & why it’s the mechanically-sound way to do so.
Those who prefer to chase fairy dust and the bad back that comes with it… no one can say I haven’t been trying to spread the word.