I hate when this happens – for years, whenever I have singled out individual swingers in a post on unsound mechanics, they uncannily come down with an injury within weeks.
The reason I rail against unsound golf swings and mechanically-incorrect moves is because I’m trying to get people to avoid hurting themselves simply swinging a golf club.
I wasn’t watching yesterday’s Tour event, but a WAX Nation citizen (thanks, Chief!) alerted me to something that happened to Scottie Scheffler during his round.
While teeing off, this happened on his 11th hole:
He appeared to have done something to his lower back on the down swing, and if you watch the footwork, you’ll see why I grit my teeth when I see comments describing it as “remarkable,” “art” or whatever – it is not, it is simply dangerous and risking of injury.
I literally just wrote a post on the Flying Foot and Heel Spin five days ago, and one of the culprits I singled out was Mr. Scheffler:
… and in that posting, I actually wrote the following and have bolded parts for emphasis:
Now, as these fellows have shown, you can have very bad swing mechanics and still play lights-out golf, but I am talking about reducing injury risk and maximizing performance, which is why seeing this drives me crazy.
Imagine your foot catches on something while you’re performing this move, and fails to turn on time or properly while you’re thrashing one at the horizon?
Knee injury, hip injury, ankle injury, back injury, anyone?
I should have added, in the above passage, “or simply mistiming your compensation move,” because whenever you are inserting compensating moves into your swing to avoid injuring yourself, you are perpetually at risk of mistiming that move with catastrophic results.
Whatever happened, I have no clue – whether his foot caught on something or he simply mis-timed his “Scottie Shuffle,” but you can see the aftermath there.
This, my friends, is why I am online pounding away in frustration – it’s not simply my initial mission to figure out the mechanically-optimal golf swing because no one could teach me one, it has become (since at least 2009) an attempt to steer people away from the Modern Golf Swing and all of its dangers.
It’s not just the footwork, either:
With his leading heel nailed down on his pivot, he is stressing his leading ankle, knee and lower back to get his shoulder turn.
Throw in the footwork and Scottie is really a major injury ticking time bomb, and I hate to see it.
What would Scottie look like without the nailed-down heel and the heel spin, if he improved his technique?
Probably a lot like Jerry “BT” Crowell, the tournament-loving club professional with whom some of you will remember I worked between 2014-16:
BT had been experiencing back issues before he discovered my blog and the first thing he did was to start swinging in the Classic Golf Swing style with the lifting leading heel and free hip turn.
Look at the difference:
The second thing he did was to implement the Short-Stop slide trailing foot release, which Scottie already employs, and magically, his back pain disappeared.
This stuff really matters, my friends – you can play great golf with an iffy swing, but you will be playing with fire.
Scheffler seems to have recovered with treatment post-round, as he is playing in today’s 3rd round, but if he doesn’t get some remedial swing fixes, I hate to say that his days are likely numbered before a major injury.
And no one wants to see that.
WAX Golf 
Eeessh!!! That was a jedi swinging a lightsaber dodging lasers finish from Scheffler.(if he is inacapable of golf in the future due to injury he’s the right height for swashbuckling sci fis) Once again the WAX curse strikes another pro.
I can see the subtle difference in BT and Scheffler’s swings (particularly because they’re of similar builds),and it’s tragic. Scheffler is still young so hopefully he can change course, but given the success he has had and that modern golfers aren’t as open minded and adventerous as the old, I’m skeptical.
BT was 50 years old in this swing gif. and he stands about 6’4″ to Scottie’s approximate 6.3″ height. I guarantee Scottie won’t be swinging the way he does and make it to 50.
They never change the course. They remind me of lemmings. And he has a swing coach who pays cash for his new Tahoe who tells Scottie to stop watching Star Wars movies before his round and all is good. Watching his reaction, it seemed to me this isn’t the first time this has happened. Was certainly a heroic effort for him not to fall to his knees. Only for now though. Soon…
One thing that makes what he did worse other than the mechanics,is the forgiving modern equipment he’s using and the (from the video anyway) course seeming pretty open with few trees.Totally unneccessary.
The equipment is a huge part of the problem, silly – you can literally trace the Modern Golf Swing and its popularity with the advent of more forgiving equipment.
The more forgiving clubs and the longer balls meant you could could get more distance out of dodgy swing mechanics, and then the double-whammy – swinging harder with more forgiving equipment meant longer drives and irons, but at a cost to the swinger’s body.
If you brought the equipment back to early 90’s technology in terms of material and driver size, with wound balls… you would quickly separate the bad swingers from the good ones, and the bad swingers would have to change their techniques or go away (or end up in traction). You had some Flying Foot and Heel Spin even in the old days, but none of the horrific lower back twisting that you see today.
Here’s Jimmy Thomson in the 40’s with Bing Crosby watching on, with a bit of a Flying Foot because of the anchored trail foot, but the rest of this swing was on point (he drove it well over 300 yards):
Back then, you had to put a proper swing on the ball to get it to go anywhere. Those who couldn’t, you didn’t see anywhere near pro golf.
“The more forgiving clubs and the longer balls meant you could could get more distance out of dodgy swing mechanics, and then the double-whammy – swinging harder with more forgiving equipment meant longer drives and irons, but at a cost to the swinger’s body.” I always thought this,but didn’t realise how true it was until i (great fun) fooled around with persimmons and wound balls a few months ago. (I persisted until I was eligble to join the 350 club with a persimmon,and passed the test.Sadly Mr Austin wasn’t there to give me a handshake)
Sam Snead had a bit of a flying foot and heel twist as well,but did not injure himself,because like you say:he swung properly and didn’t use the lower back.
One way Scottie stops the rear foot slide is when it hits the leading foot. (Only on two swings in this sequence.)
You can actually hear the squelching sound when his feet move in those clips lol In one of those his right toe actually goes behind his left ankle. No way he’s gonna continue into his seniors playing golf if he continues
Silly9, it’s not consistent though. Sometimes the trailing foot goes behind, sometimes it crashes into the leading foot which may actually be good for him when it does else he goes into that full pirouette where he injured himself 2 days ago or his opening tee shot yesterday where he snatched a par from the jaws of death.
To get some balance with all this dancing feet talk, congrats to El Pato (Angel Cabrera) winning the Senior PGA Championship fresh out of prison with his quiet footwork. I don’t condone what got him in jail but his remarks to me feel genuinely real and owning one’s errors and shortcomings is the greatest expression of our humanity.
Shocking
The Commoder in Chief has spoken.
I like the third comment as well – I’m no chiropractor but it’s exactly what I’ve been saying and would have said in that thread. Compensations lead to injuries, requiring more compensations… and it all spirals from there, but Scottie and the others will have made their money as I said in a previous comment regarding Rory!
DJ, all these posts about the flying foot are helping me dodge a bullet. Appreciate the work you put into debunking this mechanically-incorrect swing compensation.
You have no idea how gratifying that is to read, cogsci – if I can save even one person from the damage they would have experienced trying to swing this way, it’s worth the battle.
Focus on standing on your leading foot at the finish on practice swings and you’ll see how it’s far easier (and healthier) to simply release that trailing foot if it’s required.
You’ll be following in the steps of the greats – even Scheffler does it, it’s just his other issues that are the problem.