I made mention of Jack’s grip a little while back and that I was still looking into it, and I believe I have just figured out what made him so powerful and yet so accurate simultaneously.
Take a look at his 1963 grip at a time where he was becoming dominant – he won six events that year and the only year in which he won more events was in 1973, video of which I’m trying to hunt down to look at his stance and grip for a comparison.
The video from Golf Digest is called The Science Behind Gordon Sargent’s Insane Swing Speed, but I’ll just call it what it is – A Recipe For Disaster.
I’ve already (long ago) pointed out that any real science that looks at the X Factor notion of Jim McLean infamy concludes that it is physically unsound and puts golfers at a higher risk of back injury, but why quibble?
I found this pretty good short clip from Brandel Chamblee on the Classic Golf Swing pivot – although he can be rather controversial on television and a little contradictory at times (he’s always loved and praised Tiger Woods’ various swing models, all of which are Modern and completely unsound as TW’s injury list can attest to), he is pretty sound on swing mechanics, generally speaking.
I’ll say right now about the title – I don’t believe in “magic moves,” as that implies there is something special about swinging a golf club when it’s simple stance and mechanics – any “magic move” is nothing more than mechanically-sound motion.
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.
If you want to know why Rory McIlroy is such a long driver of the ball but also a very woeful one accuracy-wise, then you only have to look at what he’s doing with his pivot.
Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with his setup – I’ve commented on it before and how it supports my hypothesis on the address position – it’s when he gets moving that the issues begin.
I can’t begin to count how many times I’ve written about a particular golf pro’s swing mechanics, expressed concern for a move or position that might be an injury risk… only to have said player come down with an injury not too long afterward.
This week’s winner of the DJ Watts Analysis Curse Sweepstakes seems to be one Rory McIlroy, who is still going to try to play this week despite having incurred a lower back injury earlier in the week.
I mentioned in a comment this morning on the blog that I had tuned briefly into the PGA Championship’s coverage yesterday, but switched off after 15 minutes because of club pro Michael Block’s ace being replayed over and over… and over… and over…
I mean, it was great for him, but I wanted to see some actual golf, imagine that.
Reason 1,472 that I no longer watch pro golf on television – this Instagram post from the PGA Tour came across my feed and I had to laugh.
The clip features Patrick Cantlay hitting a drive at the Dell Matchplay, and how silly are the courses and the announcers?
He will miss the rest of the season having gone under the knife on his back, and we all know that once the surgeries begin…
You’ll recall my writing about him last year when he went down with the initial back woes and how I could show that the current “In The Know” characters were praising the same swing that broke his back not long before it happened.
You can believe this or not – I have written dozens of posts about him over the years since he turned pro in 2007, which was when I began my first blog SwingTheoryGolf on WordPress.
So I’ve seen him swing with changing models over the years, changes made necessary because of injuries, and he even at at time used a Classic-style lifting leading heel (I’d have to check my archive but I believe it would have been around the time he was winning majors).
WAX Golf 