I originally posted this back during the pandemic lockdowns, but for some reason I removed it.
I am re-posting it as I think some people need to think about the question.
You may think it’s an odd question, but it’s a question for the serious, want to learn a proper swing person to consider.
Now that I’ve seen the light with regards to my own stubbornness in changing a faulty grip (for me, it was an over-strong right hand because I was swinging left-dominant and so was focused on the left hand to the detriment of the right), things are jumping out at me.
For example, Tiger Woods’ former swing coach Hank Haney made comments about Bryson DeChambeau’s struggles in the final round of this year’s Masters, where he started in 2nd place behind Rory McIlroy, briefly took the lead and then tumbled down the leaderboard as the round advanced.
As the Boomer generation reaches retirement, it comes to my mind that the majority of players and watchers of golf at this time are likely much older than the TikTok and Instagram generation.
Nothing wrong with being from either generation, it is just what it is…
I myself am 55 now, which never fails to stagger me, because I began this journey after turning 35, which was ten years after I’d first swung a golf club, so thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye.
I have used just about every type of grip method there is, except for the leading hand low method, which I reject out of hand because no one anywhere on the planet, when swinging an implement, does it with the leading hand below the trailing hand.
For that reason, I knew it wasn’t going to be a path to go down, just as I wouldn’t try hitting balls right-handed with an inverted left-handed club.
I keep going through swing clips that I’ve amassed in these years of swing research, and I can’t escape the nagging (and nearly maddening) reality that I had indeed figured out the optimal action for the golf swing ten years ago.
Notice that I said “optimal action,” which then leaves room for two things that I neglected to notice or fix, for the next seven years.
As you know from my posting yesterday, I was rooting for Rory McIlroy to win the Masters and complete his career Grand Slam porfolio.
Mission accomplished, and I’ll tell you why I have always rooted for Rory – he was the first pro golfer whose swing I posted on YouTube way back in 2009 when I was very early into my golf swing research.
It’s very likely that the winner today will come from the last grouping with Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau topping the leaderboard.
I would say that I’ve posted about this duo more than any other active golfers besides Tiger Woods in recent years, so it’s a WAX Golf special, this last group.
Until I have new outdoor video this spring, these long iron swings from when I was shooting the “E = MCS” swing video are as good as any that I have in my archives.
There really is nothing wrong with the setup nor the mechanical action, it’s just that pesky right hand grip I was using because I was swinging left-dominant at the time.
I’ve of course hit longer drives than the one in this video, but when I drive balls into the executive course or over the mounds guarding the green on one of the hole, I don’t get any distance feedback other than, “Well, that one was pretty long…”
I can gauge my distances with irons pretty well when there are flags and greens at which to shoot, but the driving, I’m at a disadvantage hitting balls unless I’m in a place with a Foresight or Trackman (and I don’t trust these completely, because many times they give me distances that are well short of what I know I can do on the course or range).
I keep coming back to it, and I keep seeing it – I had actually nailed the MCS Golf Swing setup – the likely optimal one, at least for myself, way back in 2015, which was the first year I had built a swing model not trying to copy anyone.
Sure, I of course had looked at the greatest swingers when studying their setups and swing actions, but when I actually got over the ball, I wasn’t trying to emulate Ben Hogan or Jack Nicklaus, Mike Austin or Dunaway – I was just getting over the ball and slamming it.
WAX Golf 