While I would never blame or mock amateur golfers who have something like a heel spin in their mechanical action, it is a wonder to me that there are professional golfers out there who still do it.
I have been thinking about how to illustrate that the heel spin is from improper mechanics and not some physical impediment as many people with flaws in their swings claim to have, and this could be the one.
I came across a YouTube short of Xander Schauffele’s driver swing, which is pretty good as it really only has one flaw – but that flaw leads to another flaw, and then a required compensation to avoid injury.
While listening to the USGA narrator, I heard yet another Modern Golf Swing myth that I have been hearing and seeing for years, so let’s take a look at it, shall we?
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 haven’t invented anything with my work on the MCS Golf Swing models over the years – I spent the first part of my research looking only at the greatest swingers ever and compiling a list of things they did in common.
The first thing of course, was seeing that every great player in history when you talk of the absolute greatest swingers, used the Classic Golf Swing.
I talked the past week about the “Power Line,” which I call that straight line you can create from the joint of the leading shoulder down through the hands to the club head, and I’ll expand a little.
For the irons and other clubs except the Driver, it’s pretty simple – get that Power Line going vertically from shoulder to club head either past impact or just at impact (say, with a 3 or 5 metal when the ball is teed up) and you’re pretty much assured to have generated maximum leverage and power into the ball.
The reason so many people struggle to maximize their power with the golf swing is likely because they’re not set up in the proper manner in which to do so.
It is also a reason you’ll find all sorts of professional players who contort themselves coming into impact – they manage to get the power they want to generate, but at a cost to consistency and/or physical health.
Once again, Jack Nicklaus has come to the table with his close-to-optimal setup from 1963, as he does time after time.
Once again, let me say this – there are endless ways to swing a golf club and probably countless variations that are pretty good – but there is only one optimal way to swing, and you’ll see what I mean below.
Here we go for the 2025 season, WAX Nation.
I have shown a swing gif before from 2015, which is what I am sure now is the best iteration of my MCS swing theory and model personally executed.
Yes, there are flaws – the grip was too strong, my stance was a whisker wider than required, the ball placement wasn’t optimal (the Driver shaft should be slight back-leaning and not vertical or forward-leaning with the driver), but the action… the action, my friends, is dynamic MCS all day long.
We are talking a tweak to his setup (I mentioned how it was centered in the last post, so right-biased is the move) and one to his pivot action (Classic rather than Modern), and this swing would be as good as any you’ll see on Tour.
The smooth power he displays with that great leveraging action, just makes everything look so silky when you watch it replay.
I have always looked at John Daly’s hugely flying elbow at the top of his back swing and wondered how he was able to get away with it, as it seems to violate all of the rules of swinging.
Not just the flying elbow but the jaw-dropping length of that back swing – yes, he could get a little wild at times but the man also won two majors in addition to being the longest ball-striker alive on Tour.
WAX Golf 