Great finish to The Players Championship on Sunday. Martin Kaymer came out of nowhere last week with 4 solid rounds at Sawgrass including his record tying 63 on Thursday.

Jordan Spieth also put on a good show until the back 9 on Sunday where he carded 3 bogeys at inopportune times. Lost in the excitement of the 20 year old’s chance was that he actually finished tied for 4th, so congrats to Furyk, Garcia, and Rose for their excellent play too.

 

Kaymer’s golf swing hasn’t been seen much in the US this year due to spotty play and some missed cuts, but it is good to see his dynamic motion back on track.

 

 

By contrast, Jordan has been in contention virtually every week so we have gotten to know his swing and tempo quite well. And both these guys’ swings couldn’t look much different especially the way they load the shaft at the top of the swing.

 

 

Kaymer has a pronounced loading of the shaft that reminds me a lot of Ben Hogan in his early days. He reverses direction quickly at the top which stresses (loads) the shaft quite visibly (right).

Spieth has what I call a “gathered” top of the back swing. It appears the club is placed at the top of the swing vs. swung dynamically. The loading and unloading of the shaft will occur a bit later in the down swing so it is not as discernible to the eye.

 

 

 

Now some of these differences are due to the relative differences in the length of their back swings. Kaymer moves past parallel and Spieth is parallel or just short.

Kaymer also “cranks” his body from the top which leaves the club head behind for a split second before it catches up and explodes through impact!

These 2 top golfers reinforce that there are various ways to complete the first 1/2 of the swing. But in the down swing and through impact the idiosyncrasies fade away and the swings look similar if not the same.

 

 

The role of the back swing is to put the put the club head in a position of greater potential energy. At address it has little, at the top of the back swing it has tons. And it doesn’t really matter how you get to the top as long as you can repeat the motion and get the club head back to the ball with the least amount of manipulation.

Case in point, Jim Furyk was a birdie away from a playoff with Kaymer and settled for sole possession of second place. His well documented individualistic back swing shows that what really matters is how
the shaft and club head track through impact.

 

About the Report Author: Robert Cotter is a US patent award winning golf ball design engineer and fine player. His interaction with the top players in the game led to his discovery of The Key to a pro caliber golf swing. He is the author of  The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing which has taught over 10,000 golfers in 60+ countries.