Last July, Steph and I played a round at Cypress Point.
I gave him a few ideas for his game, but he didn’t need much. His swing is solid, and what a gentleman. Of all the superstars I’ve been around, he might be the nicest.
A week later, he won the big celebrity event at Lake Tahoe on national TV— with a walk-off eagle on the last hole!
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Looking at these photos above, I’m reminded how athletic and powerful Steph is swinging the club. What you don’t see here is his rhythm, which struck me right away when we played. Elite athletes have exceptional hand-eye coordination, but Steph also has a natural smoothness in the way he moves the club and sequences his swing.
His technique screams power. He grips the club in a strong position, meaning his hands are rotated slightly away from the target, and his palms are parallel to each other. It’s textbook. I also like that his arms are extended but not flexed, and his stance is nice and wide—looks like you couldn’t knock him over with a wrecking ball.
On the backswing, Steph does a great job of winding up and using his height to create a big swing arc. He lets his head swivel back, which gives him the freedom to turn his upper body. By swinging wide off the ball, he creates a loading action into his right instep but does a great job of not swaying out of position. His backswing stays “between his feet.”
One thing I told him was to let his hips turn freely so that he can max out his shoulder turn, which is about 110 degrees when he gets to the top— that’s tour level. Making a full turn while keeping the hands away from the head is one of my key concepts. Look at Steph at the top—I’d like to hang this photo at my academy.
Coming down, he makes a little shift toward the target and lets his arms drop without forcing anything—all good—but then he makes one move he should try to improve: His hips stop turning. His pelvis is in the same position in the frame after impact as it was at impact. If the hips stop rotating, the club tends to flip over, which can cause hooks. Hooks can be trouble for a player with as much speed as Steph.
With the hips stalling, his spine tilts away from the target more than I’d like, and he gets up on his toes. Steph is so athletic, he can put the club on the ball consistently and often fight off the left miss, but this move can be hard to control. You don’t want to rely on timing that club flip through impact. The answer is to keep turning the hips.
Overall, it’s an excellent golf swing. From the setup to halfway down, I wouldn’t touch a thing. Once Steph cleans up that lower-body action through impact, he’ll be posing with another golf trophy before we know it. —With Peter Morrice
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
