Episode #12
The Three Golf Swings I Coach (And When I Use Each) | Women's Open, LIV's Lifeline & My Homemade Training Aid
I'm at Five Iron Golf in Business Bay this week, and the final major of the year is done. Shiho Kuwaki beat Esther Henseleit in a two-hole playoff at Royal Lytham to take the 50th AIG Women's Open — a second Japanese winner in a row, and a player who isn't even on the LPGA yet. I go through how that playoff actually unfolded, plus top-tens for Lottie Woad and Charley Hull, and the Hull prank story that got more attention than it deserved. On the PGA Tour, Michael Thorbjornsen got his first win at the last ever Rocket Classic, with Xander Schauffele second and a top five for Matt Wallace. And LIV have a lead investor signed, with a deal targeted for September — the first properly positive news they've had in a while. Then the coaching. I made myself a training aid on Sunday afternoon — a polystyrene plane taped to the top of the shaft — and it's become the best visual I've got for teaching the planar swing. That leads into the three swing patterns I coach after thirty years playing and eleven coaching: the planar move, Stack & Tilt and MORAD, and the Hovland pattern. Where the face is at each point, how much forearm rotation each one needs, and which ball flight each is built around. Finally, ten minutes of short game. I had a multiple club champion in ahead of the US Mid-Am, and the fix was one concept: set the face open, then turn the loft down through the ball. More speed, lower flight, more spin — and it feels far more positive than trying to help it up.
