Jaacob Bowden's Swing Man Golf Blog

In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing

Be sure to check out The Golf Channel's article called Going DEEP! regarding Guinness World Record Long Driver Mike Austin and Phil Reed's book about Mike called "In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing".

Dan Shauger's B-Day

For those that would would like to wish Dan Shauger a Happy Birthday, it was yesterday (27 January).  :-)

Where are you at on your PGA journey?

Question:

So where are you at on your PGA journey? it seems that you are involved in all kinds of stuff and i was just wondering if you were still trying to make the tour??

Jaacob's Answer:

Getting on the PGA Tour (or European PGA Tour since I'll be based in Switzerland for a few years) is still my main goal. 

Over the last few years I've had to do some other things to keep the journey afloat.  Somehow, even though I only had the physical finances in hand to play once a week and hit 50-75 balls 4-5 days a week for the last 4 years, I still have managed to keep improving my game. 

However, this year is different and I think it will be a big breakthrough year.  Swing Man Golf website related things are taking up half of my day, but since January 3rd I've been getting out for 9 holes and 100-175 balls/day during the other half of the day on the weekdays.  Friday I shot 35 (-1) on the back nine, and yesterday I shot 35 (-1) on the front nine.  This extra bit of practice is what I think I need to get out to the big Tour.

By the time Spring rolls around, I should be pretty sharp.  I'm planning on doing British Open and US Open qualifiers, I'm looking in to playing either the Swiss PGA Tour or the Alps Tour during the summer, and then going to European PGA Tour Q-School in the Fall.

Changes to Website

by Jaacob Bowden

Speaking of upcoming changes to the Full Swing section of the website...I've got some other things I'll be adding between now and summertime as well.  Here's a few ideas in the pipe:

1)  A more elaborate Mike Austin page under the Full Swing section for those that are interested in more information about that.
2)  Additional videos (my camcorder is back in the US at the moment)
3)  A section under the Putting page about my experience as a professional miniature golfer last year.  In the event I competed in there were 28 of the best mini-golfers in the world attending.  I shot 58 under par in 8 rounds during the two days which, believe it or not, was only good enough for 18th place.  Some of what I learned only relates to mini-golf, but other things relate to putting in general.

Please email me any other ideas, changes, or requests that you have.

Speed in Cold vs. Warm Weather Months

by Jaacob Bowden

Recently I got an email from someone asking about if I thought there were differences in personal swing speed between the colder winter months and warmer summer months.

I would assume that if your body was completely warmed up, you could swing the same in either case.   However, it would make sense to me that it is easier to get warmed up and loose and stay that way in the warmer weather...soooo, I would have to say the warmer weather on average would be slightly faster.

I'm sure different people will probably have different experiences of this, though.

Part 5/9 - PGA Tour Swing Analysis

by Jaacob Bowden

Of the 32 players I looked at for the position of their shaft at the top of the back swing, 9 were laid off, 17 were down the line, and 6 were across the line.

Typically, with the conventional swing we're taught to have the shaft be parallel to the ground and the shaft down the line at the top.  However, about 1/2 of the Tour players were not as such.  Part of this is due to the length of their back swings.  6 of the 9 players that were laid off did not make a back swing long enough to reach parallel, and 3 of the 9 players that were past parallel crossed the line.  The other 3 laid off and 6 across the line had other various nuances with hand action, swing plane, etc about their swings that led them to be the way they are.

I know this is something that instructors and golfers look at quite a bit, however, I'm not really sure that it's super critical thing to monitor.  About 1/2 are parallel and 1/2 are not, which means there is success to be found at any of these positions.

Personally, I started out striving to be parallel.  As I quit worrying about my mechanics so much and stopped trying to make a technically "perfect" golf swing, I actually started going a little beyond parallel because I began letting my left elbow bend slightly...and ended up a little across the line.  Now that I've started up training for the 2008 season, I still let my left elbow bend at the top, but I've shortened up my iron swing a bit and now I'm laid off and short of parallel...and with the driver I'm pretty close to parallel (not sure if I'm down the line - haven't looked at video yet).

So again, this is another thing where there seems to be an acceptable range and that you should just do what's best for you and your game.

Part 4/9 - PGA Tour Swing Analysis

by Jaacob Bowden

Part 4 of the PGA Tour Swing Analysis is about the position of the near wrist at the top of the back swing from a down-the-line view.

Of the 32 players that I was able to see their videos, here's what I saw:

Bow - 1
Flat/Bow - 1
Flat - 10
Flat/Cup - 12
Cup - 9

As you can see, nearly everyone is between the flat to cupped side.  Jose Maria Olazabal was the only one that was bowed, and Stephen Ames was on the bowed side of flat.

Typically in today's golf, we're taught to roll the blade open on the way back and hinge our wrists up.  I find it difficult to make this motion on the bowed side, but much easier on the cupped side.  It is one reason why I believe you see so many Tour players on the flat to cupped side.

Although, the flat to cupped side is heavily favored, I don't believe that having any one particular wrist position is critical to a good golf swing and playing solid golf.  I personally am on the bowed side, but that is because I used my hands differently than most Tour players.  When I first started my journey as a 14-15 handicapper, I must say that I found it quite difficult to hit the ball consistently straight with a rolling blade action  After all, the blade is only square to the ball for a split second.  It takes a tremendous amount of timing to hit the ball this way consistently. 

When I first started working with Dan Shauger and Mike Austin, they started having me keep the blade more square back to the ball on the back swing using a curling under type motion (see below).

Many instructors would call this blade position "shut"...and it is shut compared to the conventional teaching of today where the toe of the club would point up to the sky.  However, relative to the plane going back down to the ball you can see that the club is actually square.  Notice also that this has put a slight bow in my left wrist that will continue on in to the top of the back swing.

Once I got used to making a motion that kept the blade 45 degrees more "shut" than what I had previously learned, I found that I started hitting the ball much straighter with a lot less curvature.  Granted that I still miss left and right, of course.  However, my window of misses greatly decreased and level of accuracy went through the roof.

This type of hand action kept the blade squarer through the bottom 180 degrees of the swing arc and I found I didn't have to rely as much on timing the roll of the blade just perfectly or hit a billion balls on the practice range to do so.  I also found that I could move the ball around in my stance much more freely and this would mostly only change the height of the shot.