The swing of a pro
Hello fellow golfers,
We were graced with the presence of Sunshine Tour Player, Mr Ryan Cairns on our last Golf Collage. It was such a pleasure to have him and his lovely wife, Engelize with us. Not only does he have a great personality, but also a great golf swing. Have a look at some of the very key positions here below and also the notes below. There is a lot we can learn from them. If we are able to apply some of these thoughts to our own game, we’d certainly hit them better!
#1) Set-up: The arms are ‘hanging’ beautifully from his shoulders putting his hands in a relaxed position. The arms are not holding up his hands as they are in a relaxed and natural position. Also note the balance in the soles of his feet where there is slightly more weight on the balls of the feet than the heels. Lastly, note the alignment in his shoulders, hips, knees and feet – parallel to the target.
#2) Take-away: Apart from that his spine angle and knee flex is maintained so well, he manages to get the shoulders turning by keeping his elbows ‘together’. This ensures two very important aspects – it created the required width in the take-away and also starts the swing on a great path. It helps to prevent the start of the swing to go too far inside or too upright. Here we see a good combination of shoulder turn and keeping the elbows together for a sound initial move in the swing.
#3) At the top: We can learn a LOT here. Shoulders – Not parallel to ground surface but rather nicely turned at an angle around the spine. Spine angle – In the same position as in the set-up, crucial for indicating a solid axis of rotation. Knee-flex – still maintained as in the set-up too, prevents sway and reverse pivoting. A lot of us tend to move the spine up, sway the hips backwards, get shoulders ‘up’ and level with the ground. These great positions here by Ryan makes it much easier for him to get into the desired impact position.
#4) Down-swing: The biggest thing I’d like to note here is the lag in the shaft. This is the angle between the left arm and the shaft on the way down. Note how the shaft is somewhat behind in terms of timing. This indicates that his hands are not flicking through causing fat or thin strikes but most of all, it helps him compress the ball properly giving a more explosive impact for great ball speed and spin rate.
#5) Impact: The two important things to see here is that his right shoulder did not move around or up as a lot of us do causing an out-to-in swing path. His right shoulder is squeezing down nicely to keep the swing path on the correct line. Also, the hips are open. This indicates weight transfer of the lower body through impact. A last little note is that the upper body is not tilted forward. It is still in the centre of the whole process.
#6) Finish: The belt buckle is facing the target and he stands tall on the front foot. This tells me that the lower body transferred weight to the front, the hands were able to swing through the ball freely and that the ball is probably close to the flag. Indeed it was on this tough par three leaving him a little tap-in birdie. Great swing!
