- Hi, Adam Bazalgette back here, in Naples, Florida.
I'm two-time PGA Teacher of The Year Award winner
here in Florida,
and today's subject, kind of an interesting golf swing,
great player for sure, Zach Johnson.
So let's check that out.
(exciting music)
So Zach Johnson, terrific player,
won the British Open last year,
won at Augusta a few years back.
Kind of an individual style there
with his grip and his move,
but we'll have a look at that
and we'll come back at the end of it,
and I'll tell you what are the things
I think you can take away from it,
what are the ways you might be able
to play around with this
and see if it's a good match for you,
and what are the pitfalls you should watch out for.
But let's have a look at him here.
Let's see him from a couple of angles.
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Okay, let's check out Zach.
So there's Zach Johnson.
He has what we call a strong grip,
that means it's pre rotated away from the target
there in the setup.
And when you start with your arm pre rotated that way,
you're more liable to rotate the face to the left
or a hook face through impact.
Of course he doesn't do that,
so let's look at how he accomplishes that,
now let me just say, now listen,
let's bring and iron shot in here for a second,
not the greatest camera quality but let's have a look.
when you have a predisposition with your grip
to hit it to the left but you're able
to use your body and not let the hands roll over
through the ball,
I mean it's pretty rare to see someone that good
with a glove up here at that point.
Most times that left forearm is folded a lot more
and the club is released a lot more than that
but when you can do that,
you are gonna hit a lot of straight shots.
A lot of on target shots because the face
is very inactive at the bottom.
So Lee Trevino, same sort of a method there,
so that's his calling card
as he's an accurate, accurate players, a steady guy,
he doesn't get it off the golf course very often.
Of course he's a very tenacious guy
with a great short game as well.
And that's just how he goes about shooting those scores.
So that's the advantage.
It's my understanding that he has had
a strong grip and that general tendency in his release
since he was a junior golfer there, a younger player,
so that suits him well.
Here he is with a driver.
Has a relatively short backswing there.
Gets those hips started.
If you're, with the kind of speed he has,
and he's not the longest hitter in golf by a mile,
but with the kind of speed he has,
a lot relative to most people,
you have to really use your body well there,
and use your hips well to prevent that club
from flipping over.
But interestingly enough as we look at him
from this angle,
he certainly doesn't have
the quickest hip motion, you'll see.
I mean watch when his left knee disappears from view
there on the left.
And it's about there.
A lot of players are a lot more open with their hips
than that as they come down.
So it's not so much that he has lightning fast hips
but that he continues to use them and continues
to move through the ball,
and continues to drive those glutes underneath him
that keeps him in a,
it keeps that club from rolling over at the bottom.
So as we look again from this angle,
pretty simple posture.
Club face just visible there,
it's not super shut but it's shut a little bit
and it's shut with a strong grip.
That club is a, oh,
it's a little closed right there.
But again he's got great body motion
and can get through there and do it.
And that's his calling card as he's an accurate golfer.
Now let me just say copying people's swings isn't
always the only way you can copy people,
how about his,
how about the kind pf guy he is?
How about mentally?
I don't know him personally but I know a fair about him.
He's a little bit like a Jim Furyk
is so much as he's a very steady, reliable,
sort of guy, very hard working.
He's just a plod along guy.
He's a great short game, leaves nothing to chance,
and he just puts his time in
and grinds it out,
and is able to get a game there that he can really trust
and make work well.
So you know, for me,
hey listen, I'd love to be like Phil Mckelson,
or Fred Couples, a kind of a creative hot and cold,
sort of a guy,
mostly hot in their cases I might add.
But they're the kind of people that hey,
they've got a lot of talent and when they catch fire,
when they get a little bit inspired,
they're impossible to stop,
but they can run hot and cold a little bit.
It kind of looks like a fun way to play,
but that's not me.
I'm more of a worker rat,
and I'm more of a guy like Zach Johnson,
so if that's more you,
don't just copy his swing maybe.
Copy the diligence, the short game,
the approach to, the disciplined approach
to getting around the golf course.
And you can make something out of that.
So in, long in the shorts,
strong grip would predispose him to hit it left,
you would think,
but great motion.
Doesn't have the quickest hips in golf
but they really keep thrusting and pumping through the shot,
and they're enough to keep those hands
from rolling over excessively.
One other thing I noticed a little bit in his move,
he has a little bit of a tilt back with his upper body,
even on an iron.
If you watch his head there, relative to the trees,
he adds a little bit of,
away from the target tilt with his spine,
and my guess is with the delofted club face,
it helps him get a little more height on the ball.
And it's probably to do with
those hips kind of thrusting underneath him.
When they really thrust under
it'll tend to cause a little side lean
but I think that's a good combination
with his grip and club face style.
So let's have a look at what we might learn from that,
what we might take away from that,
and whether or not you should try to mimic some
of these things.
So what can you take away from Zach Jonson's swing?
Well I think there's several things you can take away.
Number one, the idiosyncrasies he has with
the stronger grip and the slightly or somewhere closed face,
let's say, are matched off by what he does
through the ball.
He uses his body and he patterns his release
in a way that's very, very repeatable.
So you've got to have matches.
What you don't wanna do is just say, you know what,
I'm gonna try something funky here without
any sense of what needs to be paired up with it
to make it work.
Second thing, remember there's different things that work.
Hey listen, two of the best ball hitters in history,
Lee Trevino and Ben Hogan,
had dramatically different grips
and different club face looks
so it worked for them.
Fred Couples actually had the very string grip,
but because he cupped his writs so much,
he had a pretty neutral club face
and he had a lot more kind of snap in his release,
so there's different combinations.
The thing is though,
you've got to get as I say,
you've got to get a matching combination.
You've got to get one that's two things,
easy for your body,
hey listen, if you're young and flexible
and you hit the ball a long way,
and maybe you hook some,
maybe this is a great tonic for you.
You've got a lot of energy here,
a lot of speed,
and you can control the ball better.
But maybe if you're a senior golfer who's has
a hip operation,
you don't have much speed,
you don't really hit the ball off the golf course,
but you don't hit it very far,
you might need a pattern that has a little more snap
and release and pop in the club head,
so pick something that is good for your body,
that works for your body,
and I guess innately something that you feel like you
can deliver the good a consistent way,
you can count on the shot shape under pressure,
day in, day out, on the golf course.
For some players that's been a little fade,
for some players a little draw,
for a lot of the players
these days it's relatively neutral.
But something you feel like you can trust that's an easy way
to get the ball out there in front of you.
And just remember as well, hey listen,
there's things you can play around with.
Grips a little bit, release patterns, et cetera,
but there's some things that are really non negotiables.
I mean nobody ever played well with
a club passing their hands this way through and back.
I don't think anybody played well with excessive upper body
side to side or up and down movement.
It's got to be relatively steady
and of course down here,
at the bottom where you're hitting the ball,
your club has to be on a decent plane
going roughly towards the target.
You can't be way out to in, or in to out.
So don't just experiment in any area,
experiment in some minor patterns
that you think might help you.
As I say that you think would be good for your body,
so in this case I got a seven iron.
I'm gonna give it the old Zach Johnson special grip,
and I'm gonna make a small shot.
Just punch it out there,
and see if I can control that release.
That's kind of his look.
That was a nice low, driving straight shot.
I'm not sure that's the best swing match for me,
it certainly works for Zach Johnson,
hope this helps.
Well I hope you enjoyed looking
at Zach Johnson's golf swing there,
and I hope you got a little something out of
the stuff we laid out at the end
about how you can experiment a little bit in your own game
to find the right match.
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have one on one internet lessons with me,
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Please leave a comment or a request.
This was a request actually.
And we'll try to get to it, thanks.