By Jonathan Craddock, PGA Professional, Pete Cowen Academy
One of the game’s standout players at the moment, and it’s easy to see why when you dissect Clark’s swing. The reigning U.S. Open champion has such fantastic balance while maintaining his angles brilliantly throughout his movement.
The 30-year-old is also averaging 313 yards of carry with the driver this season on the PGA Tour, which ranks him as the third longest driver on the American circuit. He’s even managed to record a 424-yard drive back at the Sentry earlier in the year!
If you’re looking to bolster your game and hit the ball further, glance through some of these images and take note. The three-time PGA Tour winner finds some absolutely brilliant positions in his swing which enables him to hit it so far, so consistently. Let’s take a look.
At address, Clark has an athletic, primed, yet relaxed look. Due to this wonderful posture, his arms hang perfectly from the shoulders. Note his forward hip tilt, highlighted by the different colour from shirt to trouser.
The American’s first move is certainly one to take to the practice range. It’s incredibly simple due to the minimal movement of the arm connection from the body. The body is the engine with little hinging of the wrists, leading to a slight right elbow bend.
I love the position of his club shaft here as it is matching his shoulder angle. Next time you swing, try copying this move with your arms extended, fuelled by body movement. All the best golfers are spiralling the body and using a stretch from the arm, hand and club to create further power.
He’s beautifully spiralled at the top, and as we often see with consistent players, he’s maintained his angles. Left side lower than the right, working the opposition forces in the ground perfectly. The wide stance drill is a good one to practice for this feeling.
Clark was top five for swing speed on the PGA Tour last year at 123.5mph. He certainly unloads the speed well, and does so with magnificent balance due to excellent dynamic posture and movement. We can see here his right side corkscrewing into the ground.
The left leg has spiralled around and up, whilst the right side has moved down and around helping to put the club in the perfect delivery position for the power fade he likes to hit. He’s not rotating his upper body, but working the lower body really well.
Here, we can almost still see the left shoulder as the lower body pushes into the ground correctly to create rotation. The arm. hand and club action is following by moving down and around.
Clark’s very quick through impact, largely because he has such an efficient movement. All readers could take a comparison video at this moment of the swing. 99.9% of you will have a more horizontal shoulder angle as opposed to this vertical angle.
Flexibility is so important. Fully released with a stretched left side moving the golf club around and up. The angles in the body are still being maintained. An excellent exercise is to take note from here and hit 3/4 shots keeping your right side low as demonstrated.
Balance is the key to power and consistency. He has one of the best dynamic body actions out there. His ability to separate his upper and lower body and spiral both upper and lower body whilst maintaining posture angles allows him to create the high torques responsible for the 190 mph ball speeds.
A fantastic swing we can all learn from. Remember, the golf swing is only a movement and therefore practicing the right movement over time will improve your efficiency. You must first understand what movements to practice, and copying Clark isn’t a bad place to start at all!
