Post by Richie3Jack on Apr 16, 2014 11:14:20 GMT -5
I played golf with Dustin Johnson when he was about 16 years old. He was from Irmo, SC which is just outside of Columbia, SC and for some reason was playing Myrtle Beach National and looking to be paired up with some better players. I always joke that ‘he only hit it about 330 yards back then.’ But the real point of the joke was this was around 1999 when the ball and driver technology was nowhere near what it is today.
Surprisingly, I could not find a thing about him as a junior golfer and he was the best 16-year old golfer I had ever seen. I had actually played golf with a 16-year old that could hit it further, a guy by the name of Dan Myers who played at Liberty for a semester before flunking out. But, he had nowhere near the total game or the precision that Dustin had.
About a year later I had seen that Dustin was starting to become one of the best junior golfers in the Southeast and was pleasantly surprised that he chose my alma mater, Coastal Carolina University.
Despite, being in Myrtle Beach the school had some lousy golf teams. Hey, they accepted me…so you know it must be bad. When I got there I had found that about 4 guys couldn’t break 85 to save their life. I couldn’t believe they made a D-I school. When I found out why they had paid for a recruiting service and the old coach thought because the recruiting service was pumping them up, then they must be good. When the new coach came in, that changed. However, we did have one teammate that was one of those ‘couldn’t break 85’ players that turned into one of the best players on the team, almost overnight, and later went on to make some money on the Canadian Tour.
The school kept switching coaches and when Allen Terrell landed Dustin, along with Zack Byrd, the team became one of the best in the country. And the area started to take a little more pride in the team as they now have top notch practice facilities at TPC Myrtle Beach. And I really believe that 16-year old kid from Irmo had a lot to do with it.
Dustin has a basketball background. I mean, at 6’4” tall he can dunk with ease. His trainer also had him do the same combine tests that they put the NFL players through and he would have been very good for a QB, big WR or tight end when you look at his bench press reps, 40 time, vertical leap, short shuttle drills, etc.
He was working with Allen Terrell on his swing. I don’t think Terrell was overly technical, but worked more on the mental side of the game along with managing the outside world for him. Dustin then went to Plummer and Bennett for some help, particularly with the irons. Eventually he has landed with Butch Harmon.
Here is how Dustin ranked in the key ballstriking metrics in 2011-2013:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
I mention this because around the US Open of 2011 was when Dustin started working with Butch Harmon. Since then his ballstriking has tailed off a bit, particularly with the driver and the Red Zone (175-225 yards) play.
Last year Dustin got off to a great start winning at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. But, he then struggled badly. Particularly from the Red Zone. When asked what his struggles were Dustin stated that he would struggle with random snap hooks.
One of the things I notice is Dustin's knee action at the top of the swing. Here's a pic taken at the 2011 US Open which was at the beginning of working with Harmon.
And here is a more recent pic:
The pic is a Golf Digest 'tip' for more consistency. The left hand frame is showing Dustin straightening out his right knee which he feels is 'bad' for consistency. And the right hand frame is where he retains the knee flex which he feels is 'good' for consistency. This is a hardcore belief of Harmon's, no straightening of the rear knee.
I think what happens here though is by not straightening the rear knee, the hips stop turning in the backswing and at about p3 the hands and arms will rise vertically and make for a more upright backswing instead of getting the hand path deeper.
We can see in the first pick at the 2011 US Open that his rear knee has straightened considerably as the right knee is much higher than the left knee and that helps the right hip get higher than the left hip (aka hip slant).
So to Plummer and Bennett's credit, if they were promoting the rear knee straightening, I think they did a great job in this regard. Dustin's backswing was fairly upright to begin with and that allowed him more time and gave him more leverage in the downswing. But by keeping the rear knee flexed his swing would get even more upright which I don't think is necessary. I think that the more upright backswing plane forces the golfer to make a larger compensation to shallow out the downswing.
This can be done, but with Dustin's bowed left wrist at the top it is just adding more compensatory moves to the puzzle. And that's why I don't think he's as consistent as he once was.
The good news about Dustin is that he has shown some amazing skill on Tour. From a statistical standpoint, he has shown the ability to perform well in each part of the game from Driving to Red Zone to Green Zone play to Short Game play and even putting. People would be surprised how rare that is to see and that the great players on Tour usually excel at 2-3 things and that is it. When they win they either get 1-2 of their weaknesses to come around or they perform so well in their strengths that they can beat the field on that alone. Dustin has shown the ability to really do it all.
3JACK
Surprisingly, I could not find a thing about him as a junior golfer and he was the best 16-year old golfer I had ever seen. I had actually played golf with a 16-year old that could hit it further, a guy by the name of Dan Myers who played at Liberty for a semester before flunking out. But, he had nowhere near the total game or the precision that Dustin had.
About a year later I had seen that Dustin was starting to become one of the best junior golfers in the Southeast and was pleasantly surprised that he chose my alma mater, Coastal Carolina University.
Despite, being in Myrtle Beach the school had some lousy golf teams. Hey, they accepted me…so you know it must be bad. When I got there I had found that about 4 guys couldn’t break 85 to save their life. I couldn’t believe they made a D-I school. When I found out why they had paid for a recruiting service and the old coach thought because the recruiting service was pumping them up, then they must be good. When the new coach came in, that changed. However, we did have one teammate that was one of those ‘couldn’t break 85’ players that turned into one of the best players on the team, almost overnight, and later went on to make some money on the Canadian Tour.
The school kept switching coaches and when Allen Terrell landed Dustin, along with Zack Byrd, the team became one of the best in the country. And the area started to take a little more pride in the team as they now have top notch practice facilities at TPC Myrtle Beach. And I really believe that 16-year old kid from Irmo had a lot to do with it.
Dustin has a basketball background. I mean, at 6’4” tall he can dunk with ease. His trainer also had him do the same combine tests that they put the NFL players through and he would have been very good for a QB, big WR or tight end when you look at his bench press reps, 40 time, vertical leap, short shuttle drills, etc.
He was working with Allen Terrell on his swing. I don’t think Terrell was overly technical, but worked more on the mental side of the game along with managing the outside world for him. Dustin then went to Plummer and Bennett for some help, particularly with the irons. Eventually he has landed with Butch Harmon.
Here is how Dustin ranked in the key ballstriking metrics in 2011-2013:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
I mention this because around the US Open of 2011 was when Dustin started working with Butch Harmon. Since then his ballstriking has tailed off a bit, particularly with the driver and the Red Zone (175-225 yards) play.
Last year Dustin got off to a great start winning at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. But, he then struggled badly. Particularly from the Red Zone. When asked what his struggles were Dustin stated that he would struggle with random snap hooks.
One of the things I notice is Dustin's knee action at the top of the swing. Here's a pic taken at the 2011 US Open which was at the beginning of working with Harmon.
And here is a more recent pic:
The pic is a Golf Digest 'tip' for more consistency. The left hand frame is showing Dustin straightening out his right knee which he feels is 'bad' for consistency. And the right hand frame is where he retains the knee flex which he feels is 'good' for consistency. This is a hardcore belief of Harmon's, no straightening of the rear knee.
I think what happens here though is by not straightening the rear knee, the hips stop turning in the backswing and at about p3 the hands and arms will rise vertically and make for a more upright backswing instead of getting the hand path deeper.
We can see in the first pick at the 2011 US Open that his rear knee has straightened considerably as the right knee is much higher than the left knee and that helps the right hip get higher than the left hip (aka hip slant).
So to Plummer and Bennett's credit, if they were promoting the rear knee straightening, I think they did a great job in this regard. Dustin's backswing was fairly upright to begin with and that allowed him more time and gave him more leverage in the downswing. But by keeping the rear knee flexed his swing would get even more upright which I don't think is necessary. I think that the more upright backswing plane forces the golfer to make a larger compensation to shallow out the downswing.
This can be done, but with Dustin's bowed left wrist at the top it is just adding more compensatory moves to the puzzle. And that's why I don't think he's as consistent as he once was.
The good news about Dustin is that he has shown some amazing skill on Tour. From a statistical standpoint, he has shown the ability to perform well in each part of the game from Driving to Red Zone to Green Zone play to Short Game play and even putting. People would be surprised how rare that is to see and that the great players on Tour usually excel at 2-3 things and that is it. When they win they either get 1-2 of their weaknesses to come around or they perform so well in their strengths that they can beat the field on that alone. Dustin has shown the ability to really do it all.
3JACK