Post by Richie3Jack on Dec 17, 2013 9:22:15 GMT -5
I feel that most golfers forget how great of a player Paul Azinger was back in the late 80's and early 90's. He was one of my more favorite players on Tour although like Weiskopf, he wasn't known for a charming personality. A friend of mine was working the bag drop at 12 years old at a Florida course and his job was to clean clubs. He had a jar that said 'TIPS' and was cleaning Paul Azinger's clubs. Azinger walked by and dropped a note in the jar. My friend saw that it wasn't money and that it was a note, so he wanted to see what it was and the note read 'take the 5th horse in the 3rd race.' I thought it was hilarious. Cruel, but still hilarious.
Anyway, Azinger's game was that he hit a ton of low punch shots. He is a fascinating story as he was a guy that couldn't break 80 when he was starting college and had an unorthodox swing. But his coach told him to stick with that swing and eventually he ended up at Florida State and became a star. I believe part of his dropoff in golf was due to the Tour going to more TPC designs which tend to feature more forced carries. So his punch shot game didn't work as well. He also had a terrific short game and was known as arguably the best bunker player in the world for a period of time.
P1: Azinger has a very strong grip. I've heard some people compare it to Mac.O.Grady's grip, but I believe Azinger's is much strong. The other thing is that the driver head is delofted. My dad does this although he hoods it a bit more than Azinger. In my dad's case, it gets the club aimed left at address and delofts the club, so the ball is likely to start to the left and go low. In Azinger's case, the club just appears to be de-lofted and not closed. So this already puts him in a position to likely hit a low ball flight. We also notice that he does not utilize a 'flat spine' which I think is a good thing. He's in a position to make an athletic pass at it.
P1.5: We can see a very flat shoulder turn. What Azinger does is he uses more arms in the backswing than shoulder turn and body pivot. He also brings the club well inside which is part of him turning flat instead of turning more upright. This will also likely cause the head to move to his right because the left shoulder is attached to the clavicle and the clavicle is now moving away from the target. The head is attached to the clavicle and so now the head moves.
P4: What we see from the DTL is his hands get well inside, he is a bit 'across the line' and his clubface is extremely shut. The flat shoulder turn is causing the hands to get inward and given his right elbow and wrist conditions, that is causing him to be across the line. What's unorthodox about this is that many across the line players I've seen tend to have an open club face. But like Nancy Lopez, Azinger is across the line and well shut. I believe this is due to the grip at p1.
p5.5: This is excellent and why Azinger was able to play great golf. For all of the unorthodox movements, he was able to get to this position from the DTL view. His shaft plane is quite flat, so he would have to swing more to the left to square up the path.
P7: right elbow well under the left which indicates an inside-to-out path. He's also getting into extension nicely. This looks like it was taken in 1992-ish. And he looks to be hitting an old metal wood (Callaway Warbird) which didn't exactly fly high. Given his closed face he is trying to help get the ball in the air more. And between the extension and the knee drive, his swing has a very 70's look to it.
I know that Azinger was known for hitting fades, but I have to believe here that he either hit this one straight or maybe with a small draw. His downswing looks really good, but the path looks like it had to go inside-to-out to some degree.
I would be curious to have known his Max Height on drives in his prime. I think he probably hit it higher than we think with the driver because his ability to square up the face and get into extension with the driver. He also did not have a lot of lag, so he likely wasn't hitting too far down on the ball with the driver and de-lofting the face too much at impact.
I think when he got an iron in his hands, he was trying to avoid hooks more and just hit low punch shot after low punch shot. It was a really simple way to play because he could drive it pretty well and then take 3/4 swings and fire right at the flag. And if he missed the green, he was as good as anybody around the green. I think with today's courses where the greens tend to be more elevated and a golfer can access the green by landing short and rolling on, I think it played a big factor in his decline.
3JACK
Anyway, Azinger's game was that he hit a ton of low punch shots. He is a fascinating story as he was a guy that couldn't break 80 when he was starting college and had an unorthodox swing. But his coach told him to stick with that swing and eventually he ended up at Florida State and became a star. I believe part of his dropoff in golf was due to the Tour going to more TPC designs which tend to feature more forced carries. So his punch shot game didn't work as well. He also had a terrific short game and was known as arguably the best bunker player in the world for a period of time.
P1: Azinger has a very strong grip. I've heard some people compare it to Mac.O.Grady's grip, but I believe Azinger's is much strong. The other thing is that the driver head is delofted. My dad does this although he hoods it a bit more than Azinger. In my dad's case, it gets the club aimed left at address and delofts the club, so the ball is likely to start to the left and go low. In Azinger's case, the club just appears to be de-lofted and not closed. So this already puts him in a position to likely hit a low ball flight. We also notice that he does not utilize a 'flat spine' which I think is a good thing. He's in a position to make an athletic pass at it.
P1.5: We can see a very flat shoulder turn. What Azinger does is he uses more arms in the backswing than shoulder turn and body pivot. He also brings the club well inside which is part of him turning flat instead of turning more upright. This will also likely cause the head to move to his right because the left shoulder is attached to the clavicle and the clavicle is now moving away from the target. The head is attached to the clavicle and so now the head moves.
P4: What we see from the DTL is his hands get well inside, he is a bit 'across the line' and his clubface is extremely shut. The flat shoulder turn is causing the hands to get inward and given his right elbow and wrist conditions, that is causing him to be across the line. What's unorthodox about this is that many across the line players I've seen tend to have an open club face. But like Nancy Lopez, Azinger is across the line and well shut. I believe this is due to the grip at p1.
p5.5: This is excellent and why Azinger was able to play great golf. For all of the unorthodox movements, he was able to get to this position from the DTL view. His shaft plane is quite flat, so he would have to swing more to the left to square up the path.
P7: right elbow well under the left which indicates an inside-to-out path. He's also getting into extension nicely. This looks like it was taken in 1992-ish. And he looks to be hitting an old metal wood (Callaway Warbird) which didn't exactly fly high. Given his closed face he is trying to help get the ball in the air more. And between the extension and the knee drive, his swing has a very 70's look to it.
I know that Azinger was known for hitting fades, but I have to believe here that he either hit this one straight or maybe with a small draw. His downswing looks really good, but the path looks like it had to go inside-to-out to some degree.
I would be curious to have known his Max Height on drives in his prime. I think he probably hit it higher than we think with the driver because his ability to square up the face and get into extension with the driver. He also did not have a lot of lag, so he likely wasn't hitting too far down on the ball with the driver and de-lofting the face too much at impact.
I think when he got an iron in his hands, he was trying to avoid hooks more and just hit low punch shot after low punch shot. It was a really simple way to play because he could drive it pretty well and then take 3/4 swings and fire right at the flag. And if he missed the green, he was as good as anybody around the green. I think with today's courses where the greens tend to be more elevated and a golfer can access the green by landing short and rolling on, I think it played a big factor in his decline.
3JACK
