Post by Richie3Jack on Jan 10, 2014 9:17:42 GMT -5
I find Raymond Floyd to be a bit peculiar because he was certainly a popular golfer in his day, but never anywhere near the Nicklaus or Palmer spectrum. And over the years he's become quite forgotten about. He has done quite a few course designs, but Palmer and Nicklaus have done far more and courses that have much more notoriety. Yet, from a financial standpoint he is right up there with Nicklaus and Palmer as a person that can support a wealthy life for his entire family tree if he chooses to.
Anyway, Floyd was known for a funky swing, but I think his swing was a lot like Webb Simpson's in the sense that if you look at the picture stills, there is a lot of good things going on and often times those mechanics look very 'textbook.' He just has a herky, jerky motion to it. I don't know much about his game since I didn't start playing until well after Floyd's prime. I do know that he will go down as being one of the greatest chippers and pitch shot players of all time. Watch him at the 1990 Masters where he lost to Faldo and he not only can get up-and-down from the ball washer, but he may just knock it in. I can see why he was such a great Ryder Cup player, an opponent that can play like that will drive you nuts.
From what I've been told Floyd was quite long off the tee in his prime. I've heard conflicting reports on how good his iron play was. Some say it was great, some say it was a weakness.
When it comes to Floyd's rhythm, I see a few things going on from p1 to p4 that make me understand his unorthodox looking motion. First at p1 the hands are high and the elbows look stiff and close together. There is nothing wrong with this, but usually I find this type of setup can lead to a herky-jerky type of motion. He also has a narrow stance which means that he will tend to be more rotational in his movement than lateral. With wide stances, the knees can move more laterally.
And we start to see that rotational movement in the takeaway. The club moves well inside at p2 and a lot of this is brought on by the torso rotation. He now has a very bent right elbow at p2, but the right forearm has supinated tremendously.
He continues to be well inside at p3 with a very flat left arm plane. And then to complete that herky-jerky motion, his torso doesn't turn much more, but his hips do turn quite a bit more. We can notice that by looking at the left knee flexion increase tremendously from p3 to p4. But if you look at the torso, it looks like it has about the same amount of rotation from p3 to p4. Typically when the hips turn, the torso will turn with it. For Floyd, it's the opposite.
But, it's hard to argue too much about his p4 position being unorthodox. It looks fairly orthodox and good. He does lock his right knee which can make for a herky-jerky motion on the downswing because the knee has to go from locked to unlocked and the hips tend to rotate more than your normal golfer's swing. So on the downswing, the lower body can trail well behind the upper body.
Although that really doesn't happen with Floyd and that may explain some of the herky-jerkiness of his swing. At p5.5 his shoulders are well closed while his hips are open. Then at p7 his entire body is open. In this DTL sequence his shaft plane gets a little steep. But I've seen other sequences of his where the shaft plane is much flatter.
With that, I think he probably favored a draw shot. The shoulders being so closed at p5.5 gives it away and he probably subconsciously would steepen the shaft plane in order to help move the path a little less inside-to-out. Also, his head would hang back. I don't have any good DTL pictures of Floyd from p7-p9. But, my educated guess is that his shoulders turned fairly upright thru the ball which moves the path further to the right.
I think given his follow thru and finish, he probably favored a lower ball flight. Not Arnie low, but fairly low.
3JACK
Anyway, Floyd was known for a funky swing, but I think his swing was a lot like Webb Simpson's in the sense that if you look at the picture stills, there is a lot of good things going on and often times those mechanics look very 'textbook.' He just has a herky, jerky motion to it. I don't know much about his game since I didn't start playing until well after Floyd's prime. I do know that he will go down as being one of the greatest chippers and pitch shot players of all time. Watch him at the 1990 Masters where he lost to Faldo and he not only can get up-and-down from the ball washer, but he may just knock it in. I can see why he was such a great Ryder Cup player, an opponent that can play like that will drive you nuts.
From what I've been told Floyd was quite long off the tee in his prime. I've heard conflicting reports on how good his iron play was. Some say it was great, some say it was a weakness.
When it comes to Floyd's rhythm, I see a few things going on from p1 to p4 that make me understand his unorthodox looking motion. First at p1 the hands are high and the elbows look stiff and close together. There is nothing wrong with this, but usually I find this type of setup can lead to a herky-jerky type of motion. He also has a narrow stance which means that he will tend to be more rotational in his movement than lateral. With wide stances, the knees can move more laterally.
And we start to see that rotational movement in the takeaway. The club moves well inside at p2 and a lot of this is brought on by the torso rotation. He now has a very bent right elbow at p2, but the right forearm has supinated tremendously.
He continues to be well inside at p3 with a very flat left arm plane. And then to complete that herky-jerky motion, his torso doesn't turn much more, but his hips do turn quite a bit more. We can notice that by looking at the left knee flexion increase tremendously from p3 to p4. But if you look at the torso, it looks like it has about the same amount of rotation from p3 to p4. Typically when the hips turn, the torso will turn with it. For Floyd, it's the opposite.
But, it's hard to argue too much about his p4 position being unorthodox. It looks fairly orthodox and good. He does lock his right knee which can make for a herky-jerky motion on the downswing because the knee has to go from locked to unlocked and the hips tend to rotate more than your normal golfer's swing. So on the downswing, the lower body can trail well behind the upper body.
Although that really doesn't happen with Floyd and that may explain some of the herky-jerkiness of his swing. At p5.5 his shoulders are well closed while his hips are open. Then at p7 his entire body is open. In this DTL sequence his shaft plane gets a little steep. But I've seen other sequences of his where the shaft plane is much flatter.
With that, I think he probably favored a draw shot. The shoulders being so closed at p5.5 gives it away and he probably subconsciously would steepen the shaft plane in order to help move the path a little less inside-to-out. Also, his head would hang back. I don't have any good DTL pictures of Floyd from p7-p9. But, my educated guess is that his shoulders turned fairly upright thru the ball which moves the path further to the right.
I think given his follow thru and finish, he probably favored a lower ball flight. Not Arnie low, but fairly low.
3JACK
