Post by Richie3Jack on Jan 14, 2014 10:02:40 GMT -5
Curtis Strange was one of my favorite golfers early on in my junior golf days. He had just won 2 US Opens in a row, he looked the part as he had the first pair of Nike golf shoes I can remember and had those sweet MacGregor VIP blades. I grew up a bit of a MacGregor fanatic as a kid because our pro shop used to carry more sets of clubs and drivers than any pro shop (on a golf course) at that time and the MacGregors always stood out. I was also a Nike nut as this was the era that spawned the Air Jordan 4, Nike Air Flight 89’s and Air Jordan 5 sneakers just a few years later. So here’s Strange with both Macgregor equipment and Nike (he was more or less their only endorsement deal) and just winning 2 US Opens. It’s funny now because knowing what I know, winning 2 US Opens in a row seems unfathomable to me.
Strange also had a silky smooth looking swing. The limited data left does not indicate a great ballstriker, but I don’t think he was bad either. This was also about the time that the improvements in green conditions started to take off and he was known as a great putter. Oh yeah, he also carried the Ping Zing 2 putter, another super cool looking putter when it came out.
Anyway, Strange worked with Jimmy Ballard. I took a couple of lessons with Jimmy Ballard. I couldn’t get it to work, but my friend Jeff took some lessons and his game really took off until he suddenly quit it and started to get lessons from Butch Harmon. But the crux of what I learned was about a big move off the ball and then a big move thru. This consisted of moving the head horizontally quite a bit. He also was very much into keeping the triangle formed from your arms and chest, *not* straightening the left arm with an early folding of the right arm (he hated the 1-piece takeaway).
To be honest, I’ve never really spent any time analyzing Strange’s swing, so I’m giving this particular analysis on the fly.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
What we see out of Strange from the DTL view is a fairly orthodox looking motion. Particularly in the backswing where his shaft is pointing at the baseline. There’s no weird movements. The biggest unorthodox piece is that he is slightly across the line and that his face is slightly open at the top of the swing. But, nothing that will cause a massive compensation.
From the caddy view we see more of Ballard’s influence. His head moves away from the target and he tries to turn over his right leg. His head also moves downward in the backswing as well. Still, I like a lot of what I see here between keeping the shaft on the baseline, the hip rotation, right knee higher than the left knee, etc.
Strange was about average distance off the tee at best. I think if he needed extra length, he likely had to change his grip given his open clubface at p4. I find that when the clubface is open at p4 (or closed at p4), it’s usually more of a grip issue. Here is right hand grip looks like it is bordering on being weak. But, I would also guess that he has the club gripped more in the palm of his left hand as well.
From there, he does not generate much lag, but he does start rotating the body immediately. Ballard wants you to shift back towards the target and ‘cover the ball.’ I think Strange does a good job of what Ballard was asking for and was able to supinate the right ankle enough to prevent him from spinning out. He then gets into the follow thru with incredible arm extension.
IIRC, Strange was a long hitter when he played at Wake Forest. But, he struggled early as a pro and turned to Ballard with the main goal of becoming accurate and precise. I think we can see from many of these stills where he had the makings of a long hitter back in college. Eventually, he went to Ballard and we see a bit of an under-flip style of release. It would have been interesting to see his swing pre-Ballard and figure out what went wrong because many things like his shaft plane in the backswing, hip movement, lower body movement, are quite good.
3JACK
Strange also had a silky smooth looking swing. The limited data left does not indicate a great ballstriker, but I don’t think he was bad either. This was also about the time that the improvements in green conditions started to take off and he was known as a great putter. Oh yeah, he also carried the Ping Zing 2 putter, another super cool looking putter when it came out.
Anyway, Strange worked with Jimmy Ballard. I took a couple of lessons with Jimmy Ballard. I couldn’t get it to work, but my friend Jeff took some lessons and his game really took off until he suddenly quit it and started to get lessons from Butch Harmon. But the crux of what I learned was about a big move off the ball and then a big move thru. This consisted of moving the head horizontally quite a bit. He also was very much into keeping the triangle formed from your arms and chest, *not* straightening the left arm with an early folding of the right arm (he hated the 1-piece takeaway).
To be honest, I’ve never really spent any time analyzing Strange’s swing, so I’m giving this particular analysis on the fly.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
What we see out of Strange from the DTL view is a fairly orthodox looking motion. Particularly in the backswing where his shaft is pointing at the baseline. There’s no weird movements. The biggest unorthodox piece is that he is slightly across the line and that his face is slightly open at the top of the swing. But, nothing that will cause a massive compensation.
From the caddy view we see more of Ballard’s influence. His head moves away from the target and he tries to turn over his right leg. His head also moves downward in the backswing as well. Still, I like a lot of what I see here between keeping the shaft on the baseline, the hip rotation, right knee higher than the left knee, etc.
Strange was about average distance off the tee at best. I think if he needed extra length, he likely had to change his grip given his open clubface at p4. I find that when the clubface is open at p4 (or closed at p4), it’s usually more of a grip issue. Here is right hand grip looks like it is bordering on being weak. But, I would also guess that he has the club gripped more in the palm of his left hand as well.
From there, he does not generate much lag, but he does start rotating the body immediately. Ballard wants you to shift back towards the target and ‘cover the ball.’ I think Strange does a good job of what Ballard was asking for and was able to supinate the right ankle enough to prevent him from spinning out. He then gets into the follow thru with incredible arm extension.
IIRC, Strange was a long hitter when he played at Wake Forest. But, he struggled early as a pro and turned to Ballard with the main goal of becoming accurate and precise. I think we can see from many of these stills where he had the makings of a long hitter back in college. Eventually, he went to Ballard and we see a bit of an under-flip style of release. It would have been interesting to see his swing pre-Ballard and figure out what went wrong because many things like his shaft plane in the backswing, hip movement, lower body movement, are quite good.
3JACK