Post by Richie3Jack on Mar 25, 2014 9:55:06 GMT -5
Dufner is a bit of an interesting story as he was not highly recruited out of high school and made the Auburn golf team as a walk-on. He didn’t have a stellar collegiate career, but eventually made his way onto the PGA Tour. And when he finished 2nd at the PGA Championship in 2011, he had missed 5 of his 6 previous cuts and then missed the next 2 cuts.
His best season really was his 2012 year. He was great at just about everything that year. Drove it great. Hit all of his iron shots great. Had an elite Short Game and was an above average putter. Unfortunately, he couldn’t come away with a Major.
The main strength of his game has been his driving. His iron play went down a little last year and was a bit spotty in 2011. But, his driving remains very good.
Here are his 2012 rankings:
Driving Effectiveness: 6th
Green Zone (75-125 yds): 59th
Yellow Zone (125-175 yds): 33rd
Red Zone (175-225 yds): 31st
Here is how he ranked in the various categories in 2013:
Driving Effectiveness: 23rd
Green Zone (75-125 yds): 96th
Yellow Zone (125-175 yds): 100th
Red Zone (175-225 yds): 77th
At the Open Forum 2, his instructor Chuck Cook stated that he initially tried to get Jason to hit up on the driver but found that not only did he hit it worse, but he lost club head speed (something I’ve been saying for a while). They ended up on trying to keep his attack angle at about -2*.
Jason has a pretty strong left hand grip with the hands more behind the ball. He also has his shoulders and lower body slightly open. The big thing about Jason’s swing is he keeps the right elbow lower than the left elbow for most of the swing. So with the hands behind the ball at p1 he employs more of a lagging clubhead takeaway and then transitions into keeping the right elbow well under the left elbow. We’ll see more of this in subsequent stills.
Nothing really noticeable here. He gets the club head inside the hands from the DTL view. This is all part of him getting the right elbow under the left. If the clubhead was outside the hands here, he would have to make a large transition to getting the right elbow under the left. Players like Ryan Moore and Colin Montgomerie are very opposite in swing mechanics from Dufner.
From the caddy view it will appear that Dufner has a lot of wrist-cock here. But, that is an illusion because he has such a shallow shaft plane (it’s pointing outside the target line) that it creates the illusion of wrist-cock. From the DTL view his right forearm is practically perpendicular to the ground. And it is well below the left elbow.
He’s straightened the right leg and his right side is higher than his left side (knee, hip, shoulder). Only think on the right side not higher than the left is the elbow. His face is pretty well closed, but he hits a fade and needs the ball to start left in order for it to fade towards the target. He sets up for that fade at address with his body open to the target.
His Center of Mass gets more centered and he maintains that right elbow beneath the left elbow. His right forearm again is almost at 90* to the ground. However, unlike p3 his shaft plane is more in line with the ball. If it were pointing outside the ball, his path would be going well out to the right and likely producing a hook shot.
He still has plenty of right arm so he can generate power and not throw out the clubhead too much. The hips and shoulders are nicely open here with enough axis tilt to get the ball up in the air.
Nice spine extension here. And no lower back injuries despite not being the finest physical specimen on Tour. Also, look at the rear foot. That allows him to not ‘spin out’ and hit wipes.
Very balanced finished position.
I often here and read about how a certain player’s swing is something that amateurs should try to replicate (i.e. Steve Stricker). The problem is that they don’t understand how much work it takes to replicate or even come close to replicating a Tour player’s swing. It took Steve Stricker years to get his swing where it is today while he struggled massively off the tee.
I think amateurs are often times not looking to put a lot of work in to make it happen. And therefore they may want to look at certain swing concepts instead of thinking that a swing looks simple and therefore must be easy to replicate.
With Dufner’s swing, I think the entire keeping the right elbow under the left elbow can help a lot of amateurs who struggle with coming over the top. That and his transition of his CoM and CoP from p4 to p5 along with how his right foot looks at impact and at about p8. Dufner doesn’t hit exotic looking shots, but he produces very good and steady results. Particularly off the tee. And that can help an amateur the most in bringing that handicap down a few strokes.
3JACK
His best season really was his 2012 year. He was great at just about everything that year. Drove it great. Hit all of his iron shots great. Had an elite Short Game and was an above average putter. Unfortunately, he couldn’t come away with a Major.
The main strength of his game has been his driving. His iron play went down a little last year and was a bit spotty in 2011. But, his driving remains very good.
Here are his 2012 rankings:
Driving Effectiveness: 6th
Green Zone (75-125 yds): 59th
Yellow Zone (125-175 yds): 33rd
Red Zone (175-225 yds): 31st
Here is how he ranked in the various categories in 2013:
Driving Effectiveness: 23rd
Green Zone (75-125 yds): 96th
Yellow Zone (125-175 yds): 100th
Red Zone (175-225 yds): 77th
At the Open Forum 2, his instructor Chuck Cook stated that he initially tried to get Jason to hit up on the driver but found that not only did he hit it worse, but he lost club head speed (something I’ve been saying for a while). They ended up on trying to keep his attack angle at about -2*.
Jason has a pretty strong left hand grip with the hands more behind the ball. He also has his shoulders and lower body slightly open. The big thing about Jason’s swing is he keeps the right elbow lower than the left elbow for most of the swing. So with the hands behind the ball at p1 he employs more of a lagging clubhead takeaway and then transitions into keeping the right elbow well under the left elbow. We’ll see more of this in subsequent stills.
Nothing really noticeable here. He gets the club head inside the hands from the DTL view. This is all part of him getting the right elbow under the left. If the clubhead was outside the hands here, he would have to make a large transition to getting the right elbow under the left. Players like Ryan Moore and Colin Montgomerie are very opposite in swing mechanics from Dufner.
From the caddy view it will appear that Dufner has a lot of wrist-cock here. But, that is an illusion because he has such a shallow shaft plane (it’s pointing outside the target line) that it creates the illusion of wrist-cock. From the DTL view his right forearm is practically perpendicular to the ground. And it is well below the left elbow.
He’s straightened the right leg and his right side is higher than his left side (knee, hip, shoulder). Only think on the right side not higher than the left is the elbow. His face is pretty well closed, but he hits a fade and needs the ball to start left in order for it to fade towards the target. He sets up for that fade at address with his body open to the target.
His Center of Mass gets more centered and he maintains that right elbow beneath the left elbow. His right forearm again is almost at 90* to the ground. However, unlike p3 his shaft plane is more in line with the ball. If it were pointing outside the ball, his path would be going well out to the right and likely producing a hook shot.
He still has plenty of right arm so he can generate power and not throw out the clubhead too much. The hips and shoulders are nicely open here with enough axis tilt to get the ball up in the air.
Nice spine extension here. And no lower back injuries despite not being the finest physical specimen on Tour. Also, look at the rear foot. That allows him to not ‘spin out’ and hit wipes.
Very balanced finished position.
I often here and read about how a certain player’s swing is something that amateurs should try to replicate (i.e. Steve Stricker). The problem is that they don’t understand how much work it takes to replicate or even come close to replicating a Tour player’s swing. It took Steve Stricker years to get his swing where it is today while he struggled massively off the tee.
I think amateurs are often times not looking to put a lot of work in to make it happen. And therefore they may want to look at certain swing concepts instead of thinking that a swing looks simple and therefore must be easy to replicate.
With Dufner’s swing, I think the entire keeping the right elbow under the left elbow can help a lot of amateurs who struggle with coming over the top. That and his transition of his CoM and CoP from p4 to p5 along with how his right foot looks at impact and at about p8. Dufner doesn’t hit exotic looking shots, but he produces very good and steady results. Particularly off the tee. And that can help an amateur the most in bringing that handicap down a few strokes.
3JACK
