Steve Stricker…3/4’s and No Wrist Cock at the Top

I have been asked in person and in blogs to comment on Steve Stricker'€™s swing as to his being vertical and no wrist cocking at the top of his backswing.‚ Since he won the Northern Trust Open at Riviera CC, we extend congratulations to him. And because he leads the pack, we all got to watch a lot him and his swing for the past week. So Steve deserves attention for his accomplishments. Now, let'€™s look at his swing as I see it.

The most obvious two points about Stricker'€™s swing, relative to the PPGS, is that he has, without a doubt, a ‚¾ length backswing and no wrist cock.‚ His shorter backswing obviously results from his no wrist cock at the top as well as no down cock in the transition.‚ Steve has the top of backswing look in his wrists and forearms that I call the '€œSteel Girder Effect.'€‚ That is, they are firm, solid and you see no bending, breaking, flexing or even twitching in them swinging up to the top of the backswing and also, most importantly, in the transition.

Watching the final round telecast we were handed a double delicious dose of ‚¾ backswings, with firm and locked wrists at the top of JB Holmes playing in the final group with Stricker.‚ This past week on February 3rd, I wrote an article titled, €œTop of Backswing 3/4 No Wrist Cock€ which was all about JB Holmes€™ Playing Lesson with the Pos on the Golf Channel, and the questions and comments I heard about his ‚¾ backswing and firm wrists in the show.‚ As far as seeing ‚¾ backswings and firm wrists, The Northern Trust Open‚ TV coverage doesn'€™t get any better.

For this article I checked out Stricker'€™s swing on YouTube and the one I watched from a down the line view can be seen clicking on this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZTQa0W0WJk.
Starting with his setup, Stricker has a solid PPGS dynamically balanced setup with proper spine tilt, knee flex and weight over his arches.‚ I drew a line from his hip sockets, right at the crease line in his right pant leg to the ground and it correctly passed through his ankle showing his weight is over his arches.

As I see Stricker'€™s swing, he is caught between vertical and a little rotational.‚ Relative to the PPGS swing he has a lot of good similarities and I believe that is why he is still hitting it so well.‚ But, in the past year or so, I have seen his backswing get flatter and deeper and he is hitting more pushes and blocks to the right.‚ But overall, his swing is solid as a rock at the top and transition at ‚¾, and with no wrist cock.‚ Let'€™s now take a detailed look.

Stricker starts his backswing with a good one piece takeaway.‚ I see left or forward knee movement inward more than I care to see.‚ But it is smooth and controlled and the foot appears to remain fairly well grounded, and for most of the backswing, his knees stay quite level.‚ Unfortunately, his inward moving left knee allows too much shoulder and hip turn and he gets inside of his toe line and deep into the SBG, the Sacred Burial Ground.

This hip and shoulder turn is well past the PPGS 70-degree limited turn parameter of his left or forward arm not swinging past his toe line.‚ With too much turn, his right or back elbow gets past his right pocket and well behind his body.‚ Lastly, the top of backswing checkpoint of drawing a line straight down from the butt of the club to the ground should pass through his ankle but instead touches the ground 2 to 4 inches back of his heels, another proof he is deep in the SBG.

Finally, too much torso turn pulls his right or back leg inward and it straightens up.‚ This causes what I call "€œEBRT", € End of Backswing Reverse Tilt.‚ Watch closely and you will see that as his right legs are pulled backwards and straightens, his head slightly moves forward, down and inward a little.‚ That is the EBRT.‚ Why is it important and is it good or bad?‚ The answer is it is BAD for a number of reasons.

EBRT is bad in that at the top of his backswing because his upper torso is moving forward ahead of and closer to the ball.‚ In his transition, he keeps his head relatively level as compared to most golfers who would slightly stand up to get their height back as well as drift backwards to get back behind the ball.‚ Since his head stays level, his correction in the transition is‚ that his head drifts straight backwards and is just about perfectly in the same place as it was before the drift at impact.‚ He makes a perfect compensation move in this swing to regain his distance and width for his arms to straighten out at impact and, as we see, he hit it dead straight down the middle.

The problem is if Steve'€™s compensation is too much or too little in the forward and back, or if his EBRT gets some down and up in it, his margin of error at the top of his backswing and transition increases.‚ Increased error = decreased success as now more compensations are needed.‚ The main flight problem is hitting pushes and blocks. Watching Steve play his problem shot is losing it right.‚ The last reason why EBRT is bad is because it is extremely stressful on the lower back.

Stricker makes a good level transition in his forward upswing. Because he is deep and his arms and clubs are behind him, he has to rotate his shoulders and hips more to clear them out of the way to get to impact.‚ Despite this, he stands up AFAP nicely and swings his arms up vertical and ON PLANE to a level with high hands T-Finish. His high finish is the main reason for his good ball striking and directional control.‚ The issue at the finish is that his torso turns a little too far past square to the target and his hands and club are way to wide left of his head.‚ This wide left finish is also a big cause of stress in the neck, shoulders and down to the lower back and hips.

Overall, Steve Stricker'€™s swing is flowing, firm, solid, well timed and balanced and that is why his ball striking is superior.‚ Add to that he has one of the best short games and is one of the best putters walking the planet, that'€™s why he is now #2 in the world.

My concern is if he stays too flat and deep in his backswing, his ball striking and ball control will keep deteriorating, and he may start having stress and strain issues in his lower back, if not neck and shoulders.‚ My recommendation to Steve, if he were to read this, is simply keep his ‚¾ no wrist cock backswing, but reduce the turn to the PPGS 70 degree turn of the left arm over the toe line and get the club up more vertical to 12:00 o'€™clock and light.‚ Both of those should be easy to do and have it grooved in 30 minutes or less with the Butt-on-the-Wall drill.‚ For his finish, he just needs to swing his arms and hands up more vertical and finish with his right hands close to his left ear.

That i™s all.‚ All Steve Stricker needs to do is just tighten up his Technical Excellence in his swing positions.

The Surge!