I was watching Golf Central Wednesday evening the night before the 1st round of The British Open. They were doing a feature on past champions Tom Watson, Greg Norman and Nick Price. As I was watching the walk through history of these 3 Hall of Fame players, it hit me that these three guys are really vertical swingers. We know from their age that they all grew up and learned to play with the hands high to a parallel backswing, way prior to the explosion and shift to the rotational swing which occurred in the early 1990s. And true to their learning, they all swing the same way they did 30 years ago, which attests to the durability, consistency, longevity and less stress of swinging more vertical in the backswing and to a square finish to the target.
As I write this late after the finish of the 1st round, Tom Watson shot -5 and is tied for second place. Greg Norman had a rough day and is down in the pack at +7. But I would say that despite The Shark's score, when he plays round 2 he will get pretty good camera coverage along with 5-time British Open Champion Tom Watson. The Open can be watched with live streaming video from the BBC broadcast at www.pgatour.com, starting early at 4 AM ET to 3 PM ET for round 2. Then check your local listings for the afternoon time and station in your area and the weekend schedule.
The Friday broadcast on both the BBC network and the US coverage, if you can get some time to watch, will afford you the chance to see some real good vertical backswings and square-to-target finishes by these two great players. I will warn you that both swing to parallel in the backswing, but when you see a down the line view, watch and see that their hands and shaft are over the center of the right shoulder. Conversely, when they finish, their hands and club are over the center of their left shoulder and their torso is square and facing their target.
There are also a few other pretty good vertical swingers that will be playing in the top 21 on Friday that you may get to see. Steve Stricker, who won last week at the John Deere, is a good ¾ backswinger and finishes pretty vertical and square. You will likely see Camilo Villegas, who is another really good ¾ backswing player, and also quite vertical and square in his finish with a little tendency to get a little reverse ) in his back. The last top 21 player, and my personal favorite, is DJ Trahan, my son and namesake. And yes, I will say here for all to read that DJ tends to go to parallel with his driver and sometimes with his 3 wood. But for the rest of his clubs he is a good ¾ swinger to a square finish, as I taught him, and I am trying like crazy to get him back to his ¾ backswing permanently.
So, sit back and watch some good golf tomorrow in the British Open. When you watch the players mentioned here, let the motion of their vertical backswing and finishes 'seep' into your subconscious mind. And if you need or want more of a fix of ¾ vertical backswings and square to target finishes, just watch the Champions Tour every week. You'll see that a big majority of these players are vertical.
Here's to good viewing for the rest of the British Open.
The Surge!