Kutchar

[sharkey35]

Has to be the best golfer no one is talking about. Money making machine for the last two years. A recent article in one of the pop mags said his teacher had him become "less athletic" and reliant on timing of his hands. Doesn't make sense to me.

Mike, any thoughts on this guy and what Joe Hacker could learn from him?

[Jwat]

I don't know if I am allowed to post this so let me know and I will delete if so. This is based more on what his instructor teaches Kucher and all his students. It is something I worked on a couple of years ago after consulting with him through email but never followed up with actually getting the lesson from poor results for obvious reasons. IMO, this is why golfers have a hard time getting to that single digit handicap level and why the new information on the release that MJ has given to us is so important.

Anyways, I was told the lower body not only drives the swing but is the squaring mechanism in the DS. He talks alot about turning the left knee out and left hip around to get the club square. Also he states, "leaning the top of the leg backwards away from the target line you must also twist it so the pant seam on the outside of the left thigh points behind you and not still at the target." I don't know about you guys but for me to focus on that and not the actual hand path is very difficult and wasted energy.

What works for Kuchar is great because he is very successful, but I see alot of the things he is doing that he probably doesn't know but does them anyway because he is an outstanding player. I personally see the CP moving away from the target and the flick release at impact. To me it is pretty clear. And if his hands did move towards the ball in the DS and not away, it wouldn't matter how much of his left side he has cleared because he would be severly trapped.

So I do think he is relying on the timing of his hands because you have to in the golf swing, especially when it is driven mostly by the lower body. If we learn to close the gap early and let the lower body respond to the swinging of the clubhead we are less reliant on the timing right before impact. So I personally don't think there is alot Joe Hacker can get out of Kuchar's swing, especially the BS.

I absolutley don't have any creditials to make these assumptions, just my viewpoint. Maybe MJ will chime in and let us know his thoughts.

[Michael Jacobs]

I don't know if I am allowed to post this so let me know and I will delete if so. This is based more on what his instructor teaches Kucher and all his students. It is something I worked on a couple of years ago after consulting with him through email but never followed up with actually getting the lesson from poor results for obvious reasons. IMO, this is why golfers have a hard time getting to that single digit handicap level and why the new information on the release that MJ has given to us is so important.

Anyways, I was told the lower body not only drives the swing but is the squaring mechanism in the DS. He talks alot about turning the left knee out and left hip around to get the club square. Also he states, "leaning the top of the leg backwards away from the target line you must also twist it so the pant seam on the outside of the left thigh points behind you and not still at the target." I don't know about you guys but for me to focus on that and not the actual hand path is very difficult and wasted energy.

What works for Kuchar is great because he is very successful, but I see alot of the things he is doing that he probably doesn't know but does them anyway because he is an outstanding player. I personally see the CP moving away from the target and the flick release at impact. To me it is pretty clear. And if his hands did move towards the ball in the DS and not away, it wouldn't matter how much of his left side he has cleared because he would be severly trapped.

So I do think he is relying on the timing of his hands because you have to in the golf swing, especially when it is driven mostly by the lower body. If we learn to close the gap early and let the lower body respond to the swinging of the clubhead we are less reliant on the timing right before impact. So I personally don't think there is alot Joe Hacker can get out of Kuchar's swing, especially the BS.

I absolutley don't have any creditials to make these assumptions, just my viewpoint. Maybe MJ will chime in and let us know his thoughts.

Jwat,

Thanks for sharing, and all posts that assist our gallery are always welcome. Btw, who coaches Kucher???

When someone talks about the squaring of the club face through the body, its probably a feeling or a sensation. Hands / Wrists / Forearms will provide the squaring of the face but I am sure that great players probably do it inherently. Kucher's coach probably thought that he was assisting Matt square the face but in actuality the strong body rotation helped relocate the left arm for the final phase of the downswing.

When you look at Kucher's move you will see an awesome pattern that has maximum 'left arm across the chest on the backswing,' but you can see from the pictures below that he fully recovers from that and the left arm finds a very traditional location for the final phases of the downswing.

Years ago, before the line drawing days, the flat arm backswing then shifting to a steeper arm downswing was very popular.

Hope this answers your questions as well Sharkey, let me know if you have any other questions on Kucher:

[Jwat]

Chris O'Connell, think he is a Leadbetter guy

[NCLefty]

Chris O'Connell, think he is a Leadbetter guy

I believe Chris O'Connell is associated with Jim Hardy.