Worldwide Golf

For those of you who already watch the LPGA you would have noticed how many of the players have such efficient movements and Nelly Korda’s is one of the very best in the world in this aspect.

I often recommend and say amateurs could learn a lot from watching the ladies tour as well as senior tour golfers. The ladies due to their brilliant swings and the senior tour demonstrates how patterns can be so different but still get the job done due to certain conditions or matching movements that are needed in order for a swing to to be repeated.

Of course, it’s nice to see Rory swing with one of the fastest rotations in the game in terms of degrees per second but for many players, this is not achievable. Instead, we can all improve by moving better in relation to how our body moves naturally. This is why I recommend all of my golfers get assessed using a physical golf screen to improve their understanding of how their body reacts to certain movements when striking the ball.

Here, let’s take a look at Korda who really has a beautiful movement which is arguably one of the best in the world. Take note on how she does it below.

Korda hits 80 percent of greens and drives the ball 280 yards. She starts her swing in a perfectly athletic position with her weight over the balls of the feet. This allows her to push the ground creating a huge amount of speed.
Note how her arms are very stable. The clubface is not being over rotated by the forearms. One might say they are extremely passive with the shoulder movement working with the body action to create this wide takeaway.
When trying to improve your motion, rather than think of changing the pattern you have, I recommend you start by understanding how to remove unnecessary movements. Balance is a key component of the golf swing as seen here.
Korda’s maintained her arm structure whilst pushing into the ground wonderfully. The weight of the golf club is naturally setting it onto the original shaft plane line. She’s lost a few inches of height and on average moves downward a few inches throughout her move prior to releasing the club.

Notice how the left knee is lower than the right as she pushes into the ground. The club shaft is matching the shoulder angle, which is perpendicular to her original spine angle at address. This is a wonderful position to help her change direction with ease.
She’s fully spiralled to the top of her backswing. Her back is facing the target, left arm fully extended, with her right and left elbows still very much working in opposition meaning they are still close together. Ninety nine percent of the time I see the elbows separating which is a sign of a poor body action.
This is a beautiful frame as we can see the counter rotation phase taking effect with both knees bent. Nelly has currently spiralled her lower half four to six inches in the opposite direction towards target. Notice how her hips have moved yet the upper body hasn’t begun to open.
This is a continuation of the last frame to really hit home the point of the lower body moving first in transition phase. Her hips are opening perfectly here due to her excellent use of the ground.

The club shaft stays on her original plane line, contributing to one of the world’s finest swings. Most golfers I see have the shaft too vertical here, with the club head ahead of their hands rather than behind, as shown in the prior photo. This is one of the best delivery positions you’ll see.
Notice over the next two photos how she maintains the spine angle from her original starting point and does not change her angles. Following impact the right shoulder is lower than left. Many top golfers gain depth from their spine angle during this phase as oppose to standing up and losing their angles.
Notice how her arms are still very structured, almost a mirror image of her backswing. No wonder she is extremely accurate and long. As quite often an efficient movement provides not only better dispersion but also more ball speed due to better striking of the golf ball.
Such a wonderfully balanced finish with her left side fully extended due to her use of the ground. She’s also moved back to her original height whilst maintaining her tilts. What I particularly notice is here club shaft position as it’s still on plane which is not by accident.

CONTENTS

NELLY KORDA'S SWING