Matt Kuchar Pro Golfer, Swing Sequence (Video) - by Pete Styles
Matt Kuchar Pro Golfer, Swing Sequence (Video) - by Pete Styles

If there was an award for the smiliest guy on tour, surely Matt Kuchar would win that award, just goes around the golf course smiling all the time, you can’t work out whether he’s going to shoot 62 or 82. He just seems to be loving the fact that he’s out there and maybe that’s something we could all learn from, get out in the golf course, big smile on your face, play some better golf. If we analyze Matt Kuchar’s golf swing well see some little quirky movements that he has in there and why he has them and how you could either put them in your game or avoid putting them in your game.

When he sets up to the golf ball, if you look down the line, Kuchar is a big guy, 6 foot 4 tall, so he’s an inch taller than I am, I'm 6’3 but he sets up to the golf ball very, very tilted over so to get his hands really down low and brings a bit of knee flex into it, really tilts over. And from here he employs a one plane golf swing. One plane implies that the golf ball will move back and down on exactly the same arc or line and it will always be the same, it doesn’t go up and down, it doesn’t change, so it’s not a case of bringing the club up, back and then down under as maybe a traditional two plane golf swing would look.

So one plane swing employs a lot more spine angle tilt to start with and then a one plane movement coming back where the top of the swing for Kuchar particularly the left arm sits below the shoulder plane. So a very different position from the normal swing. So we see the left arm here sitting below the shoulder plane, that’s my shoulder plane, Kuchar’s left arm would sit down below that. It could look incredibly flat but because he has such a big shoulder tilt, the left arm isn’t actually that flat.

Most golfers would have less shoulder tilt, their left arm would be higher so Kuchar’s left arm a little bit lower but the shoulder tilt is very excessive, very aggressive and that’s partly because he is so tall and then has that one playing swing, it gets very, very flat there from what it looks like. Then he works incredibly hard to maintain his spine angle through the shot. Then don’t forget if you’ve started low down here you can’t stand up during the back swing or the down swing.

So he starts very low, swings it quite flat, stays incredibly low through the impact area and hits the golf ball very nicely. But if you are a big guy and you want to get that tilted over to the golf ball to make a one plane swing you have to be incredibly flexible particularly have quite loose hamstrings, very stretchy hamstrings, very stretching the lower parts of your back. If you get quite tight there’s a big tendency that your hamstrings tighten, you pull up and you would stand up changing your spine angle which completely changes the plane and the path of your golf swing. So if you want to swing it like Kuchar and on top of that one plane, very connected golf swing, make sure you are physically able to take on that movement. But like Kuchar, don’t forget to smile.

[playerProfile url="https://golf-info-guide.com/pga-players/matt-kuchar/"][/playerProfile] 2013-07-02

If there was an award for the smiliest guy on tour, surely Matt Kuchar would win that award, just goes around the golf course smiling all the time, you can’t work out whether he’s going to shoot 62 or 82. He just seems to be loving the fact that he’s out there and maybe that’s something we could all learn from, get out in the golf course, big smile on your face, play some better golf. If we analyze Matt Kuchar’s golf swing well see some little quirky movements that he has in there and why he has them and how you could either put them in your game or avoid putting them in your game.

When he sets up to the golf ball, if you look down the line, Kuchar is a big guy, 6 foot 4 tall, so he’s an inch taller than I am, I'm 6’3 but he sets up to the golf ball very, very tilted over so to get his hands really down low and brings a bit of knee flex into it, really tilts over. And from here he employs a one plane golf swing. One plane implies that the golf ball will move back and down on exactly the same arc or line and it will always be the same, it doesn’t go up and down, it doesn’t change, so it’s not a case of bringing the club up, back and then down under as maybe a traditional two plane golf swing would look.

So one plane swing employs a lot more spine angle tilt to start with and then a one plane movement coming back where the top of the swing for Kuchar particularly the left arm sits below the shoulder plane. So a very different position from the normal swing. So we see the left arm here sitting below the shoulder plane, that’s my shoulder plane, Kuchar’s left arm would sit down below that. It could look incredibly flat but because he has such a big shoulder tilt, the left arm isn’t actually that flat.

Most golfers would have less shoulder tilt, their left arm would be higher so Kuchar’s left arm a little bit lower but the shoulder tilt is very excessive, very aggressive and that’s partly because he is so tall and then has that one playing swing, it gets very, very flat there from what it looks like. Then he works incredibly hard to maintain his spine angle through the shot. Then don’t forget if you’ve started low down here you can’t stand up during the back swing or the down swing.

So he starts very low, swings it quite flat, stays incredibly low through the impact area and hits the golf ball very nicely. But if you are a big guy and you want to get that tilted over to the golf ball to make a one plane swing you have to be incredibly flexible particularly have quite loose hamstrings, very stretchy hamstrings, very stretching the lower parts of your back. If you get quite tight there’s a big tendency that your hamstrings tighten, you pull up and you would stand up changing your spine angle which completely changes the plane and the path of your golf swing. So if you want to swing it like Kuchar and on top of that one plane, very connected golf swing, make sure you are physically able to take on that movement. But like Kuchar, don’t forget to smile.

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