Who Is He?

A Ryder Cup player, a major winner and a regular on the PGA tour for 15 years, Cink is one of those recognisable characters in the modern day, and has an equally recognisable golf swing.

What He Does

Utilising his six feet four inch frame to its greatest extent, Cink is now one of the longest hitters on the tour. He fully understands the importance that distance plays in the modern game and is able to maximise his distance, not just by hitting the ball harder, but by hitting it smarter.

Being so tall is not always an advantage. It is often described that taller players with longer swings have more room and time for things to go wrong. More recently, Cink has shortened his swing and maintained more width, keeping the grip end of the golf club as far away from his body throughout the entire golf swing which allows him to create his phenomenal club head speed through making a bigger arc.

What Can You Learn?

Taking Cink's lead and trying to maintain the widest possible golf swing could encourage your swing to hit the ball further and straighter. Start by achieving the tallest set up you can manage, feel like your legs are only slightly flexed, your arms are straight and the back of your neck is pulled tall to the sky.

Now during your backswing phase, focus on pushing your glove as far away from your head as possible as you rotate to the top of your swing. As you transition again, feel like the glove stays away from your head all the way through the downswing, through the impact phase and into the follow through, still stretching the glove away from your head.

Initially, when you start making this extra wide stretched movement, you may feel like you don't have the required flexibility to do so. However, you should be reminded that every good golf swing that you make is like making a mini stretching exercise, and piece by piece, your flexibility will increase which in turn will increase the power that your golf swing produces and the distance that you're able to hit the golf ball.

What Should You Avoid?

A common fault golfers make when trying to achieve a wider backswing move is that they are guilty of lifting their spine angle during the backswing phase. This happens due to the desire of stretching the left arm back but instead they lift their spine angle and head. This will have a very detrimental effect on the ability to strike a golf ball correctly. You should work hard on maintaining your spine angle and at the same time trying to achieve a wide Stewart Cink like golf swing.