Golf Pro Dustin Johnson: Bowed Left Wrist (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Pro Dustin Johnson: Bowed Left Wrist (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now anyone that’s watched golf on the TV will certainly start to understand that there are more than one way to swing the golf club. Now, let’s look at some of the specifics of how those golfers have those advanced movements in their swing, why they have them in their swing and whether you should be trying to copy them. I’m going to start by looking at the elements in Dustin Johnson's swing.

Now Dustin Johnson, you might have noticed, has a very strong left wrist at the top of his swing. A very bold left wrist. Putting the golf club in to a very closed position. So what does that mean? If we look from this back angle, you see Dustin Johnson takes the golf club away closed. It’s quite angled down towards the floor. This would be more of a neutral position that we would describe for most people, this is a very closed position here. Now reverse that up to the sky and you’ll see the club will point up to the sky and the left wrist starts to really fall and bow down into this position. The badge on the club pointing right up in the sky.

So I’d like you in your next practice session, to take your neutral grip, swing the club back, see where the toe angle points. The toe should point just off vertical, up to the sky, but not down to the floor. When you swing that to the top, again, we’re looking for the club to pretty much match the left forearm, and the face angle should be nice and similar around here, but certainly not this bowed, flat position. The real risk for this position is, if the club face is closed at the top, it would stay closed on the down swing, causing some fairly low shots and fairly flat hooks. If you do get this bowed left wrist position, this flat position, you have an awful lot of manipulation to do through the down swing to try and steer that club face and maintain it’s open position.

Obviously it works for Dustin Johnson, but he is prone to the occasional one going left, and that’s certainly something that you would look out for, if you have that bowed left wrist. But I want to suggest you try and copy his swing. Maybe you could learn from it, learn that there is a fault, let’s try and stay away from that fault, so look at the good fundamentals of a nice grip, keep the face angle nice and square and neutral on the way back. Square and neutral to the top, means that we have an awful lot less work to do on the way down, to hit the ball a little bit straighter.

 2012-04-23

Now anyone that’s watched golf on the TV will certainly start to understand that there are more than one way to swing the golf club. Now, let’s look at some of the specifics of how those golfers have those advanced movements in their swing, why they have them in their swing and whether you should be trying to copy them. I’m going to start by looking at the elements in Dustin Johnson's swing.

Now Dustin Johnson, you might have noticed, has a very strong left wrist at the top of his swing. A very bold left wrist. Putting the golf club in to a very closed position. So what does that mean? If we look from this back angle, you see Dustin Johnson takes the golf club away closed. It’s quite angled down towards the floor. This would be more of a neutral position that we would describe for most people, this is a very closed position here. Now reverse that up to the sky and you’ll see the club will point up to the sky and the left wrist starts to really fall and bow down into this position. The badge on the club pointing right up in the sky.

So I’d like you in your next practice session, to take your neutral grip, swing the club back, see where the toe angle points. The toe should point just off vertical, up to the sky, but not down to the floor. When you swing that to the top, again, we’re looking for the club to pretty much match the left forearm, and the face angle should be nice and similar around here, but certainly not this bowed, flat position. The real risk for this position is, if the club face is closed at the top, it would stay closed on the down swing, causing some fairly low shots and fairly flat hooks. If you do get this bowed left wrist position, this flat position, you have an awful lot of manipulation to do through the down swing to try and steer that club face and maintain it’s open position.

Obviously it works for Dustin Johnson, but he is prone to the occasional one going left, and that’s certainly something that you would look out for, if you have that bowed left wrist. But I want to suggest you try and copy his swing. Maybe you could learn from it, learn that there is a fault, let’s try and stay away from that fault, so look at the good fundamentals of a nice grip, keep the face angle nice and square and neutral on the way back. Square and neutral to the top, means that we have an awful lot less work to do on the way down, to hit the ball a little bit straighter.