Matt Kuchar: Flat Plane Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
Matt Kuchar: Flat Plane Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

So we have to talk about swing planes, and even with the better golfers, the better golfers in the world, you’ll see them having slightly different swing planes. Matt Kuchar is a very classic example of a very flat swing plane. Very tall guy, but swings the golf club quite aggressively around himself. Again, not a move that’s designed for the average golfer, something that he’s been working on his entire life, and something that obviously works for him. But what we mean by a flat swing plane is from a good address position the club doesn’t move back towards the camera like we would expect it to, and then up in the air.

Kuchar is much more around behind his body. The club comes behind his right hip quite early, gets a little bit laid off at the top, and he’s very good at driving into the golf ball to square that club face up, and he hits the ball quite straight. But to many flat swings for a lot of club golfers would result in quite a lot of pushed golf shots, where the club attacks the ball too much from the inside, and blocks it out to the right, or conversely occasionally a hook shot, particularly a fat hook shot. Club comes in very shallow, very flat, catches the ground, the hands flip over and we end up hitting some low, flat hook shot.

So working on a nice swing plane is a good way of actually encouraging the ball to fly a little bit straighter. Here’s a nice little exercise for you. You take the wall that I’ve got behind me, back up so your hips and your heels are only about 8 inches away from the wall. You should be able to make a golf swing without hitting the wall.

So from this angle if I take the club into Kuchar’s position, I would hit the wall. If I would swing it up a little bit more in front of my body, I should be able to get away with only an 8 inch gap behind me, and I should still swing the club nice and smoothly. So, backing up to this position here, just a few inches away from the wall, then go ahead, make my back swing and lift it up slowly up to the top, you can see the club just stays in front of the wall. What I would suggest is, if you’re not confident in making that swing, just flip your club over, so you’re gripping the head end, swing the handle, any flat swings I'm going to hit straight into the wall. A nice swing would be here and up, and back down again. And that’s kind of just keep me away from the wall. Keep an eye on the fact that my swing isn’t going to be too flat, like Kuchar’s is.

[playerProfile url="https://golf-info-guide.com/pga-players/matt-kuchar/"][/playerProfile] 2012-04-25

So we have to talk about swing planes, and even with the better golfers, the better golfers in the world, you’ll see them having slightly different swing planes. Matt Kuchar is a very classic example of a very flat swing plane. Very tall guy, but swings the golf club quite aggressively around himself. Again, not a move that’s designed for the average golfer, something that he’s been working on his entire life, and something that obviously works for him. But what we mean by a flat swing plane is from a good address position the club doesn’t move back towards the camera like we would expect it to, and then up in the air.

Kuchar is much more around behind his body. The club comes behind his right hip quite early, gets a little bit laid off at the top, and he’s very good at driving into the golf ball to square that club face up, and he hits the ball quite straight. But to many flat swings for a lot of club golfers would result in quite a lot of pushed golf shots, where the club attacks the ball too much from the inside, and blocks it out to the right, or conversely occasionally a hook shot, particularly a fat hook shot. Club comes in very shallow, very flat, catches the ground, the hands flip over and we end up hitting some low, flat hook shot.

So working on a nice swing plane is a good way of actually encouraging the ball to fly a little bit straighter. Here’s a nice little exercise for you. You take the wall that I’ve got behind me, back up so your hips and your heels are only about 8 inches away from the wall. You should be able to make a golf swing without hitting the wall.

So from this angle if I take the club into Kuchar’s position, I would hit the wall. If I would swing it up a little bit more in front of my body, I should be able to get away with only an 8 inch gap behind me, and I should still swing the club nice and smoothly. So, backing up to this position here, just a few inches away from the wall, then go ahead, make my back swing and lift it up slowly up to the top, you can see the club just stays in front of the wall. What I would suggest is, if you’re not confident in making that swing, just flip your club over, so you’re gripping the head end, swing the handle, any flat swings I'm going to hit straight into the wall. A nice swing would be here and up, and back down again. And that’s kind of just keep me away from the wall. Keep an eye on the fact that my swing isn’t going to be too flat, like Kuchar’s is.

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