Ernie Els Pro Golfer, Swing Sequence (Video) - by Pete Styles
Ernie Els Pro Golfer, Swing Sequence (Video) - by Pete Styles

When I’m giving lessons on a day to day basis, I have an opportunity to show my clients their golf swing alongside any tour professional using my video system that I have in the studios here. And one of the questions often asked is who would you like to be compared against? Which swing do you admire from when you watch golf on the TV? And for most people Ernie Els is right up there at top of the list or certainly in the top five swings that they admire. Certainly he’s a very nice guy, major champion place and amazing golf. But in terms of the way he swings the golf club, I think it appeals to most people because it looks effortless, it looks so easy, he doesn’t make any particularly complicated motions and his swing is sort of, delivers some really powerful effort to the golf ball, hits the ball a very, very long way.

Just a little effortless power as he strikes through the golf ball. So we look at why does this; he’s certainly a very tall guy, very strong guy so he has a very good address position over the ball, nice big turn back. What amazes a lot of people when I compare their swings is the width that Els creates in the back swing, incredible flexibility around his left arm, left shoulder, really, really high back swing, gets the club way above the top of his head when we look from the front on camera angle. One area of his golf swing that I don’t particularly encourage people to copy, is he has quite a lot of left knee movement, that flexibility generating the back swing just requires a little bit of help from the left knee kicking in this swing. But if that’s all I can criticize him for, it isn’t the end of the world.

I think of one of the things that I really appreciate about Els’ swing, in slow motion that you don’t always see full speed, is where he creates his power. So he’s got this really wide position at the top, drags the club down and he’s got this incredible lag and he keeps that lag almost the ninety degrees, he had at the top, he keeps it all the way down to the golf ball and as his left hand passes his right thigh, the club head starts to accelerate and stops to release. And we see an incredible release whip over and cross over of the forearms here. When I show people a lot in our lessons and we look at this in slow motion in free stroke, they can’t believe how much the right hand is rolled over the top yet it doesn’t produce a pull shot.

For a lot of club golfers, amateur golfers, we’re see him through the golf ball here with the left elbow leading the way, the left hand leading the way and no right hand rotation and the ball will cut away weakly down the right hand side. Yet Els has this lag and this incredible club head speed. So if you can get that real whip over, real big extension to the nice high balanced finish position, you really feel like you can copy the smoothness of the big easy generating powerful shots without actually trying to hit the golf ball too hard.

 2013-07-01

When I’m giving lessons on a day to day basis, I have an opportunity to show my clients their golf swing alongside any tour professional using my video system that I have in the studios here. And one of the questions often asked is who would you like to be compared against? Which swing do you admire from when you watch golf on the TV? And for most people Ernie Els is right up there at top of the list or certainly in the top five swings that they admire. Certainly he’s a very nice guy, major champion place and amazing golf. But in terms of the way he swings the golf club, I think it appeals to most people because it looks effortless, it looks so easy, he doesn’t make any particularly complicated motions and his swing is sort of, delivers some really powerful effort to the golf ball, hits the ball a very, very long way.

Just a little effortless power as he strikes through the golf ball. So we look at why does this; he’s certainly a very tall guy, very strong guy so he has a very good address position over the ball, nice big turn back. What amazes a lot of people when I compare their swings is the width that Els creates in the back swing, incredible flexibility around his left arm, left shoulder, really, really high back swing, gets the club way above the top of his head when we look from the front on camera angle. One area of his golf swing that I don’t particularly encourage people to copy, is he has quite a lot of left knee movement, that flexibility generating the back swing just requires a little bit of help from the left knee kicking in this swing. But if that’s all I can criticize him for, it isn’t the end of the world.

I think of one of the things that I really appreciate about Els’ swing, in slow motion that you don’t always see full speed, is where he creates his power. So he’s got this really wide position at the top, drags the club down and he’s got this incredible lag and he keeps that lag almost the ninety degrees, he had at the top, he keeps it all the way down to the golf ball and as his left hand passes his right thigh, the club head starts to accelerate and stops to release. And we see an incredible release whip over and cross over of the forearms here. When I show people a lot in our lessons and we look at this in slow motion in free stroke, they can’t believe how much the right hand is rolled over the top yet it doesn’t produce a pull shot.

For a lot of club golfers, amateur golfers, we’re see him through the golf ball here with the left elbow leading the way, the left hand leading the way and no right hand rotation and the ball will cut away weakly down the right hand side. Yet Els has this lag and this incredible club head speed. So if you can get that real whip over, real big extension to the nice high balanced finish position, you really feel like you can copy the smoothness of the big easy generating powerful shots without actually trying to hit the golf ball too hard.