You have to see this top college golfer’s bizarre cross-handed swing

Oklahoma State’s Matthew Wolff cruised to a five-shot victory on Monday to win the NCAA Men’s Golf Individual title. But a different player caught our attention this weekend, one who hails from a different Oklahoma university and employs a very different swing.

His name is Patrick Welch, and his bizarre swing didn’t just wow the crowds at Blessings Golf Club in Arkansas, it earned him an impressive T11 finish. So what’s so weird about the University of Oklahoma golfer’s swing? It’s all in the fingers.

Welch employs a rare cross-handed grip on his full swings. Instead of overlapping or interlocking the pointer finger of his left hand with his right pinkie finger as most golfers do, Welch interlocks all 10 of his fingers.

Ryan Frazer of Agora Golf captured the below video of Welch’s unique technique, which was then re-shared by Luke Kerr-Dineen, GOLF’s Editor of Instruction…

Yea Matt Wolf was amazing, but I'm still blown away by University of Oklahoma Patrick Welch's 10-finger cross-handed grip and swing. Shot 75-69-72-75 and finished T11 pic.twitter.com/vUsYFX2lxp

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) May 28, 2019

With all 10 fingers interlocked, Welch’s hands are not placed one above the other as with most grips, but on top of each other. To get this awkward-feeling grip to work, Welch begins with his left wrist cocked outwards and then keeps his left arm straight until after impact.

That tweak produces a somewhat jarring look compared to what most golfers are used to seeing, as you can see from the video. But there are plenty of weird winning swings out there, and the results speak for themselves. Welch, who is a freshman at Oklahoma, shot 75-69-72-75 at the championship tournament. It was the Providence, Rhode Island-native’s second-best finish of the season.

This isn’t the first time Welch’s name has made the news in his young collegiate career. Back in March, Welch’s teammates pulled an epic hole-in-one prank to razz the freshman. You can read all about that here.

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