We’ve got another celebrity golf match on the horizon, so what better time to take a quick look at the competitors’ swings? We”ll be treated to four quarterbacks this time around: Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are are taking on Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. Let’s break down their moves.
Tom Brady
We’ve seen Tom Brady’s swing before in competition (I’ve even written about it!) so let’s start there. Brady, being an elite athlete, has an obviously athletic golf swing, but he also has a very weak left hand grip. That, as GOLF Top 100 Teacher Brian Manzella says, creates a dreaded two-way miss for Brady: Either he doesn’t roll his wrists enough, leaves the clubface open and misses right, or rolls them too much, closes the clubface and hits hooks.
“If you make it to a single digit handicapper like Tom Brady, you’ve learned to compensate enough to get it around the course sufficiently,” he says.
Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers seems to have been working on his swing — for the better. He used to roll the clubface open on the backswing and spend the rest of his swing flipping to try and square it. He still has a weaker left hand grip, where he can only see about one of his knuckles, but he makes it work because his hands are ahead of the ball at impact, which helps him hit little trap cuts.
Josh Allen
Josh Allen is tends to hit a pull cut, with a swing path that moves slightly from out-to-in. Most golfers would struggle hitting slices with a move like this, but as GOLF Top 100 Teacher Kellie Stenzel explains, Allen makes it work because of his athleticism, and his ability to stay balanced as he swings.
“As you watch him swing, you can see his steady balance at setup, balance throughout the swing, and also the ability to hold his finish,” she says. “Being able to hold your finish until your golf ball lands is a great way to check your balance.”
Patrick Mahomes
Another athletic swing that tends to move over the top, from out-to-in. It must be a quarterback thing. But unlike the others, Mahomes has a slightly stronger left hand grip, and stands closer to the ball than others. He takes a big backswing, and rips fades.
“I’ve given up on trying to fix it,” he says. “I have a little fade and I just got to know it’s coming. I just play it now.”
As for who has the best one? I’d probably most prefer Rodgers’, though Mahomes has the most powerful move. Of course, It’s not about how they look. It’s about how they perform. And that’s what we’ll get to witness during this iteration of The Match.