WATCH: Jim Furyk played with his swing doppelgänger in the Honda Classic pro-am

Most amateur golfers would be tickled to have their swing compared to a PGA Tour player’s swing. Unfortunately for this golfer, his swing is being compared to that of Jim Furyk.

Yes, Furyk is a greatly accomplished player with 17 Tour wins, one major championship and two sub-60 rounds to his name, but he also has one of the ugliest swings in the history of professional golf. NBC on-course analyst David Feherty might have summed up Furyk’s unmistakable swing best:

“It looks like an octopus falling out of a tree.”

The video of this poor golfer comes from Furyk himself during the Honda Classic pro-am earlier this week.

“I have never seen such a beautiful swing,” the tweet says. “Reminds me of someone????”

Here is a video of the beauty:

Playing the @TheHondaClassic ProAm today and my partner is Welby Ina…I have never seen such a beautiful swing….reminds me of someone???? pic.twitter.com/fELmBN0dqP

— Jim Furyk (@jimfuryk) February 26, 2020

Let’s take a look at the two kindred swings side by side.

Setup

You can see Furyk in his trademark setup, standing extremely close to the ball with his hands close to his body. Furyk’s playing partner actually gets into a relatively solid setup to the ball. He looks like an athlete who might be able to put a pretty good move on the ball.

Takeaway

Furyk takes the club away in a still, relatively conventional manner. The clubface is a bit shut, but other than that he is in a good position to get to the top of the backswing. As for our friend from the tweet … oh my. Instead of making any turn back away from the ball, he instead lifts the clubhead immediately, throwing the head well outside the intended arc.

Top of the swing

Midway to the top of the swing is where Furyk’s swing really differentiates itself from his fellow Tour pros. He gets the shaft extremely vertical as he takes the club back to the top of the swing, causing the flailing of his right elbow. Despite this unconventional movement, his posture and spine angle are nearly identical to his setup. His playing partner similarly takes the club straight up on the way to the top, and for a moment it looks as though he will have a chance to shallow the club out on the downswing and save the swing. SPOILER: He does not.

Halfway down

On the downswing, Furyk loops the club from his cross-the-line position at the top to a position in line with his right forearm. At this point, his hips have turned significantly, so much so that his elbow is nearly behind his body. From this position, he simply continues the turn into impact. His playing partner does not get into a similar position. Instead of shallowing out, he somehow comes over the top as he approaches impact.

Impact

You’ll notice a couple of similarities to Furyk’s setup and impact positions. The first is that his hands return to that position extremely close to his body. The second is his posture, which I noted earlier, is also very similar to where he started. In spite of all the twists and turns in the swing, he gets it back to where it started. However, the other man’s posture is not similar to his setup position. He stands up on the ball as he approaches impact and his club shuts as he comes into the ball.

Finish

Furyk finishes with nice high hands as his ball splits the center of the fairway, while our pro-am friend can only watch helplessly as his ball takes a low exit from the tee box and darts to the left.

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