Do you ever wonder what professional golfers work on in their golf swings? Many golf fans simply assume that pro golfers hardly wok on their swings at all — in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Even players that many fans consider to have “homegrown” swings still spend hours working hard on little elements to help them improve.
So, to learn more about that process, we called up GOLF Top 100 Teacher Tony Ruggiero. Tony is the Director of Instruction at the Country Club of Mobile, the Lead Instructor for The Dewsweepers Performance Academy at Sheraton Bay Point, and the coach to a number of PGA and Web.com Tour players. Tony started working with Lucas Glover in 2016, helping him rise from outside the top 250 in the Official World Golf Ranking to inside the Top 100 earlier this year.
So, what have Tony and Lucas been working on? Let’s break it down.
When Lucas first came to Tony, his swing path was far more around his body. As you can see in the top frame, Lucas took the club more inside on the backswing, which led to him swinging the club on a more inside-to-out path on the way through. Lucas’ natural draw became gradually bigger, which became hard to control.
“We wanted to straighten out that ball-flight,” Ruggiero said, “getting that club moving more in front of him on his backswing, which helps steepen his downswing.
The other key element of Lucas’ golf swing that Ruggiero helped him work on was his turn back and through the ball. Comparing another one of Lucas’ older swing with his current move, you can see that his right harm is higher at the top of his backswing now than it was. Tony and Lucas worked hard on creating a deeper turn with his hips, both on his backswing and through the ball. That fuller hip turn helped Lucas create more leverage in his golf swing, Ruggiero said.
“Lucas tends to get the club under when he doesn’t get enough hip turn…more hip turn, and he can bring the club down less inside.”
You can see the before and after difference below.
Using our affiliated Swing Index App, which allows users to upload their swing to a GOLF Top 100 Teacher, who will then grade it and give you a plan to improve (follow the link for more information about The Swing Index App), Tony has helped Lucas’ Swing Index jump to a 9.14, and he’s picked up some great results along the way: Glover has clocked eight top 25s and four top 10s in 2017, and is off to a hot start to the 2018-19 season: He’s finished T-17, T-14, T-7 and T-11 in four starts.
