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When you've been teaching golf as long as I have, you're going to find that you can teach some things better than you previously had, and you're probably going to find some things that you taught incorrectly. I don't see that as a bad thing — what would be worse is refusing to adapt and grow given new information. I've always said that my goal with my instruction isn't to be right, but it's to get things right. To that end, I'm about five years late in issuing a public proclamation on something… When I first got my GEARS system, I immediately looked at the golf swings of the dozens and dozens of Tour players for which I suddenly had full 3D data. I created a huge spreadsheet showing how their bodies moved, how the club moved, at various points in the swing. I mapped knee and elbow angles, hand speeds, shoulder turns and pelvis turns… etc. I re-considered what I thought I knew about the golf swing as performed by the best players. One of those things dated back to the earliest days: that you extend (I never taught "straighten" and would avoid using that word unless in the context of saying "don't fully straighten") the trail knee/leg in the backswing. I was mislead by 2D photos from less-than-ideal camera angles — the trail leg rotates a bit during the backswing, and so when observing trail knee flex should also use a camera that moves to stay perpendicular to the plane of the ankle/knee/hip joint. We have at least two topics here on this (here and here; both of which I'll be updating after publishing this) where @mvmac and I advise golfers to extend the trail knee. Learning that this was not right is one of the reasons I'm glad to have a 3D system, as most golfers generally preserve the trail knee flex throughout the backswing. Data Here's a video showing an iron and a driver of someone who has won the career slam: Here's what the graph of his right knee flex looks like. The solid lines I've positioned at the top of the backswing (GEARS aligns both swings at impact, the dashed line). Address is to the right, of course, and the graph shows knee flex from the two swings above. The data (17.56° and 23.20°) shows where this player is in both swings (orange being the yellow iron swing, pink the blue driver swing). You can see that this golfer extends his trail knee 2-3°… before bending it even more than that through the late backswing and early downswing. Months ago I created a quick Instagram video showing the trail knee flex in the backswing of several players (see the top for the larger number): Erik J. Barzeski (@iacas) • Instagram reel GEARS shares expert advice on golf swing technique, focusing on the critical backswing phase. Tour winners and major champions reveal the key to a precise and powerful swing, highlighting the importance of... Here are a few more graphs. Two LIV players and major champions: Two PGA Tour winners: Two women's #1 ranked players: Two more PGA Tour winners (one a major champ): Two former #1s, the left one being a woman, the right a man, with a driver: Two more PGA Tour players: You'll notice a trend: they almost all maintain roughly the same flex throughout their backswing and downswing. The Issues with Extending the Trail Knee You can play good golf extending (again, not "straightening") the trail knee. Some Tour players do. But, as with many things, if 95 out of 100 Tour players do it, you're most likely better off doing similarly to what they do. So, what are the issues with extending the trail knee in the backswing? To list a few: Pelvic Depth and Rotation Quality Suffers When the trail knee extends, the trail leg often acts like an axle on the backswing, with the pelvis rotating around the leg and the trail hip joint. This prevents the trail side from gaining depth, as is needed to keep the pelvis center from thrusting toward the ball. Most of the "early extension" (thrust) that I see occurs during the backswing. Encourages Early Extension (Thrust) Patterns When you've thrust and turned around the trail hip joint in the backswing, you often thrust a bit more in the downswing as the direction your pelvis is oriented is forward and "out" (to the right for a righty). Your trail leg can abduct to push you forward, but "forward" when your pelvis is turned like that is in the "thrust" direction. Additionally, the trail knee "breaking" again at the start of the downswing often jumps the trail hip out toward the ball a bit too much or too quickly. While the trail hip does move in that direction, if it's too fast or too much, it can prevent the lead side hip from getting "back" at the right rate, or at a rate commensurate with the trail hip to keep the pelvis center from thrusting. Disrupts the Pressure Shift/Transition When the trail leg extends too much, it often can't "push" forward normally. The forward push begins much earlier than forward motion begins — pushing forward begins as early as about P1.5 to P2 in the swings of most good golfers. It can push forward by abducting, again, but that's a weaker movement that shoves the pelvis forward (toward the target) and turns it more than it generally should (see the next point). Limits Internal Rotation of the Trail Hip Internal rotation of the trail hip is a sort of "limiter" on the backswing. I have seen many golfers on GEARS whose trail knee extends, whose pelvis shifts forward (toward the target), and who turn over 50°, 60°, and rarely but not never, over 70° in the backswing. If you turn 60° in the backswing, it's going to be almost impossible to get "open enough" in the downswing to arrive at a good impact position. Swaying/Lateral Motion Occasionally a golfer who extends the trail knee too much will shift back too far, but more often the issue is that the golfer will shift forward too early in the backswing (sometimes even immediately to begin the backswing), leaving them "stuck forward" to begin the downswing. They'll push forward, stop, and have to restart around P4, disrupting the smooth sequence often seen in the game's best players. Other Bits… Reduces ground reaction force potential, compromises spine inclination and posture, makes transition sequencing harder, increases stress on the trail knee and lower back… In short… It's not athletic. We don't do many athletic things with "straight" or very extended legs (unless it's the end of the action, like a jump or a big push off like a step in a running motion).

@iacas is a featured guest on the newest AMG video release talking about the top swing faults instructors see from using GEARS. The first one we caught on my first GEARS lesson. I still work on that. Worth a watch.

JPX ONE Driver - Mizuno Golf Official Website Discover the JPX ONE Driver - /jpxone/jpxone-driver-hero-mobile.webp /jpxone/jpxone-logo-white-lg.svg The World’s first NANOALLOY™ DRIVER... Mizuno is introducing new technology with their JPX One fairway woods and drivers. The new tech for golf but used tech for Mizuno since it is found in their baseball side of the business, is Nanoalloy. Nanoalloy is a microscopic polymer layer put on the face of their titanium driver. What this layer does is change the elasticity of the driver face and increases ball speed over a larger area of the clubface. Adding a bit more elasticity with this layer, they are conserving the golf balls energy from the impact. Due to USGA rules, this technology falls under their coating regulations. Which add a correction factor to the ball speed testing done for conforming golf clubs. This rule was introduced when Taylormade went to their carbon clubface. Which I didn't know existed. I am sure that center strikes are at the USGA limits like all other drivers. This has my interest. I am always, "window shopping", for new golf equipment 😉

These were almost all included on the list of Clarifications or revised Model Local Rules released just a few days ago. I'm pretty sure the first 3 are brand new MLRs (Moved/Wrong Place, Embedded Ball in someone else's pitch mark, Internal OB applies only to tee shot) that the PGA Tour is choosing to use. The 16.1 Rule (relief near a Putting Green) was revised allowed a Committee to give relief for more than just Immoveable Obstructions, microphone holes would be classed as GUR (a hole made by the maintenance staff). The replacement club rule was available before, the E-3 (Lift Clean and Place distance) could have been defined as "one scorecard" before, they're just a change in how the PGA choices. Here are the January 1 Clarifications and revised MLRs https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/clarifications-of-the-rules-of-golf.html#cp

Earlier this summer, I entered a sweepstakes for a round of golf at TPC Sawgrass, home of course to The Players Championship. This has been on my bucket list for quite some time. Imagine my shock as well as suspicion when received an email that I won. I called the number on my card to make sure it wasn’t a scam. Being in the world of IT, I see so many scams that I’m constantly suspicious. As it turns out, it was legit! They flew me to Jacksonville on 12/10 where I am met with a guy holding a sign who loaded my clubs into a black SUV and drove me to the resort. My friend, Billy, has gotten me on many very nice courses over the years like Oakland Hills and Valhalla. I was able to invite a +1, so I was happy to be able to be able to reciprocate. After checking in and having some hors d’oeuvres, we headed over to the course to soak it in and do some putting on the practice green. It’s been a while since I played Bermuda, so it took some time to get a feel for the grain again. They were much slower than I expected for a championship course, but I’m sure they are much faster for the tournament. Q School was going on there at the same time, so we got to see some of the players trying to get their tour card. That was pretty cool! The next morning, we headed to the course bright and early for breakfast, drinks and some time on the practice facilities. We were then treated to a short game clinic with Trevor Immelman and Kira Dixon. They are both awesome people. Trevor walked up straight from the car and pitches one to a few feet without any warmup. Show off! 😃 Now for the golf part. As many of you know, I’ve been battling a bad knee since an accident at work about 5 years ago, so I don’t play much anymore. I was hopeful since the week prior, I had a gel injection that supposedly works better than the steroids. No such luck. I wasn’t able to finish several holes, and I was in so much pain, I was almost in tears. I battled through though. I shot a 92, but don’t get too excited. This was a shamble format with a double bogey max on each hole. I estimate I would have been over 120 had I played my own ball. One of the guys in the other foursome had to have a sore back at the end of the day from carrying us. I did crush one on #10 that our caddy said was in the “Pro Zone”. He got a good tip just for saying that. I give some credit to the “Sawgrass Splash” drink they served us at the turn. Unfortunately I pushed my second into the junk and ended up taking a legit double. When we get to 13, there stands Trevor on the tee. We got to chat a bit while waiting on the group ahead of us to putt out. It turns out he lived pretty close to me when I lived in Winter Park, FL, but I’m sure his house was quite a bit bigger than the one I was renting. I hit my shot a bit thin, but it ended up pin high on the right fringe. He hit a shot for our group, and it was an out 10’ short and downhill. I liked my putt from the fringe, but the others wanted to play from his shot. Nobody made it. We started on #3, so thankfully we were good and warmed up by the time we got to 17. This was the hole I really wanted to conquer. Several people from the GM Rewards Program that we met were standing there watching. The others seemed nervous, but I like a crowd. I stepped up and hit one to about 12’ left the birdie putt a tad short. I was happy with a tap in par. Billy put his into the pond, so I claim a major victory. We finished the last 3 holes after that which I finished with 3 bogeys. I was grinning from ear to ear even though I was in misery. This is certainly one for the memory books, and one that I plan to return to in 5-6 after they will do a knee replacement. I would have loved to play this course 10-15 years ago.

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He was saying that it doesn't have an audience now… 🙂

The golf world lost one of the greats last weekend. By great, I am not talking about fame or talent, but simply love of the game. He wasn’t very fond of the rules though, because he pretty much made his own. I am referring to my old man, Tom Knick. He lost his battle to cancer last Saturday, 1/3/2026. He battled several rounds of lung cancer over the years, but this time it spread and took him out at the age of 81. I remember following my dad and grandpa around Penn Terra GC as a young lad. Dad would let me hit my own ball, but would often pick it up and take it to where his ball was. He HATED slow play. He would get aggravated with his golf league partner for the last decade or so because he would clean his club after a shot before putting it back in his bag. Dad thought this took too much time. Patience was not one of his virtues. After retiring from GM in his early 50s, dad worked and played golf at Beechwood GC in Arcanum, OH almost exclusively. He was already retired at the age I am now. He also worked at the local hardware store in the winter. As I already mentioned, he played the game the way he thought it should be played. The last time I played with dad, my son was playing with us. Dad’s eyes were getting pretty bad. He would hit one down the middle of the fairway and think it was a bad shot. He would be pleasantly surprised when we showed him where his ball ended up. You can still enjoy a good shot even when you can’t see it I guess. My mom tasked me with going through his golf stuff. He had an old golf bag full of every club he ever owned up in their attic. It also had ancient golf balls in it. Memories came rushing back when I saw his old McGregor woods and irons, the clubs I used to take over to our community park during summer break and spent hours hitting balls back and forth. This is where I learned bad habits that inflict my swing to this very day. I loved it though. I don’t like to keep things for the sake of keeping things, but I just may need to hang on to these. Also in dad’s golf stash, I also found dozens of ball markers and probably 200 tees. In even found 2 metal golden tees. I doubt they’re real gold, I will keep one and give my son the other. Fools gold. In dad’s golf bag were his old Ping Zing 1 and 3 woods. He played these for many years. I think I will need to hang on to these as well. Golf is full of memories. If you still have your dad, uncle, best friend from high school or work that you played with over the years, take whatever opportunity you can find to play with them when it warms back up. You never know. It might be the last time.

I need to drop a couple of stone. 🙂 😛 Yep. Yeah, but in the end, it feels more athletic, like you're actually using your legs, yeah? As you know… we use the best available info we have. Like others, I was fooled a little by 2D images for awhile (moving or still). Unlike others, I've learned and grown and moved on since then, while they're still looking at their images (often from lousy camera angles).

That was a good watch. When I started working on pelvis in the backswing. I thought, this sounds contradictory to those leg straightening threads on the site. Erik has already done a correction. Then the last lesson we went more down the route of feeling the right knee gains flex. It doesn’t, but the feeling keeps my knee position in a good range. Also, I just realized how much extra work my right hip needed to do to stabilize the body with the proper weight shift. Those glute and hip stabilizers got worked. 🤣 I wish this evolution in the golf instruction happened 20 years ago! 😭

I had a few tweeks in the bag. I took out my Mizuno pro FliHi 3 iron replaced it with a Titleist GT2 7 Wood. what a change that is, so easy to hit, it goes so high without it ballooning on me. I couldn't get rid of my callaway woods ( Rogue ST Max LS ) but changed the shafts to Diamana BB 63 stiff for the driver and 73 stiff for the 3 wood. Than i got myself a new putter Odyssey S2S jailbird yes i joined the centershaft family

Backswing pretty good. Feeling good about that. Hmmm. That's in slow motion here, but didn't upload that way to YouTube. Oh well.

Very cool!

Excellent! That is so cool. Thanks for sharing!

Wow! What a great experience. Thanks for sharing the details and photos. You earner a 🤛 for the tap in par on #17.

Sounds like a great experience, and an early Christmas gift to you from the golf gods.

Just about done working on the backswing. Don't love the right leg here, but otherwise P1 to P4 is good.

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What part of anything anyone said is in dispute with this statement? Did you miss the bit about playing different tees?

Went up to Erie for a lesson. I still need to work on how I shift my weight into my right leg and turn into the right leg. I extend it too much and externally rotate it too much. That all causes me to over rotate the hips and cause weight shift issues in the downswing. I need to feel like my right leg gains flex (it doesn’t), and my knee cap faces forward. The right hip sinks back and right. I need a need a ton more internal rotation. I still have some right elbow issues in the backswing. The path is better, but too much right elbow bend. I need to maintain width in the right elbow and let my right shoulder retract more, let’s say at A3, which helps keep that right arm extended.

There are plenty of great people here. Thanks for joining. I believe somebody will come along soon and comment. Welcome

Just like the 2022, 2021, 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025 topics, we're doing it again in 2026! Once again, I'd like to birdie every hole at Whispering Woods in 2026 (and maybe every numbered hole on other courses). I'd like you to join me on this quest. This year's spreadsheet is below: 2026 TST Birdie Challenge - Google Sheets Please click through, add your name, home course, and location, and when you make a score on the holes as you play them, update your line in the spreadsheet with your ringer score, basically. The idea is to score a birdie or better on each hole on the course this year. If you're above a certain handicap and would like to make it a par challenge, go for it! Just add that note to the Notes column. Please leave the formatting as is. And note that you only write down one score - if you birdie a hole three times, you aren't writing down -3. It's just your best individual score for each hole. We can all cheer each other on and see where this takes us! If you truly play a TON of different courses, then follow these two guidelines: If you just play a lot of golf, but still get 20 or 25 (or more) rounds in on one course, consider making that your home course and just doing the birdie challenge there. If you truly play only 20-40 rounds per year, and never more than a handful at the same course, consider trying to birdie holes numbered 1 to 18 across all of your courses. Or even doing it twice. Yeah, some hole #17s will be easier birdies than others, but that's why you might do it twice.

anymore?

Birdied last 2 holes today for 44/36 (Par 37 on front, 35 on back). Nearly Eagled #17--had a sidehill 30 ft putt, breaking right to left. Aimed about 8 ft above hole, ball broke and stopped about an inch from going in.

I have a couple of trips planned, although golf was a secondary component in each. In February we're going to visit some friends near Naples, so Mary Anne and I have added on a few days to stay and play at Streamsong. Then In March we're going to Hawaii (again), and will almost certainly get in a few rounds there.

My next golf trip will probably be a short one, but I’m really looking forward to it. I’m thinking of staying relatively close, picking a spot with a few solid courses and making a long weekend out of it. For me, the best golf trips are about good courses, relaxed vibes, and time away with friends.

First going to spain for a long weekend in March probably going to play La Quinta, Los Arqueros and Fina Cortesin, and first week in May will compete in the Crawsnest Tassie at Carnoustie golf links, that will be a full week of golf golf golf and more golf. Did play it last year for the first time and it is awesome.

These sound like great memories. Thanks for sharing with us.

Hey, you looped me in, I had to comment in some way. Anyone want to guess how many times I'll get asked "Do I get relief, it looks like I'm in a pitch mark?", even when that MLR isn't in effect?

Which is why I added… 😛

I would like to amend my original comment on the new Maxfli irons. Yes, $800 for forged irons is a pretty good price and they do feel good BUT...I have since found out that $800 is only for off the shelf, standard issue clubs with standard lengths, lofts, lies and shafts. Any change made from stock results in huge up-charges so that the final price ends up pretty much the same as similar forged irons from any of the major manufacturers.

Day 33 (4 Jan 26) - a little backyard work with 8i, 9i and Pw using Divot Bd, hard foam balls. Goal - work on setup (a bit of the stack and tilt pre-load on lead foot), consistent ball first contact (divot bd to reflect low point contact) and predictable shot shape. Setup had the Divot Bd 32yds from 12’ fence gate and I could get up to 64yds before the pompous grass in the yard behind. The gate served as the “window” for the shot shapes (really was just working on more of a baby draw)…really helps when I have a great target point. Was a good focused session on making solid swings…

Off to a descent start, 2 birdies today, so I'm -2 for now.

That is cool! I got to play there about 15+ years ago. It was a good time. I just remember it being very windy (20+ mph winds). It was fun to then see the pro's play the same course in about a month.

Thanks but honestly… I don't know any other way. I don't mind being wrong so long as I know where to go from there. I don't like being wrong — I'd love to get things right (which is different than "being right"). I recommend grabbing a furniture slider or a paper plate or something, and doing something like this: First, make a swing where you let your trail foot swing out as you turn, then twist that foot back in. From DL and FO, it'll look like this: Then, during a regular backswing, try to twist your foot in slightly (demonstrated in the left image): You'll notice a crease along the trail side of your hip, your pelvis will "fold" into that thigh (internal rotation of the hip joint), and your "bits" will be squished a little between your pelvis and your thigh. Ben Hogan said once: "At the top of the back swing the groin muscle on the inside of your rt [sic] leg near your right nut will tighten," Hogan wrote. "This subtle feeling of tightness there tells you that you have made the correct move back from the ball." I don't know about that, but you will probably feel something down around that area.

The first issue Erik spoke about is something we worked on for my swing during both GEARS sessions. GEARS was showing my pelvis center moving towards the ball during the back swing. I wasn’t the 4” guy though! This forced me to correct on the downswing to give myself space. My hip rotation was to high as well. We corrected it by first getting the weight off my heels in my stance and getting my posture correct. Then the feel was shifting back into my right hip at a 45 degree angle. This kept my pelvis center from moving towards the ball at the start of the backswing. I also didn’t sway back as much as I felt I did because of the angle I was shifting. Feel Ain’t Real. The cool thing about GEARS is as you work on something you can see the exact (Real) change happening. On video, it is much harder to spot this issue because of the 2D nature of filming. But I know what to look for now. Sadly, I was hurt all last year and most of this year so I really haven’t been able to work on it much. I did do a lot of backswing work though.

While I have practiced a decent amount in the past 6-7 weeks, once I figured I wouldn't maintain the rules of the challenge I stopped posting 😞 Anyway, I'm back and I think I'll be able to maintain! Let's see. Day 1, 12/30/25. 10 balls with 6-iron, another 10 with a 9-iron, and a few chips with the UW and 54. All off a mat, into a net, indoors, with real golf balls. The will swing focus was on controlling the length of the backswing and doing so slowly.

It should feel uncomfortable. It's new. Different.

Good for you for learning and admitting it-I think you and I both still let some higher handicappers do a little bit because they have other things to worry about first. But trail knee flex I would not have even imagined pros kept as consistent as your graphs show.-Surprising! Good for you.

This year is the best I’ve done - 16 of the 18 holes birdied. Funny thing the two remaining - one is one of the shortest and “easiest” of par 4’s and the other is second hardest hole on the back, also a par 4. Still have an opportunity or two to maybe make it…either way it’s been a solid year of playing.

Day 137 12-27 Worked on wider backswing today and tried to remain flowy. Recorded face on and down the line. Swing is looking better but I mentally felt off today, just frustrated. Tomorrow's a new day!

I guess I'll stay at -16 for this year's challenge. I never birdied holes 7, 13 (the 2 hardest holes) in 2025. Also had a couple Eagle putts on the par 5's, but didn't convert either time. Looking forward to 2026, though!

I guess that just tells us you don't know the handicap system all that well.

Eagled 7 the other day with @DrizZzY (toe-drew a driver, hit a great hybrid to like 15 feet from 251), and birdied 6 today. So, I only have 2 and 8 on the front nine to finish this year, and then several holes on the back. I've not played the back a lot this year. The 7th I'd previously birdied, I mean. But eagling supersedes that.

Got a little work in today. A small sample of today's session. 川村 洋介 Kawamura (@kawamura28) • Instagram reel 3,703 Likes, 51 Comments - 川村 洋介 Kawamura (@kawamura28) on Instagram: "Thanks for looking at my posts every...

WOW, are things that different in the U.S.? I play in the UK, and on my course a player with a handicap of 6.9 would play off of 6, and a player with a handicap of 20 would play off of 19. In a medal comp that means the higher handicapper would get an additional 13 shots, or 13 points if it were stableford. If the difference were only 5 shots the lower handicapper would win 10 times out of 10