Ernie Els' swing: 1994 vs 2012

Getting Old ?

Erine is kinda fat now ...

Kind of hard to compare an iron swing to a driver swing. The iron swing has a much shorter backswing. Same smooth tempo.

Great swing, I actually like the 2012 a little more haha

I'd take that swing all day.

Looks like his hip turn is extremely minimal on the backswing, yet he creates so much speed with his torso that he just crushes with a perfect repeating swing. Those shoulders are meant for destruction. .

Much less violent hip movement now. Aging.

Heh, as an aside, a few years back I had a lesson & my swing videotaped. When the pro showed me it, he put me on split-screen with Ernie Els, flipping Els to be a lefty (I'm left-handed). At the address position, he said to me, 'What do you see different in your setup from Ernie's?' I said dang, I don't know, they look pretty similar. His answer, and I quote, "They're identical. Your setup is superb, every bit as good as Ernie's."

While I was busy congratulating myself, he said, "Now let's put it in motion."

That's where all similarities ended.

Wayne DeFrancesco's swing analysises (is that a word?) on youtube are always interesting.  He identifies an issue with Ernie's beautiful looking swing - his shaft is quite a bit more upright at impact than address.  He says this requires more hand action through impact to square the face which requires great timing.

Same is true of Luke Donald's swing.  Another beautiful looking swing, but not always as accurate as they'd like (though both, of course, great players with lovely swings).

Quote:

Originally Posted by iacas

Virtually every player's shaft is higher at impact than setup. It's simply a function of how uncocked the wrists are.

In which case i guess DeFrancesco has identified that Els' hands at impact are higher than most relative to their address position.  Undoubtably both Els and Donald's hands 'cross over' earlier than most other tour pros after impact.

Back then ( 1994) Me and everyone I played golf with thought he had by far the smoothest swing on tour.

People age, and things sometimes change.

Ernie Last week -sorry, bad camera angles