If you are new to golf, you’ve probably never heard of David Duval.  But for me, he’s the #1 or #2 golfer of all-time in the 90s.

For whatever reason that David Duval has not been winning again, let’s take a look at his swing from Doral in 1997 to see what made him “tick”.

One thing I really like about David Duval is the way he finishes his swing with his back straight.  This is really good for painless-back golf.

On the takeaway, David Duval looks pretty good.

At top of his swing, David is in perfect plane.

Between his backswing and downswing, you can clearly tell that David is really transferring his weight back to the left.

Also notice that his head is actually turning towards the target at impact.  David Duval is the only other professional golfer I know who lets his head move freely during impact other than Annika Sorenstam.

I believe this head move can actually help the golfer hit the ball better if done right.  But if you simply move your head at impact, it will probably make you chop the ball more times than not.  To do it right, try following the golf ball as it takes off.

Watch David Duval’s wonderful wind-up finish.  He’s almost wind-up too much but you get the idea here.

Hopefully David Duval does recover from his long-term winning draught.  I have seen signs of him playing better lately at the British Open where he finishes Top 10 for the first 2 days.  Time will tell whether David Duval is able to come back to competitive golf or not but he’s still a British Open champ.

David Duval Links

David Duval Offical Profile at Pgatour.com

David Duval on Wikipedia

Here’s David Duval’s Swing from Doral Open in 97:

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Let’s take a look at Parker McLachlin’s iron swing, the winning swing of Reno Tahoe Open.  (Too bad Michelle Wie didn’t make the cut AGAIN!)

At takeaway, notice that Parker’s clubface is actually pointing down at the ground, a little too closed.   This causes lots of pulls and balls that will start left and go left.  It’s best to have rotated a little more here for crisp contact.

At half-way, Parker looks pretty good.

At top of his swing, Parker is in perfect plane.

At half-way down, Parker looks great.

After impact, Parker is slightly outside the plane, meaning he swung slightly inside-out.  Very good stuff.

Parker may have a pretty good swing and he has won a PGA Tour event to prove it with a round of 10 under on Friday of 62.

Here’s Parker McLachlin’s iron swing in slow motion:

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Here’s a driver swing analysis of today’s Canadian Open winner, Chez Reavie.

At address, Chez really stands tall, almost falling backwards but this is preferable way to swing than “crouching” over the ball.

At takeaway, Chez gets a little too inside but not too bad.

Chez gets really flat at this point due to his upright address but this is fine.

At the top, Chez gets back on-plane as seen here.

Half-way down, you can tell, Chez is in great position to hit the ball with the club inside the plane.

Impact looks perfect.

After impact, Chez gets back on perfect plane, sign of great drives.

The finish.

Here’s Chez Reavie’s swing in slow motion:

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Congrats to today’s Candian Open win and your first Chez!

Today, I hit the ball great again.  I didn’t start hitting the ball great until I could control the length of my backswing.  You see, overswinging causes me to slide my whole body to the right and by controlling my backswing, I was able to control my swing better, thus hit straighter shots online to the target.

So today’s key:

Swing within myself, do not overswing!

Remember my post on swing thoughts the other day?

Well, today I had another great swing day and have one more modification:

Think more about the process of keeping your upper spine very vertical on the downswing and also think more about the downswing process and let the backswing dictate itself.

What I mean is that you want to be really thinking about the end result, which is good follow-through.  Once you get a good follow-through going, your backswing will naturally follow that path.  It’s never the other way around, similar to hitting bunker shots.