WEBVTT

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In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the swing of Francisco

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Malinari and how he is such an elite driver of the golf ball and what you can

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learn to apply to your own game.

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Now, Francisco Malinari is having a brilliant month of July, having two wins,

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including his most recent win at the Open Championship.

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He's currently second in strokes gain ball striking, and one of the most

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interesting stats is per mile per hour.

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He hits the ball further in the air than anybody on the PGA Tour.

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So we're going to talk about how he's able to maximize his swing for driver

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distance and compete with the guys who have much more club head speed.

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Because even though he is 117th on tour in terms of club head speed, he's 53rd

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in driving distance, showing that he maximizes what he does with his swing, and

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we're going to discuss a couple ideas of how you can learn to maximize your

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swing as well.

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So Francisco Malinari is the second ranked ball striker on the planet right now

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. His putting has held him back in the past, but he's historically been a very

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consistent and accurate striker of the golf ball.

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There are three main things that I look at when it comes to ball striking

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consistency. One is looking at the swing plane or path of the club from the

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down the line camera angle.

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And one is looking at the wide point or where the width in the swing is

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occurring. Both of those are path constraints that help produce good sweet spot

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contact in Francisco Malinari does a beautiful job with both of those.

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The third thing that I look for is club face control, because if you are going

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to have great arm extension and width through the ball, then you need to have a

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club face in a position that matches that swing style.

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So we're going to talk about a key checkpoint for you to understand if you're

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controlling your club face and how that relates to the path.

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So here we can see a screenshot of some of his driver characteristics.

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With a club head speed of below tour average, as I mentioned, he's above

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average in terms of distance, and he's number one in carry distance per mile

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per hour.

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In order to maximize those numbers, you've got to hit the ball on the sweet

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spot, which would give you a high smash factor.

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You've got to hit up on the ball. He hits up on the ball 4.3 degrees on this

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particular driver, and you've got to manage your spin rate.

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There are a few swing characteristics that lend to all three of these, where

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some golfers focus primarily on hitting up on the ball and don't necessarily

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manage their spin rate.

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In order to hit up on the ball and manage your spin rate, you're going to have

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to control the face to path relationship and avoid having too much of a scoop

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or too much trail wrist flexion through the ball.

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Flexion through the ball can help you hit up on it, but will typically cause

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lower contact on the face and a higher spin rate.

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So when we're looking at a rough estimate of how he's hitting up on the ball,

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you can look at the club head height compared to the golf ball or compared to

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the ground.

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And what you'll see from this face on camera is when he gets the club down

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close to even with his trail foot, the club head has about the same height as

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the golf ball.

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You'll see that while the club head is about the same height to the golf ball,

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or even slightly below it in order to hit up on it, you'll notice that his

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right arm still has a fair amount of flex in it.

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The only way to really get that relationship is to have this tilt behind the

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golf ball or have a fair amount of side bend of the hips to get that right

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shoulder lower to the ground.

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Then he's able to extend his arms through the shot in the direction of the

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target. I frequently have amateur golfers who come in struggling with their

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driver, and one of their main goals is to get all of their weight on top of

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their front foot.

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You'll see that typically elite drivers of golf ball get a lot of pressure into

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that front foot so that they can brace and angle themselves away from the ball,

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but their upper body position is actually going to be closer to over their

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trail foot than over their lead foot.

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Combine that with good arm extension timing and that allows you to get a very

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long flat spot down at the bottom of the swing and allows you to have great

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width in the follow through just like Francisco is demonstrating here.

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Now in order to do that, in order to have the club low coming into the ball,

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low through the ball with a gradual upward path, you're hitting it well before

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you reach the widest part of your swing.

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So in order to do that relationship, your chest will be pointing out in front

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of the golf ball at a rough angle of about 20, 30 degrees out down the target

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line, which means the arms and the club will be slightly behind your body.

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In order to, or when you have the arms and the club behind your body, that

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naturally opens the club face compared to where you were set up, because it's

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set up, you have the club directly in front of your chest.

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So when you have this relationship where you have the club behind your chest,

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in order to close it, you're going to have to rotate the club face more closed,

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and we're going to take a look at the down the line of how Francisco Malinari

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does that.

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Alright, from the down the line, we're going to take a look at how he controls

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the club face. So during the backswing, you will see that the club face is

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roughly matching spine angle, there hasn't been very much forearm rotation.

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When he gets into that position, you'll see that the V on the right hand is

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pointing roughly vertical.

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Now, when we get back down to that point, you'll see that club face is maybe

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just a touch more open than it was, and you'll see that the V is not quite as

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rotated on top, but very much on top of the shaft.

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What many golfers who struggle with a slice or who struggle with more of a

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scoop will find is that if you look at your swing at this point, the V there,

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that right hand will be a little bit more underneath the shaft.

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It'll be pointing more back at your chest, and you won't have nearly as much

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extension of that trail wrist.

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That extension of the trail wrist is necessary for getting the club low to the

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ground, but not from arm extension, more from the pivot like we saw in the face

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on view.

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So this is a great little reference or checkpoint, and you can either look at

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the flexing of the lead wrist or the position of the trail wrist.

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If you zoom in on his grip setup, you can see that he doesn't have an extremely

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strong grip. The V is pointing much more just off his cheek as opposed to well

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over to the right shoulder.

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So the weaker your grip, which many amateurs have, the more that you would have

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to get this right hand on top of the club.

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Also, the more that you're going to have shaft lean, the more that you're going

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to have the right hand on top of the club.

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A good little checkpoint is getting the club face pointing closer to the target

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earlier.

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This allows you to control the club face from less of a straightening of the

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arms and more with a rotation of the body and extension of the arms later or

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through the ball.

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So you can see a foot before impact or so roughly when the club is even with

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the right thigh is a great place to check the club face and make sure that it's

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already pointing closer to the golf ball.

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Many amateurs who I see battle a scoop and battle or have problems with the

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driver, that club face would be pointing well over here just before impact.

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You'll notice one of the trends of some of the more consistent drivers of the

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golf ball these days is that they get the club face closed to the path and

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pointing more at the target earlier.

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The more shaft lean that you're going to have, the more that you need this

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phenomenon to happen.

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So here we have Francisco swinging a fairway wood or hybrid and you can see we

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can't quite look at it at the dead down the line because the camera angle is

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great and the club is blocking the hand.

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But from here, if you were to take a look, you can see just a frame after it,

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that right hand is well on top and the V is actually pointing on the other side

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of the shaft, not back at him.

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If your right hand gets really underneath, then you're going to have to scoop

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the wrist in order to square the face.

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That's going to mess up your low point and give you more spin, which is going

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to rob you of this ability to maximize your driver speed.

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As many of you know, I'm a big fan of looking at the arm in hand action during

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the release, and here you'll see a great view of how Francisco controls the

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club consistently through the release.

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You can see that through the ball, he does not have a massive flexion or scoop

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ing of that trail arm. Instead, he has more of a trail arm extension.

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You also see that he doesn't have a massive breakdown or bending of the left

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wrist or extending of the left wrist. Instead, that arm stays relatively

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straight and matches the right arm with a little bit more rotation through the

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wall.

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All of these factors help produce the consistent path and outstanding face

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control that makes Francisco Molinari one of the top ball strikers in the world

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.