Tiger @ 50: Cutting-Edge Technology Reveals Important Metric in Tiger’s Golf Swing

Conversations about Tiger Woods’ golf swing – and, indeed, his career – are inextricably linked to the health of his knee.

The hope of avoiding a knee injury was a motivating factor in the decision to leave legendary instructor Butch Harmon and revamp his dominant 2000-era golf swing.

Advertisement

His victory at the US Open in 2008 with a broken leg marked one of the most iconic moments of his career and the start of a major drought lasting more than 10 years.

And because all the muscles in the human body work together as a system, things often work like an avalanche when something starts to go wrong. When a part fails, another stage compensates for it, before it fails under the excessive load. Could Tiger’s persistent back injuries over the past few years stem from his younger knee problems?

Regardless, Tiger’s golf swing changed a lot over the years, but it was the way his lower body moved that, in some ways, tells the best story and offers the rest of us a lesson.

We can measure this with an app called SportsBox AI. SportsBox uses AI technology measure different parts of our body during our golf swing. We plugged in a bunch of old Tiger swings, and using SportsBox Pelvic Sway Measurementwe can see exactly how the Tiger’s swing engine has evolved.

Advertisement

Early Dominance: Massive Side-by-Side Power

Tiger’s early dominance, winning three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championships followed by three consecutive U.S. Amateur Championships, soon followed by his victory at the 1997 Masters, was the product of what is perhaps the most powerful pound-for-pound swing of all time.

Tiger’s young swing was characterized by significant lateral movement:

• Sportsbox measuring your pelvis moving more than an inch and a half of the target halfway through his backswing.

• At the peak of his backswing, his pelvis had returned toward the front of the target, but he was still almost level.n inch further from the target than its starting pointa subtle so-called refocusing movement.

• Under the impact, Tiger’s pelvis shifted more than six inches towards the target.

• By his follow-up, his pelvis had slipped almost nine inches towards the target. You may notice a hint of its inverted C finish due to this huge amount of pelvic slide.

This lateral movement was a product of the times: many players of the khaki era made large hip slides toward the target to generate power. For Tiger, this was also a necessity, as his strong grip and closed clubface required aggressive sliding to keep the clubface from closing even more.

Advertisement

The Butch Era: Refined Power

The swing that propelled Tiger to the career Grand Slam and one of the most dominant stretches in golf history was a more refined version of his younger swing, which makes sense, as it was Butch Harmon who was the man overseeing both swings.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Tiger’s goal after his 1997 Masters victory was to exchange a little power for a lot more consistency. He did this by bringing the club and clubface into a more neutral position at the top of his backswing, less on the line, and softening his huge hip slide toward the target.

Advertisement

• Interestingly, in this iteration of Tiger’s swing, Tiger’s pelvis had slipped more. far from the target during the backswing than in previous years: More than 2 inches, according to SportsBox measurements.

Dom Furore

• But under the impact, Tiger’s pelvis had moved within five inches of the targetwhich is pretty standard among tour players and almost an inch and a half shorter than before.

Most amateurs would have difficulty returning to their lead leg by sliding that far from the target on the backswing. The genius of Butch and Tiger was recognizing that Tiger could handle it: the large offset in the backswing gave him power, and his explosive and athletic lower body ability allowed him to return to the sweet spot through impact, without fear of sliding too much.

You can see Tiger working on preventing excessive sliding in this Golf Digest swing footage taken back in the day. Notice how his right foot stays more on the ground, to prevent his lower body from sliding too far forward.

Dom Furore

Advertisement

The Haney era: Stay centered

Despite the dominant success of his newly refined swing, Tiger began to fear that the side thrust would take its toll on him in the long run. As he began to revamp his swing under Hank Haney, the duo made significant changes to his arm, wrist and grip position, but one of the most notable changes was his lower body movement, particularly during the backswing.

• Under Haney’s guidance, Tiger’s pelvic sway during the backswing was nearly eliminated, with his lower body being never stray more than an inch from the target during the backswing.

• At the top of its backswing, SportsBox measures Tiger’s pelvis was within 0.2 inch of where it started during installation.

• This resulted in a less dramatic thrust toward the target at impact, his hips moving four inches from their starting position by impact And five and a half inches at the end of its release.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

It is impossible to say whether this had the effect of protecting his knees in the long term. What is undeniable is that Tiger created a golf swing with less side-to-side movement than before and was hugely successful.

Advertisement

Pursuing compression: a new swing

After parting ways with Haney, Tiger once again reinvented his swing, this time focusing on new measures brought about by the rise of nre technology, including better compression with his iron shots.

This change was reflected once again in his pelvic swing numbers.

• SportsBox measured the movement of his pelvis no more than 0.2 inches from the target at any time during the backswing, and an inch offset towards the target from the top of his backswing.

• As a result of the impact, Tiger’s pelvis moved considerably eight inches to the targetfar above tour standards more than in his younger years.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

This swing also featured a lowering of the Tiger’s head, creating a significant amount of shaft lean. Although this swing generated some controversy and was often criticized, Tiger achieved impressive results after an initial adjustment period, winning five times in 2013 and narrowly missing another victory at the Masters.

Advertisement

The modern-day hybrid: a little bit of everything

In recent years, Tiger seems to have taken a hybrid approach to his swing, combining elements of his work with Butch Harmon and Hank Haney. His grip, arms and club stances resemble those of his Harmon years, while his body movements and structure are more reminiscent of his Haney-era swing.

Currently, the Tigris basin is moving two inches from the ball in the middle of the backswingthen refocuses on approximately half an inch from the top of his backswing.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

His head moves back slightly to accommodate his limited back mobility, and through impact he achieves a pelvis shift of about six and a half inches toward the target, which is considered the high end of the optimal range for pros.

Advertisement

Lessons for amateur golfers

The evolution of the Tiger swing highlights the importance of pelvic movement for golfers of all levels. For amateur golfers, lateral movement is crucial for generating power, but not moving enough toward the target can lead to a variety of problems. While professionals typically move their hips six inches toward the target, amateurs often struggle to move more than two inches, resulting in inconsistent shots and reduced distance.

Tiger’s career-long focus on optimizing his pelvis movements highlights its importance in achieving a powerful, consistent and efficient golf swing. By studying the changes in Tiger’s technique over the years, amateur golfers can gain valuable knowledge about the role of lower body movements in the golf swing and work to incorporate these lessons into their own game.