Luke Donald Driver Swing

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Hayes9801

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According to his stats Luke is one of the shortest and most crooked drivers of the ball on the PGA Tour. He's where Scott Verplank was when his elbow problems were at their worst.

Yet Johnny Miller says he has one of the best swings in golf.

How can such a "pretty" swing yield such pitiful results? What's he doing wrong?

I'd like to read what some of the Manzella instructors think about this.
 
lia41985

lia41985

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Pretty is as pretty does but his swing is pretty and effective. He's great with the irons (especially distance control) and I think I read that he was impressive in the Trackman (see page 12, http://www.trackman.dk/download/newsletter/newsletter7.pdf). Very orthodox and Brian said on one of his videos that he's a modern day Gene Littler who is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the matrix, shading a touch toward the draw side. Recent video:
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_kMF7v_WTcM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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johnnymarlboro

johnnymarlboro

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Hayes9801 said:
According to his stats Luke is one of the shortest and most crooked drivers of the ball on the PGA Tour. He's where Scott Verplank was when his elbow problems were at their worst.

Yet Johnny Miller says he has one of the best swings in golf.

How can such a "pretty" swing yield such pitiful results? What's he doing wrong?

I'd like to read what some of the Manzella instructors think about this.
Click to expand...

During the match play finals, one of the announcers (I'm not sure if it was Johnny Miller) did mention at one point how awful of a driver Luke Donald is. Miller did say something about how he had only won twice on Tour in the US, and how he's "too good" to have only won twice.

"He hasn't been real good in his career at winning tournaments," Miller said. "This is his 200th PGA Tour start with two wins...There is a recipe for winning and some guys never quite find it. They leave out the Tabasco or something."

That quote from John Strege: Monday Qualifier: Golf Digest
 
L

Lifter

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Seems to me that Donald has a swing that looks very pretty but doesn't generate much distance. According to the stats, Donald was 177th out of 192 guys in driving distance last year. When you hit it that short, you better be on fire with every other element of your game.

It is true that Furyk hit his drives slightly shorter last year than Donald. However, I think Furyk's technique is a lot more proficient than Donald's at creating repetitive impacts with the driver all the way through wedges. When you hit it that short you gotta be extraordinary to win, and Donald isn't all that extraordinary.

P.S.: The fairways were very wide and the greens were extremely challenging, two factors that seem to work in Donald's favor.
 
gmbtempe

gmbtempe

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Kevin Shields said:
As some might say.....very high rate of closure thru impact
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Why would that be?

My believe is he tends to get a little under plane on his misses and has lots of roll of the LAFW, at times those pretty cross over hands can even get a little flippy looking.
 
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birly-shirly

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I read an interview with LD in which he said that he'd gone in search of more driving distance, failed, and spent the last 3 or 4 years trying to get his old swing back and tuned. It doesn't seem like his driving distance is going to go anywhere now, but it might be interesting to review his accuracy going forward.
 
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Hayes9801

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Kevin.....how would you coach LD to slow his rate of closure?

Or is there something that would be more effective in helping him hit more fairways?
 
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dbl

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For 2011, Donald's Driving Accuracy stats show he hits 60.1% of fairways (average length 261.5 yards). If one were to "help him" a fair bit, wouldn't he only get to maybe 70%? Doesn't seem that dramatic to me.

Mickelson hits 54.7% by comparison.
Ogilvy 66.01%
Singh 56.57%

and (haha) O'Hair 59.7%

I guess you'd have to look at other short hitters to compare. Best I found randomly was Heath Slocum at 77.36% at 276.1 yards, and Tim Clark at 73.28%.
 
counterfall

counterfall

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Johnny Miller also commented twice how Luke tees up the driver on the heel of the club instead of the middle or toe. That is kind of an odd move that I don't see anyone else doing.
The closure rate would help all around as I see it because a lower closure rate means the club is square sooner in the downswing rather than having to time a handsy cross-over to square the club. As a result, impact quality (in relation to sweetspot) could go up along with consistency and maybe a little added distance as well.
 
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Hayes9801

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If you're hitting about the same number of fairways as guys who are blowing it by you by 20-40 yards, you're going to suffer. You can win on a given day or week when you really putt lights out (like this week), but the odds will always be against you.
 
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rogerdodger

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If you could take ten driver swings/game if you had a choice, likely Donald would not be in the mix. Everyone wants super-length and Hogan accuracy. However, when considering the whole package, I would take his game in a minute. Fantastic putting stroke, one of the best bunker players around and excellent on the short game. He hit a 195 yard six iron to ice the match play, so he has plenty of power. He answered the question on why he hasn't won more, he tried to gain distance, which has ruined more pros than were successful at it.
 
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Kevin Shields

Super Moderator
Hayes9801 said:
Kevin.....how would you coach LD to slow his rate of closure?

Or is there something that would be more effective in helping him hit more fairways?
Click to expand...

I'd at least try to shallow out his swing earlier and work on his hand path through the ball. His swing looks steep to shallow as he jumps out of the way and kinda gets a little flippy.
 
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adamscot89

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I never remember a swing looking very bad when you follow it up with a great chip and a great putt, which Donald does a lot. The guy is a short game wiz which helps him a lot to wear guys down in match play and in the bad conditions of the European Tour. Not a great swing but I would be happy to take over his financial portfolio any day lol
 
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jaridyard

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Luke's driver S/S is around 109mph, not terrible. He spent much of last year trying to shallow Attack Angle but struggled, it's an ongoing project for him.
 
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