What you can learn from Jim Furyk’s unique swing

Instruction
Jim-Furyk

Jim Furyk has been part of the PGA Tour furniture for the past 30 years. In that time he has won 17 times with his most notable success coming at the 2003 US Open. Since then he has broken 60 twice and he remains the only player to have recorded a 58 on the Tour.

He captained the losing Ryder Cup team in Paris in 2018 and will now skipper the American Presidents Cup team. Throughout his 30-year career Furyk has only had one swing coach, his dad Mike, which explains its longevity. It’s certainly unusual but has stood the test of time. He’s always been relatively short but his accuracy and ability to find fairways and greens is phenomenal.

Mike Furyk on his son’s swing

“My son Jim has an underturn/overturn swing. That means his hips underturn in the backswing and overturn during the follow through, which causes a left-to-right ball flight.

His hands are so close to his body at address, the club has nowhere to go but up in the backswing. That causes his ‘loop’ since he has to drop the club on plane during the downswing and turn his hips quickly in the followthrough to get the club past his body.

“The difference between Jim’s swing years ago and his current swing is significant. Near the top, his hands used to come over his head, the club pointed right of the target. Since then, Jim’s swing has matured. Now his hands come behind his head, and the club points at the target.

This simple cut swing may not be the best for distance but playing from the middle of the fairway has helped Jim finish among the top 10 23 times in the Majors.”

Mark Immelman on Furyk’s swing

“Let’s follow Jim’s hand path, as he takes the club back the shaft is parallel with the ground and the face looking downward.

As we get further into the backswing the hands start to travel a little bit more upward and will continue to do this – the left arm is across the body, the right elbow is in behind him and there is an absence of wrist hinge and hip rotation. He is essentially lifting the arms up into the sky.

“As he transitions down there is the shallowing of the club, the left arm is across the body and his right elbow is almost in behind his body which is crazy but as he approaches contact his arms are in tag with the body and the clubface is lining up the ball and Jim hits it squarely every single time.”

Jim Furyk on his own swing

“Your path on the way down is what’s going to determine a lot about where the ball is going to go. A good lesson I got as a young kid was, my dad gave me a lesson in our kitchen before I even got to high school, and talked about the path of the golf ball. When I practise, I always put a club down on the ground, or I carry like a metal ruler with me, just for alignment.

“So when I’m practicing, I know that I’m aligned properly, I know I’m aiming where I want to and that takes one of the variables out. Then I know that if I’m out here on the course and I hit a bad shot left or right, I’m always wondering, was I aiming over there? Did I make a bad swing? When I’m practising I put something down for alignment so that I know I take one variable out. I know that it’s not my alignment.

“It could be my ball position. It could be some other things. It could just be my swing but I can figure some things out. If I know where I’m lined up, and I know that I start the ball to the right, I know that my swing path came from the inside out in order to start the ball right. If I start the ball left, my swing path came from the outside in, came across the ball. So it really doesn’t matter what my swing does on the way back.

“It really matters what my swing does on the way through, where I hit the ball. It probably would be easier for some people to take the club straight back and straight through. To me, my swing feels straight back and straight through. It just happens to, it doesn’t feel like it loops to me. It feels straight back. So where the ball starts is a product of your swing path. Where the ball curves to is a product of where your face is. So if my ball curves right to left, I know that the face was a little closed.”

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