Zach Johnson recently claimed his second major, the Claret Jug and the title “Champion golfer of the year” with an impressive playoff victory over Louis Oosthuizen and Mark Leishman this week at the British Open. However Zach’s swing would generally be one of the lesser talked about movements in golf despite its consistency and accuracy. Zach has worked with his coach Mike Bender over the last number of years and could definitely be described as one of the most efficient players on tour.
SET UP
Zack definitely has some nuances and unusual quirks to his set up. The first thing you will notice is that Zach sets up with the ball lined up significantly off the toe of the club. This is partially due to his impact position which we will talk about later. The second thing to look at is his often spoke about grip. You will notice he grips the club in a particularly strong position. Most people would associate this with a leftward miss but one thing that Zach constantly works on is matching his release up to this grip and other positions up with how he releases the golf club.
1ST POSITION
Zach takes the golf club away from the ball you will notice the club face is in a slightly shut position due to his exceptionally strong grip. One other thing you will notice with Zach is he has very little lateral movement on both the backswing and follow through. If you keep an eye on his head and his hips they stay perfectly in line with each other on the backswing in particular.
HALFWAY BACK
When Zach began working with his coach Mike Bender, Zach would have had a particularly upright back swing. You will often hear Mike mention this as the biggest change they made to Johnson’s swing. You will see now that Zach has a more rounded and quite a flat backswing with the club. As you will see the club points just inside the golf ball indicating it is nicely on plane.
TOP OF BACKSWING
As we get to the top of the backswing you will notice Zach’s hands have continued across his body producing quite a flat arm plane and a slightly laid off club position. One thing I really like about Zach’s swing is that he keeps the backswing short of parallel and wastes no energy. As we mentioned earlier Zach has maintained the slightly shut position that his grip demands.
DOWNSWING
Zach has a fantastic kinematic sequence and always starts the movement downwards with his hips. This allows the club to fall into a shallow position and also help Zach produce a slightly into out swing path. When we combine this in to out path with Zach’s slightly shut club face it is ideal impact factors for producing a consistent draw providing the club face does not get too closed to the path.
IMPACT
Johnson’s impact position is an interesting one, particularly from a down the line view. If you look at his impact position on the left you will notice the handle is significantly higher than where he addressed the ball. You will also see as he continues through impact he will maintain a very clean line between his left arm and the club. Although this would not be the most powerful way to swing the club it would be key to Johnson’s accuracy. In one way it reminds me of the infamous ball striker Moe Norman who actually addressed the ball in a similar position and maintained it throughout.
RELEASE
The release of the golf club is definitely one of the keys to Zach Johnson’s success and you will hear both him and his coach Mike Bender talk about it a lot. As I mentioned earlier you will notice that Zach’s left arm and club stay almost perfectly inline through and after impact. This allows him to keep the club square for a very long time and leads to Zach’s consistency and accuracy on the course. If Zach did not release the club like this he would be a significant risk of missing it left with such a strong grip and closed club face.
When I look at Zach’s golf swing as a whole it is definitely one of the more quirky ones in golf. Although not really what we would class as textbook he is a great example of someone who has found something that works for him. Mike Bender has done a great job with Zach on continually making small improvements without overhauling what Zach does well naturally.
