Lesson of the Week: Dave Rasley- Trying to Get Back to the Old Swing

Trust me when I tell you that Dave was a really good player.  The year I qualified for the Senior Open I was 51 years old.  I shot 67 and was medalist.  At 69 and in 2^nd place was Dave, and he is 10 years older than I am.  That makes him 73 now and having moved to Arizona he still plays lots of golf.  A few years ago, he decided that he would finally fix his short, across the line swing, so he signed up for a series of 10 lessons from a reputable teacher.  He told the guy all he wanted to do was lay the club off, and I’m sure they tried extremely hard.  I had taught Dave back in the day and we always tried to address his top of the swing position, but if we changed it at all it wasn’t noticeable, and he still played well.  This time it ruined him.  Luckily, he has good video from about 5 years ago when he was still hitting it good, and here I simply put the swings side by side and try to discern the differences.  The main things Dave needs to get back to is keeping the club more vertical in the backswing and flattening it with a hard “catch” that will torque his hands while the club changes direction and kicks back toward the plane.