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Wayne,
“Here are videos of my son Conner Kumpula. He is playing collegiate golf at Oregon State University. We have worked together on his swing. He is historically a player that hit golf shots with lots of shape. He would change swing planes and use his hands to accomplish this. He has won at every level without working that hard at it. Now that he is at college the course set ups do not allow for a shot to be that far off line. He is working harder now to incorporate good fundamentals into his swing to try and get his misses to stay in play. The consistency is still not there and I think with the educated eye that you have and the experience of fitting the proven fundamentals of people that are successful can speed up the process of consistency. Look forward to hearing from you soon.”
As you watch the video you will note that Connor is a strong young man and has an excellent, athletic swing. My suggestions did not produce immediate results, and after a few other correspondences with Connor’s father I sent him this:
Bob: Send me another swing or two.
What usually happens is that the hands are so used to the face being shut they act as though it still is. It could also be that the intended change has changed something else, or has not changed at all. My suggestions are just ideas based on the swings I receive. Further suggestions would be based on what happened when the ideas were implemented. Golf is a timing game. There is no secret to squaring the face. If the ball is going to the right there are reasons for it. Connor is a good player and should be able to hit the ball where he is aiming without worrying about squaring the face. If it is not squaring then there are still issues prior to the release that are keeping it from happening. If the club continues to be closed then an Azinger level left hold on cut might be the way to go in the short term. I won’t be able to tell until I see some swings where he is trying to do what I suggested.
WD
After Bob got my email I received this reply, which I thought was quite helpful:
Wayne,
“We will definitely send you a few shots again. My son at this point is going to take a week or two off. With the college season over he said he is tired of it.
To give you a little background of how he got to this point. Conner and I have worked together on his swing. He made it clear at an early age that it was his swing and that he did not want to change it much. I have always tried to get him to drill good fundamentals on the range. Usually sticking things in the ground to keep things on plane. He has always had a swing that looked a lot like Matt Kuchar. Both in the take away and the down swing. He was a very small kid up until his junior year in high school and did not hit the ball very far which enabled him to hit the ball off line once in a while without penalty. He won four scoring titles and had a chance to win state four years in a row. Winning the last two. He never shot a tournament round in high school in the 80’s. Which in Oregon is a pretty good accomplishment because of weather and course conditions can be difficult. Finished his junior ranking inside the top 100 going like 28 under in his last 6 tournaments.
Starting at Oregon State the coaching staff has the kids keep stats on almost everything. He led all the golfers in the short game stats. He was still managing to score well not hitting it very well. He qualified for two out of the first six tournaments I think, not playing well in the first two. So here we are today. He mentioned about 2 months ago he would like to get a swing coach. I come from the opinion that not many people have the knowledge of the swing well enough to coach someone that has a unique move at the ball. I really liked the way you broke down the swing of Bubba Watson and believe that you have the ability to customize good fundamentals into a person’s individual swing and not just pull up a swing to try and emulate.
We have a player that not only is hitting the ball worse but really has lost his enthusiasm for the game. Being a plus handicap myself and knowing how the game can kick you in the teeth I am concerned that with the lack of results he will lose the drive it takes to succeed.
Just wanted to give you a little background to see where Conner is at this point in his career. Given the Kuchar reference you can see the changes he has made in the backswing and setting the club a little higher. When he feels like getting back at it we will get some video to you.
Sorry for the rambling but thought more information is better when dealing with the golf swing.”
Thanks again
I haven’t seen any further swings from Connor but I thought the back and forth would be interesting for everyone.
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