Sir Nick Faldo Still Seeing Things That Aren’t There

This video doesn’t need much explanation. Rory McIlroy is hitting an iron shot from a fairway bunker, and luckily the camera is stable so we can accurately assess any elevation change in his body by drawing a line on top of his head. In his swing analysis Faldo remarks about Rory’s “steady head” and how he “maintains his level”, but the swing itself shows otherwise. Remarkably enough, it’s not even close: McIlroy’s head drops 2-3 inches in the backswing and another 4-5 inches in the forward swing, which goes to show you that when these announcers want to see something and make a remark about it they just do it without even bothering to make sure that they are correct in their assessment. Faldo is so far off that it is embarrassing. I watched Butch Harmon do the exact same thing watching Jay Haas hit an iron out of a fairway trap. My guess is that if you believe that great players “maintain their level” (they don’t) then you will really buy into the fantasy that they especially have to do that in a fairway bunker, because lowering will most assuredly produce a “fat” shot (it doesn’t). Someday Nick will see one of these videos and start looking more closely at what he is commenting on before putting his foot squarely in his mouth. I hope he does, because he was a great player and seems like a likeable guy, but I can’t help it if he consistently misstates what is happening in the golf swing.