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When you watch Charles Howell’s swing at full speed you would never expect to see what you see when you slow it down. Howell’s transition move with his driver and 3 wood is quite bizarre, enough so that I can say with some assurance that it is unique among Tour players, although if it does resemble anyone it would be Phil Mickelson. As far as unique things go Howell has had a career quite unlike any other Tour veteran, playing in 450 events and winning but twice, while making between 1.25 and 2.75 million dollars for 17 consecutive years. This year is one of Howell’s best, and the swings you see here are from the Quicken Loans Invitational at Avenel Farms where he lost to Kyle Stanley in a playoff. He is known for his interest in swing technique and is said to have helped many on Tour with their own swings, and I would surely love to talk with him about the concept behind what he is doing with these swings. With the irons, you only get a tiny hint of what he does with his longer clubs, and if I saw this happening with a normal player (steepening the club in transition and not clearing the hips until the club is parallel to the ground in the forward swing) I would think that the club would almost surely be stuck behind the hands on the approach and the release would be flippy at best. Of course, Howell’s play this year tells you that neither of those things are true, which is why it is so interesting to analyze the swings of these top players to see how they do what they do. When I see something like what Howell does produce the results he gets it just tells me again that there are very few things you absolutely can’t do and still be great.
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