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This swing is really a tale of two halves when it comes to what I prefer in a golf swing, the first half (backswing) being nothing like I would teach, while the second half (transition and forward swing) has a ton of what I like. Of course, she is winning practically every tournament she plays in, so my observations are not a criticism but rather an analysis based on what I usually consider technique items that I would teach pretty much any player.
I am a big fan of Tour Tempo, John Novosel’s book based around a remarkably simple concept (counting the amount of time it takes to move the club from resting to impact [tempo] and comparing the time it takes to reach the top with the time it takes to start down and reach impact [rhythm]). Novosel found that most excellent players use a 3:1 rhythm and a tempo that has the swing taking just under to just over one second to complete. His main contribution to the body of conventional golf swing knowledge is that most amateurs and lesser players are too slow overall, and especially in the backswing. Park’s backswing, as are quite a few of the women on the LPGA Tour, is extremely slow, and involves a significant amount of lifting, another technique item I regard as almost fundamentally unsound, as it deprives the golfer of the use of the ground to begin the lower body thrust necessary to start the forward swing correctly. She pretty much just stands up, lifts the club vertically in front of her, and does so in slow motion. After that she is brilliant, moving the hands out to the ball, flattening the shaft, keeping her hips deep and exiting the club left through impact. The only face- on view I could find reveals a lateral movement that is less than most great ball strikers, but is also fairly common among women (see Michelle Wie) and a left leg that straightens somewhat prematurely.
Park averages 237 yards off the tee, and the fact that she can dominate the Tour hitting it that short tells you that she is a straight hitter who is accurate with the rest of her clubs, has a good short game, and is on a streak where she is making everything. It also tells you that the way the courses are set up for the women allow for this type of game to win. If you don’t have to hit it anywhere and you have the size and strength to bunt it out there and still win then why not? I really thought that Yani Tseng was the savior of women’s golf (or at least followed in the tradition of Annika and Lorena) as she hit the ball with compression and aggressiveness, but she has, for some reason or another, fallen on hard times, and now the popcorn hitters are winning all the events.
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