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I didn’t realize until I looked at the stats, but Fleetwood may be the best ball striker currently on the planet. The winner of this year’s Race to Dubai drives it an average of just under 300 yards and hits 70 % of his fairways, which obviously puts him into position to hit a lot of greens, which he does, his 77% GIR 3 full points better than anyone on the European Tour. His backswing could be a model for anyone, and with his strength and trunk mobility it sets him up to hit the ball exceptionally well. I love the way he maintains his left wrist cup in the takeaway with all sorts of width all the way to the top, where he gets the club fully to parallel with the longer clubs unlike many of the younger players today. One thing you wouldn’t expect to see is his movement toward the ball with his upper body as he reaches the top of the swing, but it does not have the usual consequences as he makes an incredible pelvic move to stay deep with his hips and to clear his left side in a timely fashion. He compresses gradually during the entire swing until P6 (click here for an explanation of “P” positions) when he really uses the ground to drive his lower body up and to the left, firing his glutes and the back of his left leg to rotate the pelvis hard around to the finish, which appears somewhat cut off but is really about as full as it can get with the huge drive of his upper right side through impact. He also has a strange looking head drop right at impact, and keeps his eyes glued to the ground well past impact. His putting stats are woeful, ranking 199th out of 207 players in average putts per round, but that is not surprising since he hits it so much better than anyone else, another indication that great ball striking.
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