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Gary and I go way back to Wake Forest days in 1977 and 78, and I have worked with him off and on since then. He was the first player ever to achieve First Team All-American status four years in a row and was PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1980. He is one of those guys who stands out as an enigma, like how did this guy not become one of the great players of his generation? The simple fact is that when Gary hit his first ever slump back in the mid-80’s he became a swing nut, asking anyone and everyone for advice, taking lessons from everyone you could think of and some you can’t think of. It’s a shame, because he had as much natural talent as anyone I’ve ever seen, but you just couldn’t keep him focused on doing the same things over time. When I would work with him we would always concentrate more or less on the same things you will see in this video. He has always been late with his hands, which is a good thing when you want to compress the ball and strike it with the highest quality, but becomes a problem when there is a constant tendency to push the legs out from under the upper body in the forward swing, which makes those late hands get stuck behind the body and forces the release to be a bit flippy as the face needs a high rate of closure to avoid blocking the ball out to the right. Here we work on his posture, getting him less slumped and more out over the ball, and encourage more depth in the right hip going back, while opening the face a bit more in the takeaway, which in my mind makes right arm action more efficient throughout the swing.
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