Jaye Marie Green is a top-notch LPGA player who has some moves worth trying to imitate. While most of us will not be tour caliber, there is always something to help us improve our own swings to perform better! JMG is one of the best examples of sound fundamentals.
Here is some great slow motion video of LPGA player, Jaye Marie Green courtesy of GolfSwingHD. Pause the video at the time point on the video (mm:ss) to match my comments.
Set Up – 00:00
Jaye Marie Green has a classic driver set up that you want to try to copy. Notice that her feet are wider than her shoulders. The longest club in the bag requires the longest distance between the feet! The ball is forward of the middle of her feet to help contact the ball just barely on the upswing at contact. She has a nice, slight “side tilt” of the spine away from the target. The hands and end of grip are pointed at her belt buckle.
Takeaway – 00:10
When the shaft is parallel with the ground on the way back her shoulders have made a small turn as the arms remain in front of her with space and extension. Notice that her hands are low and below her waist at this point. I have many people that raise their hands too high above their waist when the shaft gets parallel to the ground. She has established nice width at this point. If you have trouble understanding width, look at this point of her swing.
Top of Swing – 00:19
Her back is turned a full 90 degrees toward her target. Her rear hip and knee remain braced as the backloaded a majority of her weight on the inside of the back foot and heel. This is torque. Her rear foot remains nice and planted. So many people struggle with the rear knee and foot moving to the outside, where the lower body does not resist the turning of the upper body and therefore, no torque is created. Her hands are a great combination of behind and above her head, which is a great spot to inside attack the ball from. Her left hip is now a couple of inches back from where it started to really illustrate how much of a powerful loading of the right side just took place!
Half Way Down – 00:22
I like to measure the lag at this point. When the left arm is parallel with the ground, it is nice to see the club shaft angled back toward 1 o’clock – 2 o’clock. This shows how great she is a “storing lag”. Many people have a Letter L look at this point in the swing and have already begun to spend the lag too much at this point. It should be noted that her lead hip most definitely made a forward move, or bump toward the target, leading the downswing. This is the sequence or the order that you want in your downswing!
At Impact – 00:24
Notice how her rear foot has “air under it” as it thrusts her forward to the outside of her front foot! Many have trouble keeping that rear foot planted on the ground, which really hinders weight transfer. This weight transfer happens as the hips rotate around to the left after that lead bump forward. Her head remains behind the ball as she extends her left arm and shaft in a nice straight looking line.
Follow Through – 00:25
The shaft is parallel with the ground and pointing at the target. Her head remains behind the ball for one more mega second! She made a great transfer to her front foot with a great left hip rotation. See the extension her arms have? Many have folded the arms up at this point.
At Finish – 00:34
Classic finish. Her rear shoulder is now “in the lead” and closest to the target. This is the sign of a full release. Her right hip is slightly forward of her left hip, also a sign of a full release. She is up on the “toenail” of her rear foot, showing a complete weight transfer. This is something to strive for. The shaft is released behind her from 11:00 to 4:00, showing a complete release of the wrists. This is also a finish that you want to try to imitate!
It was so much fun to watch Jaye Marie Green at the Women’s U.S. Open as she almost won and will continue to win her fair share of big-time tournaments. She has too good a swing to not be on top of the leaderboard.
Pete
