By John Burckle
To play better golf, there’s no better place to start than at set up. Alignment, ball position and posture! Good posture leads to so many good things in a swing and there’s no better example than Jake Knapp, who recently won on the PGA Tour in his rookie season. Jake has come a long way from playing at UCLA and on mini-tours to the Canadian Tour, Korn Ferry and now the PGA Tour. Let’s take a look at how Jake’s swing has evolved.
In our first caparison, you can see a completely different posture at address. Before, Jake was more upright in his set up with less flex in his knees and his arms and hands are closer to his body. Notice his spine and back is more rounded. We can see a big difference where Jake is now. His upper body is tilted more from the hips with his knees more flexed. Notice how much farther his hands are from his body. If you compare both photos, you can see how much improvement he’s made and how his body angles are so much more defined
As we look at the second photo comparison, we can see the difference his better posture has made in his backswing. He’s no longer so upright with his left arm. His shoulders are more level and he swings his arms more around his body. His knees are more flexed and athletic. Just getting into a better posture will help you turn better and get your club on a better swing path.
In the last comparison at impact we see the biggest difference. Before, Jake was very straight legged and his back was rounded. Now, he’s maintained his knee flex and posture. You can see how his spine is much straighter without the roundness.
Finally: as we look back at the first comparison photos, we can see thedifference in Jake’s posture and how much better every aspect of it is. That’s the difference from a very good college player (before) to a PGA Tour winner (now). Remember: the golf swing starts with a proper set up so work on improving your posture and I’ll bet you’ll see better results!
