Golf Channel breaks down the swing mechanics that separate winners from the rest at Augusta National.
The work doesn’t end after the third round. While most spectators were enjoying Sunday’s final day of competition, one player was already deep into technical adjustments with his coaching team—a reminder that even at golf’s highest level, refinement is constant.
According to Golf Channel’s analysis, the focus centered on a fundamental swing issue that affects many professional golfers: the tendency to get steep in the backswing. The club moving outside the line on the way back creates a cascade of compensations that skilled players must manage.
Understanding the Steep Backswing Challenge
When a player gets steep early in the swing, particularly with longer clubs like a driver, they face a difficult choice. The club must be “laid down” significantly during the downswing to return to the proper plane. This requires precise hand manipulation at the bottom of the swing—a technically demanding move that leaves little room for error.
The dynamic shifts with shorter clubs, however. When holding an iron, that same steep angle in the backswing tends to remain steep through the transition. The result is a classic miss: coming over the top of the ball, which produces smothered shots and pulled left misses. These are the two primary miss patterns coaches see with this particular flaw.
Understanding this relationship between backswing plane and club selection is crucial to the PGA Tour game, where consistency across the entire bag is essential to competing at Augusta National and beyond.
The Path to Correction
Rather than making wholesale changes, the technical approach focused on sequencing from the ground up. The player emphasized “driving with the legs” and using that lower body movement to reset the swing plane from the beginning of the downswing. This fundamental shift in the kinetic chain addresses the problem at its source rather than trying to compensate with upper body manipulation.
This type of detailed swing work, discussed with coaches like Michael Bannon who have years of experience managing similar patterns, highlights why elite players never truly stop working. Even after 72 holes of competition, the pursuit of improvement continues.
For golfers at all levels, the lesson is clear: understanding why a miss happens is far more valuable than simply trying harder. Steep backswings, outside takeaways, and compensatory hand action are interconnected—fix one piece, and the others often fall into place.
This article was created with the help of AI and editorially reviewed. Report an issue