But there's still some interest in the "fad." One of the articles I did recently for Golfsmith was about Stack and Tilt, plus the fact remains that several Stack and Tilters have won tournaments... and several of those players still use the swing with some degree of success. Some of you reading this post may even be curious about the swing yourselves, and wonder if it could help you.So consider this my attempt to clear up some questions. Today I'll give you a basic breakdown of the swing, which will hopefully let all of you curious sorts decide if the Stack and Tilt is something you want to check out, and also provide some groundwork for a discussion of what the rest of us might learn from Stack and Tilt.
Now what would make me think some of you might want to check out Stack and Tilt when this blog focuses on low-maintenance swings that don't require a lot of practice? Well, for some of you, Stack and Tilt may really be a low-maintenance swing because it fits your natural tendencies. It's sorta like Jim Furyk's swing -- it may seem terribly complicated to some folks, but it's completely natural to Jim.
So remember this is just a quick overview of the swing. You should get the DVDs or the book if you really want to pursue this; but if you're just curious, Andy Plummer and Mike Bennett, the swing creators, have written a considerable amount about the swing in Golf Digest, and many of those articles are online. You can find one of the major ones here, and it has links to four other articles (in the "Related Links" box). You can also go the search box on that page, type in "stack and tilt" (you don't need the quotes), and you'll get nine pages of articles if you want even more. Personally, I think this one called 6 Steps to Stack and Tilt is one of the best summary articles, but today's pics come from another article that featured Aaron Baddeley (who, incidentally, no longer uses the swing). If your experiments with what you learn from these articles seem promising to you, then by all means get the book and/or DVDs to make sure you do it right.
The most basic aspects of the swing are shown in these three pictures. The top pic shows the "stack," the second pic shows the "tilt," and the last shows the finish.Imagine the stack this way: A point midway between your shoulders (your spine at the base of your neck) and a point midway between your hips (call it your belly button) are "stacked" vertically over the ball. There may be some variation in ball position (Aaron has the ball slightly ahead of center in this picture, for example), but this centered position seems to be pretty consistent. Also, flaring both feet outward is part of the setup.
As for the tilt... You can see from the second picture just how much you tilt in order to stay stacked over the ball. Aaron's right leg is straight at the top of his backswing, not flexed as most teachers recommend. This also means the shoulder really dips during the backswing, though Aaron isn't dipping as much as most players in the photos I've seen. The arms do exactly the opposite of what I recommended Dexter do to get rid of his over-the-top swing -- the elbow tucks into the golfer's side and the hands move toward his back, resulting in a hand position that is below the back shoulder -- but the backswing is really steep because the front shoulder dips so much. In essence, you get a swing that is upright and flat at the same time!
As weird as this sounds, there is some logic at work here. What Plummer and Bennett have done is create a swing that uses extremes to create the swing plane. Imagine you're standing in a large open area and you swing one of your arms. You can move it in any direction, can't you? Now if you stand next to a wall with your shoulder touching it, you've severely limited its range of motion... but you can swing your arm in a perfectly vertical arc by dragging your arm against the wall. You've traded mobility in order to enforce a specific motion. That's basically what Stack and Tilt does; it creates an exaggerated position that almost forces you to swing on a certain path.
And then you reach the finish. Without going into a detailed description, you end up swinging your hips forward to power your way to the finish position.Now, this is a very rotary swing that can create a lot of power... and, some say, a lot of back problems as well. That's probably had more to do with the faddish nature of this swing than anything else. My own personal experimentation has been that this isn't a particularly difficult swing to learn, but it really does feel weird. And I can see how players -- especially power players -- could develop back problems if they practice a lot.
But the fact remains that this is a fairly successful swing. Several pros adopted it and won with it fairly quickly. A swing like that must be doing something right, so tomorrow I'll take a look at what I think the rest of us might learn from Stack and Tilt.
By Sunday, all bets were off and the scramble was on. Rory Sabbatini got things going when he posted -9 early on; then it looked for a while as if Martin Laird and Dustin Johnson were the guys to beat; and then Steve Stricker took the clubhouse lead at -10. But it was the quiet stalking of Matt Kuchar who caused the real terror in this jungle. Playing several groups ahead of the leaders but coming seemingly from nowhere, the 6'4" man with the 5'1" swing suddenly grabbed everyone's attention with birdies on 16 and 17 before posting his own -12.
Forrest Gump, had he been a golfer (and who's to say he wasn't? he did just about everything else), would have said, "Golf is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
Since both arms are pretty straight at waist high, your hands are still roughly centered between your shoulders, right? Hold your arms out in front of you the way you did in Step 2 of the takeaway drill from 
For the "upright" swing, just pivot your arms so your hands are up higher than your head but still just outside your shoulder. You'll notice that your right (left) elbow gets a bit closer to a 90-degree angle. Ai Miyazato or Bubba Watson are good examples. (In the picture, Ai has just started down. There was no slo-mo on her video, and I couldn't catch it exactly at the top.)
If you move your hands back down to that three-quarter position at about ear height, then move your hands as far to the right (left) as you can while still keeping your hands at ear height, this is the "neutral" extreme. Justin Leonard is a good example; note how his hands are much lower than Ai's, although the basic position is the same. One difference that you may not notice at first is how much more angle there is in Justin's elbow; Justin's elbow forms an angle much less than 90 degrees, while Ai's elbow angle is a little over. But also notice that Justin's elbow is NOT touching his side; your elbow never touches your side during the backswing.
In the end, it became "Eye of the Kaymer." (Also catchy, huh?) Martin Kaymer has been doing quite well for some time now, although it's been mostly in Europe. He has 14 pro wins, 6 of those on the European Tour (the PGA, like all the other majors, counts as an ET event). Last week he was 13th in the World Rankings, but they wasted no time getting the new ones out after the win:
This year's course, Whistling Straits, has hosted the PGA once before -- in 2004, when Vijay Singh won. It played as a real bear that year, and it looks like it could do so again since it's over 7500 yards long. The last four holes could be one of the hardest finishing stretches in golf. Holes 15 and 18 are both extremely-long par-4s, and that massive X-shaped green (remember Dave Pelz sinking a 200-foot putt on that thing back in 2004?) makes it possible to hit the green and still not even have a putt.