How Webb Simpson Gets It Done

Today I've got a link to a Golf Magazine article about how Webb hits it so well when his swing looks so weird.



The article goes into a fair amount of detail, and the short version is that Webb's swing looks so weird at the finish because he cups his lead wrist during his backswing while the "cool" thing to do right now is bow your wrist (Dustin Johnson being a prime example).

In addition, Webb has a strong lead hand grip which, as the article says, requires him to "roll his wrists over aggressively" as he hits the ball. The reason is that a cupped wrist combined with a strong lead hand grip gets the clubface very open at the top of your backswing, so he has to work to get the face back square.

If you read this blog a lot, then you know that I don't like rolling or twisting your forearms to square the clubface. It's a lot of extra work!

But I want to point out that a cupped wrist at the top of your swing doesn't necessarily require rolling your wrists. In fact, the old classic swingers often cupped their wrists at the top of their backswings.

So what's the trick?

If you set up with your wrists cupped at address, your natural tendency is to keep them cupped at the top of your swing and then automatically "uncup" them at impact. The reason for this is simple: The same centrifugal force that tries to straighten your arms at impact also tries to straighten your wrists from cupped to flat, and that closes the clubface. If your hands lead the clubface into the impact area, the effect is more pronounced.

Now everybody's different and, depending on how you swing, your wrists might not act this way. It's another aspect of the leg drive VS arm swing debate I wrote about yesterday. The more you rely on arm swing, the more likely you are to get this kind of wrist action but the more you rely on leg drive, the less likely you are to get it. (After all, the idea of leg-driven swings is to keep the hands and wrists from being as active.)

Still, it's something to be aware of in your swing. If you want to try it, here's a setup tip. The automatic cupped wrist position at setup typically looks more like a Y with the bottom leg of the Y (the club shaft) pointing at your belly button. If you set up with the shaft and your lead arm forming a straight line, you'll have a straight wrist at address and the cupping will be an extra move on the backswing... and that means you'll have to consciously uncup your wrists on the way down.