Exclusive report by Kiran Kanwar.

Science in Golf and the Electric Eight – The ONLY place to read about all the sciences related to golf. This will be a regular series of science in golf as seen through the Electric Eight of the PGA Tour.

The Electric Eight are, in alphabetical order, Paul Casey, Rickie Fowler, Bill Haas , Billy Horschel, Zach Johnson, Patrick Reed, Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth.

As the only two of my Chosen Ones (Johnson and Horschel) playing this week – Franklin Templeton Shootout – this column is dedicated to one of them – Billy Horschel.

Last week sheep was the animal discussed to connect the state of golf science to the PGA Tour. The reference was that even the best golfers of the world seem to have a sheep mentality, blindly following one another instead of seeking true science.

This week’s analogy is another popular animal – the dog.

A few years ago, one famous golf instructor said that the dog must wag the tail and not the tail the dog, referring to the fact that the body must move the arms.

A few years ago, one famous golf instructor said that the dog must wag the tail and not the tail the dog, referring to the fact that the body must move the arms. Now that is all very well when considering the full swing, but to carry that concept to the small chip and even the putt shot? Purely criminal. Imagine the huge dog in the picture shaking his entire body merely to flick a fly off his tail!

So, one can see all these highly talented young players on the PGA Tour lifting the trail shoulder during the backswing, then moving the arms across the body as they stand and turn to face target at the finish. Too much movement, too little time! Horschel is no exception.

What follows is a purely anatomical explanation. As the arms are lifted steeply and narrowly up in the backswing, Billy’s (and most players’) right shoulder lifts steeply too, and in Horschel’s case, more worryingly his shoulder blade (scapula) sticks out behind him like a starving animal’s ribs might! The problem? The shoulder blade has moved off the chest wall (like in a disease termed scapula winging), and it has also elevated. The action of the group of muscles creating these positions cannot now quickly be undone in the limited time of the half-downswing, so the golfer must move the entire trunk to drop the arms down, and at the same time rotate the torso to face target and finish on the right toe.

The result? Not only an ever so slight occasional mis-hit when the right side does not drop down in perfect time, but an incorrect amount of force being put into the shot. As a result, if the golfer planned to put ‘x’ amount of force into the ball, as his body rises and turns to face target, he only puts a part of that force (the cosine of ‘x’ in mathematical terms) into the ball, the rest is simply wasted. The solution is to have a wider, arms-ier swing motion, with very relaxed shoulders, and not turn the body nor let it rise until well past impact.

If you’ve followed along with everything here, go to the top of the anatomy and math classes dear reader, and do simplify that chip shot swing, it does not need to be so complex!

Kiran Kanwar

•   BS (physics, math); MS (sports science, nutrition); PhD (biomechanics – student)
•   Class A Member: the LPGA, The PGA (GB&I), The NGA of India, The PGA of India
•   Developer of The Minimalist Golf Swing System -100% scientific, simple and specific