#GolfScience ‘s #Electric Eight at the Farmers’ Insurance Open – Special Report by Kiran Kanwar/

The “chosen ones” or #ElectricEight, were chosen as they were among the top 16 players of the world who participated in the December 2015 Hero World Challenge.

How are they faring four weeks into the new season, after they have had time to rest, rebuild and recuperate?

The Farmers’ Insurance Open is the fourth event of the season. Six of the #ElectricEight participated, but only two made the cut – Billy Horschel and Patrick Reed, and the latter withdrew after round three, ending with only 28 of 54 greens in regulation (GIR). Rickie Fowler, winner of the much-touted Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, just last week, did not make the cut, with 25 of 36 GIR. Justin Rose, fresh from a decent-length off-season and having just tweeted his fitness readiness for 2016, missed cut too. He made 25 of 36 GIR, so that he either played very badly on those holes he did not reach or could not make birdies on the holes he did. Paul Casey and Bill Haas missed cut too.

It surely cannot be fitness or nutrition to blame. What is making these players top of the pile one week and bottom next? A lack of consistency. The cause? Mainly their golf swings. Whether a golfer has a Butch Harmon taught typical, middle-of-the-road motion or a Sean Foley style slightly stack-and-tilt, they are all anatomically unsound.

Basically, it is known that the golf down swing of tour players lasts an average of a quarter of a second. In that much time, how much can they do consistently and well? The golf industry has not yet come to the realization that a golf swing must, above all, be based on the human body’s joint constraints and what each joint, particularly the elbows, wrists, hips and knees which get “stuck” in the middle are capable of doing.

The other aspect to be considered is how much overall motion a golfer is capable of undoing from top of backswing to impact. Finally, the term “transition” is the least understood in golf because, a poor golfer, in an attempt to undo a lot of the excess motion of the backswing, starts the lower body before the back swing even ends, to give himself enough time. Transition, actually, is the simplest concept to understand – it is the period of “undoing the unnecessary”. Time is the biggest master of the golf swing, and challenging it is like challenging the very laws of nature.

So, buck up my #ElectricEight or this columnist will have to follow eight others who have more #GolfScience inputs to their overall games.

Kiran Kanwar

•   Developer of The Minimalist Golf Swing System -100% scientific, simple and specific
•   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