Roger Schiffman
Managing Editor
Golf Digest
Twitter @RogerSchiffman
Kevin Hinton: When you examine the stats of Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland, you quickly see the contrast in their games. Kuchar is a shorter but more accurate driver of the ball and a better putter, while Woodland can bomb it off the tee and then hit a lot of greens with wedges and short irons. But Woodland can use some work on the greens. They would have won by four or five strokes if Matt could have putted for Gary in the final round. Together, however, their individual talents blossomed, and they showed tremendous fire and confidence on the final day to pull off the win over a strong field that included Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell of Ireland, Ian Poulter and Justin Rose of England, Martin Kaymer and Alex Cjeka of Germany, and Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa.
Let's take a closer look at their stats: Kuchar ranks only 128th in Driving Distance while Woodland is ranked fifth. Meanwhile, Kuchar is 52nd in Driving Accuracy while Woodland is an unimpressive 137th. But Kuchar ranks only 50th in GIR while Woodland ranks 12th. Clearly, Woodland is a bomb and gouger with immense talent for hitting the ball really long, and he often drives with his 2-iron just to keep the ball short of trouble. Let's see how he does it in the video here:
You can clearly see Woodland's two-way action, in which the club is still going back as his lower body begins to move forward. Ben Hogan talked a lot about this type of move. It adds to the lag and down-cocking of the club on the downswing, similar to the action of Sergio Garcia, which we analyzed a few weeks ago.
I love the compact nature of Gary's swing. Being so strong allows him to
make such a simple move and create such incredible clubhead speed, with
seemingly little effort. As the club "exits" his body in the
follow-through, the clubface is quite open. There is no "flipping" over
of the clubface. He is not going to hook the ball. I call this an
"under" release, and it reminds me of Dustin Johnson through impact.
This is an essential move to control the ball for someone who generates
the type of speed Woodland does.
Matt Kuchar's swing is very different. Click here for my analysis from a year ago.
Both of these players' swings have been analyzed by their teachers for Golf Digest. You can click here to see those frame-by-frame analyses:
Woodland's swing sequence | Kuchar's swing sequence
Matt Kuchar's swing is very different. Click here for my analysis from a year ago.
Both of these players' swings have been analyzed by their teachers for Golf Digest. You can click here to see those frame-by-frame analyses:
Woodland's swing sequence | Kuchar's swing sequence
