OAKMONT, Pa. — If you've watched any of the U.S. Open so far, you've seen the contender Sam Burns. And if you've seen the contender Sam Burns, you've seen him do his pre-swing rehearsal move.
It's pretty simple: Seconds before he hits his shot, Burns simply lifts the club into his takeaway position, looks at it, then resets, looks once more at the target, and starts his swing.
Burns' new school waggle
It's pretty simple why Burns does this. He's checking his takeaway. Burns told me his tendency is to track the club inside his hands on the takeaway, and close the clubface along the way. When that happens, he can hit blocks, or hooks.
So Burns checks to make sure the clubhead is outside his hands at the takeaway position, with the toe of the club pointing toward the sky.
I call these quick pre-swing rehearsals new school waggles, because they're very common nowadays, and they never used to be.
Here's a quick explainer:
Old school waggles, explained
Old school waggles were simple tension relievers. Hinge the club with your wrists to loosen them up before you swing, like you see Hogan do right here. Hogan didn't swing the club like his waggle, and nor did he want to; it served a different purpose.
New school waggles, explained
New school waggles are designed to relieve tension, but by incorporating a technical, golf swing rehearsal element. Golfers are trying to swing the club like their waggle, but they're not trying to think too much about it.
"It serves a technical purpose, but it feels very natural because it's a movement that has been incorporated into your routine," says Hans Larsson, Ludvig Aberg's coach (Ludvig boasts a similar new school waggle to Burns). "Even though it accomplishes a technical task, you do that task without much thought."
Quite simply, pick a move you want to make in your swing, then start doing it in your pre-shot routine. Congratulations, now you've got a new school waggle, just like a 2025 U.S. Open contender.
