Wyndham Clark has one of my favorite golf swings on Tour. When you look closely at his motion, there are several things that stand out—not only in the finished swing, but also in the drills and movement patterns he uses to prepare.
What makes his swing particularly interesting is how much of the motion is powered by his body rotation rather than simply throwing his arms around his body.
Building Width in the Golf Swing
Before looking at Wyndham’s full-speed swing, it’s useful to look at some of the things he’s working on during his warm-up sessions.
One drill he regularly uses involves the “widener.” Essentially, the tool prevents the trail arm from bending very much.
This looks like what I would call a big Foundation One movement. He’s winding up his body and using his body like a propeller to wind those really long arms.
It’s not a one-off thing. He’s doing this pretty much every warm-up session, every single day.
As he works with the widener, you can see how much his motion is propelled by chest rotation. Everything is big and wide, with a tremendous amount of chest rotation through the shot.
There’s also beautiful symmetry in the movement.
When he adds a little speed, it starts to look much more like an actual golf swing with the widener on. It’s essentially a Foundation Two/Three movement with some speed added.
He’s putting more chest speed into the movement and then letting it release through the ball.
Wyndham Clark’s Golf Swing
Now let’s look at what Wyndham’s actual golf swing looks like.
At normal speed, you can immediately see why this is one of my favorite swings on Tour.
As Wyndham gets started and winds up the system, he maintains a tremendous amount of width. That width is created and wound up primarily through his body turning.
Then, as he starts the transition, you can see him flex into the ground and unwind.
I love the “Pakistan pivot.”
If we plot the path of his hands, you’ll notice that they travel in an arc. If we draw a line through that movement, his hands aren’t simply moving straight down. They’re essentially traveling on the plane he intends to swing the golf club on.
That’s an important distinction.
Relative to the ground, the hands are obviously moving downward. But when you relate that movement to how he’s turning on an inclined plane, they’re really not moving down all that much.
They’re moving on the plane he’s intending to swing on.
Why the Hands Don’t Simply Drop
A lot of golfers have a tendency to make their hands go straight down during the transition. You can see players whose hands move almost vertically toward the ground—or even move backward.
Wyndham doesn’t do that.
He likes to hit a fade, and simply dropping the hands doesn’t work particularly well for a fade. If you’re going to be a fader, you want to let the hands be carried outward by the pivot a little more.
Wyndham does an excellent job of this.
For golfers who have their hands very high at the top of the backswing, feeling the hands drop may not necessarily be a terrible thing. This can be particularly relevant if you have more of a flying elbow, like Scottie Scheffler or Jack Nicklaus.
However, another useful feeling can be getting the trail arm to reconnect.
Look at Wyndham’s trail elbow. It isn’t very far away from his side. Within just a few frames, it’s already beginning to reconnect.
So if your right arm is very high and disconnected, feeling a little bit of drop or reconnection might not be a bad thing. But I wouldn’t necessarily say that the hands themselves should continue dropping.
The important thing is that the player is beginning to unwind before the reconnection happens. The hands don’t necessarily need to track backward or straight down.
Scottie Scheffler is a good example. His hands don’t simply move toward his right back pocket. They actually loop over, while his right arm eventually works its way back toward his side.
Wyndham’s Fade-Friendly Position
At left-arm parallel, Wyndham’s hands are slightly more outward.
For a more neutral ball flight, you might want the hands to be positioned slightly more inward. But Wyndham likes the cut—and he does it extremely well.
That’s part of what makes his swing so appealing.
His motion suits the ball flight he’s trying to produce.
From there, you can really see him free-wheel around the corner. It’s a beautiful movement and one of my favorite golf swings on Tour.
Skill and Ball Striking Over Technical Obsession
Something else that’s interesting about Wyndham is how he has worked on his swing over the years.
Before the last couple of years, there was a period when he was largely working on his own. When he won his first U.S. Open, he and his caddie worked extensively on things like the high-tee drill.
He also worked with three alignment sticks positioned out in front of him, using drills similar to skill-development exercises.
The emphasis wasn’t necessarily on making technical changes to every component of the golf swing.
Instead, the focus was on developing skills:
- Hitting different start lines
- Hitting different shot shapes
- Working draws
- Working fades
- Learning to curve the ball
That’s a really important distinction because those skills translate directly to playing golf.
Rather than becoming obsessed with whether every body part is in a technically perfect position, the focus becomes: Can you start the ball where you want and curve it how you want?
Using the Ground: Don’t Confuse Using It With Jumping
When looking at Wyndham’s driver swing, you can see him move slightly away from the ball. But before the club finishes going away, there’s an important movement happening.
He flexes down into the ground and then lands as the club is finishing its release.
That’s an excellent example of how he uses the ground.
It’s worth emphasizing because there’s a lot of information online telling golfers that they need to “use the ground.”
But what does that actually mean?
A lot of golfers interpret that as jumping up out of the ground.
The fastest players often do the opposite.
They’re settling in.
They’re dropping in.
They’re getting into their knees, thighs, and hips.
They’re essentially becoming grounded for a moment before they release.
You could describe this as becoming “weightless.” The player begins to unweight from around the point just above P3 and continues through P5.
Wyndham obviously has tremendous speed, so you shouldn’t expect to reproduce the exact amount of movement that he creates.
But that little sequence—one and two, particularly during the transition—is extremely important.
It gives you time to get everything organized before the release.
Wyndham Doesn’t Make A Huge Lateral Move
From the face-on view, another thing that stands out is how little lateral motion there is.
You can see him winding into his trail side and then, just before the club finishes going away, creating a small gap away from the ball before landing.
He then unwinds into his lead side.
But there isn’t a tremendous amount of lateral movement.
His lead leg only moves about halfway across the “wall.”
He shifts slightly away from the golf ball, re-centers as the club finishes going away, lands into the lead side, and then unwinds beautifully.
As he does, everything lengthens out and the speed moves toward the front.
He doesn’t reach a completely straight left arm until very late in the downswing. In fact, he still has some bend in his left arm just before impact.
There’s not a lot of tension in that left arm.
It simply straightens through the ball.
That’s pretty money.
A Wide Golf Stance Supports His Swing Speed
Another feature of Wyndham’s swing that deserves attention is his stance.
Look at how wide his base is.
His ankles are positioned just outside his hip joints, creating a base that’s capable of supporting all the upper-body speed he’s going to produce.
If his stance were narrow, there’s no chance he could support all that speed up above. You’d essentially end up with “Elvis Presley legs.”
Generally, stance width should be related to both your size and the amount of speed you’re producing.
If you’re a man who’s six feet to six-foot-two, you can’t necessarily afford to have an extremely narrow base, whether you have tremendous speed or not.
You need a base that can support what your upper body wants to do.
That’s the first piece.
The Importance of the Body Turn
Now look at Wyndham around P2.
His shirt buttons are essentially directly in line with his hands.
It’s almost as if he has that straightener on.
By this point, he’s already turned his chest approximately 45 degrees.
And that’s largely because of the width of his arms.
The goal isn’t necessarily to create an enormous arm swing.
Instead, you want to wind your torso relative to your hips.
That creates a tremendous amount of stretch through the fascia.
In other words, we’re looking for a big body turn.
Wyndham does have some separation during the transition, and there is a little bit of arm run-on. But that’s largely a consequence of the speed of the motion.
It’s not necessarily because he’s wrapping his arms around his body.
That’s an important distinction.
The Stretch That Creates Club Head Speed
Before Wyndham reaches the top of his backswing, he’s already beginning to lower and land.
That creates additional stretch across his left lat and left shoulder.
Now he has something to sling around the corner.
That’s where a lot of the speed comes from.
Rather than simply throwing the arms at the ball, he’s creating a powerful sequence in which the body begins to unwind while the arms and hands are still completing their movement.
The result is an enormous amount of stored stretch that can then be released through impact.
What Wyndham’s Hips Are Doing
Looking at his pelvis, you can see that Wyndham isn’t simply overturning or over-spinning in the backswing.
Around left-arm parallel, his belt buckle has turned, but it doesn’t continue spinning excessively as he reaches the top.
Instead, he begins to hinge into the pelvis.
This is another area where the concept of “using the ground” gets misunderstood.
Many golfers are actively trying to jump upward because they’ve been told that ground forces create speed.
But the fastest players aren’t necessarily trying to jump immediately.
They’re settling into the ground.
They’re dropping into their knees, thighs, and hips.
They’re creating a brief period where they’re grounded before they begin to unweight and release.
Wyndham has a tremendous amount of speed, so he drops more than most golfers would need to.
You don’t need to replicate the exact magnitude of his movement.
What matters is understanding the sequence.
The Hands Stay Patient in Transition
One of the most important things to observe in Wyndham’s swing is how little distance his hands travel between P4 and P5.
His arms and hands essentially stay together as his lower body begins to square itself.
He’s still turned approximately 45 degrees, while his arms are still up.
From down the line, his hands would be approximately around his right shoulder.
Think about the stretch that creates.
His lower body is beginning to move and square while his upper body and arms are still holding their position.
That’s the stretch he’s about to release.
A lot of golfers do the opposite.
By the time their hips are square, their hands are already down around their waist—or even lower, toward their knees.
That tells you they’re pulling their hands down instead of being patient during the transition.
Wyndham doesn’t do that.
He maintains the relationship between his upper and lower body long enough for the sequence to develop.
Then he lets everything go.
The Big Takeaway From Wyndham Clark’s Swing
Wyndham Clark is an excellent model for many of the principles we like to talk about when studying an athletic golf swing.
He’s an exceptional athlete, with tremendous speed and an extremely complete game. He can produce around 190 mph of ball speed, and his short game is excellent as well.
But the interesting thing isn’t simply how fast he swings.
It’s how he creates that speed.
His swing demonstrates several key principles:
- Create width with the body rather than simply stretching the arms.
- Use substantial chest rotation to wind up the system.
- Don’t simply pull the hands straight down in transition.
- Allow the pivot to carry the hands outward, particularly if you want to hit a fade.
- Reconnect the trail arm naturally rather than forcing the hands downward.
- Settle into the ground before aggressively using it.
- Keep lateral motion relatively controlled.
- Use a sufficiently wide base to support your speed.
- Create separation between the torso, pelvis, and arms.
- Be patient with the hands during transition.
- Create stretch across the lead lat and shoulder before releasing.
- Focus on skills like start lines and shot shaping rather than obsessing over technical positions.
Ultimately, Wyndham Clark’s swing is a great example of an athlete using his body to create speed rather than trying to manufacture speed with his arms.
The movement is wide, dynamic, grounded, and exceptionally well sequenced.
And when all of those pieces come together, you get the kind of ball striking that makes Wyndham one of the most impressive swings to watch on Tour.
Improve Your Golf Swing
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