Since 2010, Open Stance Academy Founder John Wright produced work distilling the complexities of our golf swing. Consequently, John changed our vocabulary and discussion of the subject. No more do we hear language like “Thoracic segment” and “Kinematic sequence” on the air or lesson tee. Such gratuitous, pseudo-scientific phrase work was only ever used to make ordinary minds seem extraordinary. Fortunately, as the only mind in golf who has answered our question, “Why?”, he exposed the ridiculousness of all charlatans. More importantly, John is who you thank for simplifying our process of game improvement.
“Why?” is the only question that leads us back to source. If you ever wonder why the Open Stance produces the best ball-strikers, it’s because “Why” questions require a “Because” answer. Because answers lead to less and less empirical reasoning. You see, answers are not found in the data. Data begins the questioning. Our questioning ultimately concludes with answers from the ether or, source.
Why are my smash numbers higher with a square path and club face? Because maximum force is applied along a perpendicular impact.
Why is that desirable? Because I hit it further that way.
Why would I want to hit it further? Because it makes the game easier.
Why do we want to make the game easier? Because we know achievement is happiness.
Why is happiness important? Because happy people are more productive in all ways.
Why is productivity important? Because history reveals we have benefitted from collected knowledge.
Why is knowledge needed? Because we need to avoid repeating mistakes, unnecessarily, so we can progress individually.
Why do we need to progress? Because it shows we are conscious and seek to do good.
Why do we want to do good? Because it pleases ourselves and others.
Why do we want to please? Because our souls desire to grow together with others through experiences of life.
Why are experiences important to our soul? Because we are created to fill the world and prosper with representations of ourselves.
If you have followed my work, you understand I have recognized a continuum of disciplines intertwined in the explanation of “Why” the Open Stance works for everyone. Furthermore, you most likely recognize those sequential disciplines in the aforementioned line of questioning. I did not, however, address the very real fact that one discipline flows into the next as a direct result of answering the last “Why” in the adjacent discipline.
Asking “Why?” gets us to the “one” answer. Inevitably, getting to the source leads us to more and more objective reasoning, which is where we ultimately meet as equals. However, the continuum will also flow in the opposite direction.
As we seek How, What, When, and Where, our journey becomes more and more impersonal. Our questions get more and more subjective. We separate ourselves as souls and beings as we pursue these questions because they only answer what is true to ourselves, individually. We are not meant to be alone in the world. Do not linger in this end of the continuum.
Subjectivity yields nothing but differences within humanity. We get no comparison to or connection with others until we head back in the objective, source-focused direction by asking Why? I am trying to convey the idea that our questions determine our direction either toward or away from truth in everything. “Why?” is the only question that leads us back to source. That’s why I ask all my students and everyone else to “Ask better questions.”
To this point, I have kept the details to a smaller subset of the continuum involving only the Open Stance and our reaction to it. And, although the same continuum exists in all things, my particular expertise is to apply answers which lead students back to source. Once students arrive at source, they can productively and efficiently rebuild their ‘individuality’ from a holistic base of operation.
“Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.“ -Claude Bernard
Scotty’s set-up proves his move. More than a decade ago, when PGA Champion Scotty Scheffler was in high school, I wrote the first OSA post, The Secret in The Open Stance, and linked writings like Shoulder Width and The Golf Swing 10-27-12 originating in 2010, post-revelation. OSaFSGL – Author’s Edition is the new and expanded Open Stance and Three Short Game Lessons published in 2015. Within the original text, I covered the swing plane and ball position combinations that, although sub-optimal, work to play golf. Scotty proves all of them.
When you watch Scotty swing, you see his leading arm bend in his backswing. You see his feet shuffle in his downswing, and you see a neutral to weak grip. He combines his idiosyncrasies with a predictable set-up to create the most optimal possible outcomes. Mr. Scheffler sets up closed to open, like Mr. Hogan did, from driver to sand wedges.
What is common to them both is their delayed recovery of supple hinges. Hogan’s wrists and Scotty’s lead arm create the same load release dynamic requiring their set-up philosophy, which has more to do with ball position than swing plane. Conversely, you’ll notice at the top, Mr. Hogan’s lead arm is rigidly straight, while Scotty’s lead wrist is nearly without a hinge. Ultimately, Hogan’s leading arm and Scotty’s leading wrist “mechanics” offset the excessive bend in leading lever components.
Let’s discuss their swing plane before their set-up. Scotty’s swing plane is very upright. Hogan’s is very flat. Scotty is 6’4”. Hogan was 5’8”. Club length partially offset this difference, but is still in the neighborhood of a 5” discrepancy. Hogan was much further from his ball relative to his height than Scotty. That alone may justify a flatter or more upright move. Scotty does, however, allow his club to fall cross the line at the top, whereas Hogan was more laid off.
Hogan was flat, laid off, deep in the pocket with a weak grip, closed stance, and forward ball position – each of which mitigates one or another idiosyncrasy. Scotty is upright, across the line, shallow in the pocket with a weak grip, closed stance, and forward ball position – each of which mitigates one or another of his idiosyncrasies.
You know, no one ever accuses Scotty of having a “Classic Swing”. But, strangely, we have interpreted Hogan’s as a some kind of paradigm of efficiency. I think modeling our swing and set-up philosophy after Hogan is like golf’s version of cultural appropriation. Hogan was a survivor, grinder, and most certainly a golfing outlier. I believe less than 1% of golfers possess the kind of mindset Hogan lugged around. Why would we copy a collection of swing extremes when we don’t have the time to make em work together? Cuckoo! Now, let’s get to Scotty’s set-up.
Scotty gets progressively less closed with each shorter club. The reason golfers with relaxed jointry and upright plane set-up closed is to build a safeguards to a club face arriving closed to impact. Naturally, a weak grip helps. However, a lowered ball flight results.
Scotty counters over-rotation concerns just as Nicklaus, Weiskopf, and Watson did… with an upright delivery plane, allowing release without rotation, which helps eliminate worry of missing (left). Nonetheless, Scotty’s shoulders are aligned open to his feet, at address and impact, to make sure his ball starts left of his feet line. (My writings have never claimed we cannot play good golf from a closed stance. I will address joint health and physiology at a later time).
I’m just now realizing this is more like a book than a post. Let me summarize. Whether or not you believe Scotty’s set-up proves his move, I need to add that Scotty is not a model for anything other than the confluence of happiness (Psychology), adaptation (Anthropology), work ethic (Religious practice), goals (Intention), and Need, which counter any number of swing fluctuations. Physiologically, swings like Scotty’s last as long as the other tumblers remain. And, as one who knows, of all the tumblers, happiness is our most important.
Deciding who is the best requires our use of commonalities. Comparing Bobby Jones to Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods to Scottie Scheffler has some obvious hurdles… time, for one. However, I believe fair comparisons are possible, not by eliminating the hurdles, but rather, including the same hurdles.
Golf is an individual sport. Reliance on self is at a premium. Distractions are hurdles that draw priority away from the self. Therefore, if we are judging the “Best”, then identifying the commonality qualifies legends with or without, regardless of time, over time.
Who was the best? Okay, what are the conditions, in each golfer’s life, that we are using as a basis for comparison? I think it would fair to subdivide the discussion under a combination of conditions. However, the two conditions that struck me today and, that each of the greatest golfers experienced are, married with children – where family concerns were the focus rather than playing golf and setting records. Of those conditions, and because Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and maybe Arnold Palmer, never had a ‘unfamilied’ tour win, the only commonality is with family. Fatherhood is the commonality as qualifier.
Jack Nicklaus is the greatest… no close second. His family priority dominated his life from the tender age of 22. Can you even imagine that? Absolutely unbelievable! Everything outside of his amateur career happened as a father. Jack won seventy-three PGA Tour titles and 18 majors as a father. I believe Mr. Nicklaus’ resume will NEVER be equaled. Put that prediction in your books.
Gary Player comes in second. Like Nicklaus, Mr. Player’s family priority dominated his life from the tender age of 22. And again… unbelievable! All but a few titles, outside of his amateur career, happened as a father. Mr. Player won his 159 worldwide titles, including twenty-four PGA Tour titles and nine majors, after his first was born. His worldwide professional record will never be broken. And you can write that down, too.
Arnold Palmer is third. Mr. Palmer got married early and his first child was born in 1956. And again, nearly all his professional wins occurred after he and Winnie had started a family. He won sixty-two PGA Tour titles, including seven majors – only a few of which may have preceded family priorities.
Tom Watson comes in a close fourth. Tom’s family priority dominated his life from the tender age of 23. Everything outside of his amateur career happened as a father. All thirty-nine PGA Tour Titles, including eight majors, happened after his first child was born.
Phil and Amy Mickleson didn’t have a child until 1999… and Phil’s family priority began. Before his first was born, he won thirteen times with no majors victories. Beginning after the birth of his first child, he won thirty-two times with six majors titles. By the family standard, Phil was not as accomplished as Jack and Gary, but good enough to be in the top five.
Bobby Jones won six of seven professional majors and five more amateur majors after his first was born. Remember, however, there was no Masters or PGA Championships, which could have doubled Jones’ total. There again, there was no standard before Mr. Jones began achieving, so there were fewer records to break. Moreover, he retired after little more than a decade in major championship golf – pro and am.
Honorable mention: Sam Snead won 143 professional tournaments and seven majors. However, due to incomplete information about Mr. Snead’s oldest child, we cannot compare his harvest. However, if his first was born prior to 1940 (28 years old) he would have 65 PGA Tour wins, including seven majors. Those numbers would rank him here at T-3 with Arnie.
Tiger was the best ‘unfamilied’ golfer – mostly because Jack, Gary, Arnold, and Tom were essentially never unfamilied. Tiger’s family priority dominated his life from 2007 on. After his first was born, he won twenty-five times with three majors victories. He would still be in the top-25, just behind Raymond Floyd.
Thus, deciding who is the best requires our use of commonalities. Food for thought, anyway.
The Open Stance wins again as Rors roars at The Players Championship. If it weren’t Rors (Rory McIlroy), I would have written about JJ Spaun. See, if one is up, the other is down, but the Open Stance Academy is proven correct, again, either way.
I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode when George and Elaine switched statuses as winner and loser – with Elaine getting the worse of things. A mouth full of Jugee Fruits did her in. George started doing “The Opposite”, and flourished by bawling out George Steinbrenner. Jerry assured them that “everything will even out.” In this corollary, Rory is George, JJ is Elaine, and the OSA is Jerry. Every instructor on Earth is Kramer (watching things happen).
The only difference is that JJ did nothing wrong. He played great. I suspect the wind laid down just as he flushed his iron shot to the seventeenth in the playoff. I can’t prove it. However, given the expertise involved and the mutual agreement between caddy and player, wind foil seems most likely. I am sure, like for Elaine, JJ’s episode will amount to a one-and-done, too. The important takeaway is the solid contact inherent in the Open Stance dynamic that allowed Rors roars.
This is a discussion of rhythm versus tempo. The following video chat covers extemporaneous thoughts about the two terms. As it turns out, the definitions are different. Therefore, considering the role each occupies in a golf swing and a golf game, the discussion is warranted. Consider how you approach improving your game with regard to each, and I believe you will appreciate how the Open Stance fosters both… even more than before.
Rhythm is an employment of structural components and states in a coordinated sequence of movement that express an underlying objective. Terms like “Coil”, “Leverage”, “Lag”, “Rotation”, “Acceleration”, “Extension”, etc. are all subsets of the ‘Hitting a golf ball’-objective with a golf swing. They each constitute a segment of, and have a beginning and an end within, the overall movement. Therefore, components and states cannot dictate tempo. We spend time in each state with our corresponding components employed, but without regard to amount of time. Coordination is our key to rhythm versus tempo, which holds a time component.
Tempo is how long it takes us to get our coordinated components through the movements. Some have fast tempo, like Dan Pohl. Others have slow tempo, like Payne Stewart. In either extreme, our backswing is slower than our downswing. Our transition determines how we coordinate our change of direction – with our components in a state unique to that segment of our swing. The faster our backswing, the faster our downswing must be to maintain proportional.
You will know if you have mastered coordination when you strike your ball. The foundation of coordination is set-up. If your set-up changes, your coordination compromises because your mind changes. Repeating a disciplined set-up will bring coordination, provided that your set-up allows for maximum flexibility of shots with a minimum of damaging motion. Solid impact is our proof of coordination.
The Open Stance is the only set-up philosophy that demands efficiency and minimizes damage to our components, states, and coordination. Tempo, and its perfection through set-up discipline, is an eventuality and not a hope. And that’s good because “Hope is not a plan”.
What every golf instructor focuses on is the what, when, where, and how of the swing. Only the Open Stance Academy explains the why – giving players a deeper understanding of their swing that leads to lasting improvement. Long overdue (from the OSA) is the explanation of differences audibly. Therefore, the below video should begin to clear the landscape of explanations that stand between golfers and their autonomy.
Interference was always the point of instructors and teachers. In order to create dependency, practitioners had to remove individual accountability. Unfortunately, for the earnest, the “Best” teachers/Instructors reserved the right to step out of the way when blame for incompetence comes calling. They make you believe that you misunderstood them or misapplied their instructions. And you believe them, because either of those outcomes for failure is better than accountability.
On the other hand, we have the Open Stance.
Pros and coaches, under ideal conditions, should feel an immediate personal connection to my work. Tour Pros, if you don’t know why your swing works, then you don’t know why it fails under pressure. The best players don’t just repeat mechanics. Rather, they convert an idea into motion. Furthermore, most do not understand the fundamental truth of their motion. Coaches, you get in your player’s mind without an informational destination, which is tantamount to malpractice.
Tour coaches spend years refining a player’s motion. But without “the why”, they’re just troubleshooting symptoms instead of solving root causes. Problems continue with each iteration of enabling advice, which has troubled me like no other.
How do I reach golfers who must perform to fulfill dreams, but without ‘one-on-one’ contact? It’s been difficult, and selfish interests exist to prohibit just that level of interaction. But, as I’ve published in other formats… it’s only a matter of time.
The Open Stance Academy is exclusively positioned to offer the very solution they have been missing. But, it’s a big topic, and we live in a sound bite culture now. Again… removal of accountability rules us. I feel we are at a moment in history where we must cut out the middle-men and -women to survive.
If we are to ever escape the ‘problem, crisis, solution’ merry-go-round, in every industry, we must recognize that what every golf instructor focuses on is harmful, and recognize truth when it appears. Check out the following explanation of the learning dynamic to see if it represents your experience with lessons, and leave comments.
There is no causal link between muscularity and winning in golf. Tiger Woods kicked off the surgery brigade when he trained with Navy Seals and got buffed up. He was already the best, so the sheeple lined up to imitate their hero thinking, “Tiger is buffed-out. I must be buffed-out, too.” I’ll get HUGE like Tiger and start playing great golf. … No. Didn’t happen.
Our national handicap didn’t budge under the Tiger-inspired, weight-lifting period, under which we remain. The only result of all the muscle mass accumulated is back problems and knee surgeries… just. like. Eldrick. If mass equaled winning, where is El, Brooks, DJ, and the hulksters? They’re stronger than almost every professional golfer to this day. I will share the answer. Hulksters are riddled with knee, back, and thanks to cell phones – leg problems that make upper body mass useless.
Our current number one player in the world is a rail with a burgeoning belly. Rory wins without being dominant. Muscle size has nothing to do with winning. The only constant is grip strength. But this is not about what is constant, it’s about the deception. Narratives tricked us into hiring trainers, therapists, and coaches all promising a pot of gold. And, most golfers listened to them, without one of them able to play their way out of a paper bag.
We, once again, allowed ANOTHER industry to form and distract us from within the golf business. As Mark Twain said, “It’s easier to fool someone than to convince them they have been fooled”. Therefore, the deception is likely to continue for a while longer. Fools need time to rationalize their credulity, after all. Fools who have spent untold amounts of money on the dodge need even more time.
I don’t know why I’m the only one who seems to be aware of it. But it’s so predictable. I guess we need a hero to imulate. I’ll leave you with the following rankings from the top 20 golfers of all time. There’s not a mediocre putter among them.
In case that doesn’t do it for you, here are the top 20 of the past 25 years.
Quite a few bellies on that list, isn’t there? There’s not a mediocre putter among them, either, eh? How about a list of #1s? Speith and Thomas? Donald and Scheffler? Where is Koepka and Johnson? …Probably getting another knee surgery a piece. We exhibited an error of association. We see someone rise to the top, begin working out and getting “Stronger”, and assume the workout got them there, when it was always incidental to their luck chart and happiness cycle.
No one plays good golf if they are not happy. I know better than anyone. Believe me. No one achieves outside of a thick luck cycle, either. Tiger’s parents knew this was a legitimate cosmic tumbler. That’s why they took E to an astrologist after his birth – to see when to capitalize on his chart. Every parent should do the same. Only now it’s as easy as opening an astrology link to get the info without the travel. Earl knew how to tailor his training in a pursuit (Golf) that he himself could benefit from (Playing golf), that cultivated character, and that would serve to break racial barriers. In that, at least, Earl was a genius.
John Wright, the PGA and Mission Inn decouple in latest news from The Open Stance Academy. Wright stated the PGA offered nothing useful in the way of knowledge or support as a member thereof. He added that although Mission Inn was hospitable, constraints placed on who and where he could teach strained their relationship. Wright stated he did not like the idea of conducting business near buzzing power lines, and felt his health may suffer, long term.
OSA continues with only an online presence, for the time being. And John Wright, being no longer a PGA member nor a Mission Inn contractor, will conduct lessons by voice and video until further notice. Wright sees this transition as a step in the right direction, considering his goal of eliminating golf lessons as a lifestyle choice. And, since the majority of the golfing world has become aware of the benefits of an open stance, he sees his move as an inevitability.
”This was the whole point. The world doesn’t need golf lessons. They need self-reliance, self-motivation, and self-realization. The only thing golfers ever needed was a vehicle to get them over the hump and a voice that encourages those mental tumblers to click into place efficiently. The Open Stance Academy does that.”
As for the future, Wright said he will now have time to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a lettuce slicer at Subway …as soon as his application clears saying, “I think there’s a better way.”
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