A Box Of Sparklers, Holiday Fun & Emulating the Game’s Best Swings

Do you see a theme...?

Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm just closed out an epic PGA Tour season by earning a combined $20 million dollars on Sunday. Each of them possesses a very different swing. As you can see in the video all the Tour Championship Top 30 have a unique move. What can the average golfer learn/see from the two-colored lines? Start by looking for a trend. Almost every tour professional draws the red line higher than the blue line.

Those two lines represent the backswing (red) and downswing (blue). It’s interesting when you watch the swings without the lines; you won’t see the difference. When the lines are added it becomes quite clear what we all need to create better contact. Watch the first two swings closely. That’s Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm. They exemplify this important move with their red and blue lines.

How can we mere mortals on the golf course recreate this swing pattern? It won’t be hard if you can have a little summer holiday fun. Labor Day weekend is a national celebration of our country’s workers. We all know nobody works harder than a struggling golfer! This holiday weekend wait until the sun goes down and try this amazing demonstration to get the red-blue line feeling. Yes, the drill works best in the dark.

Grab one of those sparklers and light it. Yes, those great summertime toys you remember using when you were a kid. Go outside and find some room to make a golf swing in front of a large window or sliding glass door. Take a sparkler and light it. Once it starts crackling, stand at address and place the firework in your trail hand. (For a right-handed golfer this will be your right hand.) Now make your own lines. Trace the same graphic you see in the tweet above.

The glow from the stick will light the darkness momentarily and highlight your backswing and downswing just like the video. Do it once and look at the lines. What did your tracings look like? Make your lines look like Cantlay or Rahm’s. If the sparkler is large enough, get both hands on there like a golf club.

Continue to emulate the pattern you saw by the professionals. Keep moving your arms in a manner that creates a backswing line higher than the downswing line. Once you get a solid feel for this movement, try it with your eyes closed. Can you still repeat the motion?

Watch Patrick and Jon start their swings. Both take the club away with the clubhead outside their hands. They keep it along the target line. The secret to getting the correct red and blue line is making sure we don’t wrap the club around us in the initial backswing. Extend the club, take that sparkler back high and away. Start tracing the lines correctly and your impact will improve tremendously.

Who knew a little holiday fun could be so helpful!