Aldrich Potgieter | Swing Theory | Driver, iron

Balancing it all out. Rotate a little bit more. Be aggressive in the ball. How hard I rotate. Get back to the fundamentals. It was only a matter of time before Aldrich Potthieter broke through and won on the PGA Tour. Cruising ball speeds of 195 mile an hour. He can smash it with his driver. His favorite club. So how about we take a look under the hood and see how he does it. The first thing to bear in mind with Potthieter is how he carries this very strong lead hand grip. You notice as the left hand, the glove hand, is turned over the club, the right hand, his trail hand, is more underneath the club there. That's very strong. It's as strong a grip in the professional game as anybody and that's going to manifest in a closed club face and we'll see that as we break the swing down. So remember that grip throughout because it sets up what he does. First off, he builds an incredible launching pad for this driver. Notice how the spine is tilted backwards. See here too how the ball position is well forward in the stance and his upper body is well behind that. Now as we start him back, I want to point out a little something. He sweeps the club away from the golf ball. You see how he drifts to his trail side. There's a huge wind up here and I want to stop him right there because I want to reference this ball position once again because it's kind of going to have an effect on how he creates high launch and low spin. So here we are going back. Watch how now there's the big coil in the body. So here are the levers. First off, watch the club face. It's almost looking way at the sky but you see that coil across the back. Look at the extension in the back and watch how the lower body, those big strong legs, almost a la Jack Nicklaus. Settle down, drive forward. Watch the separation lower body from upper body and look at that picture right there. Notice how big wrist hinge. I mean how about that wrist leg over there. He's going to use that to release an incredible speed lever in just a split second. But first off, I want you to see there how the spine is still on the angle it was at address. The legs are out in front. He's creating a massive launching pad. Look how he's retained that wrist angle there. In fact, it might even have increased a little bit as he now continues to load that golf club. But you see the spine angle. Notice how the head is dropping back. See how he's still well behind the ball position. All the while, the lower body has driven past there and that front leg has posted up already. Now as we continue to go, now watch the wrist release. See how right here the handle's past the golf ball. Still lag there across those wrists and now comes the snap. The body's lead, the wrist release and see that incredible picture right there. The upper body is well behind the golf ball. The hands are well in front of him and look at this match up here. He has the left arm behind the shaft of the club which is down his front leg. That's incredible as he's got the club face squarely on the back of the ball. Now you'll see the wrist continue to release. Head's still back there. Upward launching swing and look how quickly now those arms overtake each other. They cross over passing the body by and now it's just free flowing all the way into the follow through. There's that big wrist release again. So huge leverage here for Aldrich and I'll do this without you seeing any of the graphics. So first off, watch the coil in the body, the extension in the back, low body leads, legs drive, legs now settle, big wrist hinge. Look at that. Now head drops back, spine tilt, arms in front, de-lofted club face, upward swinging hits. He does it all and he does it with such grace and such elegance. Incredible to watch this man drive the golf ball and now win PGA Tour events. Aldrich Porchita, watch this space. Kip is headed down the fairway which it's a quick t-grab. I'm standing out here at about 350 and it's right across from me. Perfect in the middle. Potgater with a driver. You know he's got some power. I mean he's down there where there's not even any divots. Oh this is full send. I didn't go that far on my holidays. Known for the power of the tee leading the PGA Tour in driving distance, he is really powerful but I tell you what, he can compress and mash an iron shot too. But before we dive into how he does it, I feel like we just have to give a little love to this fan in the background. I mean check out this boy. Decked out, complete pistol Pete regalia. Even has the moustache. Holding the hat, not sure if that's a function of the velocity of Aldrich's golf swing or if the wind is blowing out there. Bravo my friend, bravo. So back to Aldrich. At address, very standard. Arms down in front of the golf ball. I love the fact that the feet are spread to shoulder width apart. As he moves back, very standard off the ball there. Hips, shoulders, arms wind up together. But right here I really want to highlight how stable he is over the top of the golf ball. Reminds me of another young man, although he's aged now, the golden bear, who is a young man like Aldrich with very powerful big strong legs that Jack Nicklaus had. And watch how Aldrich, just like Nicklaus, moves around and over the top of the legs. Look at that, the head right in the middle of the legs. Almost looks like a triangle shape that he has formed. Another thing that you can copy is how Aldrich gets the arms out to the side of the body here. I've always loved that look where if you drop a plumb line down from the handle of the club, it should be outside the trail foot. That makes it easy for this couple that is the elbows to get back to the side of and then in front of the body. And it's with that that we will now see the magic that Aldrich makes happen in the downswing. The lower body leads. Now here comes the matchup. See those elbows work down as a couple. Look at the trail elbow finds the trail side, the handles leading. And watch now, here's another matchup. People are going to look at that and say, man, look at this. Look at the differential between the left arm and the shaft angle. Massive shaft lean. But if Aldrich had to release the shaft more and get that angle there, that's about 150 degrees or so, if he made that more of a straight line, the face would show up closed. So that's just Aldrich there making sure that he keeps the face looking where it should. But still an incredible position where the hips lead, the handles leading, the faces squaring, and from there, watch how long the glove hand stays above the non-glove hand. That's another matchup move because if you look here, that club face, albeit a little blurry, is closing even though he's not allowing the forearms to rotate over each other. From there, he just continues to follow that through. And here's another thing that you can copy. Just like a Tommy Fleetwood You don't have to make a full arm swing in the follow-through. Your body will rotate all the way through, as Aldrich and Tommy both do. But you see those arms and the cut-off balanced follow-through? That is magic. Just like this man's golf swing. He is big, he is strong, he has got great golf IQ. Aldrich Kwakito is here to stay. Short shot in here, and it is gorgeous. This hole playing a little bit more downwind here. How aggressive does he get to this back pin? Oh, nicely done. That's the advantage when you can bomb it as far as he does. Aldrich Kwakito. South African who can really move it. Steve, I think that was just a short iron. Oh, man. And a juice. And Aldrich jars it.