3 Things You Can Learn From Shane Lowry’s Golf Swing
Shane Lowry has a swing from which we can all learn. PGA Professional picks out 3 things that will help you play better golf.
Shane Lowry teamed up with Rory McIlroy to win the 2024 Zurich Classic, just creeping over the line in a playoff. Whilst Lowry doesn’t have the most classic swing, there are 3 key moves he makes that would help any mid-handicapper improve their game. In the video below, find out what 3 things you can learn from Shane Lowry’s golf swing.
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Background
Shane Lowry doesn’t have a swing that you might be drawn to straight away, but he has cemented himself as a Ryder Cup player, a major championship winner and has picked up trophies at multiple tour events now, so it is worth looking to see what he does well.
Shane is very creative player, constantly manipulating the golf ball with his hands and has an epic short game. Growing up in Ireland, he built a swashbuckling game that the average mid-handicap golfer can learn from, and it all starts with his takeaway.
Knees
Lowry addresses the ball with a very narrow stance. This can help with range of motion and turning more in the backswing, but what is really noticeable is that as soon as he takes the club away, his left knee moves across, and his right knee moves straight back.
Moving your knees this way will help you make a longer backswing, achieve more depth to the hands and the golf club, and helps him hit the ball from the inside. Another benefit of this is that it stops the golfer from swaying too much in the backswing, which can cause poor strikes and weak-flighted golf shots.
Feel like that as soon as the club starts moving back, the lead knee moves across, and the trail knee moves back, and you will be able to turn your hips more than you ever have.
Shoulder Tilt
The angle the shoulders turn on (tilt) is a huge factor in making good contact with the golf ball. Lowry displays exactly what should happen here by turning his shoulders 90 degrees perpendicular to his posture at address.
When the shoulders move off the correct tilt, and the lead shoulder comes up higher than it should, golfers will always struggle with fat and thin contact, and score poorly.
The perfect analogy for this is imagining the Iron Bryon robot that tests golf balls. If you raised the arm’s height in the backswing and then had to lower it the same amount in the downswing, it wouldn’t make such regular, consistent contact with the ball, and this is exactly how you should view your head and shoulders in the swing.
Be like Shane, and make sure your lead shoulder moves down in the backswing.
Hip Slide
Shane Lowry is a perfect example of the early hip slide in transition to correctly sequence his arms and his body in the downswing.
Before Lowry’s backswing has finished, he starts moving his hips towards the target. This slide delays his hip turn, which gives him chance to move his arms down and shallow the club.
The biggest cause of the ‘over the top’ swing characteristic is turning too early from the top of the swing, and this gets the club outside and steep. Move your hips laterally towards the target as early as possible to create room for your arms to move into, and then turn through.
What can we learn?
Shane Lowry is a superb golfer, and although his swing might not look textbook to the naked eye when slowed down, he has many of the traits of the greats we see in the tour winner’s golf swings every week.
Amateur golfers wouldn’t want to copy everything he does in his swing, as a lot of it will be only relevant to their body and their physical limitations, but by doing the following 3 things you can go a long way towards hitting the ball properly every time.
- Move the lead knee in and the trail knee back EARLY in the backswing.
- Move your lead shoulder down in the takeaway.
- Shift your hips towards to target as early as you can.
If you enjoyed this Shane Lowry golf swing analysis, keep an eye out for more tour winners’ swing analysis in the future.
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Jack Backhouse
Jack is a PGA Golf Professional who specialises in coaching, teaching golf to beginners and top-level amateurs for 10+ years. He also loves his golf equipment and analysing the data of the latest clubs on the market using launch monitors, specialising in blade irons and low-spinning drivers despite having a chronically low ball flight.
Although Jack has no formal journalism training, He has been reading What's In The Bag articles since he started playing at 12 and studying golf swings since his dad first filmed his swing to reveal one of the worst over-the-top slice swings he reckons has ever been recorded, which set him off on the path to be a coach. His favourite club ever owned was a Ping G10 driver bought from a local top amateur with the hope that some of the quality golf shots would come with it (they didn't), and worst was a Nike SQ driver he only bought because Tiger was using it.
Jack is a member of Sand Moor Golf Club and regularly gets out on the golf course to prepare for tournaments. Jack uses a TaylorMade BRNR Mini driver, a half set of TaylorMade P7MB irons, MG4 wedges and a TaylorMade TP Reserve putter.
