Breaking down the extraordinary swing of Ho-Sung Choi
Everyone talks about the Ho-Sung Choi swing, jumping around and finishing in some funky positions, but when you look at the movement there’s lots to like. He delivers the impact position very well and that’s a big reason why he’s won twice on the Japan Tour and why he is ranked 194th in the world.
Yes it is quite funky in the takeaway, he picks it up quite steeply and outside the line and his right elbow gets quite high and, because that elbow gets quite high, the shaft gets a bit across the line.
The natural cause of that is that the club will shallow on the way down as, for the club to get back on its balance point, the right elbow gets on the side of the body.
Watch the Ho-Sung Choi swing here:
Ho Sung Choi meets Pebble Beach. ⛳️ pic.twitter.com/7lb6ApauQZ
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 5, 2019
He sets up aiming down the right side of the fairway but delivers a very square clubface and he can get away with it here as his body is so open at impact. His feet are really shut but his body is more square and, because he rotates things so well, he is able to hit it so straight. He’s hitting it a bit like Jim Furyk so that aligns itself to hitting it very straight rather than vast distances.
At impact that elbow is very bent through the impact area as he turns through the ball so he’s hitting it with a very flexed right side.
As for the Harry Potter bits after impact then it’s just his way of doing things – the delivery into impact is really, really good.
This is how the man himself describes what he does: “I know sometimes after I’ve hit the ball I sometimes will the ball to go in the hole and in my mind I feel like that helps the ball go in the hole, so I’m going to keep doing that,” Choi explained. “And I feel like in my mind the way I move my body, sometimes it feels like I have remote control that wills the ball to go in the hole.
“I personally love my swing. I didn’t start golf until I was in my late 20s, so technically I didn’t take any lessons growing up. But regarding flexibility or anything like that, I might not have as much compared to the other tour players, but I do what I can with what I have. And also with the advancement in technology and with how far these players are hitting it nowadays I needed to find my own unique way to get that extra distance.”
Ho-Sung Choi swing: What to practise
If you do tend to get a bit steep and are looking to shallow your swing then Choi’s is a great swing to look at.
What he does brilliantly is when the arms come down the wrists conditions change – the right palm would look up to the sky and the left wrist will begin to flatten and that’s what shallows out the swing.
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Dan Whittaker is an elite golf swing and performance coach based at High Legh. For more information, visit his website
Tom Irwin
Tom is a lifetime golfer, now over 30 years playing the game. 2023 marks 10 years in golf publishing and he is still holding down a + handicap at Alwoodley in Leeds. He has played over 600 golf courses, and has been a member of at least four including his first love Louth, in Lincolnshire. Tom likes unbranded clothing, natural fibres, and pencil bags. Seacroft in Lincolnshire is where it starts and ends.
