It never felt quite right that Collin Morikawa was on a two-year winless streak. The guy is too talented a golfer; too solid a ball-striker; too smart a person for it to last. It always felt inevitable that he’d snap it sooner or later.
Last week at Pebble Beach, it happened.
Collin gained roughly 1 million Strokes Gained: Approach at Pebble (9.681, if you want specifics), which meant he lifted the trophy despite being a worse-than-average putter on the week.
What prompted this breakthrough? A few interesting tweaks to his golf swing. Better yet, we’ve got data from state-of-the-art golf swing app SportsBox AI to prove and explain how one of the best players in golf might, hopefully, probably be back to his best.
If you look at the number I’ve circled here, you’ll notice SportsBox measure of Collin’s Sway Gap at the top of the backswing is about half an inch less now than it was.
You can read more about Sway Gap here, but basically, it’s a measurement of the difference of alignment between your upper and lower body.
When you’re standing straight, you have zero sway gap—your upper and lower are on top and bottom of each other.
If I was to lean over to my right side, I’d have a bigger sway gap.
Collin’s upper body used to sway more off the ball—giving him a bigger sway gap. This is fine, but generally it’s more suited to players who hit a draw (see Kirk, Chris), because it can help you swing more to the right.
But that’s not what Collin, a fader, needs. He needs to swing more left.
When his upper body swayed back more, opening a bigger sway gap, it pulled his arms more around the body, and it’s why he swung more to the right, which would undermine his preferred pull-fade.
But now, Collin’s sway gap is smaller. His upper body is more on top of his lower body on the backswing.
Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire
This means his hands track more up towards the sky, and less around his body on the backswing.
Mike Mulholland
Which helps the club come down a little steeper on the downswing, which helps him swing more left. A better match-up for his ideal fade.
Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire
Interestingly, this new movement has also resulted in a slightly shorter backswing—I’ve circled his hand path length metric here, which means his hands aren’t travelling as long a distance. Yet Collin’s ball speed is slightly faster than it was last season anyway.
Maybe it’s the effect of a little confidence boost, or he’s been adding some speed training on top of this. Either way, it’s working. He’s in the winner’s circle again, and his golf swing is back to being matched up in a way that makes him really dangerous.
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