Blog: Moore's delivery unorthodox, but effective

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It is only fitting that Ryan Moore gets his first PGA TOUR win at the place where he first entered a tournament on the PGA TOUR. Greensboro, N.C. will certainly be a special place for Moore as he finally takes home a trophy.

After a very impressive amateur career, it always seemed to be only a matter of time before Moore would start winning on TOUR. Moore shot a final round 65 with five consecutive birdies on the back nine. This stretch vaulted Moore into a three-man playoff where he held off Jason Bohn and Kevin Stadler.

This win not only padded Moore's wallet to the tune of $918,000 but has now positioned him at 22nd in the Fed ExCup standings as the Playoffs kick off this week at The Barclays in New Jersey.

What Can We Learn
Ryan Moore is what I would call a "feel" player. I always enjoy watching players like Moore who are not the most impressive when it comes to technique, but still manage to get so much out of their game. Moore is a player who does some things at address and during the backswing that you wouldn't teach; however, over time Moore has learned to make the appropriate adjustments on the downswing to achieve a very good impact position.

You may have noticed over the weekend that at address Moore aims quite a bit to the left and sets his hands very low. Not the most fundamentally sound components but it sets the stage for how he positions the club during his backswing.

Like Jim Furyk -- Moore sets the club in a very vertical position during the backswing. This means when his lead arm reaches 9 o'clock, the club shaft is straight up and down which is considered off-plane and too steep. Fortunately for Moore, you don't hit the ball with your backswing so he has time on the downswing to re-route the club back on plane. A more ideal position at this point during the backswing is to set the club where the butt of the club points towards the target line. This would be considered on-plane and doesn't need re-routing during the downswing.

Through countless hours of practice, Moore has learned to re-route the club back on plane where the club shaft positioning flattens out during the downswing. To the naked eye this may look like a loop because of the severity of how Moore shifts the club's motion from nearly vertical to much closer to horizontal as the club head nears the ball. This flattening effect of the shaft is something a lot of amateurs can learn from as most amateurs err with a swing that is too steep on the downswing.

At the TOUR Academies, we teach golfers how to flatten their downswing path. When done properly, the club head will be delivered on a relatively shallow path to the ball. Here are a few things that we can learn from Moore to help this happen in your swing.

First, you must understand how the body moves during the downswing to impact. This sequence can be defined as "Shift and Rotate". Of the two, the most important is the initial transition defined as a weight shift.

Shift
The shift is the transition from backswing to downswing. The shift positions you to aggressively accelerate through impact by allowing the upper-body to support the creation of speed. A proper shift allows you to move the lead hip laterally as initiated by the pelvis "gliding" from right to left.

This action positions the lead hip over the outside portion of the lead heel to establish a destination for weight to transfer to as you accelerate through impact. As the pelvis initiates this action it is imperative that your head remains steady. This will maintain or even increase the separation between the shoulders and the hips and is one of the keys to keeping your head behind the ball at impact for maximum power.

This weight shift helps flatten out the downswing. A lot of players will feel their trailing shoulder lower so the trailing elbow can move towards the trailing hip. As this happens, a good checkpoint is when the shaft reaches parallel to the ground -- it should also be parallel to the target line, or if you are feeling dangerous allow the club head to be slightly behind the hands to insure an inside approach to the ball.

Rotate
As long as you have shifted first, you can now rotate. This phase accelerates the body through impact to the finish. Rotation includes two specific actions sequenced together to deliver the club head back to the ball: The rotation of the hips towards the target and the turning down of the trail shoulder. The muscles that were stretched with the separation between the shoulders and hips will begin contracting to accelerate the rotation. Now your body weight should aggressively transfer from the trailing side to lead side with the mass moving over the lead hip joint. For this to happen, the back foot needs to respond by rolling off the inside of its arch. This release of the trail side allows the rotation of the hips to happen uninterrupted all the way until your trail foot is up on its toes.

Golfers who struggle "coming over the top" with too steep of a downswing, are usually rotating first with minimal weight shift. In order to flatten out the shaft on the downswing like Ryan Moore - you must shift first and then rotate.

Just Because
Congratulations to the United States as they defeated the European team in the Solheim Cup. I was very impressed with all the women throughout the week, but none more than Michelle Wie. I must say, I am very happy for Wie as she was an impressive 3-0-1 and was the absolute star for the American team.

What a classy move for Captain Beth Daniel to pick Wie . With all the struggles and distractions surrounding Wie over the last couple of years, this was a risky move. In the end, this decision just might be what Michelle needed to get her career jumpstarted. It was really nice to see this extremely talented girl not only play well, but simply enjoy herself on the golf course. There was definitely something different about Michelle this week. It wasn't about an endorsement contract or the added pressure of playing in a men's event; rather, it was just simply about Wie's acceptance among her peer's and having fun with the game again.

Nice job Michelle -- you deserve it!