Viktor Hovland Golf Swing Analysis

In this post I am going to analyse certain aspects of the golf swing action of Viktor Hovland (VH) that I think help to make him a great ball-striker.

VH won the 2023 FedEx Cup with a masterful performance of a superbly controlled golf swing action.

Here are three swing videos featuring VH's golf swing action.

1) An interview with VH where VH expresses his opinions regarding certain features of his golf swing action. 

2) A good quality slow-motion swing video of his driver golf swing action. 

3) An analysis by Mark Immelman where he expresses his opinions on what makes VH such a good ball-striker. 

It should not surprise forum members, who are familiar with my thinking re: golf swing biomechanics, that I harbor a number of different opinions than MI.

MI starts off by discussing VH's backswing action at the 1:42 minute time point of his video where he notes that VH takes his hands back along a shallower plane than the start of his early downswing's hand arc plane where his hands are closer to the ball-target line at P4.5 than they were at P3.5. MI refers to this move as an OTT move, and in a certain sense that is true when it refers to the hand motion, but I prefer to refer to this phenomenon as a reverse slot swing action if one references the motion of the clubshead (and not the hands) - as seen in the golf swings of Hale Irwin, Bruce Lietzke and Sam Snead. In VH's golf swing, although his hands are closer to the ball-target line at P4.5 (compared to P3.5) he manifests an exaggerated degree of clubshaft shallowing between P4 => P5.5 that makes his clubshaft plane in his mid-downswing slightly shallower than it was at the same point in his backswing - so he does not really have a reverse slot swing action.

Consider this capture image of VH's clubhead path.

The black path represents his backswing's clubhead path and the red path represents his downswing's clubhead path.

The blue splined path represents his hand arc path between P4 => P5.5.

Note that his clubhead path is very shallow during his backswing action between P1 => P4.

Note that VH's hands come down very steeply between P4 (image 1) and P5 (image 3) and that the clubshaft is cutting across the upper half of his trail upper arm at P5 as viewed from DTL - a steep clubshaft scenario that is often seen in unskilled amateur golfers who come OTT.

However, note how his clubhead path loops to a shallower plane between P5 (image 3) and P5.5 (image 5) due to his skillfully performed clubshaft shallowing action - that is biomechanically due to a very assertive trail upper arm adduction maneuver (note how his trail elbow drops below the level of his lead elbow by P5) that is combined with trail forearm supination and lead forearm pronation (note that the back of his lead hand is more horizontal at P5.5 compared to P4). Stop the MI video at the 3:09 minute time point to see how efficiently VH shallows the clubshaft at P5 despite having "high hands" at P5.

Between the 5:00 - 7:10 minute time point of MI video, MI points out the fact that VH uses a moderately strong lead hand grip, and that he rolls his lead forearm/hand clockwise between P1 => P2, which predisposes him to having a shallow clubhead path during his backswing action. MI also notes that VH has a large shoulder turn between P1 => P4.

Image 1 in the following capture image shows VH at his P4 position.

Note that VH has rotated his pelvis >60 degrees clockwise by P4, which requires a certain degree of trail knee straightening action. Note that he uses a rightwards-centralised upper torso loading pattern where his spine is tilted a lot to the right (= away from the target) and his head is located vertically over a point on the ground that is just inside his trail foot. Note that he has a shoulder turn angle of >110 degrees so he is generating a large amount of static X-factor (torso-pelvic separation).

I have drawn red lines alongside the outer border of his pelvis/upper thighs at P4.

Image 2 is at P4.5 and image 3 is at P5.2 and one can see that he squares his pelvis during his early downswing action using an exaggerated "squat move" that involves an increased degree of hip joint flexion and knee joint flexion that causes his head to drop down a few inches. Also, note that he does not manifest a lateral (translational) pelvic shift move in a targetwards direction during his hip-squaring phase of his early downswing. In video #1, VH acknowledges that "fact" during his interview and he talks about the "feel" of pivoting around his trail leg. Watch the MI video between the 6:53 - 7:15 minute time points to observe the "pivot motional power" of VH's hip-squaring pelvic motion that happens between P3.5 => P5. Stop the video at the 7:15 minute time point and note how assertively VH is performing a trail upper arm adduction maneuver that is combined with a pitch elbow motion of his trail elbow that drops his trail elbow well below the level of his lead elbow. That maneuver allows VH to retain his clubhead lag for longer and prevent any premature casting action.

Here is a face-on capture image showing his hand arc path between P4 => P7.

Image 1 is at P4, image 2 is at P5, image 3 is at P5.5, image 4 is at P6, and image 5 is at P7.

The red splined path is his hand arc path.

Note how U-shaped his hand arc path is when he swings a driver. Note that his hands are no closer to the target at P5.5 than they were at P4 even though he has lowered his hands a lot during the P4 => P5.5 time period. Note that his hands are about 15" outside the outer border of his trail thigh at P5.5. What makes that biomechanically possible? There are three main biomechanical factors in play - i) his upper torso is still closed relative to the ball-target line; ii) he has adducted his trail upper arm against the trail side of his mid-upper torso while avoiding any internal rotary motion of his trail humerus and iii) he has retained a ~90 degree trail elbow bend angle. That combination causes his trail forearm to be angled away from the target at P5.5 so that his trail hand is much further away from the target than his trail elbow.

Note how his trail elbow gets fully adducted to a desirable pitch location alongside his trail hip area by P6 and note that his trail elbow does not continue to move targetwards away from that trail hip area between P6 => P7. His hand arc path between P6 => P7 is mainly horizontal with a slight uplifting phenomenon due to the progressive elevation of his lead shoulder socket, which is very conducive to producing a large centripetal MoF that is causally responsible for the efficient release of PA#2.

Note that VH has a moderately large amount of secondary axis tilt at impact, but it is not greater than the amount that existed at P4 because he does not use a left-lateral pelvic shift motion (as seen in other pro golfers like Scottie Scheffler) during his downswing action - note that the outer border of his lead pelvis is still well within the inner border of his lead foot at impact. However, note that VH acquires a lot of right lateral bend between P5.5 => P7 that is very conducive to a clubshaft shallowing action and an in-to-out clubhead path during his mid-late downswing action.

Here are capture images of VH's clubhead path between P5.5 => P7.

Image 1 is at P5.5, image 2 is at P6, image 3 is at P6.3 and image 4 is at impact.

The red splined path shows his clubhead path. Note the directional motion of his clubhead path between P5.5 (when his clubhead is behind his hands) and P6.3 (when his clubhead is in front of his hands and closer to the ball-target line) - note that the clubhead path is situated below the level of his hands. In other words, VH does not "tumble" the clubshaft over his hands, or across the hands, as recommended by some golf instructors (eg. Mike Malaska and Brian Manzella). Three major biomechanical factors allow VH to generate such a shallow clubhead path between P5.5 => P7, which is very conducive to an in-to-out clubhead path +/- a negative clubhead attack angle at impact - i) right lateral bend that drops his trail shoulder closer to the ground; ii) a very horizontal arced motion of his trail forearm that is combined with a lot of trail forearm supination; and iii) a bowed lead wrist that angles his clubshaft more groundwards.

Note that his clubface is relatively closed with respect to his clubhead path (and the watchface area of his lead lower forearm) at P6 and that is due to the fact that i) he adopts a moderately strong lead hand grip at address and ii) that he bows his lead wrist at P4 when his lead wrist is radially-deviated.

Here are capture images of VH's late downswing action where he has to use a PA#3 release action to square his clubface by impact.

Image 1 is at P6, image 2 is at P6.5, image 3 is at P6.7 and image 4 is at impact.

Note that the back of VH's lead hand rotates ~45 degrees between P6 => P7 (mainly due to lead forearm supination), and that represents his PA#3 release phenomenon. VH does not have to use much clubface-closing action during his late downswing because he uses a moderately strong lead hand grip and a bowed lead wrist technique (that closes the clubface in the earlier downswing).

What is amazing to note are the 3 biomechanical facts that i) his trail elbow remains closely abutted to his trail hip area between P6 => P7 and it does not bypass his trail hip area as his trail hand gets closer to impact; and ii) that he maintains a very bent trail elbow and iii) a very extended trail wrist throughout his entire P6 => P7 time period.

What is more amazing to note is that those three biomechanical features persist all the way to P7.5+.

Here are capture images of VH's P7 => P7.5 early followthrough time period.