Image 1 is at P7, image 2 is at P7.2 and image 3 is at P7.4.

Note that he has an open pelvis and slightly open upper torso alignment at impact. Note how much he continues to rotate his pelvis and upper torso counterclockwise between P7 => P7.4 and that allows him to efficiently perform a CP-arm release action combined with a no-roll DH-hand release action during that time period, which then allows him to keep his clubface square to his clubhead path all the way between P7 => P7.4.

Now, consider Scottie's footwork through impact. 





Image 1 is at impact. Note that his lead ankle is inverted and that he is rolling his ankle so that he likely has a lot of pressure-loading over the outer border of his lead foot at impact. I suspect that it is secondary to the fact that he has lot of targetwards pelvic shift motion happening during his downswing action.

Note that his lead heel is grounded while he is lifting up his lead forefoot. I suspect that it is due to the fact that he is probably a front-foot golfer who has a large amount of rotary pelvic torque happening between P5.5 => P7.5. In fact, he seemingly has so much counterclockwise pelvic rotary torque being generated by the active muscular contraction of his lead gluteus maximus muscle that his lead femur externally rotates a lot through impact - note how his lead thigh rotates counterclockwise between P7 => P7.5 causing his lead knee cap to face more targetwards by P7.5 and it also causes his lead forefoot to spin counterclockwise at the same time. In some of his more vigorous driver swings, his pelvis rotates so assertively counterclockwise through impact that it causes his lead heel to move backwards away from the ball-target line during his early followthrough action - as can be seen in the following video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=g18IUXdFj1E .That "lead heel shift" phenomenon creates a momentary unbalancing motion, but it only happens post-impact (mainly in his driver swing action) and I suspect that it does not necessarily affect the pre-impact quality of his lead arm/clubshaft motion during his late downswing and at impact.

Now, I will examine a series of his DTL capture images in order to discover more features of his golf swing action.

DTL capture image of his backswing action.





Image 1 is at address. Note that his original shaft plane is intermediate in degree of steepness between the hand plane and the elbow plane and that is probably due to his more upright address posture.

Image 2 is at P2. Note that his clubshaft is parallel to the ground and his clubface is vertical with the toe pointing straight up. His clubface is straight-in-line parallel to the back of his lead hand and watchface area of his lead lower forearm because he uses a weak lead hand grip and he also uses an intact LFFW/GFLW swing technique.

Image 3 is at P3. Note that he uses a trail arm folding action that is intermediate in degree between a Right Forearm Takeaway technique and an One-Piece takeaway technique. Note that the butt end of his club is pointing at the ball-target line at P3, which means that his clubshaft is on-plane. If you watch his slow motion video, you will note that he uses an on-plane clubshaft motion technique combined with an intact LFFW/GFLW technique during his backswing action.

Image 4 is at P4. Note that his lead arm is slightly steeper than his shoulder turn angle, and that his clubshaft is positioned just above the TSP. Note that his RFFW is perfectly aligned relative to his intact LFFW at P4, which nessitates that he manifest a flying right elbow scenario at P4.

Note that his clubshaft is pointing slightly right of the target at P4. That fact is simply due to the factual reality that he rotates his upper torso >90 degrees by P4 and it is not due to any swing fault involving his arms/wrist/hands (eg. excessive lead wrist cupping that disrupts his intact LFFW/GFLW alignment).

Also, note that his clubhead is higher than his hands at P4 secondary to a clubshaft angle that is angled slightly upwards, which is partly due to the fact that his trail wrist is not very extended at his P4 position.

Here is a comparison capture image of Dustin Johnson at his P4 position.





Image 1 is his P4 position - note that his clubshaft is angled groundwards at P4 so that his clubhead is well below the level of his hands. What is causing that groundwards clubshaft angulation phenomenon? It is significantly due to the fact that Dustin has a very bowed lead wrist and a very extended trail wrist that allows him to position his clubshaft in a much more "laid-off" position at P4.

Note how extended Dustin's trail wrist is at the start of his early downswing action - images 2, 3 and 4.

Does that more extended trail wrist give Dustin Johnson an advantage over Scottie Scheffler in terms of swing power? I have seen a number of golf instructors express an opinion that having a very extended trail wrist at P4 is advantageous because it allows for a greater range of trail wrist motion between P4 (when the trail wrist is very extended) and impact (when the trail wrist is minimally extended). I personally reject that opinion because I do not think that any trail wrist straightening motion (moving from marked extension at P6 => minimal wrist extension at P7) increases clubhead speed in a pro golfer who uses a pivot-induced lead arm swinging action (like Dustin Johnson and Scottie Scheffler). I will greatly expand on this issue in a future thread.

DTL capture images of Scottie Scheffler's early-mid downswing action.





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

Note that I have drawn a red line against the back of his trail buttock at P4, and that represents the tush line.

Note how Scottie starts his hip-squaring action by rotating his lead buttock back towards the tush line while keeping his trail buttock abutted against the tush line. I suspect that his hip-squaring action between P4 => P4.5 is mainly due to the muscular activation of his trail-sided lateral pelvic rotator muscles +/- due to his lead forefoot generating a horizontal GRF by pushing away from the ball-target line.

Note that he has completed his hip-squaring action by P5 and his trail buttock has only moved away from the tush line by ~2". Note that his pelvis is open by P5.5 while his shoulders are still slightly closed.

Note that he has very little head dropping during his hip-squaring action, and he maintains his spinal bend inclination angle constantly unchanged between P4 => P6.

Note how actively he adducts his right upper arm between P4 => P5 - note how his trail elbow, which is level with his lead elbow at P4, drops below the level of his lead elbow by a large amount by P5. That active right arm adduction maneuver, which is combined with a pitch elbow motion, allows him to efficiently retain his clubhead lag angle of ~90 degrees, and avoid casting, during his clubshaft shallowing action.

Note how he shallows his clubshaft from being just above the TSP at P4 to being approximately on the elbow plane by P5.5. The two major biomechanical actions that make this clubshaft shallowing action possible are i) an active right arm adduction maneuver using a pitch elbow motion and ii) a large amount of trail forearm supination.

Note that he has an on-plane clubshaft motion between P4 => P6 and that his clubshaft ends up being parallel to both the ground and the ball-target line at P6 and lying vertically above his toe line at P6. Note that the toe of his clubface is pointing straight-up, which means that it is not square to his clubhead arc.

Note that I have drawn a short blue line parallel to his clubface at P5.5 (image 4) and it is wide-open relative to his clubhead arc. I strongly suspect that Mike Malaska would label this open clubface alignment at P5.5 a major swing fault, and he has repeatedly stated that it will require an inordinate amount of clubface rolling (due to a lot of lead forearm supination happening after P6) in order to get a square clubface by impact from that wide-open clubface position at P5.5. Mike Malaska wants to avoid having to use a lot of lead forearm supination in his later downswing and he therefore recommends his "Malaska Move" maneuver, which he wrongheadedly believes is absolutely necessary to get the clubface square to the clubhead arc by P6. Many modern-era golf instructors also recommend a clubface closing maneuver between P4 => P5.5 in order to avoid having that open clubface alignment at P5.5. For example, Tyler Ferrell recomends the Motorcycle Move (more correctly called the Reverse Motorcycle Move) and Brian Manzella recommends his Twistaway Maneuver. Miles Lino and Eric Cogorno also recommend a lead wrist flexing maneuver in the following video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_GJSZo9oo .

By contrast, I don't think that Scottie's clubface can be defined as being wide open at his P5.5 position and I believe that his clubface alignment is actually neutral and naturally expected because he uses the combination of i) a weak lead hand grip and ii) an intact LFFW/GFLW technique and an iii) on-plane clubshaft motion during his downswing action. Why do I claim that it is naturally expected for Scottie to have his clubface lying back in an open position (relative to his clubhead arc) at his P5.5 position? First of all, Scottie uses a weak lead hand grip, which means that his clubface will be straight-in-line with the watchface area on the back of his lower lead forearm if he has a GFLW alignment and an intact LFFW alignment. Because Scottie uses the intact LFFW/GFLW technique throughout his entire downswing action, his clubface will always be straight-in-line/parallel to his lead lower forearm's lower radial bone throughout the entire P4 => P7 time period. Secondly, Scottie also maintains an on-plane clubshaft throughout his downswing action, which means that when his clubshaft is shallowing-out down to the elbow plane between P4 => P5.5, his clubshaft is always lying on his instantaneous swingplane at every instantaneous moment between P4 => P5.5. Note that his clubface is lying on the surface of his instantaneous swingplane at P5.5 (image 4). Note that the watchface area of his lead lower forearm is also straight-in-line with that instantaneous swingplane at P5.5. Finally, because his clubface is straight-in-line with his watchface area on the back of his lower lead forearm at P5.5, that means that his clubface must also lie parallel to the surface of his swingplane at P5.5.

Here is a capture image of Scottie Scheffler at his P5.5 position.





The red line shows his clubshaft lying on his instantaneous swingplane at his P5.5 position. An imaginary extension line drawn out from the butt end of his club will point at the "X" mark on the ground, and point "X" is positioned on the ball-target line. That means that his clubshaft is on-plane at his P5.5 position.

I have drawn a blue line parallel to the watchface area of the back of his lead lower forearm and that blue line goes straight through his lower lead forearm's radial bone just above the level of his lead wrist crease. That blue line is straight-line-aligned with his clubface because he has an intact LFFW/GFLW alignment at P5.5. Because he adopts a weak lead hand grip, his clubface (yellow line) must be straight-line-aligned with both the blue line and the red line. In other words, his clubface must have that very specific alignment at P5.5 if he has i) an intact LFFW/GFLW alignment where ii) the clubshaft is on-plane on his instantaeous swingplane at his P5.5 position. If his clubface was more closed at that P5.5 position, then it would suggest he is using a superadded clubface closing maneuver (eg. Reverse Motorcycle Move) that is not necessary if one uses the intact LFFW/GFLW technique.

To get a square clubface by impact, Scottie Scheffler simply has to use a PA#3 release action during his later downswing - as demonstrated in the following capture image.