{"id":49574,"date":"2026-08-12T22:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/49574\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T22:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:43:13","slug":"three-freak-golf-swings-are-winning-on-the-pga-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/49574\/","title":{"rendered":"Three &#8216;freak&#8217; golf swings are winning on the PGA Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aug. 10, 2026, 1:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p>Three successful PGA Tour golfers are utilizing unconventional swings, according to golf instructor Carl Lohren.Ryan Fox&#8217;s swing is described as extremely upright, Chris Gotterup&#8217;s as having a reverse pivot, and Jackson Koivun&#8217;s as having unusual leg movement.Lohren attributes the success of these &#8220;freak&#8221; swings to modern golf equipment, including larger driver heads and advanced golf balls.These unique swings are producing winning results, including a major championship victory for Ryan Fox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">There are three freak moves on the <a href=\"http:\/\/golfweek.usatoday.com\/pga-tour\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PGA Tour<\/a> these days that have been producing winning results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Golf instructor Carl Lohren, 88, has seen all sorts of swings in his days coaching the likes of Deane Beman, Dave Hill, Marty Fleckman, Gary Hallberg, and more recently, helping <a href=\"http:\/\/golfweek.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/golf\/pga\/2026\/06\/05\/2026-memorial-ryan-gerard-graffiti-swing-hot-putter\/90424108007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Gerard<\/a> to the PGA Tour, but he\u2019s never seen success at the highest level of men\u2019s professional golf with these three swings, which will all be on display this week at the first leg of the <a data-autotag=\"e13e5562-2c23-42c1-b3b8-d1f86ca9977b\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/golf\/pga\/fedex-cup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">FedEx Cup<\/a> playoffs at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cThey are freaks. Ryan Fox\u2019s left hand almost is hitting his ear at the top of the backswing,\u201d Lohren said of the unique move of the recent <a data-autotag=\"5ce03d7d-5f95-4b26-93a5-1b92fd1ce49c\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/golf\/pga\/the-open\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">British Open<\/a> winner out of New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:363px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/90993737007-2286786593.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ryan Fox celebrates victory on the 18th green Sunday at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale while holding his Ping Anser 2D putter.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Lohren referenced Ben Hogan\u2019s famed book \u201cFive Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf,\u201d where a sheet of glass represents the backswing plane as a visual of the top of the swing with the left arm inclining at the exact angle of the plane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">As Hogan explained, the arm is supposed to brush against the glass pane.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cFox\u2019s hands are so far above that it&#8217;s a joke,\u201d Lohren said. \u201cHe makes Jack Nicklaus at his most upright look flat. That&#8217;s the No. 1 freak out there right now. No one has ever swung the club as upright as he swings it. Yet he drops it under from up there and gets it in the slot coming in as good as anybody.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The second freak move is Chris Gotterup, a three-time winner this season and ranked No. 7 in the Official World Golf Ranking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cHe makes Lee Trevino look like he was square at his prime,\u201d Lohren said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Lohren has watched in amazement at how Gotterup sets up to hit a full iron with his feet somewhere between 30 to 45 degrees open to the pin and he starts that ball right at the pin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cThat&#8217;s impossible to do if you make a normal golf swing,\u201d Lohren said. \u201cIn a normal golf swing, the right hip is the pivot point of the hip turn on the back swing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:433px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/90815761007-usatsi-29335929.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Chris Gotterup celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2026 John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But for Gotterup, his left hip is the pivot point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cIf his hips were inside a barrel with a couple inches on each side of the barrel, his hip would bang the left side of the barrel. Some people call that a reverse pivot. Now he may move to the right a little bit before he does this but it&#8217;s a pretty insignificant amount that he does. So, you may not technically be able to call it a reverse pivot, but man, you&#8217;re stretching it if you don&#8217;t call it a reverse pivot, I&#8217;ll tell you that. That left tip turns forward so much that it allows his shoulders to turn so far that he can hit it out to the right. No one&#8217;s ever reverse pivoted like that that&#8217;s played good. That&#8217;s a ridiculous golf swing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Last but not least is Jackson Koivun, the 21-year-old phenom out of Auburn who won the 3M Open three weeks ago in just his third start as a pro.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cBoth legs straighten and both feet and both legs move away from the ball sideways. No one&#8217;s ever done that. I&#8217;ve seen guys spin out, I&#8217;ve seen Bubba Watson\u2019s left foot spin out and all that. I&#8217;ve never seen anybody straighten the legs and actually move both feet or both legs, whatever it is, back away from the ball like that, sideways, and hit it. I&#8217;ve never seen anybody do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:441px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/91057924007-getty-images-2287762870.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jackson Koivun poses with the Elemental Swing trophy after winning the 2026 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">What does Lohren find responsible for these three freak moves?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cI say the equipment they&#8217;re using and the ball they&#8217;re using and the size of the head of the driver they&#8217;re using allows them to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they tried to do that with a small persimmon head, you&#8217;d never find it when they missed it. You would never find the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Instead, these freak moves are producing freakish results and Fox\u2019s British Open triumph might be the first of many majors from this triumvirate with swings the likes of which we\u2019ve never seen in the winner\u2019s circle before.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786574593_482_85512178007-stjude-8.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a href=\"http:\/\/golfweek.usatoday.com\/staff\/76930036007\/adam-schupak\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Schupak<\/a>\u00a0is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug. 10, 2026, 1:00 p.m. ET Three successful PGA Tour golfers are utilizing unconventional swings, according to golf&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[58,1479,59,1236,1237,1302,65,80,193,2213,4134,67,187,1243,62],"class_list":["post-49574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chris-gotterup","tag-accessfree","tag-chris-gotterup","tag-sourcegolfweek","tag-sstssportsgolfpga","tag-sstsnpga-tour","tag-tagfedex-cup","tag-taggolf","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagpga-tour","tag-tagryan-fox","tag-tagsports-coaching-training","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-tagthe-open-championship","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}