For years, both I and the rest of the golfing world have watched Tommy Fleetwood with a mix of awe and a quiet sense of frustration. His stunningly orthodox swing with its trademark sawn-off follow-through and consistent ball-striking has made him one of the game’s elite players, yet a victory on the PGA Tour had, until recently, remained elusive. He’d come agonizingly close, with numerous top-5 finishes and runner-up spots, earning him the reputation as one of the best players without a win on the biggest stage.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Then came the FedEx Cup playoffs. Fleetwood went on an incredible run, finishing T3 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, T4 at the following event, the BMW Championship, before finally getting over the line to secure his maiden PGA Tour victory at the Tour Championship. The timing of this career-defining performance is a compelling story in itself, but a new theory is emerging (mainly in my brain!), one that points to an unlikely source of inspiration: a left-handed YouTube challenge.
I Have An Announcement – YouTube
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Almost exactly a month before his playoff heroics began, Fleetwood released a video on his new YouTube channel with the goal of trying to break 100 while playing golf left-handed. The video, titled “I Have An Announcement,” was an engaging and humorous look at the struggles of learning the game from scratch, and has captured the attention of around 430k viewers at the time of writing.
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Subsequently, a follow-up YouTube video has emerged of Fleetwood taking a full left-handed lesson from one of the coaches at his Tommy Fleetwood Academy in Dubai, utilising video playback and even a Trackman 4 launch monitor to track club and ball data.
While it seemed like a bit of lighthearted fun for a player trying to establish and promote a new YouTube channel, Fleetwood has clearly put in a significant amount of left-handed repetitions recently, and I am starting to wonder if it may have been a key factor in his dramatic uptick in form. Allow me to explain…
Fleetwood still looked technically excellent while swinging left-handed
(Image credit: YouTube: Tommy Fleetwood)
As a PGA Professional who has spent a significant amount of time as part of national training squads over the years, receiving advice from various top-level physiotherapists and personal trainers, I know that swinging the opposite way is often a prescribed drill to help restore balance and equilibrium to a golfer’s body.
The golf swing is an incredibly unbalanced physical undertaking, and years of repeating that motion can lead to fairly severe muscular imbalances and even a heightened risk of injury. This was starkly evident to me during a recent round I played with two-time Masters Champion Bubba Watson.
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Following Watson down the 2nd hole, I could not believe how dramatically his left shoulder sits lower than his right, even when at rest, just strolling between shots; a physical imbalance created through many years of golf.
Swinging left-handed (for a right-handed player) helps to strengthen and stretch the dormant muscles on the opposite side of the body, promoting a more balanced physique. While this is primarily an injury prevention idea, I can’t help but wonder whether it helped Fleetwood in more ways than that.
Fleetwood’s left-handed bunker play was astonishing during the YouTube video
(Image credit: YouTube: Tommy Fleetwood)
In my experience, the performance benefits of practicing the opposite way around can be significant and varied. By forcing the brain to engage with the golf swing in a completely new way, a golfer can actually develop a deeper feel for and understanding of the mechanics of their normal swing.
While Fleetwood’s right-handed swing is notoriously pure, even the best techniques can develop subtle compensations or flaws over time. Swinging left-handed forces your brain to re-focus on the fundamental movements such as the sequencing of the body, the rotation of the hips and shoulders, and the correct path of the club.
Fleetwood’s left-handed practice didn’t always go to plan
(Image credit: YouTube: Tommy Fleetwood)
This type of practice can also promote better synchronization of the body and arms, as a golfer can’t simply rely on years of muscle memory to get them through the motion. For a player like Fleetwood, who has diligently stuck to the same framework and drills for years, maybe this fresh perspective played a part in unlocking a new level of performance.
Fleetwood even spent time working on his left-handed putting, while his right-handed putting stats were exceptional during the FedEx Cup playoffs…
(Image credit: YouTube: Tommy Fleetwood)
Ultimately, this is pure speculation. Perhaps Fleetwood’s incredible playoff performance was simply a matter of a phenomenal golfer finding his form at the perfect time. But the intriguing coincidence of his left-handed YouTube video and his subsequent run of career-defining golf is hard to ignore for me.
It’s a testament to the fact that even at the highest level, a new challenge and a different approach—even a completely “backwards” one—can lead to unexpected and extraordinary results.
