KLPGA money leader in hot water

By Kim Jeong-kyu

Oh Ji-hyun remains on top of the KLPGA official money list this season winning roughly 525 million won. The 22-year-old notched the title at the Korea Women's Open by eight strokes last June. She set a new record for the largest margin of victory in the history of the KLPGA's flagship event. Given her recent performance, however, she looks like she is in hot water.

Her tee shots average roughly 254 yards. She is in 12th place in driving distance and 13th in hitting the fairways. She whacks roughly 80 percent of her tee shots far down on the fairway. She has an average of 29 putts per round.

The beauty of Oh's flat, compact swing is simplicity. Her swing is easy to repeat and so graceful it seems effortless. More important, her swing is pleasingly powerful.

At address, she places her ball in line with her left ear when she hits her tee shots. She sets her right shoulder slightly lower than the left, with her hands in front of the left seam of her trouser zipper. Her spine tilt to the right is not prominent, which is typical of players with a flat swing plane.

She takes a stance wider than her shoulder width, with her weight evenly balanced. This allows her to remain stable, ensuring solid contact with the sweet spot. Also, her wide stance helps her swing the club back low to the ground. She has no tinge of abrupt lifting of her arms during the takeaway.

An instant before her left arm gets horizontal on the backswing, her left arm and club shaft form a 90-degree angle. That is, she hinges her wrists early, which promotes a fluid swing with effortless power.

She turns her shoulders fully, more than 90 degrees. This helps her bang her tee shots way far. It's no wonder she is a long hitter.

She sets up her downswing shifting her weight to the left foot. This allows her arms to drop to slot her club into the proper inside path.

Granted, she leaves her head staying still until well after she completes her striking the ball. This says she preserves a light grip pressure at the top and does not lunge forward as she starts down.

Once the club falls down to the inside, Oh crosses her right forearm over the left through the shot, which allows her to hit the ball on an in-to-in path, helping her square or slightly close the clubface through impact.

More important, it helps her unleash full power into the shot and increase swing speed to her maximum without exerting extra effort.

She finishes low and around the body, with the club shaft resting nearly horizontal. Typically, mimicking Oh, you will hit your ball longer than when you finish with your hands high above your head.

Granted, she finishes into a perfect balance with her right shoulder closer to the target than other parts of her body. This shows she fires her right side fully through the shot, hitting the ball full tilt.

Oh has fallen into a quagmire of a long slump after winning the Korea Women's Open. She missed the cut twice in a row and finished tied for 19th at the Asiana Airlines Open in China last week.

Her swing deserted her, leaving her with a tendency to pull her shots. She had the same blunder thrust on her at the Asiana Airlines Open. On the first day, she pulled her tee shot left out of bounds on the way to incurring a double bogey.

She has plummeted down the leader board with disappointing rounds of 72-73-71.

She looks like she is just treading water. And behind her slump lies too high her hand position at the backswing top.

Indeed, her noticeable drawback is her asymmetric swing plane. Her steep backswing can force her to swing down on a faulty out-to-in path, inflicting nasty pulls on her.

The higher she mistakenly raises her hands going back, the severer pulls she will suffer. This holds true especially when she mistakenly lurches forward coming down or when she is under pressure or loses her rhythm and tempo.

To get out of suffering the slump, she needs to lower her hand position on the backswing.

To this end, she'd better leave her left arm resting at a right angle to her spine at the top. Done right, her backswing will match with her flat finish. She will let her club circle her body symmetrically, purging her swing of a faulty coming-over-the-top move. Eventually, she will get her swing back on track, leaving her free from those nasty pulls.