Tempo is one of the most overlooked aspects of the golf swing. It could be the difference between your best round and your worst round. There are some surprising facts about tempo and the tempo of professionals. Most of the information below is from this book, Tour Tempo: Golf’s Last Secret Finally Revealed, which I highly recommend.
First off, all professionals have a specific ratio of backswing time to down swing time. It is actually quite amazing. When recorded, nearly every single professional had a 3:1 ratio of backswing to downswing. Some swings take longer, some shorts, but the ratio stays the same.
Another astounding fact is that, when a player had a particularly bad round and claimed that they just couldn’t get the right tempo, their ratio was not 3:1. If you are having trouble with your tempo, or game in general, this could be why.
The book discusses more in depth the 3:1 ratio and other aspects in much more depth than I am going to go into. But if you decide to skip the book, than at least try my drill below a few times. It did wonders for my game.
The ratio of 3:1 can be broken down into 4 equal parts: Three backswing parts and one downswing part. So in your head, you can count (one, two, three) in your backswing. On “three” your downswing should begin and on “four” your should strike the ball. This will give you the 3:1 ratio that is needed for a perfect swing.
I am so confident in the 3:1 ratio that I believe if you actually achieve it, you will be able to consistently hit nearly every fairway and at least 13 or 14 greens a round. Imagine how that could improve your game.
This is a very crude representation of the actual strength of implementing this ratio into your swing. I would highly recommend you get this book. I think it is around $8 and it comes with a CD that grooves your swing perfectly into the ratio. Tour Tempo: Golf’s Last Secret Finally Revealed really is a great book. I read it from cover to cover, twice, and my swing benefited because of it.
