SWING ANALYSIS
Bend and Rip Joaquin Niemann’s unicorn swing makes him an elite ball-striker BY LUKE KERR-DINEEN
No move activates the multitude of armchair golf instructors on Instagram like
Bryson DeChambeau in average driving distance on the LIV Golf tour in 2024. “It always has felt natural to me. That’s just how my body works.” You might think that the way Nie- mann’s spine is torqued in these pho- tos, future injuries are inevitable. Not necessarily so, says Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher Jon Sinclair. His through- swing move might be a red flag for some, but others who have a similar movement pattern could be just fine. “Some golfers are acutely strong, flexible or resilient in one or more areas of their body,” says Sinclair, an expert in 3-D motion capture and biomechanics.
Joaquin Niemann’s swing. It’s always the same thing that gets called out: In the milliseconds around impact, the 26-year-old Chilean drops his right shoulder and torso dramatically as he turns through ( above, seventh photo ). It gives his swing an extraordinary amount of side bend, which many pun- dits speculate is not a move that will hold up in the long term. “I don’t really care what they say about it, to be honest,” says Niemann, who at 322.5 yards, ranked behind only
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOM FURORE
46 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JULY/AUGUST 2025
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