Short game · Wedge
What is Tiger Woods's swing tempo?
Tiger Woods's 2000 Johnny Walker Classic wedge is a 0.63s backswing into a 0.30s downswing — a 2.12:1 tempo ratio over 0.93s from takeaway to impact. That is quicker through the backswing than the 3:1 ratio usually quoted for tour players. Timed by hand from tournament footage to 1/100 of a second.
0.63s
Backswing
0.30s
Downswing
0.93s
Total duration
2.12:1
Tempo ratio
The three marks
Every number above comes from these, and nothing else. Read off the footage by hand, in seconds from the start of the clip.
0.00s
Takeaway
0.63s
Top of backswing
0.93s
Impact
Source footage: 2000 Johnny Walker Classic. Raw marks: takeaway 0.75s, top 1.381s, impact 1.679s.
The shot
Tiger Woods, 2000: his greatest season, nine wins. This medium-flighted pitch from the fairway was pulled from his Sunday warm-up at the Johnny Walker Classic, the last of those nine wins (by three). A soft, even 2.12:1 over 0.93 seconds.
Tiger Woods's other swings
This is one of 7 of his swings timed here, and they do not all share a tempo — his ratio runs from 2.06:1 to 3.69:1depending on the club. All of Tiger Woods's tempos
How this compares to “3 to 1”
The rule of thumb says a tour backswing takes three times as long as the downswing. This one is 2.12:1, which is quicker through the backswing than that. Across the whole library the spread is wide enough that 3:1 is best read as an average of very different swings rather than a target any one player hits.
More hand-timed swings
Swing to it, don't just read it.
Elite Tempo plays this 2.12:1 as beats you can swing along to, then times your own swing the same way so you can see how close you got.