Off the tee · Fairway wood
What is Adam Scott's swing tempo?
Adam Scott's 2002 Qatar Masters fairway wood is a 0.82s backswing into a 0.27s downswing — a 3.05:1 tempo ratio over 1.09s from takeaway to impact. That is almost exactly the 3:1 ratio usually quoted for tour players. Timed by hand from tournament footage to 1/100 of a second.
0.82s
Backswing
0.27s
Downswing
1.09s
Total duration
3.05:1
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
0.82s
Top of backswing
1.09s
Impact
Source footage: 2002 Qatar Masters. Raw marks: takeaway 0s, top 0.8209s, impact 1.09s.
The shot
Adam Scott owns one of the purest tempos in golf, and it was there early. Off the tee at the 2002 Qatar Masters: a silky 3.05:1, the backswing flowing about three times longer than the strike, 1.09 seconds start to impact.
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 3.05:1, which is almost exactly 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 3.05:1 as beats you can swing along to, then times your own swing the same way so you can see how close you got.