Short game · Sand wedge
What is Jordan Spieth's swing tempo?
Jordan Spieth's 2017 Travelers Championship sand wedge is a 0.62s backswing into a 0.24s downswing — a 2.58:1 tempo ratio over 0.86s 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.
0.62s
Backswing
0.24s
Downswing
0.86s
Total duration
2.58:1
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
0.62s
Top of backswing
0.86s
Impact
Source footage: 2017 Travelers Championship, 18th. Raw marks: takeaway 3.51s, top 4.13s, impact 4.37s.
The shot
Jordan Spieth, 2017 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands. On the first hole of sudden death, the 18th, he holed a greenside bunker shot to win, then flung the wedge skyward as Michael Greller raced in to celebrate. The tempo is all snap: a compact 0.62s backswing into a 0.24s release, a crisp 2.58:1 over 0.86 seconds.
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 2.58:1, 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 2.58:1 as beats you can swing along to, then times your own swing the same way so you can see how close you got.