Approach · Iron
What is Tiger Woods's swing tempo?
Tiger Woods's 2007 PGA Championship iron is a 0.67s backswing into a 0.21s downswing — a 3.19:1 tempo ratio over 0.88s from takeaway to impact. That is slower 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.
0.67s
Backswing
0.21s
Downswing
0.88s
Total duration
3.19:1
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
0.67s
Top of backswing
0.88s
Impact
Source footage: 2007 PGA Championship, 7th. Raw marks: takeaway 25.07s, top 25.74s, impact 25.95s.
The shot
Tiger Woods, 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, his thirteenth major, won in the brutal Tulsa heat. His second shot into the 7th was a swooping draw, the shot shape he could summon at will that week. A full 0.67s backswing into a 0.21s release, a powerful 3.19:1 over 0.88 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 3.19:1, which is slower 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 3.19:1 as beats you can swing along to, then times your own swing the same way so you can see how close you got.