Tiger Woods' golf downswing was one of the finest in professional golf before he began working with Sean Foley — a coaching change that, in my professional opinion, ultimately contributed to the back injuries that derailed his career (here's a video where I predicted Foley's teaching approach would injure Tiger's back all the way back in 2010: Tiger Woods Swing Change May Injure His Back). Before that switch, however, Tiger had developed a remarkably efficient downswing sequence. During the first half of his golf downswing, Tiger swings his arms back down in front of his torso while keeping his shoulders quiet and closed to the target line.
This feeling is absolutely critical to a proper downswing transition, and it's one that I describe in detail in my video on the Golf Downswing Overview here. The key sensation is keeping your chest pointing behind you as long as humanly possible — this gives your arms the time they need to drop back down in front of the body while allowing the hip rotation to unwind the shoulders naturally through the kinetic chain.
Tiger's lower body initiates the downswing with a lateral shift to transfer more weight onto his lead side, with his head moving slightly toward the target. But critically, his upper body remains largely in the same position during this first phase — giving his arms time to work back down in front of his body without the shoulders opening prematurely.
This sequencing is essential because it keeps the club and arms moving in sync with the body, preventing the club from getting stuck and arriving "late" into the impact position. If you want to see how your own downswing sequencing compares to an elite model, try a free AI swing analysis to identify exactly where your sequence breaks down.
As Tiger continues bringing the golf club back down, he maintains the club parallel to and above the original shaft plane established at address. His hips have rotated very little by this point, ensuring he doesn't "outrun" the club on the way down — a mistake that destroys timing and contact quality. Many amateur golfers and even some professionals push too aggressively off the trailing leg, causing the hips to "spin out" while simultaneously forcing the shoulders to open prematurely.
In the next frame, you can see just how aggressively Tiger has shifted his weight onto his lead side. This lateral weight shift prevents his hips from spinning out and turning too fast, which would leave the club behind him in the dreaded "stuck" position that leads to blocks and hooks.
You can't effectively "slide" and "turn" at the same time — one movement will tend to overpower the other in most golfers. But in Tiger's case, this controlled lateral slide is a critical component of his swing because it serves multiple essential purposes simultaneously.
For example, if he simply rotated from the top without any lateral shift, the club would descend both above the plane and too steeply — exactly the pattern that produces the classic amateur slice. The lateral movement helps to both shallow out the club path and create the time needed to get the club back in front of his body, as the next frame demonstrates clearly.
As Tiger continues working the golf club downward, the down-the-line view below shows the club is now essentially parallel to the shaft plane at address — and his shoulders are still resisting rotation to ensure the club approaches from the inside and stays in front of his body.
The face-on view reveals the exceptional width Tiger maintains throughout his downswing. Many golfers admire the look of Hogan or Garcia at this point — that extremely narrow downswing position with tremendous lag — and assume it's the key to generating power.
Tiger obviously doesn't lack power, so he's living proof that a golf swing also needs width to generate speed and ensure the club returns in front of the body at impact. Width and lag aren't mutually exclusive — it's about finding the optimal balance for your swing.
The amount of lag Tiger maintains at this point is optimized for control in his swing. Any narrower and he would need to compensate significantly with his hands during the downswing — using something like Hogan's supination technique or relying on an extremely strong grip like Sergio Garcia's to square the clubface consistently.
At this position, Tiger has returned the golf club precisely onto the shaft plane from address, with his shoulders still slightly closed to the target. He continues working his hands in front of the ball while maintaining substantial width in the downswing, as the face-on view clearly demonstrates.
Finally, the golf impact position. Tiger arrives at impact with his hands ahead of the ball and the shaft returned perfectly to the address plane from the down-the-line perspective. His shoulders are square to the target and his hips have cleared without becoming excessive — a hallmark of his exceptional body control.
From face on, you can observe that Tiger's right heel works slightly down the target line rather than lifting straight up. This keeps his body grounded and allows him to generate force by leveraging the ground — rather than simply spinning out his hips. This ground-force connection is one of the key differences between amateur and elite ball striking, and it's something you can work on in a free AI golf lesson with real-time feedback on your hip and weight mechanics.
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Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
At the start of the downswing, Tiger works to bring the club and his arms back down in front of him while transferring weight to his left side and keeping his shoulders quiet.
Note how much Tiger has moved into his left side as the club is about halfway down. Note also that you can still see his left leg in the down the line view indicating that he has rotated his body very little compared to a one planer such as Ben Hogan.
Good width and spacing on the downswing and the shaft through Tiger's right forearm set him up for a simple delivery in to the ball. 
Tiger is in an ideal two plane impact position here with his body more square to the target and hands back in front of his chest.
