Michael Peña’s Golf Swing Is Way Too Good for Hollywood

Something that’s never quite sat right with me is the idea that acting is an “easy job.” Sure, the paydays can be absurd, but the hours, the pressure, the constant resets—it’s a grind in its own way.

Where the envy probably creeps in is the downtime between projects.

And if I were an actor, I’d spend it exactly like Michael Peña.

Because while Peña has built a career as one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood, he might quietly have one of the smoothest golf swings in the room, too. I’ll admit that, before this rabbit hole, I wasn’t familiar with your game, Michael. That’s on me. Because after watching a few swings… yeah, this plays.

Smooth, controlled, repeatable. The kind of motion that doesn’t look like it’s trying too hard—but has clearly been worked on.

Peña was recently joined The Vanity Index Podcast on Golf Channel and spoke beautifully about the parallels between golf and acting.

He talks about how, in rehearsals, you have to “move a mountain to get a little better,” and how that also applies directly to golf. I wish more golfers understood this. Improvement in golf is never linear—and it certainly isn’t binary.

Golf doesn’t reward effort the way we want it to. You don’t put in 100% and get 100% back. You put in 100% and maybe you get 3–5%. But stack enough of those days, and eventually something clicks.

Judging by this swing, Peña has been moving mountains for a while.

To get a better look at what Peña's swing has going on, we used a video from Random Golf Club in which Peña took on Erik Anders Lang in a 1v1 match. We also referenced a video taken during a lesson with coach Dana Dalquist for some better angles and down-the-line looks.

Setup:

I always try to walk the line between appreciation and nitpicking—that’s kind of the point of these. It still feels weird to say, “this swing is great, but…”

That said, I like just about everything here. If I had to tweak something, I’d like to see his right shoulder sit a touch lower to better match his shoulder plane. As it stands, it could encourage a slightly steep takeaway or just add unnecessary work early.

Backswing:

You can see here he avoids the mistake I mentioned above. The club is in a great position going back. The main video I have here is from a side angle, but I double-checked it with a down-the-line look as well.

I didn’t want to use too many images from this second video, as he is undergoing a lesson so things may be skewed, as opposed to the video with EAL where he is actively playing a round and more “natural”

Top of backswing:

I LOVE the way he loads the club in transition. You can see the shaft of the club “loading” in the screenshot I took. This move makes it very easy for him to deliver the club to the ball with the proper amount of shaft lean to compress the ball.

Pre-Impact:

He keeps the club in front of him so well in transition, and it’s especially evident from this angle. You can also see him transferring his weight to his front side.

His trail foot rising this way might lead me to believe he has a bit of early extension, but you can see that his hips stay back and don’t push towards the ball. I would like to see more pressure on the inside of his trail foot.

Impact:

Moving forward a frame, and there are still some traces of a move that would lead to early extension. The longer the club gets, the more I can maybe see this affecting him. That said, he keeps the club in front of him so it’s not something I would be overly worried about.

All that aside, he delivers the club nicely into the ball, which in the end is all you need to worry about.

Post impact:

You can see him exiting to the left with the club in front of his body. As always, while no release is “correct”, I would always prefer a player exits left with the club still in front of their body as I believe it is easier to control the clubface and not jam it shut and risk a low left miss. High right is better than low left almost every time (unless you're Jordan Spieth on 12 at Augusta).

Follow through:

A good end to what is a phenomenal golf swing. You can tell he is holding it off a bit, most likely to hit a number that was in-between clubs. Like any good golfer, he finishes in a nice balanced position.

Peña already has the Hollywood résumé, but his golf swing might deserve its own star on the Walk of Fame.

*Vanity Index Podcast airs every Wednesday on Golf Channel at 10AM EST. Listen to this Episode with Micheal Peña on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.*

More Celebrity and Athlete Golf Swing Breakdowns:

Justin Bieber | Mookie Betts | Caitlin Clark | Lebron James | Josh Allen | Sam Darnold | Steph Curry | Andrew Santino | Micheal Peña