Mookie Betts: King of Every Swing

Mookie Betts has earned every accolade you can imagine in baseball. He is an eight-time All-Star, a seven-time Silver Slugger Award winner, a six-time Gold Glove Award recipient, a four-time World Series champion, and was named the Most Valuable Player in the American League in 2018. He will go down as one of the best American baseball players of all time.

But Mookie’s athletic abilities stretch far beyond the diamond. Some may not know, but he has also competed in Bowling at a professional level. He even bowled a perfect game at the World Series of Bowling in 2017. Put this man in anything labeled “World Series” and we will find a way to shine.

On top of all of this, he owns a silky smooth golf swing. Life really isn't fair, is it?

Betts is competing this week at the MLB Open Golf Tournament at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, and videos of the four-time World Series champ’s swing have taken Golf Twitter by storm

It’s extremely common to see baseball players translate well to golf. The two sports share similar sequencing demands: rotational force, ground pressure, timing, and the ability to generate speed from the ground up. Still, even among baseball players who play golf, Betts' swing is near the very top. Let's break it down start-to-finish.

RELATED: Let's Break Down Lebron James' Golf Swing

Setup:

Like most athletes I’ve broken down on, Mookie starts his swing from a great spot here. His shoulders are a bit open compared to his lower body, and he is standing maybe an inch too far away from the ball. Neither issue is severe enough that we would see major consequences as a result.

Backswing/Takeaway:

Betts gets the club started beautifully. The club is just slightly inside his hands at this point in the swing. If he were to stand a bit closer to the ball at setup, that could help him get the club a bit more in front of him here, but this is just me nitpicking. A lot of good golfers look similar to Betts at this position.

Top of Backswing:

I LOVE what he does here. He gets the club to a great position at the top and maintains a lot of flex in his trail leg, which will help him use the ground to his advantage. The club face is a bit closed at the top, but we are seeing that more and more with the modern golf swing, and it works to his favor here.

Maybe my favorite thing about how he begins to move the club in transition. You can see it in the image below.

I would compare it to how Gary Woodland makes his transition to his downsizing. You can see how his lower body starts to unwind before the club reaches the “peak” of his backswing. If you were taking a class called “How to Generate Power 101” this would be the first lesson.

Pre-Impact:

Betts gets the club back out in front of him excellently. To no surprise, he also has an amazing hip turn, having them turn externally towards the target and not towards the golf ball (what is also known as early extension). It's pretty hard to have the golf swing go wrong from this position.

Impact:

So good. Betts maintains his posture coming into impact, which allows him to keep the clubface square and not have to worry too much about timing up the face with his hands.

Post impact:

The club releases to the left nicely. If you have read previous swing breakdowns we've done, this more closely resembles the technique of Tommy Fleetwood than Scottie Scheffler with how he releases the club here. He doesn’t exactly “throw” his hands, but you can see that the clubhead is close to passing his hands before they move in front of his torso.

This is another effect of the way he loads the club during his transition. As always, every action in the swing requires an equal or greater reaction. If you load the club at the top like he does, you need to release it at some point, and we see it here.

Follow Through:

A good end to a very athletic move. You can see his pivots nicely around his front foot and his weight is fully shifted. One small note I'd make is that he doesn’t fully release the club and have that "picture perfect” follow through, like say Adam Scott.

This is due to two things:

1. Betts' closed club face

2. The amount of lag he produces

With the amount of lag Betts has in his swing, the closed club face works to his advantage. He doesn’t have to throw his hands at the ball to square the face up, but instead can just let it load to then allow his body turn and deliver the clubface to the ball. But, because it starts partially closed, Betts has to hold it off ever so slightly. If he didn’t, the ball would be going left quickly.

Of all the athlete’s swings I have broken down, this one is far and away the best, and it will take a lot to take him down. From setup to follow through, Betts does just about everything right—but we can't say we're surprised.

RELATED: Caitlin Clark Can Hoop, But Can She Golf? Swing Analysis.

More Celebrity and Athlete Golf Swing Breakdowns:

Justin Bieber | Caitlin Clark | Lebron James