Fade On Command: Matthieu Pavon is an emerging star after recent swing adjustments

Matthieu Pavon is used to playing a lot of curve, especially with the driver. The 32-year-old Frenchman and PGA Tour rookie hits his patented left-to-right fade about 95 percent of the time off the tee, says his swing coach, Jamie Gough.

“Moving the ball left to right is really big for me,” Matthieu Pavon says, “because I want to take away the left side of the course.”

It wasn’t until late last year, however, that Pavon had the fade consistently dialled in, the result of several years of hard work with Gough. The payoff has been significant. In addition to winning on the DP World Tour for the first time last October, he captured his first PGA Tour title at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, one of three top-10 finishes in his first four starts as a tour member. Pavon carried the momentum to June, finishing fifth at the US Open. 

“By removing the left side of the course, it gave me confidence in my game,” he says. “That’s pretty big, because if you’re confident in yourself, you can do pretty much whatever you want on the course.”

Pavon’s previous tendency was to get his right elbow too far behind his body on the backswing, causing the shaft to cross the line and point right of the target at the top. He would also excessively slide his hips towards the target on the downswing, trying to extract whatever power he could from his legs. This would cause his arms to drop too much to the inside – not a good position for a fader of the ball. As a result, his good shots would start to the right and curve further right, and his bad shots would be nasty double-cross hooks to the left.

To stop hooking shots he was trying to fade, Pavon adopted two key swing feels. The first was to keep his right elbow more in front of him on the backswing, so the club pointed left of the target in a laid-off position at the top [above, fourth image]. From there, he doesn’t have to re-route the club and has a much easier time getting his right elbow and arms in front of him on the downswing.

The second adjustment was to post up on the left hip and rotate his body around it on the downswing [above, seventh image]. When that hip slides towards the target and leaves his arms behind, his shoulders get shut and the path of the club becomes too much in to out. Pavon needs his path to be more out in front of him so that his body can rotate and work left. It’s much easier to hit a fade with the shoulders open, says Gough, who also coaches Kiwi Ryan Fox.

“Matthieu is in complete control of his shape right now,” Gough says. “Because he’s taken the left side out of play, he can swing hard down the left side of the fairway and he knows the ball is coming back. He’s not afraid to curve it, which is a good thing, because if you know what shape is coming, it’s really easy to play with confidence.” 

Featured image by dom furore