Virginia Golfer September / October 2014 | Page 10

Mondy’s
MAKEOVER
Reigning VSGA Amateur champion Jake Mondy has revamped his swing
to achieve more repeatable results | by NICK CLINARD, with JAKE MONDY
Photography by SCOTT K. BROWN

B

lacksburg’s Jake Mondy,
a rising junior at Auburn
University, won this
summer’s Virginia State
Golf Association Amateur
Championship with a
swing that might be best described as
“under construction.”
For much of Jake’s golf career, his
father, Dave, was his only swing coach,
before he passed away in 2010. Jake’s
instincts were sound and his shear
natural talent and physical frame allowed
him to hit the ball prodigious distances.
For much of his career, Jake had
a weak grip and a clubface that was
shut on the takeaway, with very little
wrist hinge, and the clubface remained
closed at the top of his swing. He’s such
a talented player that when he timed
his arms and body up, he’d hit the ball
300-plus yards with his longer clubs. It
was an old-school, Julius Boros-type of
handsy swing that served him very well.
He won back-to-back VSGA Junior
Stroke Play titles (2010 and 2011) with
the motion, and captured the VSGA
Amateur in 2012 with a swing that was
slightly better mechanically, though not
too dissimilar from the one he grew up
with as a kid.
Basically, Jake was eliminating one
side of the golf course because most of
his shots curved from right to left. For
much of his career, he’d had a difficult
time hitting a fade if the shot required
that kind of ball flight.
“I always used to play a draw growing

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up and if anyone ever watched me play
junior golf, I never hit fades unless I
absolutely had to because it just wasn’t a
shot I trusted a whole lot,” Mondy says.
Truth be told, he could’ve retained
that very same ‘grip it and rip it’ swing
and remained a very good player because
he never knew anything else. But he’s
taken ownership of the improvement
process in an effort to reach a new level
with his game.
Jake has made alterations that initially felt a bit unnatural to him but are
technically correct. On the takeaway, for
example, the club has more of a ‘swing
away’ feel to it and, as a result, the clubface is more square, rather than shut, at
the top of his swing.
On the descent, Jake tended to have
the club and his right elbow stuck way
behind his body. We’re working on
feeling as though the club is more in
front of him and releasing to the left
through impact. Ultimately, this will
enable the club to exit on a lower and
more correct plane. His new swing takes
out wasted, compensatory movements
and he’s able to hit the ball straight
more consistently.
In addition to improved mechanics,
Jake has terrific competitive instincts.
We know it wasn’t easy to win the
VSGA Amateur in late June, especially
against a tough opponent like Jordan
Utley. He prevailed thanks to an uncommon desire to win and a swing that
we believe is better than it’s ever been
in his golf career.

VIRGINIA GOLFER | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

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