In approximately two years Jordan Spieth has gone from a World Ranking of 803 to the 4th ranked player in golf.

He is undoubtably the Hottest Player on the Planet right now. He disintegrated the field in The Australian Open and the Chevron World Challenge at the end of 2014.

In recent weeks has won the Valspar Championship, finished runner-up at The Valero Texas Open and now takes a one stroke lead into tomorrows final round of The Shell Houston Open. A terrific lead up for a confident assault on Augusta National at The Masters, where last year he finished runner-up to Bubba Watson in his maiden appearance in the event as a professional.

As with all outstanding golf professionals who feature regularly in tournaments Spieth is blessed with an amazing short game- and a putter that seems to run consistently hot.

However let's take a look at some of the key features I see in his golf swing that may not be regarded as textbook- that I believe are outstanding elements most golfers could learn from.

The GRIP- Spieth has an interlocking grip where unusually the fingers that interlock dangle from the grip itself- almost suspended or hanging out into the air away from the rest of the fingers. 

This idiosyncrasy gives us a real insight to which fingers he feels are important to control the club with. Sam Snead said he controlled the club with the last three fingers of the left hand. Ben Hogan promoted using the middle two fingers of the right hand as the control point for that hand- both of these combined promote a feeling of pulling with the left hand and a pushing of the right hand. Jordan Spieth's 'unusual' grip definitely promotes a similar sensation or belief in how the grip is formed and how the hands work on the club.

The CHICKEN WING- Hackers of the world unite- Jordan Spieth can chicken wing the left arm with the best of you!! And he is not the only one- great players and major champions of years gone by- Jose Maria Olazabal, Lanny Wadkins and David Duval all had bent left arms beyond the hit- so why are we informed this is a bad habit and something to avoid?

These great players however utilized the chicken wing with a firm left wrist that never broke down into a bent condition.

Keeping the left wrist firm through the strike AND beyond is a great example of how to keep the clubface square and inline with the back of the left wrist. You can hit hard with the dominant right hand and avoid rolling over or closing the clubface- guiding the clubface or steering the clubface. This allows maximum hit with maximum control.

Centrifugal force- where the club wants to move away from the body- is at it's maximum through the release and hit area. The chicken wing with a firm left wrist can help fight the centrifugal force of the clubhead and can allow the golfer to keep the hands the arms and therefore the club and grip closer to the body centre- which all put together allows the body to turn much more efficiently through impact to the finish of the swing.

CLUBFACE SQUARE- The greatest thing I admire in Jordan Spieth's action is his ability to keep the clubface square. In the pictures above we can see the clubface staying square to the turn through impact and also the clubface is very square even well up into the finish position- BOTH show Spieth is not prone to overhitting and is using very firm wrists throughout the release. He is not stopping the body- trunk- shoulders in any way that would allow the clubhead or hands to go past.

This is excellent and a major contributing factor to his excellent play in all different conditions. 

PIVOT RELEASE- Spieth keeps his hands uquite close to his core as he releases the club and this engages his upper body pivot to turn and keep turning as the swing progresses. His shoulders work nicely level with the left shoulder moving farther away from the impact position. We can see the arms being pulled to the finish by the continuous pivot and as a result his wrists are still unaltered and the clubface has not altered whatsoever. This is a great example of how to hit with maximum precision and maximum power. 

The only thing I would want to attempt to alter with this golf swing would be how Spieth works too much onto the outside of his left foot coming into impact. This does affect his power slightly as keeping more stable into the left heel could definitely enable him to push harder off the right foot and hit slightly harder by saving the energy shift for later. The main concern with this however would be long term the effect this twisting may have on his left ankle/knee and hip. I would try and incorporate a slight progressive change over time to eliminate that- more for the well being of his left side rather than in an attempt to gain more distance.

So remember- not all "bad" things we hear about via instruction manuals and golf for dummies books are all 'bad'..... We are individuals and all have different ways and looks to achieve "good" components of the golf swing........ Jordan Spieth is another shining example of that......