I’ve been working with my coach, Jonathan Yarwood, for eight years now, and I feel that our long-term relationship has been a major reason why I was able to come back from poor seasons in 1996 and 1997. My game has steadily improved since 1998—I won six times on the European Tour since 2000—because Jonathan helped me create a blueprint for my swing.  I now have some key issues that I keep my eye on and take care of before I lose my form.

Before and during the U.S. Open, Jonathan and I focused on creating more resistance in my right side and right elbow at the start of the swing to allow the club to get hinged earlier and up on plane. That gives me the correct sequence at the start and the feeling that everything is a natural chain reaction. When I feel my right arm more in front at the top of my backswing, I can sense that the club is more shallow, not too steep. That feeling lets me attack the ball without worrying about a pull. My swing was really solid, even under the pressure of the final round. It's obviously incredible to win the U.S Open, but to come back from the low point where I was with my swing and do it makes it even more special.

The average fan might have been surprised by Michael Campbell’s win in the U.S. Open, but to fellow pros and people who know him, it was no great shock. He’s won 14 times in 15 years as a professional, and he has a beautiful golf swing. It’s been a pleasure for me to help Michael since the end of 1997, and inspiring to watch how he’s gone from having no status on any tour at the end of that season to being theU.S. Open champion.

Efficiency and simplicity are two words that spring to mind when I look at these sequence pictures. Michael is blessed with a great physique for golf—a stocky, muscular frame and he’s so fluid and athletic. He’s the perfect model to swing the club in a very simple way—something he had gotten away from after a wrist injury in the mid-1990s. He now has a very much a no-nonsense swing, much like the man himself, and has thrived with it.

Our goal was to create a one-axis swing with very little leteral movement and a oneplaned swing where the club stays on a similar plane back and through, for simplicity and repeatability.

You can see clearly in these pictures that the plane Michael swings on is more upright that many players. He does this to combat his major tendency, which is to get the club and the right arm a slightly too far behind him at the top. That produces a slight over-the-top move, a slide, and pulls and pushes—especially with the driver.

The average player can learn quite a bit from Michael in this regard. Instead of trying to get very wide on the backswing, get the clubhead moving first, make a controlled turn and resist the urge to rush from the top.

The swing blueprint we have developed over the years—with invaluable imput from David Leadbetter—has really helped Michael keep his swing tuned and in sync.