The 1986 MORAD Swing developed by Mac O’Grady is among the most amazing movements of all time. The initial MORAD outcome is a centered masterpiece of a swing where the blend of natural byproducts and simple intentions cements it in the inofficial golf swing hall of fame. Read this article for more contextual background.

Full disclaimer – I don’t teach MORAD due to the reasons in this article – but I’m very intrigued from a technical point of view. I love to understand the context to what I’m teaching and that’s basically the reason for this article.

If you are into MORAD and really wish to pursue this style of swing I’ll hand out my best DIY tips for the 86 swing change along the way. Hopefully something will add value for you. If you are looking for guidance I would go straight to the source here and speak with Kevin Ralbovsky who teaches, in his own words, a 80% 1986 Swing with some modifications.

If you don’t know the p-system then please learn it by heart before reading. It definitely helps.

Mile High – Non Technical Swing Development Context

So Mr O’Grady was less than pleased with not being taught Nicklaus swing properly. It took him 17 tries to get his tour card and he could only obtain it once he had properly understood the motion in its full context (one of the contexts). He worked very closely with Homer Kelly (the founder of the golfing machine) to understand why his movement didn’t work and what to do instead.

The initial thought of the MORAD swing project was to provide the foundation for great golf teaching and spread the gospel across the realm of golf. It was a very philanthropic project where his own game was more or less to prove that this works. The swing was supposed to be easy on the brain, simplified to the roots of motion and possible to perform. This view of a system is admirable and very influential to what I do myself. Giving back to this beautiful game.

In his development from 1980-1986 he wished to conquer the tour just to showcase that this stuff works. He also played left handed to show that a motion should be able to be produced either way. The 1986 swing is one of the best swings of all time. It’s simplistic, not yet over complicated to enigma level, produced tour wins and pretty much put Mr O’Grady as a world top ball striker. I believe, actually having no deep source for this, that he “gave up this motion” due to missing long and left and not being able to control his distance because of over production of lag.

For most golfers, having his 1986 swing, would be the most beautiful thing but Mr O’Grady is a discovery artist and wanted to go deeper in the search for perfect golf. 

When he developed his early 90s motion he had moved on from being a tour player to being “teacher first” and I have a feeling that the original idea of MORAD was tweaked to fit his life at this point. Relatable for sure. During this era the CP and CF swings were developed, the flat left wrist concept and swing plane focus started and in my opinion, the swings stepped away from the “easy on the brain” parameter since now all parts of the swing basically needed conscious mechanical thoughts.

The swing constanstly developed and during the 2000s the model turned into more a Golfing Machine motion where distance was sacrificed for control.

The Legendary 1986 MORAD Swing – Somewhat Explained

A setup with rounded shoulders (to promote inclined plane rotation), low hands and knee flex to stimulate a low center of gravity. The backswing was a mixture of intended motions and natural byproducts and was very simple to perform. The cupped lead wrist on top would passively present lag into the system and the trail elbow would be the center of control in the swing. Extend it after p7 (impact) and you’ve taken the big miss out of the swing. The action was clean, simple with a wrist action very much like hitting a nail or resembling a whip. Recock your wrists in p8-p9 ish and you’ve got a both mechanically close to perfect and more importantly easily (in MORAD’s world) performed motion.

It’s a thing of beauty and portrayed by himself here (with part 2 here). Mr Ralbovsky gives his overall condensed description of it in this video and another great explanation in this video (between 5-10 minutes).

1986 MORAD Swing – DIY Advice

• Watch the above videos atleast 5 times and read whatever you can find on Mr O’Grady’s early teachings. Just go into full research mode before you even start.
• Having flat golf clubs of the heavier sort is definitely an advantage and to really master the straightening of the trail arm on command together with the hammer / whip like impact are core skills. This is basically how you control and create power. It’s very different from an undefined power creation (that most golfers use).

I don’t perform the swing due to my own more “free and simple” preference even though this, by far, is the freest MORAD protocol. You need to like a tight swing feel whatever protocol journey you embark on.

The 1990s Swing – Explained with 86 Context

With the ambition of creating the perfect controlled golf strike led to the development of this adaptation to the protocol (and going teacher first). The checklist for golf that he kept basically grew and morphed into something else rendering many students leaving the protocol but many new coming in. The MORAD swing evolved:

• In the setup Mr O’Grady would promote a more closed stance and a tall posture together with a more middle of stance ball position alongside a more induced setup shaft lean.
• From p2-p4 you’d trace the swing plane whilst in the 86 motion it goes more “naturally” upwards. Somewhere around p3 you add some manual forearm rotation and between p3 and p4 you intend to uncock the wrists (to set up for the downswing) and a flat left wrist is maintained. The long thumb used in the grip would help with wrist flexibility but the now not cupped lead wrist would limit the uncontrollable (two wins in 86 and world’s top striker…) lag action.
• From an almost impossible simplification perspective it would be a slightly taller shaft leaned setup with a shorter, wider, plane oriented and much more mechanically conscious backswing. 
• The downswing p4->p5 would create an additional wrist cock (to induce more lag with a flat left wrist). In p5,5-p7 you would momentum shift manually to push the low point a lot forward and this would produce a more punch style shot with loads of shaft lean since this offered more control (at mechanical learning difficulty cost).
• Overall this is just a much more complex protocol than the 86 model with much more conscious mechanical need. It’s also during this era that the CP and CF motion would be introduced.
• The CP, standing for the centripetal force, would promote a fade shot with an inwards p5,5-p8 action and a more pivot based strike (think Alex Norén and you’ve got it). 
• The CF, standing for centrifugal force, would mean more wrist action and less pivot for a draw based action (this is kind of Stack N Tilt in a nut shell).
• Exceptions from these classifications would be e.g. Lee Trevino that played a fade from a CF motion and Sam Snead, being more CP, that played a pull draw. The explanatory model strayed away slightly from science in an attempt to simplify the already very complex model.

I’ve actually never performed this model since a punch divot to the core of the earth never really appealed to me. I will however say that if you have mechanical difficulties with the 86-model then this is nothing for you. But for the punch fade people that are appealed by this I think it’s potentially awesome protocol. If you’re a hard worker and want something to work on you’ve got your hands full.

2000s Model MORAD Swing- Going back to TGM

The longer we stray away from the 1986 model the more Golfing Machine inspired the teachings become. The well documented pressure points of TGM would work themselves into the protocol again. Like that Mr O’Grady went back to his roots in a way. The strike from this style of action is very controlled (both mechanically and in ball flight) with distance as the sacrifice.

A Stack and Tilt side note – from my interpretation SNT is basically a MORAD CF swing from the 90s with an explanatory and teaching model that fundamentally created an industry.

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