Josh Broadaway turning heads Wichita Open

June 20, 2012|By GRANT MEECH | KWCH 12 Eyewitness Sports

WICHITA, Kan. — Take one look at his golf grip, and there must be something wrong with Josh Broadaway.

His crosshanded golf grip, where the right hand comes on first then followed by the left which is opposite of the traditional grip of left hand first, is turning heads at the Wichita Open.

There's now way he can swing the ball well, right?

"I tried to play with a normal grip and I couldn't get any air underneath it," says Broadaway with a laugh. "So I was like, the heck with it, I'm just going to keep doing it my way."

The cross handed method is odd, it's hard finding anyone else that swings that way, or makes any progress doing it. It grew from a lack of left handed clubs for the natural south paw. So he took his normal lefthanded baseball bat grip, grabbed some righthanded clubs and started learning the game.

"From five year's old until now, that's just the way I've learned to play the game," he says in his Georgia accent.

He's been a Nationwide Tour regular since 2006 and by now, he says he is used to all the looks.

"It's kind of worn off but the new guys come out and see me and wonder, 'what is this guy doing,'" Broadaway said. "But most of them have seen my play or heard of me by now."

He's hoping the PGA Tour will hear from him soon. He narrowly missed out on his card last season, finishing 27th on the Money List. But that funky swing has him competing in every tournament thus far in 2012 and 77th in money. (To qualify for the PGA Tour, Nationwide players must finish the season inside the Top 25 on the Money List.)

"This year I've had a lot of good rounds with three good tournaments but my day comes on Sunday and thats the wrong day to have a bad day," Broadaway says with a chuckle. "I'm really close to busting out and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year."

But back to the swing - how in the heck does he do that?

"Most people give it a try and they whiff at it and say, 'there is no way I could play that way!"

It must be a Southern thing then?

"We just kind of grab a club and go do it," he said. "Grip it and rip it!"

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