Mike Bennett (born December 12, 1967, in Jordan, New York) and Andy Plummer (born December 23, 1966, in Vanceburg, Kentucky) are a duo of golf instructors who have coached PGA Tour players Charlie Wi, Steve Elkington, Tom Scherrer, Grant Waite, Troy Matteson, Bill Lunde, Mike Weir and Aaron Baddeley, among others.[1] [2] Bennett and Plummer are also known because the golf swing model they developed challenges some aspects of current mainstream golf instruction.[3] [4] [5]
Bennett and Plummer played in the mini tours during the mid-1990s and later committed to instruction in the early 2000s,[6] after taking courses with Larry Bartosek, Tom Tomesello, Mike Bender and Mac O'Grady.[7]
Bennett and Plummer wrote, with Peter Morrice, the book The Stack and Tilt Swing . The "Stack and Tilt" model prescribes keeping the body weight forward during the whole swing, straightening the back leg through back swing and performing a steep shoulder turn, all in order to keep the shoulder turn axis in place. The theory follows some ideas that are present in Homer Kelley's book "The Golfing Machine".[6]
The method was called that way because of the way the spine tilts throughout the swing to keep the golfer "stacked", or to keep the upper-body center in one place during the swing, and the name was chosen with the help of Charlie Wi.[7]
In Stack and Tilt the weight starts left (for righthanded players) and goes more left during the swing. This idea collides with mainstream golf instruction,[8] but is shared by Sean Foley.[9]
The Bennett and Plummer model gained publicity beyond the PGA Tour players and instructors environment once a major golf magazine covered it in June 2007.[10] Since then, it also received criticism from other instructors.[11]