Can You Own Your Swing?

A golf instructor says his technique was stolen

- Matthew Rudy

The golf swing is a lot like the menu at Taco Bell: Both have a finite number of familiar ingredients that can be combined in myriad ways to produce something “new.” Of course, calling a Cheesy Gordita Crunch “new” or seeing it as a crunchy beef taco protected by an outer skin of melted cheese and a soft tortilla is a matter open to interpretation.

So, too, is the assertion by a Colorado golf instructor that another teacher stole his proprietary technique—the Rotary Swing. In his April lawsuit, Chuck Quinton says Eric Kaplan joined the Rotary Swing program in 2015 and spent years scraping information on Quinton’s teachings before starting the Axys Golf website. What set Rotary Swing apart, Quinton says, is that he consulted with experts to devise a technique that’s easier on the body.

In his complaint, Quinton says Kaplan pirated the ideas from Rotary Swing and made virtually identical videos of his, and when Quinton complained, Kaplan moved them from a free part of the site to behind a paywall.