You’ll all remember my dive into Jack Nicklaus’ stance and grip in recent times, and if someone were to ask me right this moment what the “optimal setup” to which I referred yesterday, I’d say, “It’s Jack Nicklaus’ 1963’s stance, adjusted for width.”

I’ve been going over the 3 swing models performed from the same setup, and other than the head cock in Nicklaus’ picture below, this is how I’m setting, with perhaps a slightly stronger right hand grip.

Back in July of ’22, I took that Jack ’63 setup and performed a butchered attempt at photo shopping it to narrow his stance (I’m no graphic artist and am not going to begin to be one now), with the result you see:

There are of course little differences in the way I’m setting up, such as the degree of leading foot turn or the already-mentioned right hand grip (which could have been an adjustment on his part to make hitting a power fade easier), but this is essentially the way you want to set up to the ball, period.

Now, since I can’t show Nicklaus swinging with a Classic Golf Swing action in the adjusted stance, here’s one of JN at around age 15 and with a so-near to flawless swing, it’s gob smacking:

I would say that if he’d had a right-foot release, he could have swung this way from 15 until he could no longer swing properly due to age, in my humble opinion.

Slowing it down, you see why the Classic Swingers of the bygone years had a “reverse-C” finish – because they didn’t release the trailing foot into the follow-through and either the hip drive left them having to hang back with the upper body to maintain balance, or they were for some reason trying to keep the head stable in position from start to finish:

Either way, release that trailing foot and you can finish with your weight fully on the leading foot without a “reverse-C” finish.

I’ll be spending the rest of the autumn and winter working on this concept of the optimal setup with the 3 swing models, and in the spring I should be able to get back out of doors with pics, swing videos and of course my video project for the ’24 season.

More to come!