I just came out of a Tiger Woods YouTube clip from 2020, and man am I depressed by the state of golf today.

I have wondered for a while what is wrong with Modern Golf, and I said recently in a comment that the proliferation of the internet in the 90’s was part of the problem.

That, combined with former players, current players and pundits who know nothing about kinesiology, so they pull things out of their behinds talking about swing mechanics.

I now think that the internet is a far larger problem than I thought, because I have rarely ever read comments when I went looking for particular golfer or swing clip – I just wanted the video.

But wading through the comments now, I would caution anyone trying to learn how to play golf to stay far away from the comments sections, and if you’re going to look at golf swings, stay away from most swingers from the 90s onward.

Here is the clip:

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Now remember, this is from 2020, after how many knee and back operations for Tiger, so this swing is a shadow of what he was doing between ’97-’08.

In the comments, only one person objected to Tiger’s swing being called “perfect” or “the best ever,” because let’s face it, Tiger has the absolute worst swing, technically, of any of the great major winners.

The proof is that he literally destroyed his body swinging a golf club and you will have to look far and wide to find a Classic Golf Swing legend who had physical issues from swinging a golf club.

Jack Nicklaus – Never injured playing golf, although he was a bit careless in tennis (knee injury).

Byron Nelson – no injuries, he retired very young to buy and farm a ranch, which was his life-long dream.  He still played into his 60s and 70s in exhibition rounds and of course used to be a starter at the Masters in his old age.

Bobby Jones – retired from playing golf due to a degenerative spinal condition but played and dominated even when he could barely walk, because you don’t use your back to swing.

Ben Hogan – nearly killed in a crash with a bus in his prime and his legs would swell when he walked so that he could only play 5-6 events per year afterward.  He still could swing and play into his 60s even with the leg issues.

Arnold Palmer – was still playing golf in his 80’s when he died during a surgical heart procedure.

Gary Player – bashed the ball as hard as he could, won a ton of events and majors and at 89 still plays golf.

I could go on, but you get the idea – Tiger has been semi-retired since probably 2015 (he turned 40 that year) if you see his PGA Tour events played (2nd vertical column on the left):

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… in the ten years since, he’s had only had three seasons where he played more than 5 times, one of them being 7 and the other two, 18 and 12.

That’s pretty much semi-retired, I’d say.

Back to the internet – now, Tiger Woods has admitted himself that the way he swung wrecked his left knee, and the swing coach he had when he incurred his first of many back injuries requiring surgery, a certain Sean Foley, is of the opinion that everyone who plays golf has a bad back – that’s very true of most of his students, but a fallacious statement to make in general.

Even with Tiger’s admission, you have absolute know-nothings in this comment section attributing Tiger’s physical issues to:

• the golf swing damages everyone’s back if they play long enough,
• swinging hard injures the back over time (news to all the Classic Greats I’ve named above),
• Tiger’s back problems could be genetic (where this commenter gets this opinion other than out of his you-know-what, I have no clue).

There’s another gem where someone comments “courtesy of” or “brought to you by Ben Hogan,” and I’m not going back there to confirm.

This is Ben Hogan, by the way:

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Let’s see – Classic Golf Swing with the leading heel lift and free hip turn, stable leading foot through impact, and a sliding release of the trailing foot.  And no injuries at any time from swinging a golf club.

In other words, about as close to Tiger Woods’ swing as we are to the center of the Milky Way.

They know absolutely nothing, if they don’t know the first thing about Tiger Woods, which is that he has destroyed his body swinging the way he has since he was a young lad.

They also know nothing if they think a proper golf swing will hurt your back, because there are whole generations of Classic Golf Swing legends who didn’t have any back issues no matter how hard they swung – if you think Jack or Arnie or Player swung easy, then go back and watch some video.

And one more time for the people in the back row – absolutely no relation whatsoever to Hogan or any other Classic great, as Tiger’s swings have always been of the Modern ilk.

This is me nearly ten years ago, driving balls over 300 yards at a WAX Golf Summit in Arizona, having hurt my lower back so painfully that I could barely tie my shoes (this happens all the time as I have scoliosis), but still swinging as hard as I pleased:

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The internet, when it comes to golf swing mechanics and analysis, mostly consists of know-nothings teaching what they know (nothing), having learned from other know-nothings, to yet more know-nothings.

Everyone with an internet connection is an expert.

A far cry from when I began my golf swing research in 2005, when there was more golf material available from The Golf Channel than anything on the internet.

It may be free information, but as with anything of value, you get what you paid for.