This is incredible – I would never in my wildest dreams have traced the Tiger Woods Tai Chi squat exercise back to Ben Hogan, but here we are.

I remember Tiger Woods once saying that Moe Norman and Ben Hogan were the only two golfers who owned their swings, which leaves out others like Bobby Jones and of course Jack Nicklaus, among others.

Leaving that aside, Tiger also claimed that Hogan couldn’t have played on today’s Tour because he’d be too short-hitting, which is rich, because guess who Tiger Woods has been trying to emulate since at least his Sean Foley days?

None other than Mr. Hogan – and a fundamental misunderstanding of Hogan’s swing (where have we heard this before) is the cause, I’m now convinced, of the toxic “Squat & Dump” move we’ve been seeing more and more of, thanks to Foley and Woods.

I’ve been looking at old Tiger clips for days now (I have only ever studied his swing in order to tell others what not to do), and having re-visited Foley’s swing model, I was looking through golf stuff on YouTube when I came across a certain Ben Hogan swing clip that had me slapping my knees in amazement.

Me Watching Hogan’s Clip

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It’s incredible how, when you miss something in a swing, watching others trying to do the same thing will make it literally jump out at you when you see it again.

First, let’s revisit Tiger practicing Tai Chi on the golf course:

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And a look at what he seemed to be trying to do with his swing working under his swing coach Sean Foley between 2010-2014:

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OK, having done that, let’s take a look at the clip of Hogan that put it all together for me, once I’d looked at it:

Ben Hogan In 1963

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Did you see that?  It’s probably, for me, the slight off-set angle that made it jump out at me when I watched the clip.

If you missed it, here’s a swing gif. that you can watch as many times as you want:

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This is really bad, friends – the entire golf world right now is following Tiger down a path of destruction based upon a complete and utter misunderstanding of Hogan’s swing.

First of all, Ben Hogan would have been fine on Tour today, although he’d have been absolutely disgusted with what people have been up to trying to emulate his action.

Let me ask you first – does Hogan’s swing look remotely, even in the same universe, as the “Squat & Dump” move?

Here’s Hogan from the top:

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I don’t see any beaver pelts being dug up in front of Hogan, do you?  Probably because he wasn’t diving from the 10m platform on the down swing?

And the pale not-even-close imitation:

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One is poetry in motion, the other is a greens keeper’s nightmare and orthopedic surgeon’s dream.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the next clue:

Ben Hogan’s Pivot To The Top

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Yes, sir!  There it is in all of its embarrassing glory.

Let’s now join the dots:

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Now, if Hogan paused there at the top, let go of the club with his left hand and lowered his left arm, what would you have?

You’d have Hogan doing his transition drill, but properly, whilst Tiger Woods on the right is hopelessly lost, because he didn’t understand Hogan’s swing, nor did Sean Foley.

I said once about Tiger working with Foley that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” and I was correct – it led to a broken back for El Tigre.

And I’ll tell you what – these two could try and try to replicate Hogan’s swing until the cows come home, but they weren’t getting there.  Ever.

The key is Tiger thinking that Hogan would have been too short-hitting to compete.

You want to know why I think he thinks that?

Could it be that, without his dive into the ball and without that Flying Foot leading leg hyperextension, Tiger couldn’t generate any power trying to copy Hogan’s transition move with a level head?

We know Foley’s model has no power in it at all, because if he actually tried to swing any harder than that, he’d fall over onto his face with that anchored trailing foot. He’s barely keeping his balance on the finish as it is:

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So, Tiger’s Tai Chi practice move is his trying to replicate Hogan’s transition.

Do I know what they’re doing wrong?

Of course I do – it’s as plain as day what they got wrong – but I’m not going to tell them what it is, not that I’m deluded enough to dream that they’d ever ask me. Because they wouldn’t listen anyway.

They can keep cutting that two-by-four and saying, “Hmm… still too short…”

You can’t copy Hogan’s swing unless you do everything that Hogan was doing (which is why I never tried to build a swing model on his exact swing – I only took the pivot action from it because it’s perfect), and no modern golfer trying to emulate Hogan is doing that.

If you think I’m being harsh, I’m not going to sugarcoat this – let me tell you what’s harsh – destroying your body on a Quixotic quest that involves trying everything except the mechanically-correct way to swing a golf club.

Also harsh – making millions of dollars whilst ruining golfer’s careers and backs and waxing arrogantly about “myelin,” “quadriceps” and “glutes.”

Sean Foley, if you don’t know, had the temerity to say that Hank Haney:

“built most of his career around Tiger” and “there was nothing about what he was doing in his previous swing that made any sense to me.”

Yeah, OK.

And who had any clue who this guy was before he started working with TW?

Let me ask Sean Foley one question – Did Tiger Woods break his back trying to be Ben Hogan when he was with Hank Haney?

That, I believe, is a lot worse than anything I could have to say about it and the whole Modern Golf Swing industry.