If you don’t know who Lee Trevino was, then I blame the Modern Golf Swing world for forsaking all of the Classic Golf Swing greats who came before it, because that would be a real shame.

Trevino is another golfing legend from Texas, and he was so good in his prime that Ben Hogan didn’t trust anyone else to hit his prototype clubs when he was running the Ben Hogan golf club company.

This is from a Golf.com article about Trevino, penned by Josh Sens:

Though their primes didn’t overlap, they were paired together in the final round of the 1970 Houston Champions Invitational, when Hogan was 56. They finished side by side, in a tie for 9th. Hogan, for his part, made a special effort to watch Trevino play whenever the Colonial Invitational rolled around.

According to Trevino, whenever Hogan was getting ready to release a new line of his namesake clubs, he’d give one of his reps the following instructions: “Take this set over to Dallas and let that little Mexican boy hit ‘em. He’ll tell me if they’re solid.”

“And I didn’t have any problem with that,” Trevino says.

I don’t know who’s doing the math there, but Ben Hogan was born in 1912, which would have made him 58 (57 going on 58 if we go by his exact birthday) at the time, and not 56.

I haven’t really featured Trevino’s swing on my blog for only one reason, it was a very idiosyncratic swing unique to him, much as Byron Nelson’s was to him.

Trevino’s swing was a Classic Golf Swing of course, and it was solid – that’s why he won 6 majors and 29 Tour events.

I found a clip of Trevino on YouTube that interested me for a reason:

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The diagonal angle of Ben Hogan, you’ll recall, was probably the one that got all of the modern swingers (especially Tiger Woods) squatting all the way down the fairway off the tee, trying to imitate his transition move from the top:

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It wasn’t a squat but rather a “drop” of his leading heel back to the ground as he began to shift his weight back to it so that he could stand on it through the down swing:

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You can see his top position with the hips turned and the heel clearly lifted, and this top position is why Modern Golf Swingers can’t replicate the move – they’ve never let the leading heel come up, they’ve not allowed the hips to turn freely:

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… and you will see the same thing from Trevino as he transitioned from the top – a “drop” of the leading heel as the left leg swings back to shut the gate, and yes, Trevino did have a head drop, but it’s not what made him great.

It was the pivot action, which was a great classic action, and the above video illustrated it perfectly for me to show you all:

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I think we can all agree that this is a Classic Golf Swing pivot with a huge swinging gate and leading heel lift, correct?

Now, look at this transition and drop move:

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If you watch Trevino’s heel and left knee, or his left knee and his hands, you’ll see how it was a kinetic chain action, everything connected, and the “drop” is Lee’s leading heel dropping, which pulls the left knee back and the hands down.

In other words – natural leverage from the ground up beneath the left foot.

And what happens when you try this transition move without ever having gotten off the left foot?

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See how Tiger had nowhere to “drop” because his leading foot was always firmly planted to the ground?

Drop what?

Oh yes… everything else…

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The difference between Trevino’s head drop and Tiger’s is that Trevino was dropping into his actual level where he swung through the ball, but Tiger dropped from the level he was supposed to be, and so you have that violent clear-out left side action to avoid slamming that club down into the turf behind the ball.

Lee dropped.  Tiger harpoons.

One swung in the Classic Golf Swing style with a proper pivot action and dropped in his transition.

The other had no pivot, Modern Golf Swing style, and instead twisted his lower back like a dish rag and then squatted.

This is basic Kinesiology 101, folks – at least, it could be, because I’ve never studied Kinesiology other than my own participation in sports from Track & Field, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer (Footy for my European mates) and yes, now Golf.

You can’t use the Classic Golf Swing transition with the Modern Golf Swing style.

Perhaps one day, they’ll figure that out.