As I’ve said, I never really looked very hard at Tiger Woods’ golf swing other than to look for things to tell others not to do, but the more I look at the younger Tiger Woods, the more tragic his story becomes.

It’s because he was likely taught a Ben Hogan swing model, but a Modern Golf Swing version of it, which made it not Ben Hogan’s swing because of the one thing that made Hogan the great swinger that he was.

I’ve pointed out the video from the 60’s (watched by everyone I knew back in the 90’s) where Hogan’s swing is horribly mangled by the narrator, and of the many parallels drawn between that video and Jim McLean’s “X-Factor” and the phraseology of the Modern Golf Swing, so it’s highly possible that Earl Woods taught Tiger the golf swing using a flawed model of Ben Hogan.

I saw a swing clip of Tiger Woods that, after having watched a particular Ben Hogan gif., sort of jumped out at me as, “Wow, I think Tiger was trying to model Hogan,” which we already know is probably true, since everyone since Hogan has been obsessed with how Hogan swung.

Not obsessed enough to have actually gotten it right (I guess I either had a stronger obsession than them, or just happened to use my own eyes instead of listening to others), but still obsessed.

Here is the gif. that I have watched thousands of times since I made it back in 2017:

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And the Tiger Woods clip that struck me immediately when I watched it:

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That’s correct – it’s exactly the sequence in which I placed both of these swings, one a gif. and the other a video, in yesterday’s posting, and that’s when I noticed it upon reading my own post.

Let’s take a look at how I think Hogan’s and Woods’ models were so similar but for one thing that Tiger didn’t do, which meant he was never going to be able to replicate Hogan’s swing.

1st Sequence

Looking at the setups – very similar, but for the difference in their right leg positions – Hogan’s was “kicked-in” and Tiger’s wasn’t, but that’s not the difference I’m referencing, just a slightly different setup due to what Tiger doesn’t do later.

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On the back pivot, you see Hogan’s right leg actually straighten whilst Tiger’s begins to flex to restrict the hip turn and to keep the leading foot planted – that’s the difference, and from Tiger’s second frame, he’s lost any hope of replicating Hogan.

Hogan’s wide stance wasn’t a problem because of his Classic Golf Swing pivot action, but that is far too wide a stance for a planted-heel Modern Golf Swing, so Tiger is in deep water before he even begins.

2nd Sequence

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Hogan has completed his “Perfect Pivot” and, because of that free hip turn and lifting leading heel, he has a nice, balanced position with a nearly extended right leg and no lower back torque.  Tiger, on the other hand, has fought to create that shoulder turn with the flexed right leg and restricted hip turn due to the planted leading heel, and he has really twisted that lower back to do so.

At impact, Hogan is still over his right side with a bent right elbow, where Tiger has a nearly extended right arm and is now going to drift to his left post-impact.

Everything in Hogan’s pictures sings “relaxed,” and in Tiger’s, it screams “tension.”

3rd Sequence

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Hogan is coming to the finish with no lower back twisting (full body turn) and his  head still over his right side, whilst Tiger is very contorted with significant lower back twisting, and he finishes dead vertical whilst Hogan is finishing comfortably balanced with a backward-leaning spine.

Conclusion

The Modern Golf Swing crowd will all tell you, looking at these sequences, that Tiger’s swing was very much like Ben Hogan’s when, in the parts that matter, it was anything but.

You cannot replicate a free and full hip turning pivot with a planted-heel pivot – they are not the same, and they lead to different outcomes virtually from the time the swingers set up over the ball.

The tragedy is that Tiger was so close and he only had to have done one thing different in his golf swing – allow the free and full hip turn instead of nailing that leading foot down and restricting his hip turn.

As the years passed, he strayed further and further from this type of swing, so close to Hogan’s, because of his injuries, until he is now swinging like this:

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Now, imagine what we’d be talking about if Tiger had actually been taught Hogan’s proper pivot – we might be wondering if Tiger would reach 25, perhaps 30 majors?

Because, without having to practice all day the way he did to groove his various Modern Golf Swing iterations, and without all of the damage he’s wreaked upon his body with those models, beginning as a boy (his first knee surgery was in college), and without all of the time lost due to injuries…

Tiger Woods and his athleticism and obsession to practice, with Ben Hogan’s pivot action?

The sky would have been the limit.