It seems a contradiction to say, but both of the following are true:

• Jack Nicklaus had the best swing ever in golf,
• Ben Hogan had the best pivot ever in golf.

If you wonder how they can both be true, here’s how it is – if you asked me, which of Jack’s or Hogan’s swings I would use if I had to replicate them exactly (or try to), I would pick Nicklaus, hands down.

However, I would also state that even though Nicklaus‘ swing was better on the whole than Hogan’s, I would use Hogan’s pivot action over Jack’s.

I mean, let’s just look at – Jack Nicklaus was winning tournaments and majors right out of the gate with basically the same golf swing he used as an amateur and would use through his entire career.

Young Jack Nicklaus

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He possessed uncanny accuracy with explosive and unmatched power (Nicklaus famously said that only Tom Weiskopf was ever able to out-drive him consistently).

Ben Hogan bounced off and back onto the Tour for over a decade before finally winning his first event.

He also, even in his best years, had to work on his swing model day in, day out, all day hitting balls or it would go south on him.

Younger Hogan

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So, if Jack Nicklaus’ swing was the swing of a ten year old, a twenty year old, a forty year old, and he could take time off to go fishing without caring much about practice between tournaments, and Ben Hogan couldn’t go a day without hitting balls in his prime and it was his own swing model… which one would you want to bet on being able to replicate?

It’s obviously Nicklaus.

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You would want to emulate his setup and his ball position, for sure, and the pivot was a great, athletic pivot.

However, if you wanted to make Jack Nicklaus’ swing model better and easier to perform as you got older, you definitely wanted Hogan’s pivot action from his later years:

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That’s because the way Hogan pivoted with his hips and legs took some load off his legs, and he was greatly hobbled by the horrific car crash with a Greyhound bus that nearly killed him.

He was able to get a full hip turn but with very little leading heel lift:

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… and this is much easier to perform, especially as one gets older, than the vigorous high-lifting-heel pivot of Jack Nicklaus:

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I wouldn’t fancy trying to swing like this at fifty years of age, because of the strong leg action this requires, even as it gave Nicklaus tremendous power.

It was his entire swing from top to bottom however that made him a power swinger, not just his pivot action.

Hogan’s pivot action could have been as powerful, but he was a slighter, shorter man than Jack Nicklaus and as well, he was greatly impeded by the leg and hip injuries he sustained in the wreck.

I myself have generated well over 180 mph ball speed in my late 40s using Nicklaus’ setup and Hogan’s pivot action, as I did here back in 2017 at age 47 with an old Hogan Big Ben C-S3 driver:

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I’d say close to 190 mph ball speed using Hogan’s pivot proves that it was just as effective in power generation as Nicklaus’ if a swinger tried both.

Here’s why – the leverage in the Classic Golf Swing comes from the full hip turn and weight transfer, and Hogan’s pivot gets as much hip turn as Nicklaus’ did.

And it’s easier to do, once you get the hang of it.  The only difficulty with Hogan’s pivot is in understanding how it works.

So, yeah – Nicklaus with the better swing, Hogan with the better pivot!