As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was delighted to have found that Golf Digest video talking about Ben Hogan’s swing mechanics, because it contained a swing clip I’d never seen before.

It bridged the gap between Hogan’s early years on the PGA Tour with the early pivot action he performed then and his eventual “Perfect Pivot” action that everyone today knows by sight.

I would have to assume that this clip shows Hogan before his near-fatal wreck with the bus, and it was still a superb pivot, but an action closer to Jack Nicklaus’ and that of other Classic Golf Swingers of the day due to the more vigorous leg action.

First, the earliest Hogan pivot action that I have seen:

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This one was very flowing, but also pretty loose, and similar to a lot of the players of that time.

At the time of his accident in January of 1949 however, Hogan was by far already the best player on the Tour.

He’d won 54 Tour events by then, with 3 of his eventual 8 majors, leading money winner and Vardon Trophy winner the previous season, so he didn’t become a legend because he suddenly got better after the crash, he became a legend because he remained the best player after he was told he might never walk again, let alone return to playing.

Now, this pivot, I would say was pre-crash, because of the leg action:

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He had a distinct and much higher heel lift than we would see in his later years, and even here, it is a great pivot that you would see from Jack Nicklaus later on:

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If this was after 1949, then it seems that his ability to perform such a vigorous pivot remained for a time after he returned, but diminished quite rapidly or he figured out the Perfect Pivot to further ease the strain on his legs.

This is why I don’t understand how people can think, much less claim, that Hogan was the father of the Modern Golf Swing – if he was, it’s because his action was completely misunderstood or misstated deliberately, you pick one.

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This is the pivot action that, if Hogan’s “Perfect Pivot” didn’t exist, you would call optimal.  It is a great pivot action, and almost nothing would beat it.

After the wreck though, he was severely limited in lower body mobility and his legs would swell so much that he wrapped them ankle to hip with Ace bandages just to play the 5 or 6 events he was capable of playing per season.  The reason he looked so thick in the thigh area in the 50’s and 60’s was because of those bandage wrappings.

So, his pivot became a more subtle Classic Golf Swing pivot with less leg action, but the reason it’s “Perfect,” in my eyes, is because he was still able to get a full hip turn with a much lower leading heel lift:

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He figured out how to pivot with less leg action and heel lift but with a still-full hip turn – that makes it perfect, to me.

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And, as I demonstrated back in the days of my “E = MCS” swing video, the Hogan “Perfect Pivot” is as powerful as any pivot I’ve made outside of the long drive pivot:

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187 mph ball speed at 47 years of age with a 12 year old off the rack driver, when not even hitting balls every day… that’s a perfect pivot action.