The main reason I didn’t choose Ben Hogan’s swing for the MCS model is that he was a feel swinger who practiced endlessly, and so his setup would vary almost day to day – he would get the feel of how he was swinging on a particular day and go with it.

That’s not going to breed consistency – Hogan could do so because he hit balls every day, every single day, when he wasn’t actually playing.  Most of us can’t do that, and even if we could, we can simply avoid having to by building a consistent and repeatable setup over the ball.

Another reason of course is that he had so many idiosyncratic moves because of his insistence on never losing the ball left (he’d been plagued by hooking in his earlier days), it would be foolish to try to emulate his exact swing.

Even Jack Nicklaus’ setup varied over time, but that was when he got sloppy and he had slumps in performance in his career when he did so – which kind of proved that, when he was playing great, his setup was very good.  Jack didn’t practice or play much between events so he relied on a consistent setup and swing action.

I have found a clip however of Ben Hogan using nearly the exact same “Leaning A” setup that is in the MCS Golf Swing model, and very close to Nicklaus’ suggested setup from “Golf My Way,” of which the MCS setup is nearly a carbon copy.

One note about the clip – it is titled “Ben Hogan Swing 1948” and I highly suspect that it isn’t from 1948 (before his near-fatal car wreck) but from the 50s, because of two things:

• His attire – Hogan got cold easily after the wreck because of his reduced lower body circulation, so he tended to dress in warmer clothes than you might expect in cooler weather to keep him legs warm, also that big Tam O’Shanter-style hat is one you see quite a bit in his later years and
• When he comes to the finish, that very straight and vertical finish is typical of his later years and his lower body appears to be thick, indicating the heavy bandage wraps from ankle to groin that he wore to keep his legs from swelling as he walked the course.

Nevertheless, aside from quibbling about the claim in the title, I love the setup and action here:

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Here it is in Gif. form:

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As you can see, that’s not really the flowing swing with the higher leading heel lift of a late 30s golfer in his physical prime as below (you can even see the “Buy More War Bonds” on the sign behind him, making it sometime between 1942-45):

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… but more the compact, controlled swing of a man in his 40s with heavily wrapped legs.

At any rate, the setup:

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… is very close to what MCS would prescribe, except perhaps his stance – tad wider than recommended and the ball position inside the left heel (remember that the persimmon drivers were meant to strike the ball like a long iron, or with a descending blow as opposed to the positive attack angle you have with the modern drivers).

But still a very nice “Leaning A” setup:

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The hands are virtually in the middle of his stance, and you know what I’ve said about the swing bottom and where that occurs – so a pretty good “Leaning A” setup but with some idiosyncrasies you don’t want to copy.

There is a reason for every thing laid out in the “Basics Of The MCS Golf Swing” video and you’d have to agree that having one’s hands in the middle of the stance in the setup rather than where they should be would introduce inconsistency, as the extra-wide stance would, if one didn’t practice and hit balls for hours a day to groove it.

Far better to have that standard MCS setup, and Jack would agree, as you saw the comparison of our setups in that section of the “Basics” video:

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You can study Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan all day long (as I am wont to do) and if you watch the swings and the setups, it will likely become clear to you that the optimal golf swing model is likely one that incorporates Nicklaus’ prescribed manner of setup with Ben Hogan’s silky “Late Hogan” pivot action.

At least, that’s what I think, and that’s why the current MCS Golf Swing model is exactly that!