I’ve had the Count Yogi DVD since I was sent the Mike Austin and Mike Dunaway videos many years back by a now-departed WAX Nation citizen who knew MA, but I’ve never really discussed his golf swing because it was, well, very peculiar.
Wouldn’t you know that, the minute I decided to take another look at Count Yogi, I immediately noticed that he has a Dunaway-style pivot, the Shift & Post action.
Like Austin, Count Yogi was a mythical cult figure with devoted followers and who hung around the stars in Hollywood (there is a video below where he is giving a golf demonstration at Tim Conway’s golf tournament), and there is absolutely no believing the numbers he was claimed to have.
That was likely what turned me off discussing his swing at all – he was a brilliant showman and carnival barker but his claimed scores and distances were laughably outrageous – things like having multiple holes in one on par 4 holes over 400 yards, having shot in the 50s dozens of times and never having scored higher than 67 in a tournament round.
Looking at his Shift & Post pivot action, that tells me that he had no impediments to the down swing action and so would likely have had good speed through impact and been a long hitter for his size (5’9″ or 175 cm tall) – just not the distances claimed.
Regarding his “records” of hitting drives well over 400 yards in the era of persimmon woods and balata balls, one glance at him hitting balls is enough to tell you he likely didn’t even get it out past 300 yards, which only the truly longest hitters of the era could do.
A look at his golf swing however would explain why he was a trick-shot artist – his technique, while unorthodox, featured a pretty good top position (he had a shift and post action into his left leg) and his impact position looks very Moe Norman-esqe.
The Count Yogi Youtube page doesn’t allow embedding of videos, but here is Yogi swinging in his 80s shortly before his death, and he essentially swung the same way his whole life:
His setup looked unorthodox because he was a pure right-dominant swinger, so his left wrist was severely bent while the right remained straight, but once he got to the top:
… he looked more of less proper (look at that full hip turn and tilt and the flat trailing heel), other than he didn’t cock his left wrist much at all – as I say, he was a pure right-dominant swinger and his setup and swing action reflected that.
Coming down to impact, as I said, he looks very Moe Norman, and he finishes in a balanced position, and you can hear from the impact that he was hitting that ball purely.
A great ball striker, but no way his records are halfway believable. Again, the showman always embellishes.
One final note – it is getting very interesting to me that everywhere I look now, I am seeing swingers known for ball-striking who had a very similar pivot actions to the Late Hogan and Shift & Post.
WAX Golf 
No one in today’s golf scene comes close to the personality and showmanship of Count Yogi. Or Mike Austin, for that matter…There are some funky swing actions out on the internet with gurus galore offering the grail ( add holy to your grail for only an extra $19,.95)..There are Hogan poseurs, baseball bat swings from all over the world, a JuJu swing and even an Englishman in China teaching kids stack and tilt.
Thanks for sifting through it all, DJ and crystalizing the essentials in to a 30 minute tutorial. Its all anyone really needs…
Thanks for the kind words, Peter – I worked long and hard to whittle “Basics” down to that half hour.
And yes to both your points – these were entertaining men, and there are more snake-oil selling charlatans on YouTube than you can shake a stick at.
The state of modern golf instruction and technical knowledge are absolutely depressing.
Yogi was actually younger than her than he represented himself in his later years.
Wouldn’t surprise me in the least, fantastic – Mike Austin claimed to be older than he was as well, and to be born in Guernsey (English Channel Island) instead of his actual birthplace in small town Alabama among all his other wild claims.
That’s why I stick to the swings and nothing else.
They were both showmen and self-promoters extraordinaire. I would blush to think about inventing even a tenth of what they did about themselves.
It’s part of why I try to keep it real on this blog and to never make a claim about having done anything without video evidence or witnesses.
It may come off as boastful, but it’s simply my insistence on having proof to any of my claims.
Rewatching this, is it true that the back pivot hip tilt is identical for hogan and Dunaway’s models except for hogan’s stays in place so he has to lift his lead heel slightly while Dunaway’s hip shift allows his lead heel to stay planted?
Then for the down pivot although they both execute a “side lunge” motion onto the trail foot, Dunaway’s hips shift to the lead foot and only rotate AFTER impact while the rotation in the hogan pivot happens continuously through impact?
Would that theoretically mean Dunaway’s pivot has more power because his entire weight gets thrown down into the ball while hogan’s still leaks a little rotationally (comparatively)?
P.S. continuing the late hogan pivot work first but very curious about Dunaway’s action haha
Hey Kaush – the reason for the difference in hip and foot action between two different swingers is because of many variables – height, stance width, address metrics, ball position, swing model etc. Hogan and Dunaway used the same pivoting action but any resemblance one to the other stops there, so you will find numerous differences in their swings.
The lateral hip move is the same for any swinger using proper mechanics, as you have to get the weight into the leading foot starting the down swing. On TV, you see them always stopping that action halfway through and talking about a “squat” into the ground, but that is ridiculous as it’s merely the changing of the top position to the impact and stopping that move halfway through shows nothing except the position of the body in that 100th of a second.
I certainly don’t “squat” and I have the same position as I transition – so the lateral hip move is something you will see in every swinger that transitions properly into the leading foot.
Dunaway had tons more power than Hogan for the reason you state – Dunaway stayed facing the target line longer than Hogan, who was turning and “swinging left” which caused more than a little leak in power. It’s part of the reason Tiger keeps needing spine surgery – trying to swing left and hit the ball a country mile will only end in tears.
As for the Dunaway action – it would be extremely difficult to try to transition from a traditional Classic Golf Swing action straight to Dunaway’s. It’s like grades in school – if you are learning 1st grade material, skipping the 2nd grade and going straight to the 3rd would be nearly impossible, because you are using things you learned in the 2nd grade when you begin the 3rd.
That drill for the Late Hogan pivot is the blueprint for one to transition to the Dunaway action. You’re doing great, and I love your enthusiasm 🙂
makes sense! thank you for explaining