It was back in December, and ironically, it was about how Mike Dunaway produced so much leverage with such a “short” back swing.
The “short” part meant of course that his back swing didn’t produce a club shaft way past parallel or even pointing at the ground the way long drivers have.
I have been re-reading GolfDigest’s Guy Yokom interview of Mickey Wright, and I can’t recommend heartily enough that anyone interested in the proper way to swing (and even play) should do so if you haven’t.
I had read it initially because of several emails pointing me to her views on the Modern Golf Swing, which are right in line with Jack Nicklaus’ and Brandel Chamblee’s and my own (and with anyone else’s opinion that it is an un-natural and harmful way to swing, especially for power swingers), but there is so much more.
This is incredible – I’ve written a couple of posts before about Mickey Wright, first about her great Classic Golf Swing action and then a little more breaking down her setup and mechanics, but the legendary golfer really gives the Modern Golf Swing a firm condemnation in a long-awaited interview with Golf Digest (thanks to Peter A for passing it on).
I’m wondering how many of the greatest golfers ever have to to knock down the Modern Golf Swing, but they won’t be around forever – so it’s a good thing to get them on the record.
OK, since it was Mickey Wright’s 80th birthday yesterday and I didn’t get her anything, I thought perhaps I could do a little swing analysis on her action back in the 60’s, just in case she’s thinking of teeing it up with the ladies any time soon.
Even at 80, my money would be on Mickey. The clip from which I obtained these pics and the gif., contains a drive of hers in a Shell match where she hit a drive over 300 yards.
*Originally published January 2nd, 2012 on the DJ Watts Golf blog. Still relevant today…update at bottom
———-
Ben Hogan once remarked that Mickey Wright had the best swing he’d ever seen. Looking at her swing myself, I can see why he would have said this.
Mickey was of course a classic swinger from the ’50’s era, where proper mechanical swings were not as rare as they are today. The golfers from that era just swung so much better than the players today.
