There is something to be said about having a background in diverse athletic pursuits – I played everything from footy (soccer) to baseball to hockey to basketball to competing in track & field, all between the ages of 7 to 23 before swinging a golf club for the first time at age 25.
During that time, I obviously acquired something of an instinct for self-preservation, shall we say, or avoiding injury through proper technique and the drilling of such.
I hate when this happens – for years, whenever I have singled out individual swingers in a post on unsound mechanics, they uncannily come down with an injury within weeks.
The reason I rail against unsound golf swings and mechanically-incorrect moves is because I’m trying to get people to avoid hurting themselves simply swinging a golf club.
I wasn’t watching yesterday’s Tour event, but a WAX Nation citizen (thanks, Chief!) alerted me to something that happened to Scottie Scheffler during his round.
We had the discussion earlier in the week about the finishing position and balance, and I only had to take a quick glance at the older Classic Golf Swing greats to see how the modern game and instruction have skewed the finish, to the detriment of those being taught so.
Bear in mind that there is a difference between the standard Classic Golf Swing and what I call the optimal Classic Golf Swing, and there will be two obvious differences between the two – the grip and the footwork.
Many people who play golf either pay little heed or none at all to the crucial element of footwork.
Greg Norman is considered to have been the greatest driver ever using a persimmon club and his slide from dominance actually came as a consequence of the introduction of larger, metal-headed clubs which allowed lesser drivers to equal him in accuracy and distance because they were more forgiving.
Just as Lord Byron Nelson replied more or less when asked how much modern equipment would have helped him, “Not at all – I struck the ball with the sweet spot, so more forgiving clubs wouldn’t have improved my game,” this would apply in part to Norman as well.
When it comes to the Classic Golf Swing, I’ve always used Jack Nicklaus as an example of a near-optimal motion, but there’s someone else who has been overlooked, even though I mention him quite a bit.
That person is Greg Norman, who is considered to be the best ever driver using a persimmon club when you take into account driving distance and accuracy.
This swing apparently produced a 367 yard drive, but a grain of salt warning, it was on a Scottish links course (the King’s Course at Gleneagles in Scotland) and we know how the ball runs half the distance of the total drive (joking, but close) … but anyway…
Padraig Harrington is the swinger in question here, and by the PGA Champions Tour caption, they apparently think his footwork is to be admired (we know they wouldn’t insult a player in their feature Tweets, so we have to assume a positive tone here).
WAX Golf 