I just saw a mind-boggling stat comparison between Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods that, for me, ends the debate of who is the G.O.A.T.
I’m not saying who is anyone’s favorite, or who is the most exciting player of all time – I am talking simple career stats comparisons in professional tournament performances.
Thanks to WAX Golf denizen MC for forwarding the following golf article.
One of the things that has bothered me in the years I’ve been blogging on the golf swing has been the overwhelming silence from the Classic Golf Swing era greats (those still with us) on the Modern Golf Swing.
Sure, Jack Nicklaus trashed the idea of the X-Factor swing in his book “Golf My Way” back in 1974, but that’s 50 years ago.
It’s a pity Tom Weiskopf didn’t win more majors than the one U.S. Open that he bagged, because his golf swing has to be one of my top 5 to watch.
It was powerful and athletic, so mechanically-correct – and if you want to know how powerful, Jack Nicklaus said that the only golfer who could consistently out-drive him was Weiskopf.
It was only a matter of time before the Champions Tour would have multiple players averaging 300 yards on their drives, but I am surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.
Oh, that’s right – it would have happened years ago, if the players back then had what the current players have, so we all know that Golf Digest is just trying to hype the stats, because hype’s all it is.
A simple glance at some stats is all it takes to confirm this.
I love the rear face-on diagonal view when looking at a pivot action because it shows even more than a straight face-on or down the line views.
I’ve talked extensively about how I would take Jack Nicklaus’ adjusted setup from 1963 and pair it with Ben Hogan’s pivot action to create the optimal golf swing (I wouldn’t try to actually swing like Hogan because his particular swing model was rather unique), but there’s another pivot that I really like.
As I’ve said, I never really looked very hard at Tiger Woods’ golf swing other than to look for things to tell others not to do, but the more I look at the younger Tiger Woods, the more tragic his story becomes.
It’s because he was likely taught a Ben Hogan swing model, but a Modern Golf Swing version of it, which made it not Ben Hogan’s swing because of the one thing that made Hogan the great swinger that he was.
Yes, the entire Modern Golf Swing world would follow him, it unfortunately seems.
I didn’t even go looking for this – I was watching all of this ridiculous modern swing instruction that tells everyone that it’s not proper mechanics to shift one’s hips on the down swing, and it eventually fell from the sky as these things do.
I posted back in February about Aldrich Potgieter after he had set the golf world afire in reaching a 660 yard par 5 hole in two.
I had said at the time that it shouldn’t be that incredible with his youth, size and strength and the equipment they use today.
I still don’t see, looking at him without a chart to measure his height, how he is listed at 5’11” and 87 kg (191 lbs), but whatever.
Originally posted January 23, 2018 and resurrected from the archives
One of the reasons I barely watch any televised golf, in addition to the execrable swing analysis regularly dished out, is the hype machine that exists to pump the modern players up as so strong, and so long, and so incredible when they are hitting 330 yard drives.
I originally posted this about Jack Nicklaus back in 2016 after KidCharlemagne had sent me the quote, and Scott from Arizona sent me a screenshot of the actual page taken from Nicklaus’ book “Golf My Way,” so why not re-post?
With all of our talk about Ben Hogan “experts” creating the Modern Golf Swing based on misinterpreting his mechanics and the explanations thereof, here is the G.O.A.T. telling it like it is, probably a few years after that infamous Ben Hogan video began misleading people the golfing world over.
WAX Golf 