Originally Posted Dec 12, 2015. Re-posted in honor of Tom Watson as he announces his retirement at 69 from Champions Tour major play.
I’ve said before that golf will never be taken seriously as a “sport” (although it was for a brief period during the height of the Tiger Woods era) because it doesn’t follow the same athletic principles.
*Originally Posted February 6, 2019*
As I have time, I’ll be going through my archives to re-post articles that I still find relevant. This is one of them, edited slightly.
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Well, I had just said yesterday not to hold one’s breath on any major golf publications or channels discussing the results of the so-called “X-Factor” study we read about in the BBC…
And look here, friends – Golf Digest through GolfWorld courtesy of Joe Beall has just published a piece online doing exactly that:
Thanks to everyone who emailed/messaged about the following news piece, as I hadn’t yet seen it when I began getting your forwards! Once again, WAX Golf readers are on the ball.
While the title actually says, “X-Factor Golf Swing Linked To Back Pain,” you can’t have pain without damage, and if you’re damaging your back doing something repeatedly over a period of years – you’re going to destroy it.
I have been hearing for years upon years that to swing with power, you want to “emulate Sam Snead’s ‘squat,'” whatever that is supposed to mean.
I still hear it on TV and read it online.
I can show you below that the the half-way down position in just about any swing, good or bad, has the “squat” aspect to it, and it has nothing to do with Sam Snead.
If you think today’s pro tour players are good and that the longer ones among them hit it far (both accurate assessments, because I’m not saying they aren’t or that they don’t), then let me tell you something about my day yesterday and let you wonder what they could do with mechanically-sound and properly leveraged Classic Golf Swings.
Yesterday, I enjoyed a great day on the course out at Royal Ashburn G.C. with David D.
This track is the former Fall Q School venue of the former Canadian Tour, and the ironic thing is that I actually worked there as a locker room attendant for a summer coming out of high school – and never once saw the course!
In fact, before anyone accuses me of stealing his swing model, of course I didn’t – I don’t really watch instructional videos from even the game’s greatest players because I felt that watching their swings was good enough.
I might have saved myself time from the 12 years of my swing research however, if I had watched certain swingers’ explanations… thanks to Terry who posted a couple of Tom Watson video clips in the comments section of another piece on the swing in response to Jim’s “Aha” moment!
**Update – Video has been added to the body of the posting below /update
Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that so many in Wax Nation watch televised golf – but thanks to Frank Nobilo for pointing out something I see all the time, and for his shout-out on The Golf Channel last night during the 3rd Round coverage of the Sony Open in Honolulu.
Thanks as well to Peter A. with the heads-up, and to those of you who emailed me – I was watching the telecast but I had stepped away from the TV near the end of the broadcast, and I missed it!
Thanks to Pat G. for sending me the link.
Wow, I’m loving this from Phil Mickelson!
I just mentioned in this morning’s earlier posting that Phil Mickelson, the second in career majors among active players (if you count Tiger Woods as “active,” which is a stretch, but whatever), is a classic golf swing adherent.
I imagine Jack Nicklaus has reason to smile broadly today.
And I imagine that the ghosts of Hogan, Snead, Nelson and Bobby Jones have stopped spinning, at least for the time being.
I have been reading Brandel Chamblee’s newly released (and sure-fire bestseller) book on the swing, “The Anatomy of Greatness,” having been sent a copy by his publisher Classics of Golf with a request for my thoughts on it.
As for disclosure, I have received nothing for my agreement to review the book, and it wouldn’t matter – if I hadn’t received the book, I’d have surely browsed through it at the store, and would have run home with it.
Well, the bad news is that BT’s round of 73 at Bear Creek G.C. in Murietta C.A. was three strokes shy of Brian Smock (former PGA Tour player), who snagged the single spot to the PGA Tour Farmer’s Insurance Open.
The good news?
Lots of that. While I discuss, there are some pics of BT warming up this morning before I turned my phone off for the round.
WAX Golf 