A couple more. I just love taking note now of his rotation through the ball. It is especially noticeable in the down the line shots. The club disappears to the left, the divot goes left and yet there is no cut off in the swing like most would do when they will bring the club left through impact. It is still full extension in every way.
I really like the one I posted earlier DSC2077. His feet are still gripping the ground. His club is extended through, but I find it quite noticeable he has all this extension and turn through just by body rotation and effort. There looks to be no manipulation whatsoever with hands, pure body release.
Now I guess career wise we wouldn’t classify Bobby Clampett as exceptional, BUT at one point early in his career as an amateur and phasing into the pro ranks he was indisputably the talk of the town and renowned for his ballstriking. So seeing many have never seen him play much, I thought I would post some old pics of him. he had some good stuff happening. I guess he was the TGM poster boy for a while.
Did you ever spend much time with him Lag? seeing you both went to Ben Doyle
This is right around the time I was also rising up through the TGM family and was considered by many to be the next “prince” in waiting.
My golf swing was basically a carbon copy of what you see above… I’ll try to did up some old photos or video of my swing at that time in the
late 70’s early 80’s… if not just for entertainment sake…!
Peter Thomson. One of Lag’s favourites. Not a lot of good pics around of his swing. here’s one that was when he was a little older but not bad. he was still winning Australian Opens in the 1970’s and of course blew the Seniors Tour away in 1985 when he won 9 times and then left just as quickly, once he proved he could beat up on all those guys.
A couple of older photos of Snead and Sanders . The hands and clubface well open coming down ready to release everything at the ball.
Also a real old one of Greg Norman. He would have just turned pro here approx 1976
Tom Watson- maybe recognized as more of a great short game player in his prime but you don’t win as many majors or as many events as he did if you couldn’t hit the ball well also
Here’s a down the line shot
many more great angles of his swing to come
Tom Watson- rear view
This is a view we don’t see often. Overhead. looks like he keeps some good shaft flex coming down into the ball. May be something different we can learn from a view like this
And there you have it… that’s the big question… and the answer is simply great post impact pivot acceleration… it’s what I believe to be the most important element of the golf swing, yet rarely discussed or talked about. We address this in a big way, head on in the 3rd module. There are no easy cures, nor are there any band aid solutions that will bring about what we see with the likes of Hogan and other fine pivot driven hitters.
It’s the cut it left, and the onplane full extension that separates the good from the great. It takes a lot of work… to train the pivot to act both
properly and automatically. Rotating hard with the clubshaft at right angles to the spine can certainly help, and flattening out our swing plane also can help us leverage correctly and utilized the forces available to us.
Not easy stuff, but knowing that this is the intention if a huge step in the right direction.
And here you have it… one of the greats of all time holding shaft flex into impact…
Like Moe Norman, Waston was a pure CF swinger, and understood that in doing so, the left arm and shaft seek a straight line
relationship with the left shoulder… This IS the only way to do “swinging” as far as I am concerned.
Swinging from a lower hands or elbow plane is more often than not much more problematic.
There are no mysteries if you really look closely.
This classic shot of Snead shows how Sam utilized maximum use and rotation of his #3 power accumulator, with the clubface
as wide open as his grip will allow on the P3 4:30 line. This is EXACTLY what we are working on in our module #1 work.
Snead used a deliberate firing of the right hand into impact, and discussed this in several of the wonderful books he wrote on
the golf swing. “I pull the club down with the back three fingers of the left hand, and then fire my right hand at the bottom”
Snead feared no one, not even Hogan.
We can also see this in the wonderful capture of Greg Norman in the photo posted above.
Great stuff.
thanks for the wonderful uploads and posts!
Keep them coming!!
Please fast forward this to 4.26 to see Ben Hogan and the infamous “Slip” of the right foot in the US Open. I can’t believe the direction that foot slipped, i’m guess the direction/pressure will come in later modules 
youtube.com/watch?v=XMo6aOfw0Bg
Oh, yes…
we will be covering this in module #2… and it makes perfect sense after seeing that shot and the foot slip…
Tom Weiskopf- always regarded as a great elegant swinger of the club
Take note of the middle row of photos. From the left photo into the next you can see a slight hip bump down and forward which has already dropped the club into view from being hidden behind his arm, which shows how the hips start laterally and down slightly even as the club is still going back. very noticeable in Hogan videos. shift back before completed backswing
The late great Tony Lema. Apparently he had a lot of game. Hard to find many images of his swing as he left the world too early, but most people thought he had the game to achieve anything
And one of the best. Mr 'Go-Low" Johnny Miller. Talk about knocking down pins and flushing the ball to almost anywhere he wanted
Two Masters - fantastic sequences you have posted, thats great! We have a nice collection coming along here. Your aerial view of Watson reminded me to post some links overhead footage of Player, Nicklaus, Souchak and Palmer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StKkT9sTTtQ
This is the same footage that Lag draws upon to get that wonderful image of Player on the 4.30 line.
Cheers,
Arnie
I always like these overhead shots as it always reminds me of the rotational nature of the swing which we don’t get to observe either first hand or through the traditional camera angles. Here’s the real Arnie in slo-mo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLh2BC1hqFM
And from more traditional angles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tWrTCRBOQw
Lag - would you say that high finish is an attempt (conscious or unconscious) to keep the flex for as long as possible? Certainly those irons on the practice ground at Latrobe suggest a conscious effort to me.
Just a little bit of footage of Gene Littler from the 1969 Shell match vs Billy Casper and Ben Arda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKpEmeASFyo
Cheers,
Arnie
Ken venturi
Curtis Strange- down the line
I kind of like that bent right elbow coming into impact and then thrusting through in the next frame. Good straight up right hand going through
Curtis Strange- face on
