There have been many great players who have won major championships, but the first four iconic pros mentioned above have had most influence on the golf swing. Some may argue that Arnold Palmer should be up there, yet his influence, seismic as it was, portrayed the charismatic manner in which the game was played and not so much the technical aspect of the swing. The determining factor must be that not just amateur golfers have glorified in watching these four master golfers hit balls on the range, but that their fellow competitors have also stopped and stared.
The Influence of the Great Ben Hogan
There was a mystique about Hogan that fascinated all golfers. The metamorphosis of his swing, from a long action to a shorter more compact move, transfixed the golfing world for it produced the much talked of ’power fade’.
Most young pros started to wear the Hogan Cap, changed to a one knuckle grip and limited hip turn on the backswing to back breaking point. It was an action that was hard to copy, but that didn’t stop pros from trying to emulate their hero and trying to discover the ‘secret’ that Hogan alluded to but never explained in depth.
Hogan’s great gift to the golfing world was the book he wrote, ‘The Modern Fundamentals’, which became required reading for any up and coming golfer. For the first time the basic fundamentals were defined so clearly they remain unchanged today. Importantly it was a book that Nicklaus read and studied in depth.
Jack Nicklaus and Power Golf
The golfing public did not take to Jack Nicklaus when he first came onto the scene - he was the ‘fat’ kid with the short hair who had dethroned their hero Arnold Palmer. But real class invariably wins over the public, and when Jack reinvented himself as the ‘Golden Bear’, amateur golfers worldwide looked on with admiration.
But they were second in the line, for most tour pros had already been captivated. Rather than the short flat swing of Hogan, Nicklaus swung with incredible width and power on an upright plane with a famous 'flying right elbow'. To every intense and purpose his swing was the opposite of Hogan’s, but in concept it did the same.
Both actions were anti-hook and hit the ball from left to right, the most required flight for hitting accurate shots under pressure. Nicklaus had introduced warp power into the game, but under his own admission it was ‘do as I say, not as I do’, for even the greatest of all time recognised that his swing was not the finished item. Nevertheless thousands of young pros worldwide tried to emulate him - one being a transfixed Nick Faldo.
Nick Faldo and Training Drills
When Nick Faldo was fourteen and watched Nicklaus win the US Masters he was determined to become a pro golfer. Initially his golf swing was influenced by Nicklaus and therefore it had a glitch in it that eventually cost him ‘majors’. Yet, like Hogan before him, he was determined to change for the better. In a brave move he teamed up with David Leadbetter who used swing drills to help groove the new movements necessary to transform the Faldo Swing.
The change took nearly one and a half years but shortly after Nick Faldo won the British Open Championship, every young pro was copying the drills he practiced for swing width, connection and plane. Almost instantaneously the game changed - every club pro started to use these fool proof drills when teaching juniors and almost overnight ‘unorthodox’ was banished from the game.
Yet the theory was flawed. Faldo had sacrificed length off the tee for accuracy – he took the overall scoring philosophy and winning mentality of Nicklaus, and combined it with the accuracy of Hogan and willingly sacrificed power. He could afford the sacrifice. He was a massive man and a genuine athlete, but most of his ‘followers’ struggled with the neat but passive action. The evolution of the golf swing however was nearing an end. What if someone could combine the mechanics of Faldo and Hogan with the power and positive winning mentality of Nicklaus?
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and the Future of the Swing
The future of the way golf is played must lie in maximising the efficiency of every department. Tiger came near in 2000 when he won the ‘Tiger Slam. His technique was perfect, his power incredible. The action was instantly recognisable and instantly copied by every up and coming golfer – it was the ‘holy grail’ of golf.
Everybody wanted to be the 2000 Tiger and some golfers have nearly made it. In 1996, when Tiger really came into the public eye, Rory McIlroy was seven years old and he grew up watching Tiger take the golfing world by storm. The golf swing of the young Irishman now has the grace of Hogan, the control and power of Nicklaus and Tiger’s raw aggression through the ball.
Golfers will almost certainly become bigger and stronger, they will putt better and overall they will be even more attacking, but it is hard to imagine anyone squeezing more out of a golf swing than Rory McIlroy. It is no wonder that pros are already starting to watch and shake their heads in disbelief when he hits balls on the range.
See also: Life Lessons Learned from Playing Golf and Sport or Keep the Left Arm Connected for Perfect Swing Mechanics
John Hoskison - John is a class 'A' member of the British PGA and author of the acclaimed book 'Inside - One Man's Experience of Prison'.
