Golf, like fly-fishing (another sport I love), can be poetry. While we see more jerks and hacks than poems in our weekend foursomes, thankfully there are some swings worth emulating.
After some deliberation, I’ve chosen the best golf swings of all time and ranked them in order from five to one. See if you agree.
Number Five: Mickey Wright
With 82 career victories, including 13 majors, Wright is perhaps the best woman golfer of all time. She won a Mickey-slam, winning the final two majors of 1961 and the first two of 1962. Her expectations of herself were high and she obviously achieved them, winning an average of over five tournaments a year during a 15-year span.
Mickey Wright’s joy was hitting the right shot with the proper trajectory for each situation. Mis-hits that turned out well apparently gave her no pleasure. Her desire to perfect shot shape and selection sounds like the kind of terminology that one might hear from Tiger Woods.
She was especially determined, like many legends in golf, to hone a perfect swing. She abandoned the principles she learned from her instructor Harry Pressler and began to hone her own swing. If you have a chance to look at Wright’s swing you’ll immediately appreciate her tempo. Her swing was technically sound by any modern standard. It’s a swing any player, male or female, could model their swing after.
Number Four: Steve Elkington
You’ve probably heard it before: his PGA Tour peers often said he had the best swing on the course. He has no wasted motion and no swing thoughts. Some of us hacks should take notes. “My swing is simple, compact, not a lot of moving parts,” said Elkington. “My arms are real long, 39 1/4 inches. I guess that helps. Don’t think about it, really.
His personality isn’t quite as silky as his swing. He’s opinionated and a tough competitor. He was playing at Royal St. George’s in 2002 with a torn rotator cuff when his shoulder made a cracking sound while trying to hack out of the deep rough. Ouch.
He misses the characters on Tour and says that personalities have become too bland in recent years. I agree and I think we can all agree that Elk has one of the silkiest swings in golf history.
Number Three: Ernie Els
Els owns two U.S. Opens and a British Open among nearly 60 international events. While he’s struggled recently, following his knee injury, Els is still a fan favorite and solid pick to do well in the next few years. Despite the impression that he isn’t playing up to form he’s 5th in the World Golf Rankings and has aspirations of once again recapturing the top-spot.
It doesn’t take much to understand how Els came to be called “The Big Easy.” While the results of his swing can be a little erratic (he plays golf after all) you’d never know it because his tempo is about the best on Tour. I don’t think there’s a player out there who generates as much power with as little effort as Ernie Els.
Number Two: Sam Snead
It isn’t a surprise that the most prolific winners on the PGA and LPGA Tours, Sam Snead and Mickey Wright, have two of the smoothest swings in history. Each have a total of 82 victories on their respective tours. Each player had a long fluid stroke that seemed to easily stay on plane with hardly a hint of hit in their swing.
Slammin’ Sammy was a powerful player. His swing was a microcosm of his overall attitude toward the game. He admitted he had a relaxed attitude toward the game, easy for a guy with talent to spare.
“I figured early that the best swing was a one-piece swing that let you get rid of all the hitches,” said Snead once, “The things that throw you off.” His swing had a minimum of moving parts, was fluid, and long.
Number One: Ben Hogan
Hogan is the most influential figure in the science of the swing. Of all the classic swingers Ben Hogan has made an impression on generations of swingers.
He has a mystique that is unique to his personality and his approach to golf. Hogan’s book Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf is the most famous and perhaps best work on swinging a club.
He perpetuated the idea of a swing secret that allowed him to swing so consistently. My personal opinion is that his secret lies in the fact that he practiced the right things more than any player in history. Famous for “digging his swing out of the dirt,” Hogan spent countless hours on the practice tee honing that simple motion we’ve come to admire.
It would be right to say that Ben Hogan is the best self-taught player the game has ever seen. I would say that his swing is the most influential, his ideas widespread, and that simple motion the best the game has ever seen.
Photo Credits: © LPGA.com, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Hy Peskin/Sports Illustrated.
Okay, how can you not have Tiger’s swing in this list? I agree that the swings you picked are very nice, but Tiger’s swing is a thing of beauty!
Just my opinion.
Keep up the good work with the site! 🙂
Those are great swings on the list, Honestly, i would put Fred Couples on there. There are many pros out there with great swings, but not many as smooth as Freddy.
For sheer results Tiger’s swing couldn’t get any better. Except for the first two rounds of the ’07 Masters. I couldn’t pick Tiger’s swing cause it’s just too violent. But yeah, the title says Tiger should be there.
Freddie deserves a very high spot on the list. He might even replace Els for sheer smooth. I left him out based on mechanics… strong grip and open stance. But smooth puts him up at the top.
You have Hogan right. Just research his 1 iron shot on a downhill lie to an up hill green at Merion.
Actually, I’d rate Mickey Wright’s swing the best. As did Sam Snead. Efficiency of motion is the key. Tiger’s swing is modern and athletic, but it is certainly not beautiful nor is it beautiful to watch. Mickey was the true natural. Tiger is trying for a Michael Jordan slam dunk on most swings he makes. It’s not pretty. And it’s not the best swing ever. He wins with his will, not his swing. Like Arnold.
If you spend some time watching all the great champion’s swing video (those who were filmed) you quickly begin to see that Mr. Hogan’s motions were the most efficient, fundamentally correct, and powerful. Absolutely No Wasted Motion! None!
He was slight in stature at 5′ 7″ and 150lbs, yet the most accurate ‘long hitter’ on tour in his prime. An estimated 140 mph swing speed. He delayed the club getting on the ball longer than anyone and no one in golf returns the club to impact (on plane) right where it was at address like Ben Hogan did. Mr. Hogan executed the proper hip turn from the top better than anyone in golf that I have ever studied. And by the way, he was self taught!
Mr. Snead had a very fluid, well timed swing. While he executed modern swing fundamentals well, he did have some waisted motion in his swing. According to my readings, in their primes, Mr. Snead was no where near Mr. Hogan in ball striking, especially with a driver in his hand.
Mr Els has one of the most efficient take-aways in golf and executes the hip turn from the top very well. He does tend to get lazy with his posture at times, but I think his swing efficiency is one of the best on tour today.
I honestly haven’t studied Mr Elkington or Micky Wright much, but I think Elk makes a very correct, efficient move through the ball and from what I have read about Micky Wright, there hasn’t been a better swing in womens golf to date.
I find it very interesting that both Hogan and Wright became their own master of the golf swing and didn’t hop from one teaching pro to the next. Most respected pros from that era consider Mr. Hogan the one who knew the most about the golf swing.
I myself take this philosophy to heart and rely on myself to learn, understand, practice and perfect the correct, most efficient movements for my golf swing.
Not to say that I don’t learn from teaching pros. Even Ben Hogan took advice from people he respected. Purportedly, he tested everything. If it held up under pressure and seamed correct, he kept it as part of his swing. If it didn’t hold up under pressure, he discarded it.
Everyone swings a bit differently. Mr. Hogan fought a hook early in his career before learning to play from left to right. I feel that you must find the most efficient, fundamentally correct, and powerful movements that fit your swing and test them well.
While Mr. Couples benefited from the Harmon family teaching lineage (Claude Harmon, Butch’s father spent hours with Ben Hogan) and Couples has a very relaxed and smooth delivery, he never has been close to the efficiency or correctness in swing fundamentals as Hogan, Nelson, or Snead. And he has never had the mental toughness of a Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods.
Nicklaus was Nicklaus. He could tell you if he was going to win just by looking into the eye of his opponent. Tiger is just Tiger! Athletic. Determined. The best competitive mind on tour today. Most importantly, he is a true student of the game.
I’m not a teaching pro or swing bio-mechanics expert. I’m simply a student of the golf swing and I have an enormous amount yet to learn.
I too am an ardent fly-fisherman and pay close attention to the proper casting fundamentals when attempting to drop a size #22 trico on 7x tippet just upstream from the nose of a sipping trout in the fall.
The results that come from efficient, proper execution of proven fundamentals cannot be argued. No matter what sport they pertain to.
You know you got some good swings out ther bet don’t you think Jack Niklaus should be in there ❓
If you practice with a yo yo like you use to cut semi tall grass with only letting the yo yo do the swinging and effortlessly swinging through the grass with no hitting of the grass then you will develop a better golf swing . Try it and you will see what I mean. We all try and hit the ball for the reason of , it just is logical. If I hit it hard then it just has to go really far. Not true , and it goes no where and thats the problem I see even in myself is this hitting the ball problem. Try the yo yo technique its simple easy and perfectly fluid . Use the yo yo first and then change it to a club but don’t change the tempo . The yo yo comes back and it then swings back basically all by itself with the left to right fluid motion. Nothing I know of is closer to the fluid proper golf swing we are all looking for than the yo yo swing. yo yos’ are cheap , and you can swing the yo yo properly right from the outset of using it , and if you can swing it just letting the grass get in the way of the swinging yo yo head you can swing the golf club the same way effortlessly and let the ball get in the way of club head. Try it . It works .
What do you think of jim mclellan swing the antipro? I saw it and love it or ian woosnam and tom purtzer?
Where is Byron Nelson. He is the inventor of the modern golf swing, no Hogan.
You have only one Lady on your list .What about mentioning JOYCE WETHERHED playing in the ’20’s .She swings very much like MICKEY WRIGHT ,When she came to play in the US she did beat every male top golfer of the time .She gave up golf because she was bored to have no serious opponent to beat her
Comment for Bill. Learning to swing with a yo yo is exactky what did WILD BILL MELHORN ,a great golfer in the ’20(s …… He taught you to swing in high grass with a weed cutter exactly as you say ,swinging both ways and let the weed cutter do the job.