I Need a Pro to Emulate

I’m looking for advice on golfers past or present who might have some of the same moves I make with the club. I’ve been scoring better over the past six months and I’ve really seen a drop in scores over the past couple of months. I thought about posting a video of my swing, but I know I’ll get a lot of criticisms from well meaning golfers. I just feel like I’m striking the ball better than I ever have and don’t want to change what isn’t totally broken.

So let me describe what I’m doing based on the videos I’ve seen. Maybe someone could steer me in the direction of some pros modern or ancient with some of the same moves.

I’m 5’9” 170 and stand fairly tall at address, 25 degree spine tilt max. I play the ball in relatively normal positions (wedges in the middle to driver just inside the left foot). With a slightly strong grip I forward press the club and bring it back with my shoulders. I take the club back to the inside and by the time my hands are waist high the club is almost parallel to the ground, very flat. I have a short backswing that never reaches parallel with my hands getting to 11:00 max. Once I make the transition down, I immediately have the club back on plane (it looks like it anyway). The butt is pointing directly at the ball and the shaft seems to stay on plane down through the swing. I usually hit down hard on irons and wedges with mid sized divots and play a mini pull, aiming about 10 yards to the right of my target and pulling the ball back. With my driver it is more like a pull-cut. I accelerate through the ball and the club actually bounces off my back before I bring the club down to my “follow through position”.

I know it’s hard to evaluate a swing without a video, but I thought I’d put it in words so those into the history of swings and such might be able to tell me some guys that have used some of these moves. I’d love to be scratch but my goal is single digit given my time available. Maybe you guys can tell me about some other guys who were able to work with this type of swing.

Thanks, long thread I know

There's no golfer with a perfect swing in golf and every golfer has their serious flaws that they may get away with, but the average golfer will have serious problems is they try to emulate those flaws in their swing. So in my opinion, I would suggest trying to draw from many golfers, and here's some of my top suggestions:

1. Sam Snead.

I would suggest getting his stuff in his prime. Not that his older swing was all that bad, but it was nowhere near as good as his swing in his prime. Here's a good video of his swing in his prime.



Unfortunately it only shows the face on view, but from here you can see Sam's unbelievable body rotation which shows that going way past parallel doesn't really effect accuracy. Also, you can notice how he uses the proper sequence of the downswing with the left knee moving towards the target and the hips rotating. He also doesn't shift the weight back and thru, but merely rotates back and through.


2. Moe Norman.

I wouldn't teach everything Moe does. Particularly, he doesn't have much body rotation and thus he didn't hit the ball very far. And without body rotation, the regular golfer would struggle a bit to hit the ball as straight because you're likely to flip the hands through impact (Moe didn't flip, which was unusual). Here's a video of Moe's swing:



I do disagree with a few points of the swing, like Moe using a single plane. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding geometry, but from the way the narrator describes it, Moe's club was on 3 Planes in the swing, but on 1 angle. However, what you can learn from Moe's swing is the importance of keeping the club on 1 angle, keeping the hands high at address, getting the club perfectly on the plane on the downswing, and maintaining his spine angle throughout the swing. His ability to keep the club on THE swing plane on the downswing and to maintain his spine angle was the major reasons for his incredible accuracy.


3. Fred Couples

Here's a video of Fred's swing I did a lesson on ( http://www.swingacademy.com/swingana...ol.aspx?id=944 ). Fred does a few great things. For starters, his hands are a little higher than most at address, thus it enables him to get the club perfectly on the plane on the takeaway and halfway back points of the swing. Fred does get very upright at the top of the swing, but his takeaway and halfway back points are just about perfect. The other big thing to notice is Fred's flexibility. Fred was in the top 10 in driving distance for most of this year at 48 years old and never lifts any weights. He's long off the tee because he is extremely flexible and utilizes that flexibility with proper technique to hit the ball long. You can't tell from this down the line view, but Fred has a whopping 135 degrees of shoulder turn. More importantly, he has great hip rotation as his hips are rotated on the downswing to where they are about facing the target at impact.


I could add Tiger to the list, and he excels at hip rotation, but so does Couples. Adam Scott is also a pretty good player to learn from. But for the most part, size really doesn't make a difference unless it's hindering your flexibility. So I believe if you can take the right parts from the 3 players I listed above, you will be a phenomenal ball striker.

I say Freddy. He is the King of Swing and has the most effortless looking smoothest tempo swing out there. Everytime I feel like I'm rushing or pushing to hard, I try to relax and think Freddy and hit my next few shots with his swing/tempo.
Believe it or not, it really does help. Lots of beginners, incl myself, lose thier tempo's quite often and although telling yourself to slow down is a good start, I think having a mental image of a smooth tempo swing that you can see someone doing is better than just saying "slow down".

Tiger once said that he copies the best part of every golfer to create the best golfer.

Thanks a lot guys!!

This is just what I was looking for. I've been told by everyone who first plays with me that I take the club back slower and smoother than most. I know this is true and it's just something natural for me and something I've always done regardless of the swing types I've tried over the years. Ironically Freddy is my 2cd favorite golfer (behind Rich Beem) solely because of his on course demeanor, smooth as silk, like his swing. This is how I try to play as well, never loosing my temper and never getting too pumped. And Sam Snead is always someone I meant to study more. When people talk about Tiger chasing Jack they often forget about Tiger chasing Sam.

Any other ideas guys? I know better than to try to copy a player exactly and not everything they do will translate to me.

You have listed some good possibilities. Here are my suggestions, based on his build and what he says about his golf swing:

1. Ask your local PGA pro whom you should copy. It sounds like your swing is very idiosyncratic, and therefore, there are very few "model swings" you can really imitate. 2. Based on what was written, it sounds like he swings somewhat like Craig Parry, who would be the first to admit that his swing is not the kind that Butch Harmon or David Leadbetter would teach. Since he has a serious goal to improve, and has to aim to the right to hit the ball at the target, it is impossible for me to tell him exactly what to do. I admire him for having the desire to get to a handicap in the single digits, but he needs advice from someone who can watch him in person, and not from someone like me who is guessing as to what his swing really does.