General golf question

I'm curious as far as golf goes how many many people obsess about doing things correctly vs doing whatever works? Do any of you scratch golfers on here have outrageously unorthadox swings that work consistently? I don't mean past parallel like daly or crazy loop like furyk. I mean huge flaws like well over the top or under plane, or suped closed or open positions?

I play with this guy all the time and we always bicker back and fourth about this argument. Here's his swing by the way he had me upload it and wants it analyzed if someones bored.

Iron
http://www.swingacademy.com//SwingAn...l.aspx?id=1736
Driver
http://www.swingacademy.com//SwingAn...l.aspx?id=1736

I pretty much learned from watching him so I ended up with a pretty wacky swing. Basically lined up way right of the target, close clubface drastically and pull draw ball at target. *desperately trying to change it now* Funny stuff! It's amazing that you can do so many things wrong and still hit a 280 yard drive with a little draw down the center of a fairway. My main question is can someone still get good with huge flaws as long as they master the required compensations?

When golf is boiled down to its bare essentials, two six-inch paths define a golfer's ability: the path from 2 inches before impact to 4 inches after it, and the path from the left ear to the right. Obviously, good fundamentals and a technically correct swing make consistently solid contact easier to achieve, but the prettiest swing in the world is useless unless it is effective. As you can probably tell, I belong to what you termed it the school of "whatever works": correct impact, not a correct swing, is the secret to playing good golf. (A solid mental game is obviously necessary as well.)

I would like to reiterate, however, what I said earlier: good fundamentals and a well-executed swing make solid contact a lot easier. Swing analysts stress the fundamentals and swing positions so much to promote more sold contact, not to design a pretty swing. Too often, struggling golfers, particularly high-handicappers, forget that simple truth.

I understand what you are saying about a pretty swing being worthless but does it ever actually work out that way, maybe that should have been my question. Can a person with sound fundamentals and on plane swing *pretty swing* not hit a ball well?

I understand a lot of this has to do with the amount of time a person is willing to commit to learning golf. Sometimes people just have to work with what they have. I got stuck behind a golf outing recently and I didn't see one person come anywhere near on plane and it kind of got me thinking about the types of things that keep people from getting better. My friends who's swing I posted has golfed his entire life and we have been golfing and hitting the range almost 3-5 days a week for going on three years now. He always shoots about 100. I figure there must be something stopping him and myself from improving so I have looked to swing plane and mechanical issues.

Isn't the hardest thing in golf to abandon what works even though it's wrong? Is it worth doing? I would think the majority of golfers would just hit some peak that they could never cross without completely relearning the golf swing. I shot 6 over awhile back on a local course, seemed great but my divots all pointed well left of where the ball went. My drives all started way left and sliced right. I did really well with a really terrible golf swing. The hardest thing now, is that if I go out and try to do even a couple of things correctly like to not come over the top I shoot in the hundreds.

My father-in-law went for lessons. During the first lesson, the instructor asked him what his usual 9 and 18 hole score was. When the instructor heard that FIL could shoot anywhere from 85 to 100 with the swing he had, he said that lessons probably wouldn't help much.

I'll try to explain his swing from the tee box. First off, he 'squats' and has really bad posture. Takeaway is initiated by starting the club by pulling his body back from the ball. He gets the club about 3/4 back which is certainly ok, but here's the best part ...

During the downswing, his left foot slides exactly 90* from its starting point so that when the swing finishes the left foot is pointing parallel down the target line. His foot literally moves around a circle about 2 feet away from it's starting point using his right foot at the pivot point. Swing is also very over the top and outside in. Because of the lack of keeping anchored during the swing, he hits a driver about 150 yards.

The instructor took a few looks at the swing and just said, 'no way.' Father in law is able to score decently, so mucking with what I'd call an 'unfixable' swing is probably a waste of time, effort and cash.

dave