Practising perfection

Johnny Miller’s recent disparaging remark that Ben Hogan “would have puked” at the sight of Craig Parry’s method served to confirm Hogan’s status as the guru of the golf swing.

Generations of golfers grew up believing in Hogan’s mystical knowledge of the golf swing and his excellent book, “The Modern Fundamentals of Golf,” became something of a bible in the ongoing quest to unravel the intricacies of what is a rather awkward movement.

Ben Hogan's premise, in a book that appeared in 1957, was driven home in bold letters: "THE AVERAGE GOLFER IS ENTIRELY CAPABLE OF BUILDING A REPEATING SWING AND BREAKING 80."

Hogan's detailed analyses and illustrated demonstrations of grip, stance, posture, and the two basic components of the swing made up what was to become a sacred tome in golfing lore.

His “five lessons” were aimed at the average golfer but his influence on successive generations of playing and teaching professionals was even more profound; creating the long-held belief that “Hogan knew more about the golf swing than anyone who ever lived.”

In fact, so pervasive was Hogan’s power that a myth grew among professionals – pursued by the like of Gary Player – that he knew a “secret” that he was not imparting.

Even though David Leadbetter, one of the modern-day gurus of coaching, teaches a method clearly based on Hogan’s insights modern gadgets have shown that the great man might have been wrong in many of the perceptions he passed on to so many golfers.

Video recorders and advanced slow motion replays have shown that what Hogan “thought” were the fundamentals were in fact skewed images gained from still photography.

Hogan, for instance, advocated a strong leg drive and stated that the downswing was initiated by a lateral movement of the hips to the left (for a right-hander). He showed how your elbows “dropped in” behind the right hip for a “late” hit and he was the first to reveal the “pronated” position of the left hand.

There is little doubt that Hogan, who perfected his method through literally hours of practice and who liked to say that to have a good golf game “you have to dig it out of the dirt,” was the spiritual father of the modern swing but by slowing down the swings of current good golfers a new understanding has emerged.

Even though Jack Nicklaus also believed in hitting the ball with the big muscles in the back and legs and also promoted the theory of “driving through the ball with the legs”, leading coaches, with the help of videos and computer analyses, now advocate passive legs having realised that the position of the knees (driving forward) is an optical illusion created by studying still images.

The legs certainly need to provide a strong and stable base but current wisdom is that the coiling and uncoiling of the shoulders, moving down through the hips, is the key movement and that it is undesirable for the legs to “get ahead” of the ball.

This, of course, is bad news for literally millions of golfers in the 40-plus age-group who grew up trying to thrust through with the legs and who now find themselves with a difficult-to-eradicate lunge.

The pronated wrist leading and dragging through the shot, while still there at impact, is no longer seen as crucial while virtually none of the top players any longer adopt the weak left-hand grip that Hogan put forward; in his case to stop a crippling hook and perfected by hours of strengthening practice. Today, from Tiger down, players have much stronger left-hand grips and their hands are distinctly more active.

Funnily enough Tommy Armour, in one of the other classic instruction manuals, “How to Play Your Best Golf all the Time,” which predated Hogan, was more in tune with the rotating role of the hands, especially through and just after the hitting zone, than was Hogan in his “Modern Fundamentals.”

If Hogan did have a secret it was the “twisting” or “fanning” movement of the clubface on the takeaway – cognisance of which causes Mike Weir’s pre-shot ritual – but looking at clips of his tight and somewhat flat swing he certainly did not “jump” at the ball with his legs; as it might have appeared to him from photographs.

Much is made of fantastic new equipment (especially drivers and golf balls which enable players to go at the ball as hard as they like), but this new understanding of the mechanics of the golf swing is a key element in the phenomenal distances achieved by most young players.

Books such as those of Hogan and Armour were all players had to go by – and they remain amazingly useful and insightful – but video cameras have brought a new appreciation of the components of the golf swing.

It makes you wonder whether, in time, even more knowledge and yet more forgiving equipment will emerge that will make for even better players but one thing that has not changed is the incontrovertible essential of the three Ps – practise, practise and more practise.