Post by Richie3Jack on Dec 3, 2013 9:44:51 GMT -5
Interestingly enough, for all of the wins and accolades that Mickey Wright received in her career she may be best known as the golfer that Ben Hogan once famously said had the best swing in the game of golf.
A lot of swing fanatics will mention this to proclaim that Wright possibly has the greatest swing of all time. However, I'm inclined to disagree and with all due respect, I think it was the contrarian in Hogan that prompted him to say this. I still like Hogan's swing mechanics much more than I like Wrights. With that said, I think Wright had a fine golf swing that I envy.
I see a little bit of Hogan's influence here in the address position. Hogan had less knee flex, but may have been shorter in height than Wright despite her being female. But, we don't see any of that 'flat spine' and 'chin up' alignments at p1 like we do in modern golfers. Also, I see a similar right wrist alignment that Hogan had at p1. A bit of un-cocking here. This appears to be a driver and Hogan played from a closed stance. Her stance is more square, maybe a tad open.
Less torso rotation than Rawls was here. But that's mostly due to the rear knee maintaining its flex while Rawls immediately straightened it out. Face square to the path.
This is more Hogan-ish as well. The #3 PP is more undernearth the grip than it is to the side. She's not 'laid-off' because if her hand-path continued to you would not see that 'laid-off' look.
Right side is higher than the left side here.
Right hip higher than left hip
Right knee cap higher than left knee cap.
Right shoulder higher than left shoulder.
Face is square, but at a different angle than Rawls. This is likely due to Rawls employing push-draw mechanics and Wright likely producing straight or tiny fade mechanics. Rawls had to get the face a little open at impact to hit the push-draw. Wright has to have the face square or slightly left of the target at impact to hit it straight or with a tiny fade.
Back then, players like Rawls and Wright had to 'figure it out' and 'connect the dots.' These days with launch monitors the instructor and player can decide what type of shot they want to hit and employ the mechanics for that shot. With Wright, she had to figure out what shot worked best for her and then ingrain those mechanics to allow her to repeat the shot.
To me this photo explains a lot to where I don't feel Wright's swing matches up to Hogan's (or Snead's, Nicklaus', Thompson's, O'Grady's, etc).
She's trying to hit a straight shot or a slight fade and her shoulders are very closed at this point. Her hips appear to be a hair closed as well. Lots of good things going on there, but I noticed a lot time ago that her head would 'hang back' and lower thru impact. I think this pic and the p4 pic give a big hint as to why. She's set up for straight ball/slight fade mechanics at p4, but she does not have enough torso rotation from p4-p7. I also notice that her clubface looks more closed here. So this would indicate a golfer trying to hit more of a fade shot. And if that happens and you're not getting enough torso rotation, the golfer will find a way to get the golf club moving left. I should know, very similar to issues I have with my swing.
She's rotated the torso quite a bit in a short period of time from the last picture still. She's on point strike this one nicely. Again, not debating her skill as a ballstriker, but the claim she had the greatest swing ever or a better swing than Hogan.
Not a ton of side tilt. She keeps the right foot down. A lot more than Hogan did. This can help propel the hips more forward. It can also help stall the torso rotation. I think in the end she is hitting it very straight here.
You can kinda see the right shoulder stalling out a bit. The shoulder plane gets a bit steeper and the head hangs back a bit. The right foot staying on the ground helps promote that as well.
Here's some more Hogan influence. Hogan had the humurus bone pointing up despite hitting a fade shot. Of course, he struggled with a hook for years and that would promote the type of finish he had. So he basically had some leftover hook swing mechanics and implemented a bunch of fade ball mechancs.
To me, the keys I see here are:
1. P4 is set up for CP straight ball or CP tiny fade.
2. P5.5 has mixed compatability parts. Face becomes more closed (fade mechanics), shoulders are very closed (draw mechanics)
3. Into impact the torso starts to open rapidly (fade mechanics) and the hips propel forward (draw mechanics)
That leads me to believe that Wright probably hit it virtually straight with maybe a little fade. Probably lower windows than what Rawls was hitting. I would be curious to see who hit the ball further. Wright looked much taller than Rawls. I tend to believe that Rawls was probably not nearly as consistent and precise as Wright, but when Rawls was on she could really hit some dynamic shots for a female golfer.
3JACK
A lot of swing fanatics will mention this to proclaim that Wright possibly has the greatest swing of all time. However, I'm inclined to disagree and with all due respect, I think it was the contrarian in Hogan that prompted him to say this. I still like Hogan's swing mechanics much more than I like Wrights. With that said, I think Wright had a fine golf swing that I envy.
I see a little bit of Hogan's influence here in the address position. Hogan had less knee flex, but may have been shorter in height than Wright despite her being female. But, we don't see any of that 'flat spine' and 'chin up' alignments at p1 like we do in modern golfers. Also, I see a similar right wrist alignment that Hogan had at p1. A bit of un-cocking here. This appears to be a driver and Hogan played from a closed stance. Her stance is more square, maybe a tad open.
Less torso rotation than Rawls was here. But that's mostly due to the rear knee maintaining its flex while Rawls immediately straightened it out. Face square to the path.
This is more Hogan-ish as well. The #3 PP is more undernearth the grip than it is to the side. She's not 'laid-off' because if her hand-path continued to you would not see that 'laid-off' look.
Right side is higher than the left side here.
Right hip higher than left hip
Right knee cap higher than left knee cap.
Right shoulder higher than left shoulder.
Face is square, but at a different angle than Rawls. This is likely due to Rawls employing push-draw mechanics and Wright likely producing straight or tiny fade mechanics. Rawls had to get the face a little open at impact to hit the push-draw. Wright has to have the face square or slightly left of the target at impact to hit it straight or with a tiny fade.
Back then, players like Rawls and Wright had to 'figure it out' and 'connect the dots.' These days with launch monitors the instructor and player can decide what type of shot they want to hit and employ the mechanics for that shot. With Wright, she had to figure out what shot worked best for her and then ingrain those mechanics to allow her to repeat the shot.
To me this photo explains a lot to where I don't feel Wright's swing matches up to Hogan's (or Snead's, Nicklaus', Thompson's, O'Grady's, etc).
She's trying to hit a straight shot or a slight fade and her shoulders are very closed at this point. Her hips appear to be a hair closed as well. Lots of good things going on there, but I noticed a lot time ago that her head would 'hang back' and lower thru impact. I think this pic and the p4 pic give a big hint as to why. She's set up for straight ball/slight fade mechanics at p4, but she does not have enough torso rotation from p4-p7. I also notice that her clubface looks more closed here. So this would indicate a golfer trying to hit more of a fade shot. And if that happens and you're not getting enough torso rotation, the golfer will find a way to get the golf club moving left. I should know, very similar to issues I have with my swing.
She's rotated the torso quite a bit in a short period of time from the last picture still. She's on point strike this one nicely. Again, not debating her skill as a ballstriker, but the claim she had the greatest swing ever or a better swing than Hogan.
Not a ton of side tilt. She keeps the right foot down. A lot more than Hogan did. This can help propel the hips more forward. It can also help stall the torso rotation. I think in the end she is hitting it very straight here.
You can kinda see the right shoulder stalling out a bit. The shoulder plane gets a bit steeper and the head hangs back a bit. The right foot staying on the ground helps promote that as well.
Here's some more Hogan influence. Hogan had the humurus bone pointing up despite hitting a fade shot. Of course, he struggled with a hook for years and that would promote the type of finish he had. So he basically had some leftover hook swing mechanics and implemented a bunch of fade ball mechancs.
To me, the keys I see here are:
1. P4 is set up for CP straight ball or CP tiny fade.
2. P5.5 has mixed compatability parts. Face becomes more closed (fade mechanics), shoulders are very closed (draw mechanics)
3. Into impact the torso starts to open rapidly (fade mechanics) and the hips propel forward (draw mechanics)
That leads me to believe that Wright probably hit it virtually straight with maybe a little fade. Probably lower windows than what Rawls was hitting. I would be curious to see who hit the ball further. Wright looked much taller than Rawls. I tend to believe that Rawls was probably not nearly as consistent and precise as Wright, but when Rawls was on she could really hit some dynamic shots for a female golfer.
3JACK
