Post by Richie3Jack on Jan 2, 2014 13:20:26 GMT -5
As a golfer, Byron Nelson was a bit of a mystery to me. He had the lowest scoring average record on Tour that lasted decades. He won 18 tournaments in 1945 which included 11 wins in a row. He also won 3 of the majors and only missed out on the British Open when it was rare for non-European golfers to play in the event.
Despite all of the incredible accolades there was little information on how he did it. With Hogan, we knew about his incredible ballstriking and how he got rid of the snap hook and produced some electric ball-flight patterns. Snead was ‘effortless power.’ Nicklaus pulverized the course and was known as the greatest long iron player to have ever lived. Trevino was known as a ballstriker/shot maker. Arnie crushed the ball and was terrific at getting out of trouble.
But, for the longest time you never really heard what Byron Nelson did to make himself so great. I blame that mostly on his early ‘retirement’ from the game and that his greatest year was back in 1945, right at World War II when there wasn’t exactly a lot of media coverage and I would imagine that the golf crowds were sparse.
Of course, it’s hard to imagine that Nelson and Hogan, 2 of the all time greats, grew up together caddying on the same course. It’s so improbable that you would think it was pure fiction. The state of New York may produce 1 PGA Tour quality golfer every 10 years and here a small club in Ft. Worth produced 2 legends at the same time.
It also should be noted that when it came to charity, Byron Nelson was the king of that as well. Last year I played golf with a guy that was a member at Shady Oaks and he had personally given Byron Nelson a check for $5,000 for charity and just thought it was an honor to meet the man. He then said that a year later he saw Byron at his bank and on a whim he yelled ‘Mr. Nelson!’ and by surprise, Byron Nelson remembered him, the money he gave (which in terms of money raised was a mere pittance to what others have given) and Byron Nelson acted like he was a long lost friend.
Anyway, after all of these years the word was that Byron was known for his accuracy in his prime (don’t worry about that Shell’s match at Pine Valley, he was far removed from the game at that point). I read once that in his prime a golfer at a club made a bet to see if Byron could hit a flag stick from about 120 yards away on so many tries. Byron grabbed a club and on the first swing, hit the flag stick and just walked back into the clubhouse.
The first thing I see in Byron’s swing is that there are a lot of Stack & Tilt elements. Obviously there is the centered pivot and the steady head. His p4 position from the caddy view is almost spot-on as far as what the S&T crew like. But, he also uses a 1-piece takeway. At p3, the relationship between his left arm and club shaft is about 110 degrees instead of at a 90 degree angle. That’s a result of that wide 1-piece takeaway. For many golfers, this angle can cause a myriad of things from float-loading to casting. So you can get either side of the spectrum at p5, either tons of lag or no lag at all. For Nelson, he ends up cocking the wrists at p4 and gets moderate amounts of lag.
The other things we see from Byron Nelson is that classic knee drive on the downswing with the head lowering considerably as he gets to impact. I like what John Erickson (advancedballstriking.com) once said, that if you want to keep your right foot planted at impact, you’re going to need to have the left knee flexed. I think Byron’s left knee flexed thru impact was the big reason for his head dip into impact.
I like a lot of his p5.5 position from the DTL view. As we look at more stills from DTL, his torso starts to brake and stall a bit. He has his shoulders and hips open at p5.8, but thru impact the shoulders really don’t rotate much. And his finish dictates that he would probably hit a draw if he didn’t hit it straight. He also has a lack of extension in the finish which indicates a fairly low ball flight. So my guess is that he was hitting small draws that weren’t going very high. He may have been the very best version of Jason Dufner, a guy that was probably about average in length off the tee, didn’t flight it very high, but didn’t curve the ball much and was deadly accurate with all of his clubs. I would imagine he had to be a great putter as well given his 1945 performance.
3JACK
Despite all of the incredible accolades there was little information on how he did it. With Hogan, we knew about his incredible ballstriking and how he got rid of the snap hook and produced some electric ball-flight patterns. Snead was ‘effortless power.’ Nicklaus pulverized the course and was known as the greatest long iron player to have ever lived. Trevino was known as a ballstriker/shot maker. Arnie crushed the ball and was terrific at getting out of trouble.
But, for the longest time you never really heard what Byron Nelson did to make himself so great. I blame that mostly on his early ‘retirement’ from the game and that his greatest year was back in 1945, right at World War II when there wasn’t exactly a lot of media coverage and I would imagine that the golf crowds were sparse.
Of course, it’s hard to imagine that Nelson and Hogan, 2 of the all time greats, grew up together caddying on the same course. It’s so improbable that you would think it was pure fiction. The state of New York may produce 1 PGA Tour quality golfer every 10 years and here a small club in Ft. Worth produced 2 legends at the same time.
It also should be noted that when it came to charity, Byron Nelson was the king of that as well. Last year I played golf with a guy that was a member at Shady Oaks and he had personally given Byron Nelson a check for $5,000 for charity and just thought it was an honor to meet the man. He then said that a year later he saw Byron at his bank and on a whim he yelled ‘Mr. Nelson!’ and by surprise, Byron Nelson remembered him, the money he gave (which in terms of money raised was a mere pittance to what others have given) and Byron Nelson acted like he was a long lost friend.
Anyway, after all of these years the word was that Byron was known for his accuracy in his prime (don’t worry about that Shell’s match at Pine Valley, he was far removed from the game at that point). I read once that in his prime a golfer at a club made a bet to see if Byron could hit a flag stick from about 120 yards away on so many tries. Byron grabbed a club and on the first swing, hit the flag stick and just walked back into the clubhouse.
The first thing I see in Byron’s swing is that there are a lot of Stack & Tilt elements. Obviously there is the centered pivot and the steady head. His p4 position from the caddy view is almost spot-on as far as what the S&T crew like. But, he also uses a 1-piece takeway. At p3, the relationship between his left arm and club shaft is about 110 degrees instead of at a 90 degree angle. That’s a result of that wide 1-piece takeaway. For many golfers, this angle can cause a myriad of things from float-loading to casting. So you can get either side of the spectrum at p5, either tons of lag or no lag at all. For Nelson, he ends up cocking the wrists at p4 and gets moderate amounts of lag.
The other things we see from Byron Nelson is that classic knee drive on the downswing with the head lowering considerably as he gets to impact. I like what John Erickson (advancedballstriking.com) once said, that if you want to keep your right foot planted at impact, you’re going to need to have the left knee flexed. I think Byron’s left knee flexed thru impact was the big reason for his head dip into impact.
I like a lot of his p5.5 position from the DTL view. As we look at more stills from DTL, his torso starts to brake and stall a bit. He has his shoulders and hips open at p5.8, but thru impact the shoulders really don’t rotate much. And his finish dictates that he would probably hit a draw if he didn’t hit it straight. He also has a lack of extension in the finish which indicates a fairly low ball flight. So my guess is that he was hitting small draws that weren’t going very high. He may have been the very best version of Jason Dufner, a guy that was probably about average in length off the tee, didn’t flight it very high, but didn’t curve the ball much and was deadly accurate with all of his clubs. I would imagine he had to be a great putter as well given his 1945 performance.
3JACK
