Jim,
Thanks for that. Fascinating piece that did describe perfectly the Ouimet swing. Indeed, weight on the left side with the left heel 2” in the air and the weight on the ball of the left big toe? Reminds me of the time that I thought I ought to learn a pre-swing waggle. I thought that Hogan may have said something about the waggle in his Five Fundamentals book written with Herb Wind. I dug out my copy and found the passage. Five pages on how to waggle the club! Whoa, way too much information, dude.
I understood perfectly what Duncan saying with his precise description of technique. I’m not convinced it is any more helpful to the amateur golfer than the glut of instructional articles that fill our contemporary golf magazines. Go out to hit an iron shot with that pre-shot checklist, the guy to your right on the practice tee better have his insurance paid up. I learned the game as middle-aged, out-of-shape, overly-intellectual, problem-solver. My battle has been to remove my brain from the process. What were you thinking about on that shot? Nothing. Perfect.
Interesting enough, I’ve seen that shaft flex on video capture frames with guys using graphite shafts and metal drivers. I think it is the result of poor weight shift—arm swings—and timing getting the weight on the left side, resulting in the loss of power. This, the expert opinion of a hack golfer with an over active brain.
Thanks for the Duncan article. I love the old guy’s views. My personal favorites are about greenskeeping. They are almost mystical. Then you read Don Mahaffey and you say “now wait a minute, I’ve heard this somewhere before…”
What was this thread all about? Oh yeah, the joy on a golfer’s face. My apologies.