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The truth is, whether lifting the heel is good or bad depend on other factors. Jack's teacher Jack Grout used to make him hit 5-irons (as a kid) without lifting either heel, so he'd learn to swing in balance, with the head steady, and with the right kind of "rolling" action of the ankles. And as his career progressed, he was aware of lifting the heel on long irons and woods but not on mid-irons through short irons. (ct'd)

emncaity 6 months ago

Later on, Jack really elaborated on why he left his left heel lift on the longer shots; it had to do with leveling the hips out a little rather than forcing a tilt to the hips, which causes both a reverse pivot and too much steepness. His book Golf My Way discusses it some, but maybe the best place to find it is in his lesser-known The Full Swing in Pictures (get it by interlibrary loan if you can).

emncaity 6 months ago

At some point, modern players, particularly the more flexible ones, started keeping the left heel down as long as it didn't cause a reverse pivot, as long as they were still able to turn the left shoulder behind the ball, etc. It's probably not something to torture yourself over, but reading that stuff from Nicklaus, who was highly conscious of the effects either way, would be a good way to make yourself aware of what comes into play.

emncaity 6 months ago

@emncaity Thanks for the reply. Only having played a couple of months I found lifting my Left heel helped me transfer weight forward ( almost stamping it down)making me feel as if i was driving the ball ahead of me, however, both feet flat tends to make me feel as if I am trying to lift the ball a touch...not comfortable but I will stick with it. This game is not easy!

chaseybears 6 months ago

It so happens that replanting the left heel (with the longer clubs) was always a big key for Nicklaus himself, too. I think if you can dig up those books you'll find them terrifically useful not only on this point but others. Good luck and good playing!

emncaity 6 months ago

Hmm, doesnt he look a bit hunched over? Excellent clean hit of course, but that swing is far from beautiful. Odd follow through too, and all this from the winningest swing in history.

Chris741113 7 months ago

Does it occur to you, maybe, that since this is the greatest major championship player in the history of the game, possibly your idea of what is "beautiful" or "not hunched over" might be off?

emncaity 6 months ago

@emncaity

Did it never occur to you that being a bit hunched over and not swinging beautifully does not render being the winningest major player an impossibility? Its the end result that counts, the ball in the hole in the fewest shots..Are you saying that because somebody wins a lot his swing MUST be considered beautiful? Regardless how it looks? I guess you think Furyk has a really nice looking swing and Michelle Wie's swing is really ugly since she didnt win a major yet?

Chris741113 6 months ago

Sorry I missed this before. Anyhow: It depends on what you mean by "beautiful." If you mean it the way I mean it when I put quotation marks around it, then you're referring to guys like Snead, Littler, Lou Graham, maybe even somebody like Couples. IMHO, it's the swing that produces the best results that is the most "beautiful," because functionality is everything. Now, when you bring Furyk into it, that's a little different...the exception that proves the rule. (ct'd)

emncaity 4 days ago

Think of players like Hogan and Nelson, Palmer, Nicklaus, Trevino, Watson, Norman, Price, and even Woods. I would call those functionally beautiful swings, but not "beautiful" in the same way Snead, Littler, even guys like Purtzer and Littler had. But for the Hogan-Nicklaus group, I don't think you'd say that those guys had oddball swings like Furyk has. Point is, in every era, it hardly ever happens that the "prettiest" swing is the one that dominates. In fact... (ct'd)

emncaity 4 days ago

...of all the players in the steel-shaft era, Snead's swing is the only "pretty" one among the all-time greatest players. So if the game is "golf"--getting the ball in the hole in the fewest strokes--then I'd say the standard ought to be whatever predominates as the most likely to do that.

emncaity 4 days ago

As for Wie, it's early, of course. Her swing is usually gorgeous _and_ effective; she beat hell out of everybody before she hit the tour, and it's not really her ballstriking that's been the problem since she's gotten there (if "problem" is the right word for a player who's doing just fine and has won already). On the other hand, if she falls far short of what seemed to be her initial talent level, maybe she'd serve as another example of the "pretty" swing that never reached #1.

emncaity 4 days ago

Actually, I'm coming back here to post a revision to the Wie comment, because I just went to see a vid of her swing over the past few years, and man...it really is worse than I thought, when I'm watching her hit balls on the range. Her swing was absolutely genius when she first came out of Hawaii, before she got (I think) completely overinstructed and blitzed with too much information. It looks like position-to-position now too much of the time.

emncaity 4 days ago

not long enough BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(

ThePhil909 8 months ago

One word comes to mind when I see shots that pure... "Jack."

CazHattrick11 8 months ago

how good is that noise!!!

wattymoods 8 months ago

PURE- right into the spectators.

sethy2004 8 months ago

wow, he pured that shot?? he PURES EVERY SHOT? AHHAHAH

emanuelquijada17 9 months ago

@emanuelquijada17

Well, no...Nicklaus himself will tell you that he pures only a few shots a round. So did Hogan.

emncaity 9 months ago

@emncaity its a joke? do you own a sense of humor? they are not hard to find, you should get a hold of one! they are pretty great! i recommend one very much!

emanuelquijada17 9 months ago

@emanuelquijada17

I'm not lacking a sense of humor. But I am trying to figure out what it is about your comment that's supposed to be funny, if you know what you said isn't true. Is it just the simple fact that you said something that's not true? What?

emncaity 8 months ago

Lots of good aspects of this swing to adapt to your own, but one of the best is how he stays "in" the shot with his head and spine so long. If you can manage to pause it where he's at about full extension toward the target, you'll see his nose still pointing where the ball was, with his hips significantly more open than his shoulders. In fact, if you can frame just before impact, you'll see his shoulders still slightly _closed_ to the target line (with hips clearing)--no over-the-top here.

emncaity 10 months ago

could we see the ball land please??

Hicks055 10 months ago

@LaggyCanadian Guys, you do not need a doctorate in psychology to find out who has more class, a guy who spits, curses and throws clubs around the course and runs after every skirt off the course or a player who, according to even his toughest opponents, always cared about his kids and family even during so called important tournaments...come on! Tiger IS a great player, even Jack says that - but he needs to grow up!

rorikjunior 11 months ago

@LaggyCanadian Well, be careful with the class comment......Jack played many years on tour and was never outspoken about the caucasian only clause. That clause was nothing but pure EVIL. It disrepected, disenfranchized, and disregarded all other ethnicities as unequal and not worthy to play on the US tour. Pothetic.......However please advise me if you have proof or video to disprove this issue that nobody talks about.......

MrJb3golf 11 months ago

Tiger would have mopped the floor with that scrubby swing. Good thing for him tho Tiger didnt come until after his career was over otherwise Tiger would have ruined his career

duckhunt08 11 months ago

@duckhunt08 At Tiger's peak, maybe. But maybe not too-Nicklaus wouldn't be intimidated or beaten in the mind. Currently anyone in the world's top 50 would beat Tiger. One thing is for sure, Tiger lacks class and human decency. As for your comment about Nicklaus's swing-you just make yourself look a bit of a prat there to be honest. He's the greatest player to ever play the game, purely on his record, he's hardly gonna have a bad swing!

cockywatchman1976 11 months ago

Not even at Tiger's peak--not regularly. I don't diminish Tiger as the greatest player of his generation, although "golfer" ought to, and does still to some of us, represent something more than the ability to hit the ball and collect money for it. But still, he's clearly in the smallest group of top players in history, and he clearly could beat Nicklaus some number out of 10--4, 5, whatever...

emncaity 10 months ago

...although, as the original twit poster seems not to realize, nearly all professional golf is stroke play rather than match play anyhow, so the scenario is meaningless.

emncaity 10 months ago

Anyway, it's not that Woods isn't a skilled player; it's just that Snead has him on total tour wins--against Hogan and Nelson, among others--and Nicklaus has him on majors, against next-bests that were WAY better and mentally tougher than the 1Bs these days. And, of course, there's that little matter of character. Fifty years in the public spotlight--fifty--and not a hint of marital scandal, substance abuse, etc.

emncaity 10 months ago

As for Jack's swing v. Tiger's, well...it was a typical twit post (the OP, I mean). If the OP had any clue, he'd know that every major fundamental of Tiger's swing that has survived the parade of teachers is something from the Grout/Nicklaus notebook: wide extension, big stretch of the back muscles against lower-body resistance, uncoiling from the ground up, head doesn't release up until arms are fully extended to the target, and hit the hell out of it...

emncaity 10 months ago