Diary of PGA Seniors’ Championship by Kitchenaid in St Louis Tuesday 21st May - first official Practice Round/ Pro-Am: 6 am: Email from Media with the sad news that Freddie Couples withdraws due to back injuries. 8 am: Walk up to a Pro and his caddie, and say, “I’m the person who called expecting to speak with your secretary Helen, but you answered the phone instead” Reply, “I’m Peter Jaconbsen, who were you trying to contact?” Oops! 8.30 am: Tom Watson arrives on driving range. Tosses a few balls towards Tom Kite who’s practicing 2 people past him on the driving range. All building up to a relaxed, fun day of Pro-Am. 9 am: Rene Knott, local celebrity TV broadcaster interviewing Tom Watson. Then I sneak in a question, “Mr Watson, which hip did you have replaced, does it still bother you?” And he replies “Left hip and it hurts now and then.”
12.10: have an appointment to explain my golf-swing research and the Minimalist Golf Swing to one of the most famous of the senior golfers, one who has done some swing-related research too. So, he says, “I’m on a tight schedule, need to have lunch while we talk - so we walk into the clubhouse but, oops, we're heading towards the men’s locker room!” 3-4 pm: Meet one local Teaching pro and one local Touring pro, the former with right knee injury, the latter with spine injury, both willing to listen to how the Minimalist Golf swing not only gives better ball-striking but is less likely to cause injury. 5 pm: have single handedly inhaled all the oak and dandelion fluff flying around and am ready to leave, when another big name golfer, (who actually was the one who’d picked up the phone on behalf of secretary Helen) is ready to meet up to learn a bit about The Minimalist Golf Swing System and the research behind it. And they give me a very fair hearing, and even agree with a lot of what I’m saying, sight-unseen. No-one in India ever has! Why not? Now for a look at IMPACT - the MOMENT OF TRUTH. Compare the higher left shoulder (right for Bubba) of impact of Rory/Bubba/Tiger with the shriveled-up positions of the seniors. The same swings which had enough timing to stand up after shrinking no longer can! So, that huge divot and BLUDGEON of the ball have become a mere SMOTHER (see the video in the golf-videos section of this blog, “Is YOUR swing a lot of BS?”).
That is NOT to say the DOWN movement at the start of the downswing is good, but that the UP is. Why? It means the straightening wrists are forcing the left side of the body up, which in turn gives the golfer a very extended left arm and much more ball-compression. Judge for yourself: Tommy Armour III, Chip Beck, Curtis Strange (Top pic.) Hale Irwin, Mike Hulbert, Jay Haas, Mark Calcavecchia (second from top) Peter Jacobsen, Bob Gaus (local PGA Pro), Tom Kite
Now Look at Minimalist Golf Swing Rock Star (similar age)
