Putting with Geoff Mangum.

(L to R Geoff, Myself, Rick Nielsen)

Rick Nielsen and I recently spent some time with Putting Guru Geoff Mangum. If you are not familiar with Geoff's credentials you can go to his site "The Putting Zone" and read up on him.

You're going to have to pardon my appearance, the temperature dropped 20 degrees or so and all I had in my truck were my NY Mets Bucket Hat and my Carhatt Hoody, so I wore it over my collared shirt. I found it was better than freezing my ass off.

We filmed this at Mike Jacobs' Rock Hill Golf and Country Club, which is also home to Mike Jacobs Explosive Golf Schools.


Here's part one:
Feel free to link the series on your favorite forums, since it will be quite an experience.

----Part 2 Tomorrow

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Slicefixer Summary

Here is a compilation of Slicefixer's students as posted on YOUTUBE.(The Guy's got good taste, I love Brubeck's "Take Five" ;0))

So in summary, here's what I learned about Geoff.

1. Like most Texans (and Australians) he calls em like he sees em.
2. He's overcome quite a bit of adversity recently and has demonstrated perseverance. So , I think that Jeff has a lot more to share with us than just Golf. He's got life experiences.
3. His is a program of Attraction not Promotion, so if you want what he has to offer, then you need to be ready to take certain steps. "There are no shortcuts"

Some highlights that Geoff and I didn't touch on.

• Although Geoff is too modest to promote this himself, he's married into The PGA tour, here's something he shared with me:

My father in law was named Tommy Aycock. He is enshrined in the Texas Golf Hall of Fame. He played the PGA Tour in the late 60's for 2 years and then became a club professional. He won 7 South Texas Section Championships and the trophy is now named for him. He played in, I believe, 17 PGA Championships and several US Opens as a club pro and actually was tied for the lead with 9 holes to go in the PGA @ Tanglewood in 74'. Trevino won it. At 48 he resigned as a club pro and dedicated the next 2 years to getting his game in shape for the Sr. Tour and won the Q school. In fact he won it twice. He then had 3 very successful years on the Sr. Tour until being diagnosed with terminal lung/liver cancer in early 95' and died 5 months later. He was a great man and a helluva' player...

• His student Matt Loving, won the Texas State Open in '07, shooting a then course record 8 under 62

Matt Loving

• That Course Record stood until Geoff's other student, Clark Dennis promptly fired an 11 under "59" in 2009.

So what we may conclude is that this isn't second party Hearsay or conjecture, this is what has worked under the pressure of competition. We look forward to Geoff's books and his other ventures and we'd like to thank him for sharing freely with us.

Tomorrow , I have another Guy I think you'll like.

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Encyclopedia Texarkana

Here it is for those of you who haven't read it. You can download it by clicking on the download link at the top ==right next to the words Scribd


Encyclopedia Texarkana

Bob Hamilton

We talked about Hogan Clones, what about Snead Clones? Watch this guy and you be the judge.
Here's his bio:

Robert T. "Bob" Hamilton (January 10, 1916 – December 6, 1990) was an American professional golfer. He was born and died in Evansville, Indiana.

Hamilton won the 1944 PGA Championship at Manito Golf and Country Club in Spokane, Washington defeating Byron Nelson 1 up in match play. He was a three-time winner of the Indiana Open, winning in 1938, 1942 and 1966. He won five times on the PGA Tour, including won the 1948 New Orleans Open, beating Roberto DeVicenzo by one stroke. Hamilton was also a member of the 1949 Ryder Cup team.

Hamilton also came in second in the 1967 Senior PGA Championship at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida to Sam Snead.

Faldo vs Strange

Perhaps Nick's best shot at winning the U.S. Open.

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Geoff Jones aka Slicefixer Part 3

Below is Geoff's student Matt Loving₁ in a comparison with Hogan.

1. Matt Loving was tragically killed in a head-on collision in December of last year. Our condolences go out to the Loving and Jones families.

Here's Part 3 of the interview:

Again, please forgive me for the mic screw-up.



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Geoff Jones aka Slicefixer Part 2

Any person with average athletic ability can be taught a championship caliber golf swing in two years from nothing. However the average person does not have the patience, passion and discipline to properly construct a sound golf swing. They want it RIGHT NOW and there is no such animal.

--Geoff Jones from "Encyclopedia Texarkana"

Here's Part 2 of the interview:

You're going to have to pardon me for some of the background noise you hear, I believe I left my mic on and you can hear me breathing in the background. I tried to clean it up but it created a terrible echo, so I chose to leave it as is.




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Geoff Jones aka Slicefixer

Earlier this week I caught up with Mr. Geoff Jones aka "Slicefixer" on Golfwrx. Geoff is probably one of the most knowledgeable Golf Instructors I've ever talked to. Although Geoff is not on any of these "TOP 100" lists, those of us "in the know", know who he is and what he is about. Geoff is booked solid for the next few years and isn't about to take on students who don't demonstrate a passion for the game and a desire to improve.

As you will hear, Mr. Jones has a very strong Golfing pedigree and a career resume which is astonishing. Besides all his Golfing knowledge, Geoff is also a gentleman and decent Human Being.

Here's the interview:




Part 2 tomorrow

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Power Golf Hogan/ Tiger Woods Part 3

It seems to me that there are a lot more similarities than there are differences and whatever differences there are, are subtle at best. Obviously they were built differently and that has an effect. Their equipment preferences were very different, which also has an effect.

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Power Golf Hogan/ Tiger Woods Part 2

Here we have a Swing analysis By Wayne Defrancesco. It seems to me that Tiger is "Swinging Left".

Tomorrow Part 2 of Wayne's analysis.

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U.S. Open

LET'S GO GRAEME!

Old School Move with lots of LAG!
Gotta Love it.

By the way, I posted this while he was playing the 11th. Hole so let's wait and see.

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TC Chen

Remember this one?



Happy Father's Day


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1977

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Power Golf Hogan/ Tiger Woods Part 1

We've already seen that Hogan's swing was very difficult to emulate. You could argue that Chad Campbell Comes the closest.

But to me the current Tour Player that comes closest to emulating Hogan is World number 1, Tiger woods. Here's what Johnny Miller had to say about this:

I think Haney was teaching him a sort of Hogan move, and with Tiger's speed coming down, it was too much of a complication to make it work.

Below we have the Hogan swing model created by Golfresearch.com

And here we have Tiger's swing from this week's practice round at Pebble Beach

To be continued

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Power Golf Hogan/ David Frost.

Golfweeek's Jeff Rude recently put together an excellent 2 piece article called Hogan's legacy. Among the many interesting points he made was that Hogan's swing was very difficult to copy. Here's what David Frost told him:

During a Tour career in which he won 10 times, David Frost tried implementing Hogan principles but failed, though he says he read the book 100 times.
"He was the most difficult person to copy," Frost said. "People couldn't move like he could move. What he did nobody else could do. I think it harmed more people than helped-in my case for sure."

This is coming from the person who was used as the model for the modern golf swing. Of course we are assuming that Leadbetter's treatise, "The Golf Swing" at one point superseded Hogan's Five Lessons. Which clearly was the case in the 1990's.

If David Frost (who for years was on Hogan staff, had access to Hogan himself and is a well known ball beater) couldn't replicate the moves, what makes so many people believe that Hogan's swing is the ideal for them? We will delve into this topic further as this series continues.

The illustration below is of David Frost whose swing was used as a Model for Leadbetter's Modern Golf Swing.

Here's what David's swing looks like today

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There is no "The Way" to swing a golf club

Here's a compilation of swings from a Mini Tour event held by The Open Golf Association. You have to assume that the vast majority of these guys are Scratch or near Scratch Golfers.
What I would like you to look at, is the vast differences in takeaways, planes, postures, pivots and tempos. Yet they all apparently find a way to get it done.

My Open Picks:
1st tier (Woods, Mickelson, Dustin Johnson)
2nd tier (Westwood, Goosen, Slocum)
Dark Horse (David Duval, Robert Karlsson)

I also like Charl Schwartzel


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One of the Great Swings on Youtube

This video is from our friend John Dochety aka Lake1926, note the amount of lag and the patience this guy displays.

I've never met Mr. Hatfield but my guess is that he's busting it out there 300+ on a regular basis. A very Dalyesque type of move.

Tomorrow I will give you my U.S. Open picks.


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Sevam and Me "The Hogan Edition"

Save for the few extra pounds the silhouette below is pretty Hoganesque.

Here's the last part of my Chat with Mike Maves. In this part we talk about Hogan.

Enjoy,



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Nick Faldo 1992 British Open 3rd. Round

Enjoy,



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Martin Hall Part 2

Here's some more Martin Hall, this time we have the release.



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Hinges and Levers Martin Hall

Here are some concepts I'm constantly struggling with. I believe Martin Hall does a great job of explaining these concepts by incorporating visual aids. Chuck Winstead (another one of my favorites)also chimes in.

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Flatter Swing?

There seems to be a movement out there suggesting that a flat swing is the only way to go. Here's somebody who might beg to differ.

Here's Brian Manzella explaining the Vertical Swing Plane:

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Tom Watson 1977 vs 2009

Here's a comparison of Tom Watson's swing. Note how simpler the motion has become over the years.
Here are some of my observations as to why I think he has been able to transcend age.

1. His left wrist is no longer bowed at the top
2. His legs are much quieter.
3. His posture is much more upright which allows for a simpler motion.

Here's Tom describing his secret:



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Downloading MP3 files

For those that would like to download the MP3 files of our interviews and listen to them on the drive to work or on your ipods.

Here's how you do it:


Click on the icon above circled in red.


This will lead you to the screen below


Click on visit link and you will be redirected to the download site.


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From Carl Welty

I recently received the following email from Carl Welty. If you recall, Ben Crane was on fire for a couple of rounds at Colonial. Now if we could only get Carl to convince Ben to pick up the pace. ;o)!

Ralph,
Shot tracker will give you the true stats of what the players can or can't do.
Here is a great short game ! I read a lot of B S on the internet but here you can see what the player does.
Carl

Click on the image below to enlarge:




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Neilsen and Jacobs

Today we have Mike Jacobs and our very own Rick Neilsen disscussing the kinematic sequence. We've covered this before in some of my earlier posts (particularly the role of the hips), but I think Mike and Rick do a great job of driving the point home in a simplified manner.



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2006 Masters

Phil......





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2006 Open Championship

Tiger.....

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Bar Stool Talk with Sevam One Part 4

Here's 1956 Masters and PGA Champion Mr. Jackie Burke Jr. discussing Rhythm.

And here's Part 4:



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Bar Stool Talk with Sevam One Part 3

Here's some footage of Elk and Mike playing their $500 a hole match



And here's Part 3 of our chat



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Bar Stool Talk with Sevam One Part 2

Here's Mike discussing Hogan's book with Elk



Here's part 2 of our chat.




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Bar Stool Talk with Sevam One Part 1

I recently caught up with our friend Mike Maves aka Sevam1 and sat down and shot the breeze for a few. Here's our conversation.




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