The Senior Swing Concept, as we have already know is being based on simplicity of movements that is so much required by seniors and body-handicapped golfers. There is no such a strong pivot present in the swing and less depth is prevailing. The whole motion is, therefore, more linear and shallow by default. Despite this we are capable to make the swing also automatic to a degree with help of some features described in detail in the Senior Swing series of articles including the YouTube educational video.
Unfortunately, a very negative consequence occurs — namely, vanishing power and, thus, vanishing distance of hits which is very painful for less agile and older golfers.
Gardner Dickinson, one of the most famous Ben Hogan disciples, says in his great book titled ‘Let’er Rip!’: Never have I seen anyone control the ball as Hogan did during that period; it was beautiful to watch. A decent putter playing as he did from tee to green would have scored in the 50s almost every day […]. One day he shot 61 and the longest putt he had for birdie, or eagle, was five feet. He could place his drives almost anywhere he chose […]. The swing that produced Hogan’s characteristic fade was developed when he was close to forty, and it continued into his mid-sixties. Slicing the ball as he did cost Ben a lot of yardage, and eventually he went back to drawing his shots. I asked him one day whether, if he had been able to control the draw, he would have played with a slice, and the answer was a firm “No”.
The moral of the above story is very clear — if only Hogan had been able to automate his pattern for draw the way he did it with the fade one — he would have played draws as he would have gained some important extra distance for his shots. But he was not able to automate it the amount he wanted. Noone was able, let us be frank. Yet, when aging, Mr. Hogan decided to revert to draws as, which seems so symptomatic and sad in one, distance became more important for him than almost total automatism, repeatability and consistency of his fade swing.
Drawings taken from Ben Hogan’s and Henry Cotton’s books.
Music from YT Collection: ‘Confliction & Catharsis’ by Asher Fulero
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