The Mike Austin Golf Swing
While golfers discuss the several golf swing types, you will be made aware about the simple golf swing, the natural swing, the stack and tilt swing, the traditional swing. Moreover, when discussing the great swings from the PGA professionals, you may find out about the Ernie Els swing, Ben Hogan swing, and Tiger Woods swing. Thus, what’s the Mike Austin swing and why don’t many of us know about this?
Mike Austin’s claim to fame is that he’s the man recognized with the longest drive ever in competitive golf, in accordance with the Guinness Records. On September 25, 1974 at the U.S. National Seniors Open Championship at Winterwood Golf Course, Mike at age 64, hit a 515-yard drive. What was remarkable, apart from his age, was that he did it using a 43.5″ steel-shafted persimmon 10 degree loft wood driver with the old soft balata golf ball.
Mike was competing in a foursome with PGA Champion Chandler Harper. After driving several 400-yard drives, Chandler said, “Mike, let’s see you really let one go.” Austin hit the ball on a 450-yard par 4. It flew to the edge of the green, bounced and rolled past the pin and off the back edge. Chandler encountered a ball on the following tee box and told Austin, “This really is not possible, but there’s a ball over here.” They determined the ball as Austin’s and paced off the distance back to the center of the green. The drive was 515 yards. Even now, the record still stands as the longest drive at a golf tournament.
Mike has a graduate degree in mechanical engineering plus a doctorate in kinesiology and he applied that knowledge to develop his swing. The Mike Austin swing is different than the conventional PGA swing teachings in a number of ways, probably the most evident being that the hips slide sideways instead of turning, the clubhead is thrown from the top of the swing rather than getting released at the last moment, and the golfer bends forward from the hips and not bending using the knees.
The Mike Austin swing seems unforced and simple since he found a way to utilize the body’s joints in a way they were designed to move that is a more natural way. He used the legs as the main power source since these are the more sturdy muscle group in the body. He claimed that his swing didn’t trigger back injuries that are so common among professional golfers and even amateurs.
Later on in life, Austin altered his hand motion from the rolling hand-action to one that curls under, a counter-rotation of the forearms, and maintains the blade squarer for a longer time. This is one of his secrets for having the ability to not just hit astounding distances but additionally to make solid contact every time.
The Mike Austin swing is very similar to Ben Hogan’s swing in that the transition from back swing to downswing is initiated from the hips. If you ever observe both of these swings, you can see they create a huge quantity of clubhead speed with little or no exertion in the club head through the ball. They didn’t depend on muscle power, instead they both understood how to realize a really efficient golf swing.
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