Back in the days of Hickory shafts golfers would initially drag the club head backwards as he describes to prevent the shaft of the club from twisting the face open in the backswing. The move is very obvious in videos of Bobby Jones who stayed with Hickory shafted clubs much longer than tour pros like Walter Hagen in the 1930s. It the same principle as trying to swing a weight on the end of the rope-there is no control of the weight on the end of the rope unless the pulling of the hands keeps the the rope taut. There was a trick shot artist named Harry Frankenberg, aka ‘Count Yogi’ who as part of his act hit shots with a club head attached to the end of a leather whip using the same technique. Harvey Penick’s ‘Magic Move’ at the top to reverse the direction of the club head is the other place in the swing where ‘keeping the slack out the rope’ in critical for control of the toe and face of the club.
If you read historical accounts of the evolution of golf equipment in Scotland you find out it was originally played with all wooden clubs with shafts like broom handles and wooden balls then the feathery ball was introduced and clubs with steel heads and thinner and thinner hickory shafts, each bespoke carved by one of 400 or so blacksmith / wheelwright shops who serviced the horse and buggy trade. The equivalent to day would be every petrol station selling golf clubs. One of the inherent problems with thin hickory shafts is the grain runs lengthwise and they have very little resistance to torque and twisting so much so that just the bias of the mass in toe would twist the face open in the backswing / causing it to snap shut in the downswing \ with every club reacting differently and the same club reacting differently in full and partial swing. A modern golfer with metal or carbon fiber shafts has situational awareness of face angle because it matches the angle of the back of the lead hand. But if the face is randomly twisting open and shut that situation awareness is lost. That wasn’t a big deal until the 1840s when the Gutta Percha ball with recessed dimples which could be shaped was introduced. The solution golfers came up with in the 1840s was to drag the club toe facing forwards for the first five to six inches of the swing then VERY SLOWLY rotate it to the normal orientation because that was found to mitigate the open / and shut \ twisting of shaft and face. Search UA-cam for videos of Count Yogi who as part of his act hit shots with club head attached to the end of a bull whip. He used the same technique, dragging the club head attached with toe forward to target but dragging behind the hands like a boat rudder and then when the whip was pulled tight he slowly rotated it with his hands. Once momentum pulled the whip straight the toe would turn normally because when you swing a club the swing plane up in the backswing and again in the finish will follow which ever way the toe is angled. With a modern metal shafted iron you can get a low swing plane like Hogan’s by having the toe vertical or leaning back when the wrists cock to hit a draw or a high swing plane like Nicklaus to hit a fade by having the toe point towards the target line. I know this because I’ve practiced and experimented with things like that out of ‘what will happen if I do this instead of (Conventional Wisdom of the Day) I even created a club using a rope instead of shaft to figure out how Count Yogi did it. Hogan was famous for saying ‘The Secret Is In the Dirt’ and what he meant by that wasn’t to just practice the same technique 1000 times but to try 1000 different variations of technique and analyze how changing each variable one at a time - how to control the process - affects the outcome. With a modern metal shafted club what dragging it backwards does is pull all the bend and slack out of the lead arm which helps keep it straight. The same thing can be accomplished by applying enough pressure on the lead thumb with the pad of the trail one at address to get all the slack out of the lead arm before aligning face to ball and target and maintaining it during the swing. It will prevent the lead arm from bending at the elbow making the wrist the point of least resistance creating better upwards acceleration around the hands making the turning of shoulders past hips effortless. It will also made the downward folding and external rotation of the trail arm more consistent. A Hogan Secret? Not really it just happens automatically if you actually do everything he suggests in Five Lessons like did. Do I swing like Hogan today? No but I understand which parts of my swing work similarly to accomplish the prime objectives: 1) enough swing speed to compress the ball I’m playing to the maximum it can be compressed with a full swing, and 2) stay in balance during all points of the swing. 😊
Lagging clubhead takeaway...I had a top 100 teacher tell me that years ago but didn't listen to him (regretfully)...Bobby Jones did it too...so did Julius Boros...also Colin Montgomerie...great segment!
I intuitively started doing this last year as a way to generate speed through a more free release. I think it might've increased the likelihood of a hook though. 🤔
Watch Jason Dufner and Bobby Jones and you should be able to see what this gentleman is talking about. I also believe Jason Kokrak makes this move in a pronounced way that the eyes can observe it.
But Hogan never said anything about this in his 5 Lessons. Also, what do you do with a short chip shot? To incorporate your move into that type of shot is making it very complicated.
Golf doesn’t necessarily have a greed problem. They are greedy, to be sure. But they are a colorless, unrecognizable lot. There was a time I could identify a golfer simply by watching his swing from a distance. Put 20 of today’s players in a line-up, and I could identify maybe three of them. And frankly, I wouldn’t be interested enough to waste even five minutes on that exercise. Today’s pros are simply an exceptionally pampered, uninteresting bunch.
Spot on
Gives a whiplash effect.
Whenever someone says there is just 1 “secret”…….run!
Back in the days of Hickory shafts golfers would initially drag the club head backwards as he describes to prevent the shaft of the club from twisting the face open in the backswing. The move is very obvious in videos of Bobby Jones who stayed with Hickory shafted clubs much longer than tour pros like Walter Hagen in the 1930s. It the same principle as trying to swing a weight on the end of the rope-there is no control of the weight on the end of the rope unless the pulling of the hands keeps the the rope taut.
There was a trick shot artist named Harry Frankenberg, aka ‘Count Yogi’ who as part of his act hit shots with a club head attached to the end of a leather whip using the same technique.
Harvey Penick’s ‘Magic Move’ at the top to reverse the direction of the club head is the other place in the swing where ‘keeping the slack out the rope’ in critical for control of the toe and face of the club.
If you read historical accounts of the evolution of golf equipment in Scotland you find out it was originally played with all wooden clubs with shafts like broom handles and wooden balls then the feathery ball was introduced and clubs with steel heads and thinner and thinner hickory shafts, each bespoke carved by one of 400 or so blacksmith / wheelwright shops who serviced the horse and buggy trade. The equivalent to day would be every petrol station selling golf clubs.
One of the inherent problems with thin hickory shafts is the grain runs lengthwise and they have very little resistance to torque and twisting so much so that just the bias of the mass in toe would twist the face open in the backswing / causing it to snap shut in the downswing \ with every club reacting differently and the same club reacting differently in full and partial swing.
A modern golfer with metal or carbon fiber shafts has situational awareness of face angle because it matches the angle of the back of the lead hand. But if the face is randomly twisting open and shut that situation awareness is lost. That wasn’t a big deal until the 1840s when the Gutta Percha ball with recessed dimples which could be shaped was introduced.
The solution golfers came up with in the 1840s was to drag the club toe facing forwards for the first five to six inches of the swing then VERY SLOWLY rotate it to the normal orientation because that was found to mitigate the open / and shut \ twisting of shaft and face. Search UA-cam for videos of Count Yogi who as part of his act hit shots with club head attached to the end of a bull whip. He used the same technique, dragging the club head attached with toe forward to target but dragging behind the hands like a boat rudder and then when the whip was pulled tight he slowly rotated it with his hands.
Once momentum pulled the whip straight the toe would turn normally because when you swing a club the swing plane up in the backswing and again in the finish will follow which ever way the toe is angled. With a modern metal shafted iron you can get a low swing plane like Hogan’s by having the toe vertical or leaning back when the wrists cock to hit a draw or a high swing plane like Nicklaus to hit a fade by having the toe point towards the target line.
I know this because I’ve practiced and experimented with things like that out of ‘what will happen if I do this instead of (Conventional Wisdom of the Day) I even created a club using a rope instead of shaft to figure out how Count Yogi did it. Hogan was famous for saying ‘The Secret Is In the Dirt’ and what he meant by that wasn’t to just practice the same technique 1000 times but to try 1000 different variations of technique and analyze how changing each variable one at a time - how to control the process - affects the outcome.
With a modern metal shafted club what dragging it backwards does is pull all the bend and slack out of the lead arm which helps keep it straight. The same thing can be accomplished by applying enough pressure on the lead thumb with the pad of the trail one at address to get all the slack out of the lead arm before aligning face to ball and target and maintaining it during the swing. It will prevent the lead arm from bending at the elbow making the wrist the point of least resistance creating better upwards acceleration around the hands making the turning of shoulders past hips effortless. It will also made the downward folding and external rotation of the trail arm more consistent.
A Hogan Secret? Not really it just happens automatically if you actually do everything he suggests in Five Lessons like did. Do I swing like Hogan today? No but I understand which parts of my swing work similarly to accomplish the prime objectives: 1) enough swing speed to compress the ball I’m playing to the maximum it can be compressed with a full swing, and 2) stay in balance during all points of the swing. 😊
Lagging clubhead takeaway...I had a top 100 teacher tell me that years ago but didn't listen to him (regretfully)...Bobby Jones did it too...so did Julius Boros...also Colin Montgomerie...great segment!
It's a handle drag takeaway. It works well to generate speed at the ball.
The caddie drag!
I took a few lessons with Paul Runyan more than 20 years ago and he tough that same move.
I stumbled onto this “drag the clubhead” move after finding Erika Larkin’s videos. It’s amazing how well it works.
"The Scottish Lag".
Some call it a "caddy drag"
Drag takeaway it is called right?
I intuitively started doing this last year as a way to generate speed through a more free release. I think it might've increased the likelihood of a hook though. 🤔
Master's champ Gay Brewer taught Fred Couples to 'kink' the left wrist, mid-body hands.
Basically, the Bobby Jones swing.
Watch Jason Dufner and Bobby Jones and you should be able to see what this gentleman is talking about. I also believe Jason Kokrak makes this move in a pronounced way that the eyes can observe it.
But Hogan never said anything about this in his 5 Lessons. Also, what do you do with a short chip shot? To incorporate your move into that type of shot is making it very complicated.
Is it a caddie drag?
It’s called a caddie lag or drag
It’s called dead hand
Golf doesn’t necessarily have a greed problem. They are greedy, to be sure. But they are a colorless, unrecognizable lot. There was a time I could identify a golfer simply by watching his swing from a distance. Put 20 of today’s players in a line-up, and I could identify maybe three of them. And frankly, I wouldn’t be interested enough to waste even five minutes on that exercise. Today’s pros are simply an exceptionally pampered, uninteresting bunch.
Yes, even the best characters today have personalities barely better than that of a cardboard box.
🙃 Promo sm
As a 0.9 handicapper,I say, "duh".🏌