Famous Golf Swings
On this page you’ll find some of the best golf swings of the modern era. As he has one of (if not the) best looking golf swing on the planet, I thought I’d start with my personal favourite, the Big Easy, Ernie Els.
The key to a good golf swing is sound fundamentals, the golf stance, correct golf grip, hand position, posture and ball position, and Ernie is text book perfect in all of these. As Ernie says, taking care of the simple things makes all the difference. If you start off with a bad golf grip, or poor ball or hand position, then straight away you are making it almost impossible to move the club away correctly, and if you start badly, the chances are you will finish badly.
Perhaps Ernie’s greatest strength in his swing (besides his impeccable fundamentals) is his rhythm. His swing looks so effortless, although he can really send it out there; this year he is already averaging over 300 yards off the tee!
Ernie stands nice and tall when he addresses the ball, using his height to his advantage. Taller people definitely have this advantage as the length of there body and arms has a ‘lever’ effect, adding mechanical advantage to the swing, meaning you can swing it slower and with more control without sacrificing distance.
As he takes the club away, he has a neutral golf grip, allowing the him to get the club moving backwards on a natural path, keeping the club head outside of his hands. His wrists are gradually hinged as the club continues backwards. Ernie gets a good shoulder rotation in, with the shoulders controlling his hip rotation, generating and storing a huge amount of energy, ready to be released on the down-swing. At the top of his golf swing, Ernie maintains a straight left arm, with the club parallel to the ground and and his target line.
Ernie’s down-swing begins from his hips, releasing all that energy stored up on his back swing. He holds back his hands so that he reaches maximum acceleration at impact. Through impact, Ernie drives the club down the target line, releasing his hands and arms, and follows through to a classic high position, with his weight full transitioned to his left hand side.
His swing really is a thing of beauty. Below a is video I found on YouTube demonstrating his golf swing in action.
