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"Wild Bill Mehlhorn" was another genius, and he
was well known in professional golf from the 1930's or so for more than 40
years. His pals included Bobby Jones, Harry Vardon, Harvey Penick, and
many other tour golfers of the last century -- in the early days of golf
tournaments when purses were quite meager.
His contributions to golf technique and procedure
defy almost all of the "modern" stuff coming out of the "top 100 instructors,"
the most famous golf schools, and the "bibles" of the "THIS IS RIGHT BECAUSE WE
KNOW AND WE'RE TELLING YOU SO: TRUST US crowd."
Pictures of Bobby Jones swinging a fairway wood,
frequently replayed on The Golf Channel, show Bobby letting the club "slip" in
his left hand at the top of the backswing--he actually lets his fourth and fifth
fingers open up--and the angle between his left arm and the clubshaft gets even
MORE acute than a right angle. Of course in the downswing, his fingers
would re-engage the club and absolutely no harm was done. That additional
angle is a serious mechanical advantage: it is a bit like "downcock," and word
has it that Bobby was a pretty good golfer. Just YESTERDAY from the day I
am writing this, I saw David Leadbetter giving a lesson on The Golf Channel
telling people NOT TO ALLOW THOSE FINGERS TO OPEN. But Mehlhorn's CORRECT
OR BETTER CONCEPT was to do exactly that: to allow the hand to open in that
manner. It is because the club swings around its FULCRUM, not
around the grip cap, and the fulcrum is located between the two hands. So
the thumb and forefinger of the left hand is used to hold the club tight,
and the other fingers need to be loose to allow the club to load up more - to
permit the mechanical advantage of a more acute angle at the top of the
backswing.
Another of his ingenious contributions was to
teach what Harry Vardon did--in allowing his left elbow to bend naturally at the
top of the backswing, in the same way you'd bend your elbows if you were going
to chop a log with an axe. (Harry Vardon was a frail man but he out-drove
his companions, for that reason: he allowed his left arm to bend naturally!)
IT IS NATURAL. One (among several) of the longest hitters on
the professional tours is Hank Kuehne, and he is seen to allow a BIG bend in
that arm up there. But doing that would be anathema to those who teach the
"modern" swing. It's a shame.
Harvey Penick often had his pupils use a "weed
whacker" thingee - a grass cutter shaped like a golf club but instead of a golf
head, the shaft has an 8"cutting blade jutting out at an angle on the bottom so
it could cut grass as you swung it back and forth. It is a GREAT tool for
showing people how they already have a good golf swing because anyone knows how
to use it to cut grass, and the motion is exactly the same for a golf swing.
Harvey got that idea FROM Mehlhorn! The idea for using the weed whacker
was Bill's, and one of his disciples, a teacher who worked with him for over 30
years - his name is Bobby Shave - continues to teach Mehlhorn's stuff, and he
sells one that has been ideally adapted as a swing practice device.
I also worked WITH Bobby Shave and I have his teachings in my latest video
instruction as well: there is a lot more to it, of course, than what is written
here. But because I had not heard of Bill Mehlhorn myself until recently,
I didn't reference him in my earlier books. But with enthusiasm and
pleasure, I have incorporated the best of his ideas into my latest work,
"Even GREAT Golf is Not That Hard" (book and videos) - where I
demonstrate these concepts and where it becomes obvious, when you see them
played out, just how valuable they are and how much they add to the speed and
simplicity of a golf swing.
It's too bad that Wild Bill Mehlhorn's name isn't
better known at this time: but old-timers who have followed along to see how
mainstream golf instruction has progressed are dismayed at how things have
changed.
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