Legends of Golf: Gary Player

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He is the most underrated player of the 20th Century. A winner of over 120 tournaments worldwide and 9 major championships Player is not often mentioned in the same breath as Hogan, Snead, Jones, Nicklaus, Nelson and Palmer, although he certainly should be. He was a small guy, much like Hogan, and modeled himself after the Texan, not only in his swing but in his work ethic and dedication to all things that would help him win. He was the first to tout the benefits of physical fitness and strength conditioning, and was not shy in promoting his ideas on the subject, becoming almost off-putting in his evangelical fervor. But Player was somewhat misunderstood as he was not preaching for his own personal gain but rather was just truly interested in educating the masses in matters in which he would eventually be proven prescient.

There are so many interesting things in Player's swing that here I just ramble through a number of swings pointing out different items such as his footwork, his lack of balance, and his amazing ability to return the club to the original shaft plane on the approach and through impact. Enjoy the swing of a true master.

22 thoughts on “Legends of Golf: Gary Player

  1. Shakespeare made fishing poles but made golf shafts for Player, they did not make golf clubs only shafts, so I don't know why he would paint over his Hogan golf clubs because Player never played Hogan clubs. The story about Player asking Hogan for swing advice was Hogan said asked what clubs Player player and he said Dunlop so Hogan said ask Mr. Dunlop.

  2. "Pivot controlled hands". He starts his swing from the ground up and everything follows along.Same thing on the downswing. It starts from the ground up and everything just comes along for the ride. Winding and unwinding the body is the engine that drives this swing. Hands are passive. They just loosely hold on to the club. Money in the bank swing

  3. your analysis of golf swings in general seems to be always without reference to target, shot shape and lie. do you not think these are relevant in your analysis of the various static positions of the golf swing ? surely these affect the golf swing and in turn static positions ?

  4. After watching your entire video, I guess Gary only accentuates the curve in his upper back when hitting short to mid irons. His posture looks good to me with his woods. For me, with my short and mid irons, I bend at the waist more, rather than curving my upper back.

    Good Regards
    Luke

    Like your web site a lot. I signed up with the free membership. Later I will get Premium membership. Going through the free videos slowly day by day.

  5. interested in that last face on sequence of Player with more knee drive. Several pros including Player and Jack went to that move maybe as a by-product of square to square teaching but both went to excessive knee drive in the early mid 70's. Not sure either played better doing that. It is when Jack's reverse C was most exaggerated unlike his early swings.

  6. he was the real modern golfer when it came to fitness he lighted weights to get more power he was ahead of his time he also had a winning mentality a tough competitor

  7. Bobby Locke was even more underrated than Player.  In 1947 he beat Sammy Snead 12 out of sixteen rounds
    on 16 different days and I seriously doubt Player in his prime could have beaten Snead in his prime so badly
    Even Player probably would admit Locke at his best would have beaten him  Locke only played a year
    on the US tour but they banned him because according to Claude Harmon he was just too good.
    And today almost nobody ever places Locke even close to the first 20 or so greatest players which is
    ridiculous.    Locke still holds the record of the beating the field by the most strokes: 16  Still. 

  8. first time ever watching your videos.  nice work, enjoyed it

    as a 10 handicap, weekend hacker, never had a lesson, maybe I can get better

  9. Gary Player was offered $ 9000 for a contract with First Fight which he took. Pryor to that he'd made an agreement with Hogan to play Hogan clubs. Player didn't have a lot of money so he took the $9000 and went with First Flight . This pissed off Hogan . First Flight folded so Player went to Dunlop. Mr. Player told me personally that his biggest regret in golf was that he didn't go with Hogan. As he told me this he got a little emotional. Player said that he would have won more majors and been better if he would've played Hogan clubs and had Hogans advice. To this day, Mr. Player is still affected personally by this decision.

  10. impact and his release style, he worked out (well before trackman etc.) how to shape the ball and the proper way as he couldn't rely on today's light, bendy, upright gear. he also counter-rotates his forearms in the fist bit of the downswing in order to shallow the plane and drop his right elbow. a la sergio. i think you talk about this in your comparison video with sergio.

  11. strong post impact pivot. when you see all the "swinging left" and "new ball flight laws" these days, the players in the 30's to 90's (pre tiger and nike (WTF) clubs) instinctively new about how to shape the ball and the release the club. even though some of the oldies will tell you that to draw the club face should be closed at impact (ie wrong), they still new that the entry had to be from the inside and thus more in to out relative to the face. my point is, by looking at his club exit post

  12. needed for the ball not to go left. imagine an underplane (hook) entry and a no roll / pivot outracing the club head exit – you create opposing forces and a straight (well not left shot). you also create an extra source of power by accelerating to the finish (when the club is vertical, not the final loopy bit). the equipment from this era was heavier, stiffer and often flatter, therefore resulting in shallower / deeeper / more rotary swings and in order not to hook the ball you had to have a

  13. good analysis wayne. i think you should look at john erickson and brad hughes stuff, which would nicely complement what you talk about. I think you miss talking about the opposing forces here, the hinged (no roll) release while maintaining loft on the club face, the shallow entry on longer clubs, the great rotary aspect of his swing and the post impact pivot acceleration (although i did hear you mention once about his left shoulder moving back fast). what this does is create the opposing force

  14. yes Mr Hogan took no prisoners,Mr Player said the best ever,I personally watched Gary hit shots for over an hour and never missed a shot!,you don,t win all those tournaments thru luck!

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