The Big 4: On demand
The video session on which the Big 4 series was based is available for purchase. Each of four, 30-minute segments or the entire two hours of exclusive content and related photos can be added to your iTunes library, downloaded to your smartphone or stored in a personal video archive online for PC or Mac.
Click here to watch a video excerpt.
When we decided to ask the top four teachers in golf to sit around a table and talk shop, we weren't sure what it would take. Answer: four phone calls. OK, it wasn't exactly a 3-wood from 250 all carry into the wind; we were drawing on their considerable respect for one another and a combined 68 years' worth of history with Golf Digest. So given the chance to compare notes, these great teachers--the top four on Golf Digest's ranking of the 50 Best in America--cleared their calendars. Their discussion on the game, how it's played and its great champions was spirited and revealing, and shows why teachers, tour players and golfers like you tell us they're the best. Here we start a series based on their sessions (See sample video clips at golfdigest.com/ondemand).
GOLF DIGEST: Since Golf Digest started publishing 60 years ago, we've seen an evolution in instruction and in the swing itself. Let's look at that in terms of the great players. In 1950, Ben Hogan was king. What is it about Hogan's technique that has left a legacy for golfers to follow?
BUTCH HARMON: I think he left a legacy that's both good and bad. The good part is that he was probably the most consistent and phenomenal ball-striker of any player any of us has ever seen. The negative part is that everyone tried to copy Hogan. Unless you had his body type or the rotational speed he had, it was pretty hard to play from such a flat position. But for me, watching him strike the ball, I don't think I've ever seen anybody who could control a golf ball through the air like Ben Hogan could.
JIM MCLEAN: He left a tremendous legacy with his book [Five Lessons]. I'd say that all of us have probably read Hogan's writings more than anyone else's. He was way ahead of his time on a lot of things. And he had that Hogan mystique.
Photo: Getty Images
DAVID LEADBETTER: Also, if you look at his book, it was the first anatomical approach to golf. In fact, when you look at the muscularity in the skeletal drawings, it was extraordinary. And it really broke the swing down to such an extent, not only from a player's standpoint but from an instructor's standpoint as well.
But I agree with Butch--I think he messed up a lot of people. Remember, Hogan in his early years was a huge hooker; he did everything in his power not to hook it. His legacy is that he thought about the golf swing more than anybody, probably before or since.
HARMON: He was doing everything to keep from hooking, and unfortunately 80 percent of people slice the ball. So when they try to copy Mr. Hogan's motion--first of all, without that body rotation and the speed that he had--it's tough. And there isn't one of us sitting here, because we all admire Ben Hogan, who didn't try to copy what he did.
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GOLF DIGEST: Then came Arnold Palmer. What did Arnie bring to the game?
LEADBETTER: Swashbuckling, because he just went for everything. I mean he had that sort of flamboyancy. He had the strength. He had one of the steadiest heads in golf, and strong as a blacksmith. I'll always remember a shot he hit at the Open when he uprooted a gorse bush [1961 at Birkdale].
His golf swing certainly was self-made. And it was just through strength alone that he was able to achieve what he did. In the early years he was a great putter as well. As he got older, he wasn't as good, but early on he was great.
HARMON: He made a lot of long putts. As a kid, Arnold Palmer was my idol. I used to try to swing like him and wear clothes like him, just do all the stuff he did. He made 40- and 50-footers like they were nothing.
MCLEAN: The other thing is the respect that other players on the PGA Tour have always had for Arnold Palmer. More than anybody, I think, in the history of the game. The players have always really loved Arnold. He's been the King to the public, but also the King with the players.
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Photo: Getty Images
GOLF DIGEST: Jack Nicklaus. What's his legacy on how golf is played?
HANK HANEY: His record, the major championships. That's what people seem to measure greatness by, and he's won more than anybody else.
HARMON: He was the first one to bring yardage books into vogue on tour. He was the first one to chart golf courses and actually come up with the distances, and how he would hit every shot. In his early days the old-timers would laugh at him because he had this book that he wrote out. And you'd see him out in the fairway looking at a yardage from maybe this sprinkler head or this tree or something. A lot of the players who came before him played by feel. Jack was the first real mechanic to go out there and do it by the numbers.
The other thing I remember about Jack Nicklaus when he was younger--Hank, you know this--is how far he could hit the ball. With a wooden driver and a soft ball. He hit the ball a mile.
HANEY: And how high he could hit it, too.
HARMON: And how high he could hit it with a 1-iron. He could hit a 1-iron like most people could hit a 9-iron. This thing went straight up and came down so soft--and traveled so far. My gosh, he was so strong.
MCLEAN: I think Jack Nicklaus was way ahead of players of that era because of the time he spent at the beginning of each year with Jack Grout. He had a teacher he stayed with, and he and Mr. Grout actually started each year pretty much like Jack was a beginner. He had that German mentality--this, this and this--and he had his own teacher to watch him. Not very many players were doing that at that time.
LEADBETTER: Apart from the ball-striking, you'd have to say that he's probably the greatest strategist. You always hear, he wasn't particularly good with little flop shots, so he would never leave himself that shot. He was a great charter and a great thinker. So not only was he able to strike a ball well, he was able to think his way around a golf course.
HARMON: His record is what stands out. The 18 majors are sensational. But go back and look at the seconds and thirds he had in majors. He had a 20-something-year period when every time a major was played, he was right there on the last few holes with a chance to win. He was the guy who, if you beat him, you probably were going to win the tournament.
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