[Yoda]

Yoda,
Not to get off the subject to much...you and Ray are having a great exchange...would you agree that Arnold Palmer swung his woods, especially his driver and punched his irons (at least his mid to short irons). I've seen video tape of Arnold with his driver swing (video tape of Arnold in his prime and I have seen him play live over the last ten years) and it definitely wasn't a pure hitting motion, his backstroke came to a stop at a definite "END" assembly position much like Nicklaus It wouldn't surprise me that Arnold uses a 4 Barrel swinging pattern with his driver. I would have to agree that Arnold uses a pure hitting stroke pattern (full shots) with angled hinging with his scoring clubs. It makes sense...from what I understand, Bobby Clampett used the same method in his prime!!!


DG

DG,

You are absolutely right about Arnie in his prime. Like almost everybody else, he had a mixed set of Hitting and Swinging Components. He set up as a Swinger (with the classic Bent Left Wrist instead of the Hitter's preferred Fix alignment) and he swung to the End (parallel and beyond) instead of stopping at the Top (of the Line Path). He used a Shoulder Turn Takeaway to take his Hitter's Single Wrist Action (Angled Hinge 10-18-C-2) to the Top. From there, though, he was all Drive. An out-and-out Four Barrel Hitter. In his early years, he even teed his Driver low and took turf! And he always had the 'Drive-Out' of the Right Arm Thrust carrying him 'above Plane' into that famous Palmer whirlybird Finish.

Homer told me that Palmer's Finish was the result of using the Cross-Line Angle of Approach procedure, not the 10-5-A Plane Line. I commented that Palmer's Backstroke was flatter than would be the case using Homer's Angle of Approach procedure with the 10-5-E Closed Plane Line. He said that was okay, "you'll just have a little sharper Cross-Line Motion" as a result. But, he also said that it could easily be overdone and that you're "skirting disaster" -- the big hook. Homer also liked the fact that Arnie hit 'Down' so agressively. And that he played the ball back and took such big divots with the short irons. Clearly, Arnie liked to Hit. And so did Homer!

I followed Arnie at my first Masters -- his 10th -- in 1964. I was 17, he was 34, and he won for the 4th and final time. Forty years later -- with me at 57 and he at 74 -- I returned to the Augusta National that special Friday of his final competitive round just to pay homage. The King's hair now was white, his body thicker, and his Stroke shorter, but no matter: The magic was still there. Not since Bobby Jones has a golfer so transcended his sport. The crowd loved Arnie, and he loved them. And on that glorious spring day, framed by the rolling green fairways and tall Georgia pines he had first seen fifty years before, Arnold Palmer bid his Army farewell. As we welcomed him home with our applause and our cheers and our smiles, I can tell you that there wasn't a dry eye in the house...

Including, I'm proud to say, my own.