Thanks Yoda for the welcome note after my first post. I've been reading your posts here since inception and before that your writings on Brian's and Chuck's sites. Time to jump in and join the fun.
I wanted to share with the TGM crowd some of Mac O'Grady's swing principles. I spent 3 full days with Mac in Orlando in January with my local AI Ted Britschgi (also a great teacher). He said his whole swing philosophy changed when he discovered Homer's book. To him, Homer was THE MAN.
My own background is that I've been playing 40 years, currently to a 3 hcp. I became a follower of Todd Graves and Natural Golf for a few years and though it helped my game significantly I was drawn to the science of TGM about a year ago and have since become a convert.
I would welcome comments and comparisons of Mac's ideas with TGM. He feels that the ideal swing is about 75% Snead and 25% Hogan. Because Mac's work is so detailed, I can only give a glimpse in this post, but here goes with some selected points:
1. Set up: : Buttend of club points at the navel. Very little backward spine tilt (i.e., away from the target). Mac emphasizes maintaining a Center of Gravity (COG). Both feet slightly flared outwards. Since I'm 54, he also pulled my right foot back on ALL shots. He also discourages the chin up position -- says the eyes must look directly at the ball (his teachings stress the importance of the eyes). Grip: ideally LH is turned 45 degrees.
2. Backswing: The hands go back, in and up, right along the plane line. For me, it became a feeling of the hands going inside, but the clubhead went much less inside. When the lead arm is parallel to the ground it would point about 45 degrees to the right of the target (for a right hander). At the top of the BS, the left wrist should be flat with a definite feeling of the extensor action on PP#1 (I tend to double-cock, which I've learned destroys the flying wedge). One real big point: you must maintain the COG at the time -- no effort to get everything behind the ball. For me the feeling is that the left hip does not move away from the target on the BS, but DOES move laterally on the DS. He pointed to both Hogan and Snead and factitously laughed about how they would "reverse pivot" (they are Mac's heros).
3. Downswing: At the beginning of the DS, EVERYTHING moves towards the target, even the head. I expect this may distinguish his move from TGM. However, the head backs up slightly just before impact, so it doesn't get ahead of the ball. He advocates a straight line delivery path. The left shoulder stays down rather than going up on the downswing because Mac believes if it goes up you'll get jammed and also dump off the lag. We spent lots of time working on developing lag but his key points for lag: The deltoids bring the club down the first part of the DS and the triceps don't fire until just before the release point. The trail elbow must keep moving forward ("seeking the navel") while the right wrist remains bent. And the clincher is exactly what I think (if I understood correctly) Yoda said was Hogan's key -- you sustain the lag by the momentum transfer forward; for some, a push off the trail foot. The minute you slow down that transfer the clubhead will overtake the hands. On the follow-through, Mac had me getting my trail shoulder to a point forward and behind position of the left shoulder at address. He definitely stresses rotational forces.
I hope I've been faithful to Mac's teachings in my descriptions, incomplete as they must be, and I hope he wouldn't mind my posting about what he teaches. He is an extremely intense, enthusiatic teacher. Quite a story-teller too, but a very private individual. No doubt, I've got a lot to learn about TGM, but I'm trying -- every day, thanks to Yoda and the many knowledgeable posters here.
Incidentally, Mac said that last year he was striking the ball better than ever and planned to attempt to get back on the regular PGA Tour again at 53, but unfortunately seriously injured his elbow in a fall a few months ago and had to have surgery on it. At the school in January he couldn't straighten his right arm and was relegated to hitting no more than 50 yard pitches. Hopefully, he'll regain his form, either right handed or left handed . He plays from both sides, in fact once shot a 68 left-handed in a US Open qualifier. He's very interested in biomechanics and believes that learning how to swing left-handed taught him a lot about training the body for various key moves.
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