Best ball striker you have seen in person?

[msoderma]

Watching Stenson obliterate a local course in Sweden with his 3W is a stand-out.

Behind the ropes, I'd say Garcias irons were quite impressive at the Open @ St Andrews a few years back, from a swing/sound/trajectory point of view.

[vleisman]

Peter van der Riet - probably not the best ever, but the best I've ever played with. He ended up caddying for John Daly.

 

Also Simon Hobday, never played with him but watched him on the range a few times.

[playa]

I'm lucky enough, that in the past I've played with Greg Norman, Eamon D'Arcy, Phillip Parkin, Eduardo Romero, Bernhard Langer. Obviously, they were all magnificent (especially Romero), but the best striker was SANDY LYLE. His compression of the ball was scary. You could feel the strike through your own feet standing 15/20 yards away. Awesome.

 

For non tour Pros, Mike Bennett of 'Stack and Tilt' fame takes some beating. Had a days Clinic with him a few years back and it was quite breath taking

I knew an Aussie pro who played domestically here, and he said Lyle was the best ball striker he ever saw, and he played the Aussie tour when Norman was wno.

[Hankshank]

I've only seen european tour tournaments. And the best striker I have seen is Lee Westwood. Hit the ball to the stratosphere, sailed there forever, than down in the middle of the fairway miles away. Lousy short game but still won.

The easily most aestethic swing I have seen is that of frenchman Raphael Jacquelin. It looks even better live than on TV. Stenson was something of a disappointment.

[RichieHunt]

Probably either Duval in '99 or Tiger in '00. I do always say this and nobody believes me (hell, I wouldn't believe me either)...the best in person ballstriking I ever saw was from a local guy that I became friends with for about 1 year around 1990. There were shots he hit that 20 years later I looked up on Google Earth to get more exact measurements. Back in 90, he was probably carrying his driver about 330 yards and hitting hit dead straight and could work it if he felt it was necessary.

 

One time we were playing golf on a 245 yard par-4 (remember, this is the day of balata golf balls and metal and persimmon woods). He had what looked like a 1 or 2 iron in his hand which was a common play for long hitters because you didn't want to over-shoot the green. As he hit it, he's yelling for it to get down (most golfers never carried it there with a 1 or 2 iron). The ball hits the middle of the green and rolls to the back fringe. He then says...'I should have hit a 6-iron.'

 

I said 'there's no way you hit a 5-iron there!' and he showed the club and it was indeed...a Wilson Staff blade 5-iron.

 

Unfortunately, he had major issues with drugs and getting arrested. He would play golf for a summer, get thrown in prison for a year or two and come back to play golf. But when he would come back from a prison stint, he wasn't the same golfer. He could still hit it ridiculously far, but had issues with the snap hooks. And he was a guy, in his best year, that was a really good iron player and with a good, PGA Tour level wedge game.

 

He was by far the biggest waste of talent I've ever come across and one of my biggest regrets in golf is not having videotaped his swing back then.

 

But outside of that, Duval in 99-ish was special. He wasn't as long as Tiger, but he wasn't too far behind and he just seemingly never missed a fairway and if he did...he didn't miss by much. His ability to hit those long irons right at the flag...shot after shot was pretty mesmerizing. And his wedge game was butter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

RH

[KCCO]

Best: Dustin Johnson....beast off tee.

Favorite: Fred couples...so fluid, almost an art.

[hanetrob]

Sergio at the Buick Open! Man I miss that event here in Michigan.

[Dave22]

Moe Norman at a Senior CPGA.

 

Played a round with Jerry Anderson in the early 90's (won the '84 European Masters) and he ho hummed a 65 for the day.

[Night train]

These stories are awesome!

 

I went to The Memorial back in 86 and remember being impressed by virtually everyone.........but watching Tom Weiskopf hitting balls was a thing to behold..........majestic is the word that comes to mind!

 

They're all REALLY good!

[Birdie Mac]

Not a fan of Colin Montgomery - I've seen him upbraid volunteers on more than one occasion, but he has a silky smooth swing that I love to watch. Followed Louis Oosthuizen at the Houston Open an few years back. Great ball striker, and such fluid tempo for a guy of average height.

[Ferguson]

Trevino in the pre-Tiger era.

 

Tiger in the Tiger era.

[Frankensteins Monster]

Tiger. Rickie isn't too shabby either.

[dbleag]

Was lucky enough to see Moe Norman twice and Sam Snead in their later years.

 

Both were pretty impressive.

 

Wish I had the opportunity to see Ben Hogan .

[BLLDWG23]

Saw Tiger in person at a Master practice round the look/sound everything was like nothing I have seen or heard or have seen or heard since. I completely understood at that time when Jack said "He plays a game with which I'm not familiar with" or something like that. You could tell he was just a different animal.

[Night train]

Saw Tiger in person at a Master practice round the look/sound everything was like nothing I have seen or heard or have seen or heard since. I completely understood at that time when Jack said "He plays a game with which I'm not familiar with" or something like that. You could tell he was just a different animal.

 

........actually, it was Bobby Jones who said that about Jack.......:)

 

.......but Jack might have repeated it!

[dventura]

Not a fan but purest striker I’ve seen in person a few times would be Vijay compared to most other guys. The guy I’ve seen who’s ball took off like a missel, even compared to Tiger in his prime, would be Hank Kuehne. Other guys up there would be Johnny Vegas, Finau most effortless (he’ll be around awhile). From people I’ve talked to who’ve been around the tour, many say Sergio. In terms of swing and what I see on TV, I would say Rory but I haven’t seen him in person.

 

One guy who’s actually phenomenal and I’ve seen him and DJ a bunch of bunch of times at the Canadian Open. I’d say he’s better would be Graham Delaet, but he also had a short game worse than many scratch golfers I know. Not sure if he’ll ever get that worked out.

[bandrz]

Hit balls on the range with Sergio last March for an hour and a half. What an unbelievable treat that was. Most impressive was his 3 wood off the deck. That sound was just mesmerizing. Have to note here that he was extremely pleasant to spend time with and he and his fiancee (at the time) were very accommodating with their time.

 

Been to quite a few events so I've seen just about everyone to vary degrees. (I've never seen Tiger in person. hope he qualifies for the Match Play!)

 

A few who stand/stood out:

 

Boo Weekley (watch him hit irons on the range if you get a chance)

Vijay (his warm up includes hitting 75-100 yard shots with one hand better than most can do with two)

Rory driver, DJ driver - hard to stand out against the elite of the elite, but they do.

Ian Woosnam - saw him the year he won the masters, 1991. followed him for 9 holes and he hit the pin twice

Tom Watson

[The Mad Bomber]

I got to see Moe Norman on the range at Foxwood and it was actually unbelievable. Moe's 3 wood had a tighter dispersion than Tigers chipping did in 2000. There were just no words for how consistently Moe hit it.

[deek]

I was at Royal Canberra in 1984/5 watching players warm up before their round. Can't remember the tournament. The range was in among some trees and the sounds were incredible. Not sure who I was watching but all of a sudden it sounded like someone had started splitting hardwood logs... I turned to see who it was and sure enough it was Greg Norman warming up with wedge...Another level..

[FiveSixAce]

Charl Schwartzel

[pheenomz4774]

Followed a very young Tiger in 1996 at the US Open in a practice round. Even back then when I was a teenager it was a sight to behold. But I didn't know much about professionals striking the ball back then. It wasn't until after we finished watching Tiger, my dad rushed us to the first tee where Jack was tee'ing off for his practice round. After watching Tiger for about 15/16 holes, my dad looked at me while we were following Jack and was like "Tiger is going to be an all-time great someday." I asked him why he thought that. He said "because Jack is the greatest golfer ever, but the way Tiger just hit the ball made me think Jack was just a guy out there."

 

Now I recognize my dad was probably being very "in the moment" and that Jack was a lot older at the time, so I took that with a grain of salt. But my dad went to way more events at the time than I did, and the way he phrased it, in his mind he was convinced.

 

Since I was an adult and started going to the API each year, I was surprised by Jason Days ball flight in 2016. Even higher than I anticipated it would be. Rory struck it pretty well when I was watching as well.

[ZBigStick]

Nick Price. Back in the early 90s with his Ram Tour Grind. Lasers with precise divots.

Tiger’s drives sound different and would get up into the stratosphere!

[mocokid]

In person:

Al Geiberger at a corporate outing (standard brands) a year or 2 after the 59.

Trevino at Shinnecock in 86

Snead at Westchester in mid 70's

[Titleist 670]

Jack "The Hammer" Hamm

[tmartin89]

Lots of great answers! I was at the 2005 Open at St Andrews and was watching Tiger's warm up. Unbelievable! He was hitting to the 50 yard sign which he hit multiple times, the 75, 100, 125, 150 and so on and hit every single sign!

[Hankshank]

The guy I would like to see on a range if I ever go over the pond again would probably be Furyk. Objectively, he is the best ballstriker in our time. His swing was on for like 20 straight years. Shaky legs at sunday and not the longest of hitters, but just so consistent with his swing. And see that octopussy swing should have its own aestethics. Have anyone seen Furyk in person?

[mstrymxer]

vijay singh hands down. I saw him hit drivers out of 5 in rain delay rough, no tee, on the side incline of the driving range at the pga at valhalla. He was easily carrying it 280y

[youraway2]

Tom Purtzer

[Guia]

Fuzzy Zoeller and John McHaffey

[otw]

Moe Norman without a doubt. Was lucky enough to play golf and practice with him on three occasions. The stories about him are not exaggerated.He had total control of the golf ball What many don't know is he had 2 Canadian Amateur titles and 20 Canadian Pro wins.