where does nick faldo's swing rank on the ball striking continuum?

[ktbfsu]

slice mentioned nick price as being in the discussion with mr. ben. i've always loved nick p's game, and i've heard him described as a great ball striker through the years, but to my eye the great mechanics don't jump off the screen with him like they do with others. i surmise there are two reasons for that: 1) my eye is somewhat untrained relative to folks with a more sophisticated understanding of swing mechanics.....and, obviously, his lightning quick tempo makes things sorta difficult to discern. but my question is about the other hall of famer named nick.....faldo's move has always looked rock solid to me....very athletic (and i never think of brits as being athletic in anything)....great tempo....i if i was choosing a swing to make my own, i would take faldo's over price's..... just wondering where the experts rank nick f on the ball striking scale?

[slicefixer]

slice mentioned nick price as being in the discussion with mr. ben. i've always loved nick p's game, and i've heard him described as a great ball striker through the years, but to my eye the great mechanics don't jump off the screen with him like they do with others. i surmise there are two reasons for that: 1) my eye is somewhat untrained relative to folks with a more sophisticated understanding of swing mechanics.....and, obviously, his lightning quick tempo makes things sorta difficult to discern. but my question is about the other hall of famer named nick.....faldo's move has always looked rock solid to me....very athletic (and i never think of brits as being athletic in anything)....great tempo....i if i was choosing a swing to make my own, i would take faldo's over price's..... just wondering where the experts rank nick f on the ball striking scale?

 

 

Don't know if I qualify as an expert.........but, it's pretty friggin' good........just NO "speed" and a bit more "down the line".......but, it's a great golf swing built for ACCURACY......Price is fantastic from "hip high to hip high".......one of the all time best.......hell, watch how many times Price hits it DEAD at it.......all the time.......but, a balky putter and "plain vanilla" short game simply wouldn't allow him to shoot as low a numbers as his ballstriking put him in position to post.....some of my juniors watched him play 9 holes in the Nelson last year......I can't remember the exact stats, but, in 9 holes he hit it 10' or inside 4 or 5 times.....I think he shot even or 1 under......I think he also hit 8 or 9 greens.......when he's "on" he just doesn't miss a shot.......

[ktbfsu]

slice, you're THE expert...hence my upcoming pilgrimage!

 

i assume you're talking about faldo when you say "no speed and and a bit more down the line". not sure what you mean by that.

 

and yes, price does get crazy hot in terms of knocking them close. i wanted him to birdie 18 in the champions tour event this weekend....a five man play off with two hall of famers woulda been cool to watch.

[slicefixer]

slice, you're THE expert...hence my upcoming pilgrimage!

 

i assume you're talking about faldo when you say "no speed and and a bit more down the line". not sure what you mean by that.

 

and yes, price does get crazy hot in terms of knocking them close. i wanted him to birdie 18 in the champions tour event this weekend....a five man play off with two hall of famers woulda been cool to watch.

 

 

well, thanks my friend and I do appreciate the nice comment..........but there are plenty of guy's here who know their stuff......

 

Basically what it means is this.......Faldo slowed the core and released the club with his arms down the line moreso than other great players.......and he did it at a tempo that was VERY "controlled".......you learn to ingrain "soft tempo" like Faldo did and that tempo becomes your golf swing.......Faldo playd VERY much "within' himself"....hence is accuracy and lack of wild double cross trashy shots.....

[DRGJR72]

When I saw Faldo the year I played in Doral there were several things that stood out to me.

 

1. He was much bigger in person. Huge actually, built like a truck.

2. He was super pure, did not miss hit many shots when I saw him on the range.

3. Compared to his golf swing, his putting stroke seemed forced and not natural.

4. He hit it fairly short for his size (intentional I am sure..as he controlled not powered the ball around the course).

 

Nice guy, effortless smooth golf swing, and one of the best rhythms I saw that week inside the ropes. There is a reason he was number one in the world for so long, and it was not his putting prowess. It was his ball striking.

 

Dan

[mizuno67]

Seen Price and Faldo both in real life a couple of times and what i can say is for some reason in real life rather than tv the golf swing looks slower to me and Price was great and hit it better than faldo .

was fortunate enough to chat with Price.. during his practice round and i mentioned to him he looked like hogan through the ball and he told me he releases left like hogan did. He also said his more upright plane was because he is not so flexible and said his misses are to the right

Faldo was good to i think he was at his best when he took Norman apart in the 1996 masters last round.

Butch Harmon destroyed Norman"s swing

[Kerry_Bunker]

"slice mentioned nick price as being in the discussion with mr. ben. i've always loved nick p's game, and i've heard him described as a great ball striker through the years, but to my eye the great mechanics don't jump off the screen with him like they do with others"

 

Two different categories:

 

1) Ball striking

 

2) Best swing

 

Yes, there should be correlation between the two, but as an example, for many years there was a "near concensus" in the main stream that Same Snead had the best swing ever (more modern day honourable mentions were frequently given to guys like Steve Elkington and Tom Purtzer) and Hogan and/or Trevino and sometimes even Moe Norman were considered the best ball strikers ever. IMO Ball striking is more objective and can be evaluated without regards to the swing (the ball doesn't need to know how it is being hit) whereas best swing can be more subjective and a complex argumant (and often ball striking is tied into the measurement because what good is a so-called excellent swing if it fails to get the desired results).

 

Not trying to hi-jack this thread, I'm just suggesting that they are two distinct and at least somewhat-separate categories.

[Swingtheclub]

Sometime back one of the networks did a short thing on Price's swing with a clock and found out it was not as quick as it looked.

 

I sort of liked the simplicity of both Faldo and Price's swings, but I always suspected that Faldo lost his angle early thus lost his speed.

 

I will always wonder what 20 yards would have done for his career.

 

Great question.

[golfer.61]

price took it deep at the masters......faldo was a master tactician...more of a chess player....but he had to be a good putter three green jackets.....

[Ty_Webb]

Faldo was also one of the longest guys on tour back in the early 80s. He (apparently - I wasn't a golfer at the time, so didn't see it) used to hit a rope hook that would run and run. Then he blew up in the final round of the 83? Open. Decided that length wasn't important, but rather control. Hence the whole Leadbetter swing change. At his peak, which was probably around 1990 he could hit it as close with 3-iron as most guys did with 9-iron. I doubt that an extra 20 yards would have improved his career that much, given the accuracy he would have given up with the extra yards.

[Swingtheclub]

As close with a three iron as he could with a nine iron how big was that fish you caught?

 

Seriously if he could hit it as straight 20 yds would help anyone.

[TourSpoon]

When I saw Faldo the year I played in Doral there were several things that stood out to me.

 

1. He was much bigger in person. Huge actually, built like a truck.

2. He was super pure, did not miss hit many shots when I saw him on the range.

3. Compared to his golf swing, his putting stroke seemed forced and not natural.

4. He hit it fairly short for his size (intentional I am sure..as he controlled not powered the ball around the course).

 

Nice guy, effortless smooth golf swing, and one of the best rhythms I saw that week inside the ropes. There is a reason he was number one in the world for so long, and it was not his putting prowess. It was his ball striking.

 

Dan

 

I followed him a time or two at Doral because I was a huge fan of his. The things that immediately come to mind are 1 and 2. He was a big guy who hit it pure. Just watching him hit the ball was a great lesson for tempo and rhythm. He was smooth.

[slicefixer]

Seen Price and Faldo both in real life a couple of times and what i can say is for some reason in real life rather than tv the golf swing looks slower to me and Price was great and hit it better than faldo .

was fortunate enough to chat with Price.. during his practice round and i mentioned to him he looked like hogan through the ball and he told me he releases left like hogan did. He also said his more upright plane was because he is not so flexible and said his misses are to the right

Faldo was good to i think he was at his best when he took Norman apart in the 1996 masters last round.

Butch Harmon destroyed Norman"s swing

 

 

Yep, one of the nicest big time player's I've ever met........it would be a jump ball between my friend, Bill Rogers, and Price.......I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon on the range with him filming him @ Memphis about 5 years ago.......his caddy at the time, Jimmy Johnson from Dallas, is a dear friend of mine so I asked Jimmy if he thought Nick would mind.......he said no, but, ask him.......so I did........not only did he NOT mind, but, he used my camera with me filming to get some footage from all angles to analyze his golf swing.........we then get into a discussion about his views on the swing.....what he was working on at the time (trying to get the club set earlier and on a flatter plane earlier), etc........one of my all time favorite experiences in golf........he's a genuine person......can't say that about a LOT of guy's out there........Nothing fake about Price.......he's the real deal........

[slicefixer]

"slice mentioned nick price as being in the discussion with mr. ben. i've always loved nick p's game, and i've heard him described as a great ball striker through the years, but to my eye the great mechanics don't jump off the screen with him like they do with others"

 

Two different categories:

 

1) Ball striking

 

2) Best swing

 

Yes, there should be correlation between the two, but as an example, for many years there was a "near concensus" in the main stream that Same Snead had the best swing ever (more modern day honourable mentions were frequently given to guys like Steve Elkington and Tom Purtzer) and Hogan and/or Trevino and sometimes even Moe Norman were considered the best ball strikers ever. IMO Ball striking is more objective and can be evaluated without regards to the swing (the ball doesn't need to know how it is being hit) whereas best swing can be more subjective and a complex argumant (and often ball striking is tied into the measurement because what good is a so-called excellent swing if it fails to get the desired results).

 

Not trying to hi-jack this thread, I'm just suggesting that they are two distinct and at least somewhat-separate categories.

 

 

Great post........and "yep"......hehehehe........It's ALL subjective.......as I have footage of all the guy's you mentioned I have my own list.......hehehehe

[Scratch2Plus]

Slice,

 

Pricey is my ALLLL Time favorite! I cant wait to see some footage of him! See ya soon bud!

 

JC

[mat562]

I was lucky enough to see Faldo in his 'prime' quite a few times and he is without a doubt one of the top 5 ballstrikers I've ever seen in person. I can't comment on Hogan, Snead or a young Jack Nicklaus, but my list of Woods, Watson, Norman and Woosnam would have Faldo squeezing into fifth spot slightly ahead of Sandy Lyle.

 

Long iron-wise, Faldo was incredibly good. He could work the ball both ways at will, hoist it high or hit lower shots with ease. A wonderful long iron player, and a Faldo 1 iron into the 18th hole at Wentworth to set up a winning eagle 3 in the 1989 World Matchplay final still ranks as the purest shot I've ever seen. I was standing pretty much behind that shot and still remember it vividly to this day.

 

Only Sandy Lyle was a better 1 iron player than Faldo in my opinion.

 

The one thing that always struck me about Faldo was how short (comparatively speaking) he was, particularly bearing in mind his physical stature and strength. His swing was, admittedly, predicated on control, but I agree with Ken - however good a long and mid iron player he was, you have to wonder how an injection of 20 yeards' extra length would have helped his performance.

 

Faldo also had a streaky putting touch too. He was consistently solid, but he occasionally (particularly in the '87 and '88 seasons) had periods of lacklustre putting allied to great iron play. I agree with an earlier poster that, in comparison to his smooth and natural swing, his putting stroke often looked somewhat stilted and unnatural.

 

Wonderful player though, as his record attests, and wonderful to have watched in full flight. The '88 World Matchplay final against Sandy Lyle is one of my fondest memories of watching pro golf.

[WorkingOnIt]

The thing that always struck me about Faldo when he was in his prime was his mental game. He was the terminator back then. You could see it in his eyes and the way he carried himself. I think he intimidated a lot of opponents.

[Body_Visions]

Faldo was a machine. He hit it as pure as anyone. And he wa as mentally tough as anyone who ever played the game.

 

 

I have always said Faldo was either extrememly lucky or unlucky to be his age. Had he been born 10 years earlier, he might have won 15 majors. Fifteen years later, and he might not have won any. He came right in the transition for sure.