Brian Manzella's Best 20 Players of the Steel Shaft Era and Their Best Swing Patterns

[Brian Manzella]

I adjusted the previously discussed list to 20 golfers.

18 men...2 women

These are the BEST PLAYERS since steel shafts replace hickory. So Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, etc. did not play the same game as the following list of golfers.

Swings like Clampett, Elkington, Moe Norman are great swings for sure, but did not PRODUCE anything like the following list.

I would kindly request HELP with posting of sequences from the era that I list for each golfer.

We will then SAVE GOLF from bad ideas, as I will show why ORTHODOX PROCEDURES THAT PRODUCE THE 3 IMPERATIVES will always be the best performing components and preferences.

I did my homework and here is the final list:


1. Jack Nicklaus, 82 wins, 20 Majors (swing circa 1963-65)

2. Tiger Woods, 48 wins, 13 majors (swing circa 2000)

3. Ben Hogan, 64 wins, 9 Majors (swing circa 1948 & 1953)

4. Sam Snead, 82 wins, 7 Majors (swing circa 1950)

5. Arnold Palmer, 62 wins, 8 Majors (swing circa 1962)

6. Byron Nelson, 52 wins, 5 Majors (swing circa 1945)

7. Tom Watson, 39 wins, 8 Majors (swing circa 1977)

8. Gary Player, 25 wins, 9 Majors (swing circa 1978)

9. Lee Trevino, 29 wins, 6 majors (swing circa 1971)

10. Nick Faldo, 9 wins, 6 Majors (swing circa 1990)

11. Billy Casper, 51 wins, 3 Majors (swing circa 1966)

12. Cary Middlecoff, 40 wins, 3 Majors (swing circa 1955)

13. Phil Mickelson, 29 wins, 4 Majors (swing circa 2006)

14. Vijay Singh, 29 wins, 3 Majors (swing circa 2004)

15. Johnny Miller, 25 wins, 2 majors (swing circa 1974)

16. Gene Littler, 29 wins, 2 Majors (swing circa 1959-61)

17. Hale Irwin, 20 wins, 3 Majors (swing circa 1977-79)

18. Greg Norman, 20 wins, 2 Majors (swing circa 1986 or 1994)

19. Mickey Wright, 82 wins, 13 majors (swing circa 1961)

20. Annika Sorenstam, 68 wins, 10 majors (swing circa 2004-2005)

 

[Damon Lucas]

International wins?

Great list Brian,

Some of the players would be better served by listing their international wins, particularly Player, Norman, Faldo,seeing that they played such a huge chunk of their careers internationally!

Good job though!

 

[scandres]

Locke?

I think Bobby Locke won four Opens and a bunch of tournaments worldwide. Johnny Myers felt Locke was one of the best he ever saw. He told me that Locke played a bunch exhibition matches against Snead when he was here and beat him over 75% of the time.

 

[hcw]

Majors?

...

13. Phil Mickelson, 29 wins, 4 Majors (swing circa 2006)....

1) 2004 Masters
2) 2005 PGA
3) 2006 Masters
4) ????

 

[bbftx]

Mickelson: US Amateur

4) = 1990 US Amateur

I think all of Brian's numbers include US Amateur titles (e.g. Nicklaus' 20 and Woods' 13)

 

[hcw]

4) = 1990 US Amateur

I think all of Brian's numbers include US Amateur titles (e.g. Nicklaus' 20 and Woods' 13)

gotcha, merci!

 

[mrodock]

list looks excellent, time period of analysis looks perfect, great project!

Matt

 

[birdie_man]

Brian,

Why do you include US Am wins? MASSIVE tourney.....not against the best players in the world tho....no?

 

[BigD]

Brian,

Why do you include US Am wins? MASSIVE tourney.....not against the best players in the world tho....no?

Most would prob consider it close to a major I would assume. Just cause it says Am doesn't mean the "players" aren't playing.

 

[Jared Willerson]

Seve with 5 majors is still not on the list?? I think I would just like to see his sequence and compare it to the others to see what compensation he made that allowed him to play good golf for a while....Same thing with Ray Floyd a bunch of wins and 3 majors there too.

 

[Brian Manzella]

Manzella Honorable Mention Team

Locke.

Floyd.

Seve.

Sure.

and many more.

Lets work on this twenty first and then we'll do a second 20.

(It'll have the same end result though—orthodox wins).

 

[Damon Lucas]

Wins

How about this;

Player = 166 International wins, incl 13 SA Opens,7 Aust Opens
Norman = 90 International wins
Faldo = 39 International wins

 

[Erik_K]

Anyone notice that Els is not on the list?

 

[mrodock]

Els is a great player, but is he a consensus top 20? As an aside, I personally don't put Vijay or Phil in that group.

 

[DivotDelight]

I don't see how VJ's right hand flying off the club at impact is orthodox.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

I don't see how VJ's right hand flying off the club at impact is orthodox.

It's also not an imperative...the flat left wrist is, not the bent right wrist.

What you will notice is that even though his right wrist comes ALMOST completely off the club his #3pp is still GLUED on it.

 

[tongzilla]

I think Brian's definition of "orthodox" is what the majority of pros do on tour.

 

[Erik_K]

Els is a great player, but is he a consensus top 20? As an aside, I personally don't put Vijay or Phil in that group.

...and no Couples.

Could have swore Brian said that no one hit the ball better than Freddie until Tiger came along.

 

[Millrat]

...and no Couples.

Could have swore Brian said that no one hit the ball better than Freddie until Tiger came along.

Hitting the ball is not the same as winning golf tournaments i.e. tournaments with world class fields. Thats why Moe Norman and others aren't on the list.

Freddie is a great golfer no question, just not top 20.

CW

 

[birdie_man]

Still wanna do this Brian?