People say that his swing was accommodating of hickory shafts and it's length not necessary with today's technology. Maybe so, but Jones had the best swing of all time, IMHO. A true genius.
13 majors, his am wins were with some of the best golfers in the world as there wasn't much money to turn pro. Won 3 British opens out of 4 entries won 4 us opens lost one when he called a penalty on himself, his playing partner said he didn't see it, bobby said " i did" later he said you might as well praise me for not robbing a bank.won 5 us ams, 1 British am. Had a lifetime win percentage of 41( yes 41%)He retired at the age of 28 years old, went months between majors without touching a club and passed the bar for law and had other degrees all while playing golf around the world. He was the ultimate amateur, being an amateur is not that you're bad it means you have a love of the game and respect for its rules. There were a lot of great amateur players throughout history, i chuckle when a utube instructor refers to someone not very good as an amateur.
What a lot of people don't no is Jones was a natural left hander, but played right handed. He played back handed. A direct quote from Jones, " I like to feel I'm hitting a backhand blow, with the right hand catching up with the left only at impact".
Hogan was the player who was left handed and switched to right, he did it because there wasn't a lot of left handed clubs around, bobby was right handed with everything he did, he started golf at age 6, Stewart maiden cut him a set and bobby followed Stewart around the course. He did say it was a backhanded blow and related how hard it was to keep his dominant hand out of the fight as he said.
SOOOO different today. You are taught to flatten that wrist and swing around your body and keep the left foot anchored. Lifting up that left heel today would be a no no along with not flattening the wrist. It just goes to show you, any golf swing will work as long as you hit the ball.
The wrist on bobby at impact was not cupped, he played with what he called straight but no tension in his arms. The shaft is of no consequence, you can achieve great distance with this swing. His contemporaries has said bobby could hit the ball long but didn't because of the long rough and bad bunkers in those days. The also couldn't lift ,clean and place on the green during his playing days.
his left wrist is cocked,or bent,, and yet, still hits them straight.. today's pro's try to have the left wrist flat. and I can see by his left heal lifting up , he takes the club and hands so far back,, I've been a flat foot swinger and know I understand why it limits my back swing.
In his The way I play Golf DVD set , there is a piece where he is hitting irons right at the camera and he hit a fade just by the lens, then he hits a draw, right past the lens , the next shot he plants right into the lens and says One good camera down!!!! Thats how much control he had on the ball .
