Unlocking the Secret to the 515 Yard Drive, Mike Austin Biographer Phillip Reed 

I didn’t believe Phillip three years ago. Today after near 5 years of fanatical devotion to the MA method, I hit 280, 295 yard laser confirmed carries on the course. I’m 68, out of shape since Covid and only 5’8” (damn, used to be 5’10”.) I have never ever hit it so far. I’m in golf heaven! Thanks Brendon, you got me searching in the right direction.

What a great video and insight into Mike Austin and his philosophy of the golf swing! Thanks, and keep them coming!

Good to see the mighty Mike Austin get some cred! He was a brilliant, cantankerous teacher, character, and friend. I'll tell ya, much of what current long driver Kyle Berkshire developed on his own (and is now graciously sharing with Bryson DeChambeau and the rest of us) mirrors what Mike was teaching decades ago. Thanks guys!

Great interview, please continue it. Thanks.

I am glad you finally started touching on Mike Austin. Philip Reed is great I have one of these Pause n Throw, and it has changed my game. BIG BOOM

"You have to pre think, you can't think during the swing" Couldn't agree more. Being motor control free through the Striking Zone seems to be what's happening during my better shots.

This is by far the best video you have ever produced...thanks.

i get the right feel for this swing when i do leftarmswings, and then apply the body rotation, had a session today and have never had so effortless swing and good ballcontact, i speed up the swing with the left thumb and no draging the club and arms, with much more clubhead speed. it is awesome, thanks Austin and Dunaway.

Changed my swing and worked with Mike Malaska and Milo - (thanks BBG) and at the foundation is the Mike Austin mechanics (in my opinion). By following the mechanics of the backswing and downswing - I'm able to hit the ball around 270 (I was around 240-250). I still roll my arms those are my bad swings where I either pull hook OB or block right. My back thanks Mike and Milo and Mike Austin - Lol - BBG - Thanks for introducing these great professionals to us.

Phil Reed is the Golf Magi! Bring him back again!

I really liked this interview. Very interesting and got me thinking differently about the golf swing, thanks!

I (and I'm sure a bunch of your other BBG followers) have gone DEEP down the Mike Austin youtube rabbit hole since this video came out. We need more! As others have pointed out, Steve Pratt is one of Mikes original circle, he teaches up in the valley. Please go do a video with him. I would also love to hear Tony Luczak speak about the Mike Austin swing. Thanks for all you do!

Great vid, very interesting, hope there is more to come from this !!

Big Boom. Great interview. More I see all these golf videos I get the sense there's really no one perfect swing. Too much variation in the human body structure, flexibility and musculature. We can get close to some goals by emulation but have to manage our swing according to our bodies ability, and of course how well our mind can get our bodies to respond consistently. Thanks for the video!

Big boom. Love the free throw analogy. I think it applies to the golf swing both putting and striking.

Mike Austin had a double post, downward scoop release that wouldn't hurt your back like Tiger's does. You can learn what he did via RU-vid. Watch "Mike Austin Teaching the Teachers". Also watch Phillip Reed's right hand in this video. Austin didn't turn the wrist of his right hand over or under. He turned it like he was throwing a softball underhanded, but he was going down on the ball and not up. He was "scooping" - something like a weekend hacker, but down to make a divot, not up to pop up like a 45 handicapper.

brendan, i watched this video and the mike austin skeleton suit video several times and went to the range today to try his ideas and method. i conjured up mike austin and i can't believe how pure i was hitting it. he explains the action quite clearly and uses more feet, leg and body than i'm used to but i'm sticking with this for a while. i can't wait to get on the course to try it but it's still winter here in the N.East. not sure i can hit it 300 yds. but i was popping it pretty darn good, steve

I met Phil Reed 15 years ago and even signed my book that he authored. Great writer.

Pure gold B, fantastic stuff, super interesting. Mike Austin was an enigma so getting this insight is very cool. Thanks to Phillip for sharing his knowledge and looking forward to further MA content. Personally I think your channel is the best for original, diverse and interesting content. Keep up the good work sir!

Brendon this is why your channel rules. Interesting interviews with very intelligent golf gurus.

Great that you got together with Phillip Reed.

great video, now i need to research Mike Austin, thanks. Big Boom

Great stuff once again!

Big boom great interview loved the content. Would love to hear more.

Big Boom!!! Great convo!

U do a great job, entertaining and I learn - maybe one day I get out that way see you have a money game or some unique golf event that shakes up the golf world - Tour Pros go to Olympics but they fail to have any events to showcase that they are indeed athletes. My opinion and you know how much that is worth .... best to you with your biz.

Very interesting research

Read Phils book recently and loved it. I very much enjoyed the in depth analysis of the positions in different parts of Mike Austin's swing in this video. Mike,s idea of a coupled body pivot hinging on the left leg and then on the right while the head stays still giving the bell effect in the frontal plane resulting in the momentum of the club being maximised fits well with Mike Malaska and his observations in the down the line view on the pivoting of the club in the backswing when the hands are at waist level and in the downswing again at waist level after which momentum takes over until it pivots again at waist height. These two pivot points of the club in downswing and follow through is what potentially couples an under hand swing action with the use of the right wrist hinge more horizontally that Mike Austin emphasised laterally giving power and accuracy.

Big boom.Great vid. very interesting.

I knew Mr. Austin he used to give me tips back in the 70's at Studio City Golf. That is when came out with the Swing flamer. He was way ahead of his time and was one the most honest and straight to the point people I ever knew. One thing I never hear people talk about is MR. AUSTIN'S RIGHT FOOT DRAG and why, and how he did it. DO YOU KNOW ?????

That poor guy next to you. It takes him 2hrs. To watch 60 minutes on t.v.!

Big Boom! ENJOYED THE VID..

Big boom thanks for sharing your journey

Thank you a lot for sharing this 👍 I have tried this style few years a go. It's ok but to me it feels very body dominant and not everybody has Mikes or Dustin power to do big booms 😉

Phil, first let me say it's down, under and up. Second, here's a good way to get a mental image of what he means, and it's mostly applicable to the hitting zone. Walk up to any doorknob, and with your right hand, turn it counter-clockwise, and then turn it back clockwise. Now put you sand wedge in front of you in your right hand at address position. Now turn your hand as if you were turning that doorknob counter-clockwise. You will see that the leading edge of your sand wedge moves straight back away from the ball and up. Now you're ready to observe what Mike was talking about. Start turning your hand, wrist and forearm together in a clockwise motion. The leading edge of your sand wedge will go down, under, and up. Next, I would like to point out that anyone who thinks that Mike Austin dramatically changed his hand action from when he was playing after his stroke probably does not actually understand the hand action. Personally, I use both, but I can use either on all of my clubs. I prefer his old action on irons and his later action on woods and driver, but they both work and are nearly identical. You have to understand that at the top of Mike's vintage swing, he is not actually cocking his right hand up. It is cocked straight back, and he is rotating his forearm. To illustrate, put your right arm up like you were going to show off your bicep. Now cock your right hand straight back and look at it. You should be looking right at the veins in your wrist with your right palm facing the sky, and your fingers pointing away from you. Now rotate your entire hand, wrist, and forearm until the veins on your wrist are facing away from you and your fingers are point to your face. That is what Mike did with this right hand at the top of his swing. In the old swinging days, his palm faced outward toward the target line while he did it, and in later years he had Mike Dunaway point his right palm toward the sky when he did it. But in either case, that rotation of the right hand and forearm allowed him to spin the club like he was throwing a boomerang sidearm. The forward weight shift allowed his to make that throw at the ball , and if you try it yourself you will see that the club's leading edge goes down, under and up through the hitting area.

Very nice interesting interview big boom

Great interview. Looking forward to the vlog. Big boom may be real :))

Big boom... Loving your unique work...

You should look up Jaacob Bowden. He's awesome, and is one of Dan Shauger's students that played on tour. Glad to see Mike Austin's swing come to the front of discussion. Brings back some old memories on when I obsessed over it. Very powerful swing!

You should look up Steve Pratt BD. I mentioned him on a BBG Live with Monte. He's friends with Monte and he's all Mike Austin all the time. He's in Cali I think close to the LA area.

Great video, big boom!

Been following Steve Pratt’s RU-vid channel and he is a Mike Austin swing proponent. Getting results as swing training is simplified. Also follow Be Better Golf. Keep up what you are doing. Very inciteful.

Great video, BIG BOOM!

Great video Brendan- Big Boom

Big Boom cant wait for the course vlog

Big boom. Another great golf chat

Ever tried the skills training glove? Looks like it does the same thing but probably feels a little more natural. I’ve been using it for years, have worn through a couple

Started to ride the Austin train 4 years ago. After two months I did hit my irons like 15 meters longer each. The video of Jaacob Bowden about the Mike Austin Swing is a must and old if you want to go this direction. In my opinion it is the easiest and most logical swing you can do.

This is a great interview btw.

Gotta say hitting it on the rope was impressive and shows how everything on the downswing is completely an effect of a proper backswing and transition. Big boom we are all gonna hit it 350 soon!

Phil was good on this thanks for sharing I prefer fluid movement !

Awesome interview, love the history!

Big Boom great content

So I’m at range trying to throw club with right arm and maybe right-side of body. Probably the most solid I hit irons in years. Is there a book or video on this concept

Having trouble hitting woods with Mikes swing. Pls help

I knew Mike very well! Never took a lesson with him but he’d a give me tips over the years! A guy looking at mike giving lessons over years doesn’t make him a teacher! some people played that after Mike died!

Like what you got into with Phillip Reed. I like the swing and now will confuse myself with trying to implement it.

Big Boom...If you want to follow this more; Steve Pratt in Cali, Jaacob Bowden with sterling single length irons and swing man golf, John Marshall in Atlanta Ga, and the mike austin facebook group. My swing speed went from 102 to 115mph with much less effort. This what Tony and Jeff Flagg do but have dived much deeper into this philosophy of swinging.

Big Boom. Good stuff!

Another great video. No one does a better job at what you do. I would love to see you do a video with Jimmy Ballard while he’s still with us. He has a great video series on Golflink.

BIG BOOM!!! Maybe too late, but great vid. Thanks for the input

So it really is all in the wrists. big boom!

The comments around the 19:00 mark had a lot of similarities with Malaska's stuff. Nice interview Oh, and that guy next to you, yeah....hit the damn ball!! A small bucket must last him 3 hours.

Big Boom !!!!! Makes sense.

Also note : I was watching a Mike Austin video and he stated that he injured his left arm in a plane accident some years prior and had dimished use of it. In one video he swings the golf club without the left arm and has a support attached instead of his left arm showing that he only used the right side to hit those monster drives.

Holy cow buddy, hit the ball already. The guy on the right

Big Boom, what was that device called. I may be too late for free shipping, but am very interested in the device.

Just found you today June 15 2022. Great video! Are you still making videos? Thanks for the great content.

Interesting video. Big Boom

I love to keep it simple. The more complex....the more things can go wrong:)

Big Boom. Thank you Brendon for a great piece. Looking forward to more from you and Phil. I read Phil’s book several years ago and was inspired. I got Dan Shauger’s book about the same time and took a couple lessons from Dan before he passed. I was about a 10 hcp at the time and shot 73 on a par 72 course I played for the first time after adopting the “kill the ball” Austin method. While I am also a student of Monte Scheinblum, I keep coming back to the Austin principles that are consistent with Monte’s and other swing theorists. Dan told me he was working on a variation of a training device known as Mike Austin’s Flammer which Phil may know something about as he has already developed a training aide that enables the Austin swing. I would be interested in a new Flammer type device. Keep up the good work and hope to meet you some time in Long Beach which I visit annually to visit family.

Where can I get more info on Dr. Sweeney’s work?

I'm 6'31/2, standing next to Mike he was as tall as I am. He had a flat stomach. I remember sitting in Mike's living room with him. He was wearing short pants. At 87 years old he had the legs of a 25 year old football linebacker. He was full of energy and looked as if he could take on ten guys. 515 yards - probably not the first and only time.

Big Boom!

good lord, help that poor lad next to you!! hes in the weeds

I have got to find out more about Mike Austins swing big boom

Eureka. I know this has not the point of this training aid but I had it for a few years and never got that much out of it and I am giving it another go but I forgot how to put it on and I attached the finger strap to my right index finger and wouldn’t you know it’s exactly the same as the Greg Norman secret sort of idea for chipping in pitching with a flat left wrist and even better if flattens out the wrist at the top of the backswing so keep that in mind as another implementation of this interesting training aid

Good stuff. Mike Austin was one of a kind, but his motion sure reminds me of another smallish long hitter,, Jack N.

Funny how I just picked up the book at the library yesterday to re-read it and find this interview. Phil Reed has great recollection regarding the Austin fundamentals, which are, by far, the best out there. I wish I would have found him in the 1990's instead of Ledbetter, et al. Instead, I found him on RU-vid in 2012( after studying Hogan for a few years) and studied every second of video I could find. Now I don't even think about mechanics and swing like the left handed version of him. Thank you for finding Phil and sharing Mike Austin's story. Cheers!

Mr Reed seems like a cool guy. This training aid reminds me of greg normans “secret,” have you ever seen it? I have one.

Big Boom. Got any of those T-shirts left? Awesome videos!

definitely need a movie about austin

Mike Austin was a true master golfer and highly talented in many different areas of life His golf theory and practice ideas are fascinating! Never mind his golf career and life! I have both the book and Mike Dunaways video but I struggled to understand the “tromboning” of the arms which is referred to in the book and also in one the posts here. Can anyone readily clarify what this means or refer me to any link which covers this? Thanks. Ian

What is the training aid called

What happens and how to make it happen, please forward the answers please, great video!!

BIGBOOM!!!!!

regrettably Phil Reed's book is out of print and in Canada a second hand copy of the hardback on Amazon.ca starts at $152 plus shipping: cannot understand why he does not get it reprinted as there is obviously a great amount of interest in the great Mike Austin

Phil did an incredible job tracking down Mikes playing partners for the 515 yard drive but I have verified many of Mike’s other claims to be false. I did a 6 part series on my website.

Big boom!

Big boom

BIG BOOM!!!

Big Boom Enjoyed it And actualy in need of a shirt, hey maybe i could wear the shirt video my swing send it to you and get feed back. Heck, ill keep looking for the secret "phrase" for more shirts and feedback. If i did not love golf so much this wouldnt happen, but its just so easy to fill all my lidle moments of thought into perfecting the swing. I think i swing the club as much as anyone, as a matter of fact ill start today and record how many times i do for the next four days and update on the comments. Ive found a very enjoyable way to accomplish this while not looking silly. Cause practicing your swing all day everywhere you go is kinda silly, but ive got a way around that which makes any golfer scratch their head and wonder why hadnt they thought of that, how much golfing they have missed out on. This is definitely cutting into my swing time. See ya.

BIG BOOM

Big Boom

big boom

Big boom.

Big Boom !! a really Big Boom !!

The thing inside the bell is a clapper and tell the guy next to you to hit a dam ball.

why did the guy to the right set up next to you. you guys were obviously filming a show with dialog and there were open spaces a little ways down the line. some people! good show as always.

Big Boom, enjoyed maybe more hits with the wrist guard would be interesting