Walter Hagen (Video) - by Peter Finch
Walter Hagen (Video) - by Peter Finch

One of the most inspirational and colorful characters of the golfing history books is Walter Hagen. Now Walter Hagen was one of the great players at the turn of the 19th century and along with a couple of other players, absolutely dominated the scene. His tally of 11 majors, he’s third behind Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods, so he was a serious, serious player. Also won countless times on tour and captained the Ryder Cup team six times so a true legend of the game. Now Walter Hagen what a lot of people used to say about Walter Hagen was that he had more bad shots in one round, than most professionals hit within a season. But one of the best things he was able to do is recover fantastically well from difficult situations, he was a master at recovery shots and a master at working the ball through the air to actually suit his needs.

Now what Walter Hagen had was a very simple swing, it was a relatively short backswing, relatively compact a lot of leg movement through, but what he had was a massive amount of control over the clubface on occasion, maybe not with the driver very often but especially with the irons when he was recovering. Now what Walter Hagen understood was by adjusting his body and then adjusting his clubface through impact, you can manipulate and you could hit lots of different shots. What Walter Hagen used to do very well for example was hit a very, very big draw where his body would close to the target, aim a long way off to the right hand side, but then he would get his clubface at address in an impact to start to point almost towards the target slightly off to the right as well, and he would get a lot of movement, a big hook movement on the ball. And the opposite was true, from the opposite side, he could open up his stance a long, long way, keep the clubface open to his path of impact and curve the ball from left to right. And it was this ability to adapt, and it was this ability to hit lots of the variation, of fades and of draws, that allowed him to win these 11 consecutive – well not 11 consecutive but 11 majors within his career. So if you are struggling off the tee and if you are a little bit inaccurate with some of your shots, one of the greatest player ever to play the game, still managed to get it around the course using the art of fantastic recovery. So if you are struggling take a leaf out of Walter Hagen’s book, and just learn to shape that ball. 2015-04-29

One of the most inspirational and colorful characters of the golfing history books is Walter Hagen. Now Walter Hagen was one of the great players at the turn of the 19th century and along with a couple of other players, absolutely dominated the scene. His tally of 11 majors, he’s third behind Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods, so he was a serious, serious player. Also won countless times on tour and captained the Ryder Cup team six times so a true legend of the game. Now Walter Hagen what a lot of people used to say about Walter Hagen was that he had more bad shots in one round, than most professionals hit within a season. But one of the best things he was able to do is recover fantastically well from difficult situations, he was a master at recovery shots and a master at working the ball through the air to actually suit his needs.

Now what Walter Hagen had was a very simple swing, it was a relatively short backswing, relatively compact a lot of leg movement through, but what he had was a massive amount of control over the clubface on occasion, maybe not with the driver very often but especially with the irons when he was recovering. Now what Walter Hagen understood was by adjusting his body and then adjusting his clubface through impact, you can manipulate and you could hit lots of different shots. What Walter Hagen used to do very well for example was hit a very, very big draw where his body would close to the target, aim a long way off to the right hand side, but then he would get his clubface at address in an impact to start to point almost towards the target slightly off to the right as well, and he would get a lot of movement, a big hook movement on the ball.

And the opposite was true, from the opposite side, he could open up his stance a long, long way, keep the clubface open to his path of impact and curve the ball from left to right. And it was this ability to adapt, and it was this ability to hit lots of the variation, of fades and of draws, that allowed him to win these 11 consecutive – well not 11 consecutive but 11 majors within his career. So if you are struggling off the tee and if you are a little bit inaccurate with some of your shots, one of the greatest player ever to play the game, still managed to get it around the course using the art of fantastic recovery. So if you are struggling take a leaf out of Walter Hagen’s book, and just learn to shape that ball.