Arnie and Trevino Share Their Secrets of Great Ball-Striking

Drive the ball farther and straighter with this golf lesson. Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino share their greatest sing secrets. Your legendary swing awaits!

Lee Trevino reveals his simple fix for the dreaded slice: the secret is in knee positioning throughout the swing, which naturally keeps the club on plane.

Arnold Palmer shows how to keep your head steady with three key moves:
🏌️ Keep the chin up
🏌️ Let the left arm pass under the chin
🏌️ On the follow-through, let the right shoulder pull the head

Trevino and Palmer’s 3 swing secrets to perfect drives:
🏌️ The downswing must come from the inside
🏌️ Swing your swing – make it repeatable and reliable
🏌️ Keep your head steady through impact

Bob Kurtz adds his own head-placement secret: count to three after striking the ball before moving your head off center.

Along the way, Bob shares two rare personal stories – an exclusive CNN interview with Trevino during a PGA Championship disqualification, and a hilarious behind-the-scenes moment with Arnold Palmer.

0:00 Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer Swing Introduction
1:32 3 key swing tips for perfect drives
5:35 The Ironman’s favorite stories with Trevino and Palmer

#golfswing #golflesson #arnoldpalmer #golftips #golf

Who is the greatest ball striker of all time? Most people would vote for Lee Trevino. What a strange swing Trevino had. He would actually take the ball, take the club head outside and then come inside. And he had an extraordinarily wide stance. He was open facing left of the target and would fade the ball back into play. So, and also he had the greatest dip of the upper body you’ve seen. Went kind of like this and then he went way down and came from the inside and that ball just stayed right on line with a little fade. Tvino said, remember you can talk to a fade. A hook won’t listen. But there was one guy who hit a hook all the time and he was the greatest power swinger of them all. His name Arnold Palmer. Man, in his early years, he had these broad shoulders, these thick forearms, thick wrist, and he went at a ball so hard he made this great shoulder turn like this, then just fired down through the ball, hit it with those hands, and he had to hold on otherwise he’d just snap hook it out of the county. So, he’d come through there and go, “Whoa!” But here’s the truth. Trevino and Arie had a lot in common with their swings. I’ve played in programs all over the world and the most common question that asked to me is, “Lee, why do I slice that golf ball?” It’s really not that difficult to get out of a slice. What happens when you get down into the hitting area is that you’re locking your left knee. What happens here is the right shoulder goes over and you cut across the ball. What you have to do here is to make sure that in the hitting area that actually the left knee breaks towards the target, keeping the right knee and back of the left, this results in laying off the club and getting underneath it. Let me show you. Make sure that you watch those knees and that they’re flexed through the hitting area. I think if you can keep that right knee in back of the left one, you’re going to see the left side of the golf course for the first time in your life. We can learn from Trevino as well as from Arie. What is it about them? Well, number one, inside. Both Trevino and Palmer come into the ball from the inside. Number two, their swings are their swings. It’s repeatable. Arie could hit balls all day long, he’d still look like Arnold Palmer. Trevino could hit balls all week long and he’d still be hitting the same shots looking like Lee Trevino. So Palmer used to say, “Swing your swing.” Try to take the best of what you’ve heard, the best of what you’ve learned, and it’s your swing. You’re not 6’3″ like Tom Wiseoff. You’re not short like Rory Mroy with this great strength and suppleness and where your hips can make an X with your swing line. No, you can’t do that. But you get your swing. Make it consistent. Make it repeatable. So, always come from the inside. The inside, make your swing repeatable, whatever it may be. But the third and the most important lesson that Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino have in common that they want you to know, and that is their head position throughout the swing. Both of them have this incredibly steady head and it’s like there’s a dotted line going down to the ball as they take it back and drive into it and hit it and follow through. Watch my head now. Just imagine what is going to happen. The club doesn’t know where it’s going. It’s wandering all over the place. I’m going to hit back here. Or maybe I’m just going to do that position of the head right here. Now, watch what I do. Got my chin up. Watch my left shoulder as I take the club back under my chin. And the club falls right back in the position I want it. As I come back through, keeping my head in a good position, you will see that my right shoulder is pulling my head off onto the line that I want to hit the golf ball. One of the best things that you can do if you’re trying to keep your head steady is hit the ball with your head right here with a dotted line and keep it there for the count of two or three. In other words, hit it 1001 100,002 1003. Gosh, that kind of looks like Trevino and Palmer, doesn’t it? So, let’s do it and see if we can be repeatable. Come from the inside and keep the head still and watch the ball that count of 100,00 1,002,003. I don’t do it as well as Arie or Lee, but I do it or try to do it. You can, too. Frankly, two of my favorite people of all time. Arie and Supermex. Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino. Had a great relationship or have a great relationship with Lee Trevino. Had a great relationship with Arie. God bless him. The most beloved golfer of all time. No question. I’m going to share uh the time that Arnold Palmer really let me down. But first, Lee Trevino is an amazing story. Arie and Lee together, Arie won seven majors. Lee won six major championships. Trovino including at one time won the US Open, the uh British Open, the Canadian Open, all within uh back to back to back. Uh, nobody’s ever done that before or since. He quit school to go to work. He grew up next to a graveyard and also a golf course. The golf course won out in terms of spend where he spent his time and he learned to play golf and hit a golf ball. I did a great interview with Trevino and I want to compliment him on that interview because Tino was disqualified from the PGA Championship. You don’t see anything about his frustration, his disappointment, literally his anger, and did a great interview. I’m always grateful to Lee Trevino for the the closeness and the integrity he showed. Uh Trino was playing in the same group, the same threesome as Lanny Watkins and Tom Wiseoff. They were in the scoring tent going over the cards as the golfers always do, checking it hole by hole. Tino was done with his card when Wise turned to him and said, “Hey, you put down the wrong score here on the ninth hole. I had a three.” and TVO had put down a four for him and he says, “Oh, he made that putt.” They start talking about it and as a consequence, Trevino forgot to sign his card and somehow Tom Wiskoff signed Trevino’s card. A strange set of circumstances to be sure. We have him here for you now. Our guest Lee Trevino. I’m the only one that’s ever swung the club the way that I swing it. I fell into this thing accidentally because I used to draw the ball and and hit it for right to left very bad. And I’ve always had a saying and is is you can talk to a fade but a hook won’t listen. You see? And and so there’s no sense in hooking the ball because it’s very inconsistent to hook the ball. And the reason for it is simply because the hands tend to pronate. Mhm. People tend to be taught to pronate going back and then pronate going forward. And what they seem to forget is that always every time you grip a golf club, you will see the face of the club and the back of the left hand point in the same direction. In other words, so so what do you have here is you have two golf clubs. You have a face there and you have a face here. Meanwhile, I’m disappointed in Arnold Palmer. You know why? I was covering the United States Open at Oakmont. You know, that’s Arie’s back backyard. He lives in Latroe. He used to he would fly a helicopter in, land it there, get out of the helicopter, and people would gather around. I’d ask him as a favor if he would let me do an interview at his place in Latroe. And he said, “Sure, come on.” It was so delightful. and he took me into his shop and he’s got pictures, a scance with him with about every president there was up to that time, starting with Eisenhower and the prime minister of Japan and they’re just hanging like this like that. He just slaps them up there and he had these big barrels full of clubs. He loved to tinker with clubs. And we’re talking, showing me around. He says, “Come on in my office. I got something for you.” I go, “This is going to be great.” He had just come out with a Palmer Peerless driver. I thought, Arty’s going to give me a Palmer Peerless driver. I felt so good about it. I’m going, “Wait till I show up on the range.” And I go, “Boy, Bob, that’s a new driver. That’s a good looking driver.” Yeah. Arie gave it to me in his office. Arie opens up his desk. He says, “Here, Bob. I want you to have these. Give them to the Give them to the crew.” And he hands me these little collar clips that you stick in. It was the umbrella. Remember the umbrella? The the emblem of Arnold Palmer Enterprises and so forth. Little gold. I just don’t go. Oh, thanks Arie. Thanks a lot. never did get that Palmer peerless driver, but I still love Arnold Palmer and our lifetime friendship because it was something very, very special. I told you that uh when I retired from broadcasting, the only person besides Larry Nelson who sent me a note or anything was Arie. and uh treasure