Payne Stewart would be 63 (born January 30, 1957) had he not tragically died in a plane crash when he was 42 years old. His golf swing was a throwback to the days of Bobby Jones when any thought of restriction was nonexistent. Payne had more backswing hip turn and more total lateral movement (off the ball in the backswing, then forward in the downswing) than anyone on the PGA Tour today. In fact, no one is even close. You hear many words and phrases to describe great rhythm and tempo such as “fluid” or “syrupy” , “smooth”, effortless” etc., but rather than waste time trying to describe it just watch his swing in action. He won 11 times on Tour including 2 U.S. Open titles and a PGA Championship, and was twice runner up in the British Open. I have no doubt that with his Sam Snead like action he would have had an equally lengthy and successful career. His ability to return the club to impact from the backswing he used is far beyond the ability of the vast majority of golfers, which is why I believe this type of swing has fallen out of favor. Tour players have found more efficient ways to swing the club, eliminating a lot of the rotational and lateral movement used by Stewart, although it can be said that few swings these days are as aesthetically pleasing.
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RIP Payne. His swing was the epitome of old school. Beautiful tempo and rhythm. I can still vividly remember the news reports coming in from the USA of his plane just flying on and on until it ran out if fuel. I put it up there along with the passing of Ayrton Senna as one of the few moments in life I will never forget. Thanks for the memories Wayne.
Any mortal with that early extension and steep shaft would hit the ball all over the planet. He had the great tempo that you speak of, but my God he had to have some pair of hands on him. With almost no margin for error, he managed to square up that clubface with his hands under the most pressure-packed situations (3 majors tells the story). Wayne, why do you think he played well relatively late – he won the '99 US Open at 42 just four months before he tragically died – while guys like Seve and Norman who also depended on their hands a lot were cooked by their late-30s?
Two things, first he passed just before the Pro V1 came out. So it would have been interesting to see how his game adapted to the new ball. Second, with Ground Reaction Force data and Trackman coming to coaching within his years leading to Champions Tour time (8 more years), would he have changed anything? He’s definitely a rear post player with an on top grip. He uses predominantly lateral force, with little rotary, and not much vertical. Would the fad of increasing vert force have changed to lessen lateral and get to his lead side earlier?
Sorry, I deleted the message by mistake, but fully agree with your reply, 👍🥃