Worst swing you've ever seen...

[LeftDaddy]

I am a member at a course here in Virginia that is growing (new management doing a good job, etc.). We've had a handful of new members join, and a few seem to have rarely (if ever) played golf before.

 

I got paired with a husband and wife a few weeks ago, and the husband started off with something to the effect of "My wife has never played before so take it easy on her, but I'm teaching her, etc." Didn't bother me...I'm cool playing with anybody as long as they are reasonably quick and pick up when it is time.

 

Anyway, the husband proceeds to swing with the worst swing I've ever seen in person.

 

I'll try to describe it:

 

He takes the club back way inside, with a big time reverse pivot, and then casts his hands way to the outside on the downswing and shifts his weight completely to his back foot, so much so that he falls backward after impact and ends up with his right side facing the target. He had all of the sins...reverse pivot, double-cross, swung too hard, casting, chicken wing, etc.

 

He was absolutely horrible...monster slice. I honestly have no idea how he actually made contact with the ball, but he did reasonably often. He hit one sand shot and ended up falling backward on his back out of the sand trap. I couldn't help but laugh.

 

Ironically, his wife's swing was OK.

 

How about you guys?

[Shipwreck]

The worst swing I ever saw, was actually from a half way decent golfer believe it or not. A good buddy of mine, we called him 'Uncle Vinny', who I was stationed with broke his left leg a while back and he was never able to really bend it. So he would put all his weight on his left leg, which was straight, almost stack and tiltish, then swing out of his shoes and fall back on his right foot. On his follow through he had this funny little hop to get back to his right foot. He had this crazy as hell slice, but he played it perfectly. His scores though were never consistent. One day he could shoot 82, the next day 130. Good guy.

[sheppy335]

The worst i have ever seen is my Brother in Law's, it was scary and he lost lots of balls, including almost 2 Dozen on one hole in MB. Afternoon golf we were only ones on the course.

It is a upright but with a way open swing back and then a lung downward like chopping wood. If he by chance dropped it in towards plain he would go under that ball with popups. Problem was he would vary what he did with every swing. Huge slices, Wild pop ups, Pull hooks and no distance at all. Except he got this into his head he could hit a 7 iron 200 plus. Occasionally he would make perfect contact with de-loft of the club that made it into a driver. He was so inconsistent he was consistent at it.

[golfdad907]

Charles Barkley comes to mind

[Shipwreck]

[quote name='golfdad907' timestamp='1434567349' post='11770466']
Charles Barkley comes to mind
[/quote]

That's just a given. Like saying "Water is wet."

[golfinray]

Me and a buddy played with 2 guys one day, one lefty and one righty.

The pro shop put us together so we did not know them previously.

The first hole on this course is a par 5 straight away downhill on the drive then uphill second shot.

The righty gets up there first and lines up 50 YARDS left. He hits about a 140 yard druve that sliced 60 yards.

The lefty gets up aims 50 yards right. He hit s it 160 yards with a 70 yard slice and says "man I got got a hold of that one."

They played 18 this way happier than pigs in slop just laughing and having a big time.

I guess they just didn't care that they were so bad.

[MonteScheinblum]

Practice round for the 1993 Nike (web.com) Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic. Guy didn't hit the ball on the club face once in 18 holes. Horrific swing. Couldn't believe he got in the event. Swiping like a 30 and played like a 12.

I striped it. Hitting 300-350 yard drives all day. Knocking down pins, making some putts here and there. He told me how impressive he thought my game was. Never had seen a guy hit it that far who could play. I was flattered, but thoroughly unimpressed with what a hack he was.

Had one bad 9 holes during the tournamnet or I might have had a fair shot to beat the guy who won. Ended up with that bad 9 and limping in late for a 29th place finish.

Coincidently, the guy who I played the practice round with, who had a terrible swing and didn't hit one shot in the club face...won the event.

One guess who it was.....don't use Google.

[Ghost of Snead]

[quote name='MonteScheinblum' timestamp='1434574192' post='11771292']
Practice round for the 1993 Nike (web.com) Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic. Guy didn't hit the ball on the club face once in 18 holes. Horrific swing. Couldn't believe he got in the event. Swiping like a 30 and played like a 12.

I striped it. Hitting 300-350 yard drives all day. Knocking down pins, making some putts here and there. He told me how impressive he thought my game was. Never had seen a guy hit it that far who could play. I was flattered, but thoroughly unimpressed with what a hack he was.

Had one bad 9 holes during the tournamnet or I might have had a fair shot to beat the guy who won. Ended up with that bad 9 and limping in late for a 29th place finish.

Coincidently, the guy who I played the practice round with, who had a terrible swing and didn't hit one shot in the club face...won the event.

One guess who it was.....don't use Google.
[/quote]

Horrific swing is a dead giveaway ...

[PJ72]

[quote name='MonteScheinblum' timestamp='1434574192' post='11771292']Practice round for the 1993 Nike (web.com) Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic. Guy didn't hit the ball on the club face once in 18 holes. Horrific swing. Couldn't believe he got in the event. Swiping like a 30 and played like a 12.

I striped it. Hitting 300-350 yard drives all day. Knocking down pins, making some putts here and there. He told me how impressive he thought my game was. Never had seen a guy hit it that far who could play. I was flattered, but thoroughly unimpressed with what a hack he was.

Had one bad 9 holes during the tournamnet or I might have had a fair shot to beat the guy who won. Ended up with that bad 9 and limping in late for a 29th place finish.

Coincidently, the guy who I played the practice round with, who had a terrible swing and didn't hit one shot in the club face...won the event.

One guess who it was.....don't use Google.[/quote]

Furyk?

[LeftDaddy]

So Furyk's swing is certainly ugly on the takeaway, but by impact he looks OK. I'm talking some fugly swing by a duffer that is just so horrendous that you wonder why the person still plays golf.

I played this weekend in 97 deg and humid weather, and the 3-some behind us had some really god awful golfers. One was a husband and wife combo, and the wife had this ugly swing where she attempted to hit the ball by just dropping the club with all arms. The problem was that she hit the ground a foot behind the ball. She would raise up after every swing shaking her hands from the impact. Couldn't have been fun, especially considering it was a 6 hour round in the heat.

[MonteScheinblum]

Oh, it was fugly at impact in those days.

[PutterKilledTheDream]

Furyk couldn't hit it on the face in a PR and then went out and won a couple days later? Couldn't have been that bad.

[Kuuuch]

My college roomate, his parents were super rich and he enjoyed watching golf with me so he asked for new golf clubs for his birthday (without ever playing). He got fitted for a whole set of ping g20's which were brand new at the time. His swing looked like an nonathletic ballerina and his head moved a good foot away from the ball. It was hilarious to watch at the range we had to hit far away from people because I never knew where his ball was going to go. If he teed the ball up there were shots that went maybe 5 yards and what seemed like 100 feet in the air. Felt bad, he gave up golf a month later.

[Ping4Lyfe]

My friend is getting into golf and is getting lessons. He must have the worst coach in Central Texas though because he misses the ball most of the time. His hands are between his knees at address. He keeps both of his arms straight in his takeaway, and he watches the club head on its way back. He bumps his hips forward at the top of his backswing and reverse pivots while casting while swinging as hard as he can. You can hear his back crack every time he swings. Most times he hits the ground at least 2-3 inches behind the ball.

[The Pearl]

This is an easy one.

When I was a kid we belonged to a small town 9 hole private club. Members ranged from blue-collar business owners to some bankers. As you can imagine the range of swings spanned the entire Gaussian Distribution.

This guy was a local teacher that just moved into the area, so he was a new member. Anyway...

This guy took the club back at the slowest rate I have ever seen. We timed it while hiding behind the curtains in the pro shop as he was teeing off number one. It was often over 5 seconds. Think Nancy Lopez or Ai Miyazato on anti-depressants. His transition was an "explosion" towards the target resulting in a "full body" lunge through the golf ball. And by lunge I mean delivering the club through impact with the body lean and knee bend of a pro bowler.

I wish we had video and Trackman back than because in order to accomplish this he probably had to have about 45 degrees of shaft lean at impact.

While this alone was comedy goal, the Coup De Gras, was that his "lunge" resulted in him finishing the swing and facing the target with his right knee completely on the ground in a one knee kneeling position.

And yes, in case you are wondering, every single pair of his golf pants had grass stains on the right knee.

And no, he never wore golf shoes because if he did he would have torn an ACL. Remember in those days it was metal spikes. He twirled is left foot on his heel during the swing so it was facing the target at the finish.

The story would be much cooler if he shot par, but I don't think he ever broke 90 and as you can imagine when things came unglued, they really came unglued when his timing was off. The dude could dig trenches like a roto tiller.

Looking back though, knowing what I know now about the golf swing and despite how horrific it was, in pure athletic terms, it was quite an athletic achievement.

[PJ72]

Man, this thread has been funny, keep it up guys!


EDIT: Some of these swings sound like they make Charles Barkley look like Adam Scott

[LeftDaddy]

I have a guy that works for me that is a big boy. He's barrel chested...strong as an ox. Anyway, he has an incredible outside-in swing motion that is pure arm movement and is violently fast. He makes decent contact though, but of course he has a bad slice. I did see him hit a drive with 280 yards of carry though...big time slice that flew way up in the air. But oh man, if he could ever figure out an inside-out path and control it, he'd kill the ball.

The other really common bad "swing" that I see often is someone who holds their right hand (bottom hand) extremely closed at address, to where it looks like they are reverse-palming the shaft. I have a good friend who plays a lot of golf and is a decent golfer who has this fault. I guess it compensates for an outside-in swing path and open face. He's an otherwise athletic guy, but hits a really weak golf ball. He has a pretty ugly swing overall for someone who plays as often as he does, and who professes to be reasonably good.

[Rhythm&TempoRenzo]

I would have to say - my own after my 2nd wrist surgery - I was so afraid of having a relapse it was horrible. Actually took two years to find something that worked with no pain. The stinging feedback that I got from off center shots with my blades really helped me rebuild my swing - it was kinda like electro shock therapy Lol...

[Your-away!]

A very good friend of mine about 4 years ago came with me to the range, bare in mind hes not interested in any sports in any way.

he moaned why i had never invited him to the range with me, so one day i surprised him and took him with me.

i said to him just watch me hit a few balls to get the jist of what to do and have a go, told him not to copy me just do what you think would be the best way to hit the ball high and straight

the next half hour was the funniest half hour of "golf" i have ever seen, i was literally crying with laughter, i tried to encourage him at first but my poor friend was worse than the wife the first time she tried it, i took a video and showed him and even he was "wtf am i doing!?"

his arms were arrow straight and at impact his feet were about 2ft off the ground, with absolutely no turn/pivot at all, and no matter what we did he just couldnt do anything else, i think he took about 200 swings to hit 50 balls

i did say if you want to try it again probably better and go have an initial lesson first...he never did

[MrJones]

Got paired with a twosome one afternoon. One of the guys was a big heavyset guy with the glasses that make your eyes look twice as big. Kept talking about how golf wasn't really his thing. He was a football guy and kept saying "just give me someone to hit". Looked to be in his late thirties and was still living his glory days as a high school lineman.

That guy took nearly a 2 foot divot with every swing. EVERY swing, including practice. It amazed me that he didn't break his driver shaft during the round because of how hard he dug it into the ground. No swing speed at all, he just slammed the club as hard as he could into the ground and a huge grunt every single shot. About 80% of the time, he never actually made contact with the ball, just went right under it and let the turf do the work.

We'd been on the course for just under 6 hours when we finished putting on 15. I made up an excuse and left.