Tony Manzoni Is Not Keeping Secrets

When it comes to the golf swing, good secrets are hard to keep. Ben Hogan was said to have known the ultimate secret, but there's little evidence that he really knew one at all. In fact, he sold a very not so secret-secret to Life magazine way back in 1955 and then led the golf world along to the existence of others up until the late 1980s, when he gave his final interviews.

The problem with golf secrets is that no matter how well suited they may be to one player, they are likely just as unsuited to the next. Once you've been around this game long enough you come to realize that it is very difficult to come up with a genuine principle, something that is true for all players at every level.

Quite by accident, I met a man who has developed just such a fundamental. He's a one time PGA tour player who has been the golf coach at College of the Desert for the last decade. His teams are always formidable and he was named Foothill Conference Coach of the Year in 2004.

About a year ago, while visiting the desert, I picked up a local desert golf magazine that had an article on Tony Manzoni that alluded to his swing theory. The article was pretty sparse, and didn't really get to the essence of what Manzoni was saying, but there was just enough there to pique my interest.

So, I decided to drop him an email, not really expecting to hear back. To my surprise, I did hear back and Manzoni was happy to describe what he had learned about the swing in painstaking detail. Here is the biggest secret: The weight shift almost universally associated with the back swing is useless and while some players do employ one, it only makes the swing that much harder and predicated on precise timing than it needs to be. The key for Manzoni is to simplify the back swing by eliminating the pivot, or shift, which is necessitated by any moving of weight onto the back foot. Simple. But, simple doesn't mean easy.

Manzoni and I kept up our correspondence and finally decided to work on a book together. Now, I love reading golf instructional books. There's something simultaneously funny and sad about the millions of words being devoted to a physical process that lasts less than 2 seconds. With the handicap of the average American golfer unchanged over the last half century I state unequivocally that most golf instructional books are not worth the paper they're printed on. That said, I truly believe that Tony Manzoni has something to offer and am honored to be a small part of it.

You would think that after spending hundreds of hours editing Manzoni's work I would have long since embraced his technique. But, I found it more important to deal with it primarily as an editing challenge and actively avoided applying his method to my game. As confident as I was that Manzoni was right, I was so focused on making certain that he said what he had to say in the best possible way that I really didn't have to time to try it for myself.

But, now I have and the results have been quite rewarding. When I was in high school I tore some ligaments in my right knee playing football. I had to wear a plaster cast that went from just above my ankle to the middle of my thigh for 8 weeks. Fun. One day I went with my father to the local driving range and though I started out just watching him, I quickly got bored and started to hit a few balls myself.

The fact that I couldn't bend my right knee, and that I was hesitant to put very much weight on it, created some interesting sensations. It was as if the club had to rotate more directly behind me on the back swing rather than backward on the ball line. Then, as the club moved forward it seemed as if my stance was much more solid than it was when both of my legs were healthy. Best of all, I was crushing the ball. No matter how hard I went at the ball it just flew straight, with maybe just a hint of fade right at the end.

It was a sense and a ball flight that I had not experienced before but am finding myself enjoying again after all these years. Though I am sure that mere minutes after reading this Tony Manzoni will be on the phone telling me that I didn't quite get it right, here's how it works and feels to me:

So far, I am getting the most benefit when hitting driver. I make my stance just a touch wider than usual and set my right leg almost straight at address. This helps me to keep my weight forward (actually centered) as the club moves back. The most critical point and sense is that of the right side almost pushing forward from the knee (really, it's only resisting rearward movement). It feels like my weight wants to go onto my right side but the angle of the right knee keeps the weight more toward the center of my stance. That helps creates the feeling of the swing being centered on a stationary axis that is solidly grounded. When I do it correctly, my right leg feels rather like a stake that's driven into the ground at an angle that prevents the center of the swing from moving as the club moves rearward. The result? Long and straight. Sometimes. Remember that we are still talking about my game.

There's nothing easier than making a process more complicated. I fear that most of the millions of words written about the golf swing have done exactly that. A simple, instinctive process, a swing, has become something to be studied rather than enjoyed. It's true that Tony Manzoni's upcoming book will add a few more words to all of those already written about the golf swing. Still, I have every confidence that his will make the game easier and more enjoyable for players around the world.

It's been a lot of fun being a part of it.