The Nicklaus Way: An Analysis of the Unique Techniques and Strategies of Golf's Leading Major Championship Winner

166 Pages·2003·1.2 MB·English

by  John Andrisani

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The
N I C K L A U S
Way
An Analysis of the Unique Techniques
and Strategies of Golf’s Leading
Major Championship Winner
John Andrisani
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I dedicate this book to the millions of golfers who
for so long have idolized Jack Nicklaus, yet never really
understood his swing. Now they will. More importantly, once
they have read The Nicklaus Way,players who have been
plagued by the chronic slice shot will know how to
hit the same supercontrolled power fade that made
Nicklaus famous.
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword ix
Introduction xiii
1 GOOD HABITS NEVER DIE 1
The solid fundamentals Jack Nicklaus learned from teacher
Jack Grout
2 IN THE SWING 27
The secrets to Nicklaus’s unique backswing and downswing actions
3 SOLID PREPARATION 63
No golfer matches Nicklaus when it comes to preparing for a
championship
4 SHOT-MAKING MADE SIMPLE 87
Learn how to minimize setup and swing changes when hitting
creative shots—the Jack Nicklaus way
5 MASTERMIND 121
The reasons why Nicklaus is rated golf’s all-time best on-course
thinker and strategist
Afterword 139
Index 141
About the Author
By John Andrisani
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
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Acknowledgments
Writing a book about Jack Nicklaus, golf’s leading major
championship winner, is not easy. The reason: Nicklaus
knows his swing and shot-making game well and has written about
it in books,most notably Golf My Way.Therefore,taking the chal-
lenge head-on to analyze this great golfer’s technique and point out
secrets of his setup and swing that he was never aware of,
or chose not to share, was quite a daring task. Nevertheless, I
approached this assignment confidently,based on my experience
as a former golf teacher and senior editor of instruction for GOLF
Magazine. I also knew going in that I had one defense: no player,
not even Nicklaus,knows everything about the golf swing.
What also helped me delve into this book so deeply was the sup-
port of others, most especially my agent, Scott Waxman of the
Scott Waxman Agency in New York. I am also indebted to
Matthew Benjamin,my editor at HarperCollins Publishers.It was
Matthew, along with feedback from top teachers and other golf
industry insiders,that encouraged me to keep looking at the bot-
tom line: The Nicklaus Way emphasizes raw swing fundamentals
and explores nuances of the Nicklaus method of playing golf,and
for this reason allows recreational club-level players like you to hit
better shots and lower your handicap.
I’ll be honest, one prominent teacher who shall go nameless
once said, “Nicklaus created a nation of slicers because golfers
copied his leg-drive action on the downswing.” Wrong! Golfers
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viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
slice because they do not understand Nicklaus’s swing action and
continue to practice the wrong things.
In my search to find out what really makes Nicklaus’s technique
tick,I learned some of his innermost secrets,thanks to conversa-
tions with prominent golf instructors, namely Jim McLean, who
was kind enough to write the foreword to this book, David Lee,
and Johnny Myers. McLean was instrumental in pinpointing the
secret to the Nicklaus setup.Lee was responsible for discovering
Nicklaus’s secret gravity move on the backswing.Myers is respon-
sible for spotting Nicklaus’s unique foot slide, which made his
downswing work like clockwork when he was winning the most
prestigious golf championships.I am grateful to this trio of teach-
ers and other experts for helping me put together the puzzle of the
Nicklaus technique,which sometimes felt like solving the riddle of
the Sphinx.
I also thank artist Shu Kuga and photographer Yasuhiro Tanabe.
Both these “pros” helped me better relay the Nicklaus instruc-
tional message, explaining his superb setup, swing, and strategic
game.
Make no mistake: once you are able to form a clear picture of the
Nicklaus swing and learn to copy certain vital positions,you’ll see
how naturally you move back and through the ball.Instead of slic-
ing,you will be able to hit a controlled power fade by making just a
few minor corrections.
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Foreword
Iwas honored when friend and renowned golf instruction writer
John Andrisani asked me to write this foreword to his new
book,The Nicklaus Way. John is in a category of his own among
golf instruction writers. Obviously, his talents are based on long
experience working with the best teachers and tour professionals
in the game.
Once before,in 1997,when John wrote The Tiger Woods Way,I
enjoyed the chance to comment on Tiger’s extraordinary power
game.Now I’ve been given the opportunity to write about one of
my longtime idols,who has been called Big Jack,the Golden Bear,
and just plain Jack.The irony is,there’s nothing plain about Nick-
laus’s game.Like Tiger,he is a pretty fancy guy when it comes to
winning major championships, the barometer for judging great
golfers.
Nicklaus has entered the winner’s circle in major champion-
ships a record eighteen times as of this writing,ten more times than
Tiger.That should tell you that Nicklaus obviously stands alone in
this category.Which is precisely why he was named Player of the
Century in 1988,two years after winning his last major,the Mas-
ters,at age forty-six.
Nicklaus took over the reins from Arnold Palmer in 1962 after
winning the U.S.Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania,
Palmer’s home state.Palmer finished second,and “Arnie’s Army”
was not pleased to see their hero upstaged.In fact,many members