Saturday, February 21, 2009

Back To The Blog


Well.....after taking some time away from the blog to release Secret In The Dirt I am ready to get back at it.

Thanks to everyone who has picked up the book and to all those who have stopped in to check out the new forum at http://www.secretinthedirt.com/ .

In the upcoming days and weeks I will be talking more about Moe and Ben, but I am also going to be dropping more nuggets about the likes of Henry Cotton, Harry Vardon, James Braid, Ernest Jones, Percy Boomer, Long Jim Barnes, James Braid, and "the best tee to green" Ben Hogan ever saw, Wild Bill Mehlhorn.

So hang on folks because 2009 is going to be a fun ride. We just might learn a thing or two from those old codgers.

To start us off hear is a fantastic video of the great Henry Cotton. Bowden and Aultman called him "The Supreme Hands Player." When you get a look at this little video posted by brokgolfer at YouTube you will see Henry Cotton a hair past his prime no doubt but still in truly amazing form. As mentioned in this video Cotton was to British golf what Ben Hogan was to American. Oh and that is Sir Henry Cotton at the top of this post.








To see what we've been up to at Secret in the Dirt, check out the links below:

4 comments:

jing said...

Hi Mike,

I read through your book which has changed my thoughts on the golf swing immensely.

I have some questions regarding equipment. Of today's clubs, are there any that are similar to old Ben Hogan clubs?

I am a left-handed player so finding old Ben Hogan clubs may be next to impossible, especially since I am based in Asia where left-handed golfers are a dime a dozen.

If you had to buy a set of today's clubs, what would you get? Which old Ben Hogan clubs were the best (apex, percussions, the list seems to go on and on)?

SEVAM1 said...

I really like old Hogan clubs. 67 Percussion model is great and so are the early 60's Power Thrust Models. The leading edges are razor sharp on most Hogan models prior to 1968 when the first Bounce Sole 1+ model came out. I love the Bounce Sole model which was the true precursor to the Hogan Apex and so I would look for these and early Apex models. The leading edges are a little softer which I think is helpful on todays lush fairways.

That said I will be playing some razor sharp Percussions this year.

Left handed models may be tough to find. One thing that I do know is that there were a lot of 1+ shipped to Japan so they may be floating about in other Asian countries as well. I know this because I have a set of Japanese model 1+'s.

The best I can say is keep you eye out on ebay.

If I see an LH models that look good I will post something here.

jing said...

Thanks for your response Mike.

I'll look around for them, though I won't keep my hopes too high. I'm primarily based in Hong Kong where they usually only keep left-handed beginners clubs in most stores.

That being said, I am making a trip to Toronto this summer and hope to buy a new set of irons if I can't find anything here. Are there any clubs outside of the hogan's that you would recommend? Something without the offset problem that you mentioned in your book? What do you think of the new nike blades or whatever?

J

jing said...

Hi Mike,

I was browsing around the other day and found a set of left-handed vintage HB Powerbilt irons. I don't know how they play or anything, but was wondering if you knew anything about them or Powerbilt.