The Late Great Jimmy Bruen

Here's a picture of the great Henry Cotton showing the equally great Jimmy Bruen his idea of proper left hand action through the ball. "Who's Jimmy Bruen?" you may ask.

Jimmy Bruen may be the most naturally gifted golfer to ever come out of Ireland.

Before Trevino, and Couples and Jim Furyk the granddaddy of all loops belonged to Jimmy Bruen. The "Bruen Loop". A plus 1 handicap by age 15, at 16 Jimmy Bruen won the 1936 British Boys Championship with one of the most unique and powerful actions in the history of golf.

To get an idea of how unique and how extreme the Bruen Loop was check this position at the top. Taken from a great article about the Bruen Loop from TeeTime Ireland ( http://www.teetimeireland.com/teetimeireland/history.php?historyid=502 )

Jimmy Bruen Played on numerous Walker Cup teams and his mere presence on the 1938 team is said to have simultaineously inspired the GB&I boys and shook the Yanks up sufficiently to deliver a win for the UK team which would be the last until 1971.

Bruen was the last amateur to lead qualifying in the British Open and also won the 1946 British Amateur after a 5 year hiatus caused by WWII. It is almost certain that Bruen's trophy cabinet would have been crammed to overflowing were it not for the war.

In 1946 Bruen injured his left wrist lifting a heavy garden tile making necessary numerous surgeries on the damaged limb. He was never really the same and that is a shame.

Cotton is said to have worked with Bruen to develope a more conventional swing path and stated that Bruen was eqally impressive with a conventional swing path, but that the Bruen Loop delivered a power that even Cotton was hard pressed to explain. To quote the British I'm "gobsmacked" also.

Below is a beautiful and moving video of Jimmy Bruen. Behold The Bruen Loop!!

Wild Bill Mehlhorn

Wild Bill Mehlhorn was born Decmber 2, 1898 and played the tour in its’ early days. He won 20 times between 19 23 and 1930 including a 5 victory campaign in 1926 and a 6 win season in 1928. Wild Bill never won a major although he came in the top ten in 14 of them. A remarkable career for someone known as one of the worst putters in the history of championship golf.

Stories of Mehlhorn having 10 feet coming back from a 4 footer abound, but tee to green by all accounts he hit it like a god.
Of Mehlhorn Ben Hogan simply said "The best I ever saw from tee to green was Bill Mehlhorn", and from Tommy Armour we get "From that tee to the green he was perfection!"

Among the many people that Ben Hogan took instruction from most people are not aware of the fact that Mehlhorn was one of the few fellas that Old Henny Bogan would regularly call. He'd call Wild Bill just to shoot the guff. Sam Byrd incidentally was another and guess what? Byrd took lessons from Mehlhorn.

In point of fact, Mehlhorn refused to ever charge a pro for a lesson, Byrd among them, but the story goes that a short time after every lesson an envelope stuffed with cash would somehow find its way to Wild Bills doorstep. I guess you could say that the name Sam Byrd was short for integrity.

Mehlhorns thoughts on golf were about the natural movements of the human body and likening the actions in golf to actions employed by all in their daily lives. Under pressure, Wild Bill felt that the most natural of actions would hold up best. Like Vardon and Cotton and Jones, Mehlhorn also believed that the thumbs and forefingers were the critical digits of the hands for feel and precision and I will be talking more about that soon

There is precious little video of Wild Bill, but here is a link to one: http://www.efootage.com/stock-footage/54850/19301930sthirties30s30golfgolfergolfers

I had the pleasure of meeting Bobby Shave who is carrying on the Mehlhorn torch at the PGA Show a few months back and we had a most informative discussion. Thanks for the chat Bobby. You can find Bobby at: http://www.golfwithmehlhorn.com/

You can also find info about Wild Bill at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mehlhorn

The picture above is from Al Barkow’s great book The History of The PGA Tour.

Bill Mehlhorn died April 5, 1989. Although a pioneer on the PGA Tour and also a 20 time winner on Tour he is at present not in the World Golf Hall of Fame. One major would have probably done it for him.

So, a tip of the hat to you Wild Bill. If Hogan and Armour said you were the best ever tee to green then who are we to doubt it?