The Harry Vardon Swing

Abstract

Today’s competent right-handed golfer knows that he must swing the club with a straight left arm. Our calculations show that any attempt to make the clubhead move with greater speed at impact with the ball by using helping wrist action and particularly by bending the left elbow actually decreases the clubhead speed at impact. My interest in the golf swing would have been limited to the straight-left-arm swing had not a friend informed me that in his reading about the history of golf he had learned that a British golfer of a former day, Harry Vardon, had “a habit he never foresook but compensated for—bending his left arm at the top of his backswing” [25].