What’s up with that?
How can that be? I always wondered. I throw with my right hand. I write with my right hand. I hit my annoying younger brother with my right hand. Why wouldn’t I use my right hand more to swing a golf club?
And, assuming it’s true that I shouldn’t, wouldn’t it make sense for me, as a right-handed person, to play golf left-handed?
That thought has haunted me ever since. And so when Phil the Thrill, the right-handed lefty, first burst onto the scene by winning the U.S. Amateur and a boatload of college titles (not to mention a PGA victory) as a young amateur, I assumed he was a product of just such a theory. Surely, I thought, someone must have groomed him to play as a southpaw with an eye toward testing this theory – and hopes of turning him into a world-class player.
The truth, as it turns out, is more mundane – but at least as interesting. When Phil was first taking up the game as a wee lad in San Diego, California, he learned to swing a club by standing in front of his father and literally mirroring the elder Mickelson’s movements. At some point they tried to turn him around, to swing the club like a proper right-handed little boy. But Phil was a stubborn cuss, and he would have none of it. So a “lefty” he remained, albeit only on the golf course. But did it make him a better golfer?
When “Weirsy” took up golf later, it only made sense for him to swing from the “wrong” side of the ball – using a partial set of left-handed clubs handed down to him by a family friend. Good thing, too. If none had been available, he may have been forced to turn things around – and who knows where his golf may have led him then. To obscurity? Or to possibly even greater heights? The world will never know.
“Switch-hitting” the other way (lefties playing righty) is more common still. From what I've read, some 15 percent of the population at large is left-handed, only about 10 of golfers overall play that way. This is not likely due, however, to thinking they’ll have an advantage that way; it’s simply because there are a lot more right-handed clubs sitting around in basements and garages. Often, lefty boys and girls are forced to learn on whatever equipment they can find – which far more often than not is right-handed.
This may explain why natural lefties Greg Norman (world #1 for 331 weeks) and Curtis Strange (a back-to-back U.S. Open champion) play right-handed. (The plot thickens!)
So certain questions remain unanswered: What role, if any did “the big switch” play in the success of Mickelson and Weir? (Or Norman and Strange, on the other hand.) Would they, could they, have succeeded as righties? Given he success of these four great champions, is a golfer potentially better off learning to play from the opposite side?
What do YOU think? Is there a potential advantage to be had playing from the opposite side? And if so, would it have to be learned from the start – or could an old dog potentially learn this new trick?
Sound off in the comments section!
UPDATE: Friend of Whiffling Straits the Armchair Golf Blog has published a version of this post HERE.
After some pondering, I'm still not sure about the physics of the righty vs. lefty swing. My swing is so engrained to be righty that its hard to picture any othe way. But I'm sure you'll figure that out and enlighten us (right?). But, I what I can say is that I'm a very visual learner in sports. I picture the golf swing, or jump shot, or pool shot in my head before I do it, or even as I do it. And all my golf teachers were right handed..... so had I been lefty, or chosen to learn lefty, my visual learning style might have been a conflict there... just my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteConsider this though, RobT: If you had been lefty, with right-handed teachers, you could have learned as Phil did, standing in front of them mirroring their movements. Then you could have stood in front of a real mirror to see how your own swing compared. That seems to me about as "visual" a learning method as you can get. Also, do you picture the *result* or do you picture the *motion*? Most people talk about visualizing the result, because that's what you see as you execute. If it's the motion, do you picture it from inside your body or from out? I think it would be hard to picture your own swing from an *outside* perspective. Especially back when you were a kid before television ... I mean, before video cameras. :)
ReplyDeleteAll good stuff. Thanks for weighing in!
As a natural lefty, there is also the fact that we live in a right-handed world, and we probably use our "off" arm more than a right handed person. I played baseball from the right side because I was taught that way. I wasn't as stubborn as Phil. As a teenager, I taught myself to hit and throw from the left side. I was good enough to throw a no hitter while playing intramural baseball in high school left-handed. I am still a better batter from the right-hand side.
ReplyDeleteI started playing golf later in life. I could have played from either side, but I decided to play from the left. After many years, I agree with you, I only see my golf swing from the left side. I can swing from the right side, but I'm not comfortable. It just feels wrong.
One of my favorite stories: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/the-best-golf-story-ever-told-by-an-economist/
An economist friend, who is also an accomplished golfer, recently told me the following story.
He and two friends had made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of golf: the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland. They had managed to secure a tee time and were just about to tee off when the starter stopped them and told them to wait — he had a fourth player who would be joining them. The three friends were disappointed; what sort of schmuck were they going to get stuck with?
After brief introductions, the fourth player asked them what their handicaps were. A handicap in golf more or less corresponds to how many strokes you shoot over par on average. They told him their handicaps, which were three, four, and seven (which by the way, means they are exceptionally good recreational golfers).
The fourth player, who was standing on the tee with a set of right-handed clubs, said “O.K., great, I get my left-handed clubs” — the implication being that if he instead played left-handed, it would be a more even match. He headed back to his car, grabbed a set of left-handed clubs, and true to his word, proceeded to shoot a three over par 75.
Who was this mysterious fourth player? None other than the dashing Spaniard Seve Ballesteros. Golf fans everywhere have been saddened by Ballesteros’s shocking recent battle with a brain tumor.
Awesome story, thanks, Lefty! I love Seve and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if (as is suggested in the article you link to) if playing lefty sometimes helped him with his creative shot-making. Tiger Woods, in fact, hits it lefty on occasion if an escape shot requires it. He says in the interview linked below that he goofs around left-handed around the green all the time in practice. Interestingly, he also comments that when you flip the club over you have to expect less backspin because the grooves are no going vertical instead of horizontal. I never would have thought of that.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pgatour.com/2009/tournaments/r011/05/09/rd3.transcript.woods/index.html
I practice right-handed to get the feel of the swing. I don't try to hit anything, just the occasional weed or patch of grass.
ReplyDeleteI have heard from several club makers that left-handed clubs are much sought after in Canada because of hockey (the Mike Weir section). And yes, lefties in hockey are as valuable as southpaws in pitching. One club maker said that 70% of their left-handed wedge sales were in the frozen tundra.
Being right-handed gives you a much larger selection of clubs (new and used). I envy my friends who can walk into a Golfsmith or Golf Warehouse and spend time looking at clubs and hitting used or new clubs. Lefties have a rack in the back. With the Internet, buying clubs is much easier.
I can't count the number of times I've read a review of a new set of clubs that ends with "only in right hand" at the end.