POWER VERSUS FEEL

ut as we’ve learned in politics, wonky specifics don’t always penetrate the zeitgeist. There are various reasons weight training and golf remain a counterintuitive fit to many. The suspicion by sports cynics that the hardest weight-training workouts might be fueled by performance-enhancing drugs invites criticism. Also, five-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, uncut and relatively scrawny but better than ever as he hits 40, is strongly endorsing muscle pliability and suppleness over bulk.

Many general-interest sports fans continue to resist considering pro golfers real athletes. Even old tour pros can undermine such cred, as stalwarts from previous eras who never did a plank have a hard time buying into the power game when clichés like “the woods are full of long hitters” still resonate in their heads. Weights are particularly anathema. Gary Player was so far ahead of his time with his lifting regimen that he was still being derided in 1978, after he’d won his ninth major. In the next decade, workout fanatic Greg Norman also got some funny looks.

After winning the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 1976, Johnny Miller bought a ranch and began doing heavy manual work to refurbish it. Over the next few months, Miller put on 20 well-proportioned pounds. golfdigestme. com september 2017

Many traditionalists have a soft spot for all the doughy players who had funky low-speed swings but could perform under pressure and, by the way, never seemed to get hurt. The quality most prized was not power but feel, as evidenced by the twofinger handshake favoured by Billy Casper, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Raymond Floyd and Lee Trevino so that precious digits wouldn’t get unduly squeezed. As a general rule, tour pros avoided strenuous exercise, knowing that in golf, compensations forced on the body can affect a swing groove, making even little in-