The Anatomy of Greatness: Lessons from the Best Golf Swings in History

by Brandel Chamblee

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIn the first book from popular Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, the network’s “resident scholar and critic” (The New York Times) explores the common swing positions of the greatest players throughout history—and reveals how those commonalities can help players of every skill level improve their own games.Every golf game begins with the swing. While no two are identical, Brandel Chamblee, the highly regarded television analyst and former PGA Tour professional, once noticed that the best players of all time have shared similar positions in each part of the swing, from the grip and setup to the footwork, backswing, and follow-through. Since then, Chamblee, a student of the game’s history, has used scientific precision and thoroughness to make a study of the common swing positions of the greats. Now, in The Anatomy of Greatness, he shares what he has learned, offering hundreds of photographs as proof, to show us how we can easily incorporate his findings into our own swings to hit the ball farther, straighter, and more consistently.What does it tell us that the majority of the greats—from Jack Nicklaus and Byron Nelson to modern masters like Tiger Woods—employ a “strong” grip on the club? How did legends like Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Mickey Wright, and Gary Player unlock hidden power and control by turning in the right knee at address? Why are some modern teachers preaching quiet footwork when forty-eight of the top fifty golfers of all time lifted their left heels on the backswing, allowing them to build power? At the same time that Chamblee is encouraging certain swing virtues, he also debunks a number of popular—but misguided—swing philosophies that have been hindering golfers for years.The result is perhaps the best and clearest explanation of how to hit a golf ball ever published. Golfers can take The Anatomy of Greatness to the driving range and use Chamblee’s clear explanations to build better swings—and get more speed and consistency into their swings—immediately. This book is like having a series of private lessons from the best golfers of all time, and it will help golfers build swings that make the game easier and more fun.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2016

Reviews

[Criss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever look at swings from the past greats and compare them to today’s players? Ever wonder why we don’t see more of those swings today? Brandel Chamblee must be wondering the same thing too.

If you’re into golf, you probably know Brandel Chamblee. Perhaps not as the first round leader of the 1999 Masters. But more as the lead analyst for The Golf Channel. His reputation of an analyst isn’t always a glowing or popular one. He can be known to troll at bit on social media, and has been known to block people at the slightest disagreement.

You know what? The guy does a ton of research, his points are often well backed by facts. As much as you may not like him, he’s usually right and tough to debate.

In comes his book, The Anatomy of Greatness. Mr. Chamblee takes a look at the golf swing and shows time tested methods of what has worked for the best players. Players from Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Micky Wright, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Annika Sorenstam and Tiger-Slam era Tiger Woods are all on display.

Using the pictures he best thought backed his points, Chamblee goes across the entire golf swing; from the grip to the finish, looking at what has worked best for these players.

Interestingly enough, a lot of this goes against current modern teaching. Where a lot of teachers will advocate for a neutral grip, Chamblee shows the strong grip is consistent amongst great players. Where modern teachers will tell you to put the ball in different spots depending on the club, Chamblee shows how a player like Jack Nicklaus actually hit every club from the same ball position. Where modern teachers stress a straight back, Chamblee shows how that a slightly curved back has actually been preferred.

A lot of people have dismissed Chamblee on various his points. Some suggest his lack of big time success doesn’t make him qualified to make the comments he does. I never bought that argument. Great players don’t necessary make great teachers; and the best teachers aren’t always the best players.

What The Anatomy of Greatness gives is clear, concise, and solid examples of how some of golf’s all time best went about playing the game. A lot of the examples in the book are not what you see on PGA Tour practice ranges nowadays, but it’s hard to argue the roster of Chamblee’s examples.

So, do they actually work?

After finishing the book I went out to the range and decided to change my entire setup based on Chamblee’s book. I’ve been struggling a bit in the early season; especially so with the driver. I was looking for a fresh approach to the swing and see if it worked.

Wedges worked immediately. The rest of the bag took some time, and I may have more work to do with the long irons. But I must say, I hit some of the longest drives I’ve ever hit. This after just one 30 minute range session and 9 holes of play.

I was able to get this book out of the library, but I will be purchasing it after my positive experience incorporating the techniques. If the techniques worked for Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus, they must be pretty good, eh?

[Craig LeVasseur · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded down. The blurbs selected for the book had a common theme of emphasizing Chamblee's merits as a scholar, which is not surprising given Brandel's penchant for positioning himself the same way in his Golf Channel appearances. This is not a fully accurate portrayal of the author, though. He's a purveyor of contrarian takes, and the abundant research he puts in is to find evidence backing up those takes, rather than for the purpose of making sure that his beliefs are correct. If that were the case, Brandel would frequently address counterpoints to his arguments, or admit instances in which he was proven wrong. But like his TV appearances, this book, too, unfortunately feels like a several contrarian takes on the golf swing.

Consider that so many of the points of instruction made in the book claim, really just about all of the claims, to be things that modern teachers and players don't believe to be correct. The modern grip is too weak, falsely modeled after Ben Hogan's. The modern player restricts hip movement too much, wrongly initiating the swing from a static position. The modern player has the wrong posture, too straight of a spine at setup. The modern player doesn't have enough head movement or left heel movement, again restricting movement. It would seem that other than Tiger Woods, there isn't any modern golfer doing things properly, or anything about the modern swing that works. Which is strange, really, considering that Bryson DeChambeau recently shot -28 for a tournament total (on a course well over 7000 yards, mind you) and still lost! If Brandel were to attribute the incredible scores of modern players to modern equipment and technology, that would be one thing, but he has reliably been in the camp of the equipment not being a major factor in the advancement of today's game, and there being no need for a rollback of the ball or driver technology.

It was hard to pick out just about any point of emphasis, really, that went along with consensus thinking about the swing. I guess maybe that would be too boring for a book or not making it necessary to write, which is a shame, because there were moments in the book that I thought he had a unique way of describing the movement that helped a lot with my visuals. Consider the instruction of "cupping" the left wrist at the top of the backswing. I feel like I understand this concept, but can never get a grasp on what that feels like or if I'm doing it right. When discussing the grip, Brandel states that a cupped wrist at the top, with a proper grip at setup, should feel like the club is resting directly on top of your left thumb. I immediately could picture that, and then do a practice swing and know that I was recreating the feeling.

So I do think that Brandel is someone willing to do the research and put in the work. I just wish he would feel satisfied laying out well-researched and excellently-worded claims, whether they be common knowledge or views held by a consensus, and not simply just focusing on being the guy with contrarian takes or being the only right guy in the room. We're all suffering for it.

[Bob Mcbobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this much more than I expected to. I think Chamblee is a tool who likes to spew nonsense for the sake of clicks or views (or maybe just wrongly fancies himself an iconoclast). I only read this on the recommendation of a friend.

I think I enjoyed this because there isn’t much of Chamblee’s original thoughts in this book. It’s simply analysis of commonalities among the best golfers ever. Kind of like a book report, but with lots of pictures. It’s a very quick, easy read. I think the most interesting takeaway is that a lot of modern swing teaching differs from the way the all time greats swung or swing, and that maybe we shouldn’t dismiss their techniques so quickly.

[Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps too advanced for a newcomer of the game, the Anatomy of Greatness attempts to dissect the swings of the classic and modern greats.

The author "debunks" a few misconceptions beginners, amateurs and even some trainers have about an efficient golf swing.

Although I had difficulties fully understanding some concepts as a complete beginner, the books has many illustrations and photos that I found helpful. I skimmed over the book but still felt that I got much out of it and more prepared for the next step in the learning process.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. I have now read it twice. This is a book worth buying and working through slowly. Each chapter contains clearly actionable steps to improve your golf swing.

Brandel has the courage to say things that should be said. He is willing to be critical of today's Tour pros, which says a lot about him. He's also positive a lot of the time -- it's not just the negative stuff. He does praise Tiger and others plenty.

[Ted Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big fan of this book! As a movement nerd, this was the book Id been craving without knowing it. To use basic human movement concepts to explain common tendencies of the game’s greats, perfectly matched the way I want to learn the golf swing. Tried, true, simple and straightforward. I appreciate how succinct Chamblee was, knowing that there are probably many other approaches and ways of feeling a concept that have worked for other teachers to explain some of these things.

[John Matthew IV · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about golf swings. It does not have stories about Brandel playing, or his golf swing. It doesn't really have any stories but lots and lots of photos about each aspect of the swing of the greatest players of all-time. It is meant to be instructional. You almost have to read it with a golf club in one hand.

I think it very useful for anyone wanting to improve their golf swing. While there are many ways to hit a golf ball, the best have many similarities that we can learn from.

[Lyle Bowlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Common sense backed with evidence

I highly recommend this book to any golfer who wants to see actual evidence from some of history’s best golfers the basics of building a repeatable swing. Once you implement these common sense changes you can begin to work on the finer points, but unless you star here; frustrations will remain part of your game.

[David Meriwether · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swing instruction from the Classics

Clearly written with ample illustrations from the greats of golf, Chamblee makes his case for the return to the traditional golf swing as a cure for the quick fixes and modern power theories. As usual, you have to be a Chamblee critic not to agree with him on this one, and you will dismiss this book to your own worse scores.

[Sara Bentele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

There is a lot out of good information on this book and the illustrations are helpful. Well written and organized.

[CherylR · Rating 4 out of 5]

compact

Brandel Chamblee takes the great golfers of all time and breaks down their swings to explain what is best done in the golf swing. A good book. Good illustrations.

[Bill Fairchild · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good - confirmed what I thought about the basics

[Gerald Matzke · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the introduction of the book, the author says that this is a book that should be read slowly, thinking through and putting into practice the sections devoted to each part of the golf swing. He takes apart the swing and describes how the greats of the game shared various moves. This is a book for anyone who wants to take his or her game to the next level. It is quite technical which is why it should not be read quickly. It would not be good for a beginner but it would be useful for someone who is working with a beginner to help them get off to a good start by simplifying the technical jargon. Lots of pictures help to make this a great instructional book.

[Chan Sik Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing can beat "Imitation of Greatness"

Very much enjoyed reading this history of greatest golfers's move, including our kings of the game of golf, Ben Hogan, Sam Sneed, Jack Nicklaus, to name a few.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and worth reading more than once

I really enjoyed this book - an eloquent, interesting and extremely useful explanation of the sequence of the golf swing, as seen through the actual swings of the game’s greatest players.