About 30 years ago, a good friend’s grandson, then age 6 had developed into a phenomenal young golfer always hanging around the club playing money games even at that age, could hit driver over 150 yards and he was small for his age. Hot Springs VA is 2 hours away and Granddad arranged for grandson to play nine holes with Sam Snead. then in his eighties. Sam made birdie on the last hole to tie the match and when they walked off the green Sam turned to the little boy and said “the next time you’re up here we’re gonna get the bet right before we start out.” Sam then picked up the little boy’s pitching wedge and told him, “to be good at golf, practice hitting this club first, leave the driver be.”

Al is literally a walking encyclopedia of golf history. So important this knowledge not be lost. I always treasure playing with him and being able to ask so many questions. We played yesterday, just the two of us. He's 90 in two weeks and birdied the first hole (par 4) at Metropolitan in Oakland. He was beating me after two holes! Just incredible! That all being said, Brendon did a excellent job putting this video together with the footage etc and asking interesting questions. Well done...

@timhayes8071

Жыл бұрын

Hi John what a priviliged position to be knowing such a golf legend with such knowledge. And what a great man Al is .And he doesnt tell stories he tells the truth and wants people to know that truth before he departs this earth.Also great credit to Brendan

@lagpressure

Жыл бұрын

@@timhayes8071 Al is a national golf treasure...

Brendon I have watch just about all your posted videos. This was so refreshing to listen to Al talking about all of the old golf greats. What a guy. Wish I could sit with some cocktails and listen to him tell stories all day long.

Thank you for the oral narrative history by Al Barkow. This is priceless.

Great historic content. There is real value to this. Excellent interview

Al Barkow may be the greatest golf writer of all time. If you've read his book "Golf's Golden Grind," it's a master work. I particularly love his analysis of Hogan and Snead. They didn't seek each others company yet had the highest respect for each other. He had one particular chapter in his book called "Ben Hogan and Absolute Golf." He referred to Hogan as "Absolute Golf." His chapter on Hogan really captured his impact on golf and the nation in general. Referring to Hogan as "The Grim Reaper" and saying that Snead waved a "light baton." His best passage was when he said that there was little doubt that if Sam had Hogans brain he would have been the absolute nonpareil. Then he said that when a man has the wondrous physical gifts of a Sam Snead the tendency is "To skim over the deep stuff." Beautifully written and analyzed by one of the greatest writers the sporting world will ever know.

Much respect to Al his is definitely part of golf History God bless you Al Thank you 🙏

Brendan what a great interview. Time and time again you give us these videos we didn’t ask for or knew we were coming. This was a great jewel. Thanks for setting this up and sharing.

Interviewed Al 13 years ago, a real gem

very lucky that I got to see this interview. thank you Al

Thank you so much for this. Every word he spoke was like a window into the past! Legends of the game!

My favorite video of yours, ever. Thanks for shooting it.

Heard a great story about his caddy (Jimmy Steed) in Greensboro. Snead was asking what club to hit into a par 5. Steed told him to bust a 4 wood and handed him the club. Sneed hit it to about 4 feet and upon arriving at the green, Snead (jokingly) berated Steed for giving him a club that came up short. Steed said, "Well, I told you to "bust" it and you didn't! The gallery roared with laughter.

Awesome video. Amazing to listen to Al. Please more of this

Sam Snead was awesome player.. the most impressive swing in history of golf …looks so effortless…

@stevefranckhauser7989

Жыл бұрын

His head never moves.

For us golf nerds, this is gold! Great interview.

Awesome interview. I remember Al's commentaries on the golf tournaments when I was a kid.

I could watch this for hours. Thank you.

Wonderful conversation!!!

Thanks for these interviews, Brendon! So good!!!

Great interview. Thanks for sharing.

Al is just so natural and easy going, what a storeroom of knowledge and experience.

Excellent! This one stands out for sure. Thank you.

This was great!! More stuff like this .

Truly Eye Opening.

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for this. x

Great Interview! Lots of things I’ve never heard before. You got to have him back!

What a wonderful man, great stories and great interviewing.Thanks ! I'm going to find out more about Al Barkow.

What an interesting meeting!

Excellent excellent excellent content! Please post more of this type❤

Awesome, Mr Barkow is a gem. Snead does not get enough attention and Mr Barkow is appreciated for his immense contribution. Thanks Al! More more more!

Luv these old timers. YOu need to interview all of them for the next generation.

Brilliant interview

Absolutely riveting. Thank you so much - subscribed.

Outstanding interview! Very entertaining and knowledgeable. Well done

Brandon, excellent interview.

Great conversation!! 🏌️😁

This is really fantastic!

Wonderful!

That was a fascinating chat.

Actually Hogan moved his weight onto his right leg very early in the backswing and before his backswing was finished he was moving weight onto his left side, and In part he did this because his swing was so fast but it was also a very reliable and repeatable way to swing.

@joshuawhittemore1283

Жыл бұрын

Hogan was an amazing golfer and teacher. I loved his books, but found them to be a bit too technical. I preferred the Snead method.

That was fun.

Incredible video Brendan 👍👍

Excellent interview

Could listen to Al tell stories forever. More

Sam snead played the 9 hole country club where i live back in the day and he shot -8 on a par 34 course. Drove the green in the 1950s which was 290 yard par 4 and got a 2.

@BEBETTERGOLF

5 ай бұрын

What a baller

Great content. Keep Al talking 👏

I’ve studied and emulated the swing of Hogan and Snead. Both took hips/shoulders/hand away together the first 45° until the resistance from the squared back foot caused the hips to stop turning. By then the club head mass + momentum pulls the lead arm out straight backwards with so much energy it whips up and back in the direction the toe points automatically effortless pulling the club arm and shoulders the next 45° to the top of the swing at the same time the back leg is allowed to straighten and twist like a torsion bar which gets fired in the downswing by making a slight side bend of the spine to the the right which creates a reactive lateral shift of the hips to the target which allows the front leg to straighten, weight to transfer back onto the instep of the front foot and that torsion in the legs created in the backswing to fire the hips open dragging the shoulders lagging 45° and arm pinned across the chest. Hogan kept his back foot down until the hips reached 45° open and the front foot stop them from turning which also caused an abrupt slowing down of the hands just as they passed the back leg. What happens then is like his car wreck when his car got stopped by the bus; the club head whips down so fast around the hands the shaft bends forward which is the point where Hogan finally very slowly lifted his back heel like unzipping a zipper or pulling apart Velcro which allows the hips, shoulders and hands to move again to catch up with the club head. This action generates much more club head speed and exponential increase in kinetic energy via acceleration than a conventional lagging, sweeping swing. Above the waist that arm which got pinned tightly across the chest in the wide takeaway move flies off towards the target pulling club shaft and head exactly like the sling and rock projectile of a Trebuchet! Stop and consider that the lead has much more mass than the club so when the hips stop and hit the wall’ in the downswing because the back foot is still down you get the combined effect of the lead arm mass flying off the chest down to the target at the same time it causes the club head mass to whip around the hands in Hogan’s swing. Watch Hogan’s trail hand carefully in stop frame videos and you will see he allowed the club force to pull the extension and radial deviation out of that hand at the same time he supinated and put the front hand into maxed out flexion. What I discovered is that combined action locks up the wrists, which what the hands do after impact in a conventional swing if the golfer allows the club force to pull the trail arm straight and forces them to turn over. Except I suspect Hogan learned how to do it earlier in the swing, before impact using the locking of the wrists to very predictably and consistently squarely lock😂 the face to the target just as the ball released off it. I know this because when I started doing it I started hitting dead straight shots. I suspect that if Hogan didn’t discover that cause and effect of locking wrists to square the face to target as ball releases himself his might have copied it from Harry Frankenberg (aka Count Yogi) who became a side-show trick shot act because he couldn’t get on the PGA tour due to the fact he was Jewish and Native American. Frankenberg used a different grip but it did the same thing at impact, locked the wrists up in a way that squared the face to the target as ball released very predictably. Moe Norman, whose swing I also studied, did the same thing with his grip which is why all three of them were so renowned as accurate ball strikers. Not just for straight shots either. Once the technique of locking the wrists in understood and mastered it can be used to lock the face open for fades or closed for draws with the same consistency. The thing Hogan did with the hands at the top of the swing, extending (cupping) the lead hand? That was because if using a flat wrist his club was laid off. Cupping the wrist at the top was necessary for him to get the club shaft parallel and club head in the right position for the downswing, according to Jody Vasquez in the book “My Afternoons with Mr. Hogan.” Vasquez was his practice caddy near the end of his playing career and said Hogan revealed that to him. Try swinging to the top with flat wrist then cupping the right and see what happens… it swings the club in 45° For someone with normal mobility it will swing the club over the top past parallel and I suspect it was one of Hogan’s post-accident compensations.

@swingeasyguy

Жыл бұрын

Oh my god...is this how you analyse how you walk? Just hit the Fucking Ball!

@hb-ze4ug

Жыл бұрын

"I’ve studied and emulated the swing of Hogan and Snead." ... That's as far as I coulda read from yar post. If you spented as much time studyiending these peoples aswinging as studyinging yours, you by now shoulda be twicey as good as them twos. Just sayinging 🙃

@TeddyCavachon

Жыл бұрын

@@hb-ze4ug: For twelve years after retirement I played every day weather permitting, emulating various swing styles which is how I came to understand how and why they work. If you don’t find it interesting or useful it matters not to me because some do. 😀

@hb-ze4ug

Жыл бұрын

@@TeddyCavachon And I bet you're another one of those "analyzers" who believe they can emulate other people's swings. That's a fallacy, everybody swings different. I know you don't even know your own swing just because in searching the truth in others, you forgot to look into yours. You surely would say: "This is how xyz swings," but each one of your tries will look all the same just as your own body would perform. So no, I believe you might be able understand what others do, but can't emulate them at all. Everybody's different and you, as Butch Harmon said, "would have to jump into Tiger's body to swing like him." And you're right, I don't find you interesting, if only to say not you, but your statements are a fluke, 'cause they leak

@TeddyCavachon

Жыл бұрын

@@hb-ze4ug Hey, I don’t disagree with you. I would never say I swung exactly like anyone whose book I read and whose advice I followed starting with Golf My Way by Nicklaus and Getting Up and Down from 40 Yards and In by Watson in the 1980s when I started playing. I also bought and read Tiger’s 2002 book How I Play Golf which has pull out photos of his swing with different clubs from three directions and duplicated them in front of mirrors to try to understand how his swing felt, as close as I could get to being in his body. Read books and you can get into their minds too and be inspired by their experiences and examples. Peace Out 🙏🏼 😀

Love history ♥️

That was a bombshell anecdote on Hogan

@1DCCX

2 жыл бұрын

😬 I guess Al just cancelled Ben Hogan.

@mikedelvesco9553

Жыл бұрын

Hogan was a hardscrabble guy product of poor rural upbringing. Might be a stretch to deem him racist

@JeremiahAlphonsus

Ай бұрын

@@sonny5196 This anecdote makes me like Hogan even more now. Being smart, Hogan knew the catastrophe that integration would bring.

@JeremiahAlphonsus

21 күн бұрын

@@sonny5196 Indeed. And then not sending them back compounded the catastrophe. Look how many formerly great cities they’ve degraded, such as Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit….

@sonny5196

21 күн бұрын

@@JeremiahAlphonsus Cities built using slaves' blood -And let not talk about the indigenous people who had their land stolen by Europeans. Yikes! Go back to Europe!

Good stuff!

I was fully engaged. Hoping for more!

All in respect to Al Barkow - Hogan is not Stack & Tilt. In S&T pressure stays on the left and becomes more before en during impact. Hogan moves into his right and quickly moves to his left. But a common denominator is that Hogan's later swing is oriented around his left. His swing is shorter and the pivot more compact. Left knee moves behind left ankle; left hip moves behind left knee; left shoulder moves behind left hip.

What a nice gentleman 👏 Not many like Al left

Great inside stuff on some of the legends, nothing real dirty or outrageous.

5:50 Rule of 12s! Little poison got the Greatest short game ever.

So cool 😎

Nice job, BBG!

@BEBETTERGOLF

2 жыл бұрын

Thank You! Nice playing at the LA city. LMK of you are playing the Long Beach City this weekend.

@ILUVGOLF

2 жыл бұрын

@@BEBETTERGOLF I played a couple of days with Ashton in the LA City Am. and he encouraged me to play it. I signed up for the Bayonet and Blackhorse tourney in a couple of weeks.

@ILUVGOLF

2 жыл бұрын

Ashton said he knew you. He's a good player. Cool dude, too.

One of your best!

Ok man, u need to sit this guy down and do a few hours of this. Please)

Great

The old head's are the best~!!! Such great storytellers.

It’s like listening to a baseball color man who’s been around the game for decades.

Intresting, what Al said about Stack’n Tilt. I have kind of allways thought it must have been some kind of a misinterpretition and probably a 2-dimension faul not seeing the motion in space from video or relay of photographs. Rather than outer view one should allways figure a motion from the inside and how a particular move feels by the athlete or player Hard to describe a motion from the inside, but it is evident, that it is the only way for people to understand how to and which muscles should fire and when.

"Who are 2 guys proving you can't hit the golf ball without The Holy Spirit Alex?" - Cliff Clavin with Uncanny insight into the human experience 🕊💫

Hogan won the Tam O'Shanter twice.

@samking4179

9 ай бұрын

this old guy has forgotten more than he knows.

This is just incredible stuff. Really sad to hear that a man so respected like Hogan was, wouldn't even go into a locker room w/ a black man. Just sad.

@jj-hb8cy

2 жыл бұрын

Just because someone says something, doesn't make it true or false.

@washredskin887

Жыл бұрын

@@jj-hb8cy Coming from a guy like this, I believe it to be true.

@rickjohnson831

Жыл бұрын

You can't compare to today. Times were different.

No you mistake stack n tilt the tilt is the left shoulder tilting towards the ball the stack is the weight more on your left side it’s the easiest swing to start shooting in the 70’s why people hate on it is beyond me. Keep wacking away ball after ball I’ll shoot good rounds daily

well, really swinging on the inside is not that simple. it is very notable that hogan arched his left wrist to lower the club to the ball, and to enable himself to swing back on the inside. this may sound simple; but, it isn't.

Amazing...grown men who hit a ball with a stick

I knew stack and tilt was bogus and listened to the proof! Hahaha, no wonder all my fellow pros who used it for a year all stopped using it lol.

@LeeTrevinoFans

2 жыл бұрын

that what u got out of it?

5:22 ... see the ball being hit does not mean, keep your head still. it means, keep your eyes on the ball when the club is striking the ball. this guy is a writer and just doesn't get it.

Sam Snead has a point. Heres why, How come Jack Nicklaus who is the greatest Champion ever, never win a Canadain Open? 7 2nd place finishes? That's unbelievable. Is it because he didn't change his game for that tournament or did he witness and suffer losses like everyone else who couldnt win that specific Major? How does a guy like Jim Furyk win the US Open in 03, Back to back Canadian Opens 06-07 and shoot a 58 in 2016, with his unorthodox swing? Sometimes great golfers even the superstars just can't win on that course/Tournament.

Just when I thought I couldn't like Hogan any more.

Two different swings that accomplished the same thing.

Peter Thompson, who won British Open 5 times talks about Snead and Hogan. He was more impressed with The Slammer, nice personality and got along with everyone like a kindly uncle plus he had a nicer swing. Ben was really not that interesting, nothing much there in other words and kept to himself.

Snead had the right to putt out. There was no need for the measurement.

This is what is wrong with the golf world… everyone’s swing is different. People that reach the level of influence where people will listen don’t understand that they are only describing how there own swing FEELS. This only ruins good natural motions that amateurs use.. it’s very sad for golf. There are a number of ways to generate power. The only thing that EVERYONE must do to repeat their swing is complying with the laws of physics. That is all…

Snead will always be greater than Hogan - both in and out of the course

@darbyguns4906

Жыл бұрын

That’s absolute horseshit. Snead was fantastic but hogan beat his azz everytime it mattered

@njd9143

Жыл бұрын

@@darbyguns4906 Snead beat him in the 1954 masters