Breaking Down Donald Ross's Golf Swing

What could we possibly learn from an 80-year-old golf swing?

A lot, according to the Director of the Pinehurst Golf Academy, Eric Alpenfels.

For a while, we’ve had a very short clip of the golf swing of famed golf course architect Donald Ross. It’s brief, appears to have been shot sometime in the 1940s, but it can still tell us a lot. And Eric, a Master Golf Professional and an annual choice for GOLF Magazine’s Top 100 Teachers, immediately picked up on a trait that led to Ross’ success on the course. He goes through that in the video above, linking it to standards that are still being taught today.

Note, we said ON the course, not off of it. Ross was an accomplished player and finished in the Top 10 of the U.S. Open five times, finishing as high as fifth in 1903. He placed eighth in his lone British Open appearance in 1910, and won the North & South Open at Pinehurst three times – all before he designed and built Pinehurst No. 2, long considered his masterpiece.

As Eric says in the video above, Ross could golf his ball.

Now we know why.