Spanish Champions

Please note all images are under copyrite and can only be used with the agreement of the owner Bill Knowles

Manuel Pinero

Born 1 September 1952

Manuel Pinero turned professional in 1968 and established himself on the European Tour in the early 1970s. He won nine titles on the Tour, the most prestigious of them the 1977 British PGA Championship. He featured in the top ten on the European Tour Order of Merit five times, including back-to-back fourth places in 1976 and 1977.

Piñero competed for Europe in two Ryder Cups. In 1981 and 1985 he captured the scalps of two tough competitors, Lanny Wadkins, and Jerry Pate.

Although not being one of the longest on tour Pinero was able to keep up with his competitors. The significance of this is that Pinero was only 5 foot seven inches tall and 150 pounds weight. The high-speed swing study shows a beautiful flowing swing with one unusual mannerism, extreme head rotation on the backswing. It had no adverse effect on his overall movement and may have even provided him with some extra leverage.

Jon Rahm

Height: 6'2" (1.88 m)

Weight: 220 (99 kg)

Age: 28 (November 10, 1994)

Birthplace: Barrika, Spain

Residence: Scottsdale, Arizona

Currently, the world's number one Jon Rahm is one of my favorite characters to paint. His powerful, dynamic swing action is perfect to create on canvas or paper.

Although his swing action is impressive throughout, I find two areas particularly special. One is Rahm's enormous width. Although many describe his backswing as short I beg to differ. What Rahm forfeits in the height of his backswing summit, he more than makes up for in width.

This view from behind is perfect for studying how much space the Spaniard creates between his hands and torso going back.

The other exemplary part of Rahm's swing is the contact. His left wrist bows outwards and his left forearm winds against the ball. This type of contact is only seen by truly great strikers of the ball. (For fascinating information on contact click the link below).

www.billknowlesgolfart.com

Fifty years ago two prominent teachers, Irv Schloss and Don Fischessor joined together and produced a wonderful series on the golf swing. This is the final article The Dynamics-Irv Schloss In the preceding lessons, you should have learned to grip the club properly, to take your position to the ball, and turn in the backswing. I hope you have spent some time on these lessons and are able to perform them with professional skill by this time. If you have not spent the time, and if you are not able

Most golf swing students will point to the 'clawed' wrist on the top of their backswing of Rahm. They are right to do so. Although we can find other players in both past and present who do this, it requires superhuman strength and should generally not be copied.

For me, the swing of Jon Rahm is the most beautiful on the Tour. It is a natural swing born out of hitting hundreds of thousands of balls

Although Rahm has been coached by a couple of teachers throughout his career it is fairly evident his action is unique and 95% his own work.