Master The Golf Swing - Let Gene Littler Teach You The Perfect Golf Swing

By Author: Lee MacRae
Total Articles: 27
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He was nicknamed "Gene the Machine" because of his smooth, seemingly effortless golf swing.

Gene Littler played on the United States Walker Cup team in 1953 and then won the U.S. Amateur Championship that same year. The following year he won a PGA Tour event as an amateur, an accomplishment not repeated by another amateur until Scott Verplank did it nearly 30 years later.

Littler was good enough to go on and win the 1961 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills in Michigan when he nosed out Doug Sanders and Bob Goalby by a single stroke. And by the end of his career he had racked up 29 PGA tour wins.

Littler also had 7 senior tour wins under his belt from his time playing on the senior tour in the 80s and 90s. Littler was good enough to be inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990. In part, his plaque reads "Great swings last, and if longevity was the only measure, Gene Littler would have to be considered among the giants of the game."

Yes indeed, what allowed Littler to be so successful was one of the finest natural golf swings the game has ever known. Gene Sarazen called it "a perfect swing like Sam Snead's...only ...
... better," Can you imagine having a swing so good you are compared in any way to Sam Snead? That would be a dream come true for any duffer.

And yet Littler grew up with little golf instruction. His father and mother taught him the game and then then received a second-hand golf lesson as a young teen. Listen as Gene retells it:

"Sam Snead was in the Navy and stationed in San Diego," recounted Littler. "And he would play a different golf course whenever he could. When he would come and play La Jolla Country Club, where I played, I would go out and watch him. I'm not saying I ever swung like him — I wish I had — but he had one of the greatest tempos I've ever seen, and I've tried to do that my entire life."

Littler is obviously being modest as fellow legendary pro golfer Billy Casper said of him, "He had one of the best swings I ever saw and I saw most of the best." Billy also expressed another thought on the golf abilities he and Littler had to develop in their playing days, "They play for so much money now, they go for flag all the time," Casper said. "They only need to catch lightning in a bottle three or four times, and it's a successful year. When Gene and I played, you couldn't waste too many shots. If you did, you didn't make a lot of money."

Gene Littler was not one of those "natural golfers" who simply walk onto a course and swing away. Littler was a self-taught golfer, picking up lessons from watching others as he crafted his game. And one of the nicest things Littler has done over the years is to try and help others to create the same successful swing that helped win on the PGA tour. Gene has authored and collaborated on several books and DVDs designed to teach the system and fundamentals that made him a Hall of Fame golfer. His techniques and "secrets" will lead to success on the golf course for anyone willing to apply them. His latest book is entitled Mastering the Golf Swing and is a compilation of those secrets he gathered over his amazing playing career.

"Gene the Machine" is an amazing golf legend.