Mike Austin (golfer)

Mike Austin
Born	(1910-02-17)February 17, 1910 Guernsey
Died	November 23, 2005(2005-11-23) (aged 95) Los Angeles, California
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Spouse	Tonya

Michael Hoke Austin (February 17, 1910 – November 23, 2005) was an English-American golf professional and kinesiology expert, specializing in long drives. He is credited with hitting the longest drive in tournament play (471m/515 yards) in 1974 at Winterwood Golf Course in Las Vegas, Nevada.

His golf swing, known as The Mike Austin Swing, is practiced and taught by current golf professionals such as Mike Dunaway in Arkansas , Smiley Jones in Oregon/California, Dan Shauger in California , Steve Pratt in California , Jaacob Bowden in Switzerland , John Marshall in Atlanta , Heiko Falko in Germany , etc.

The Early Years

Austin was born on the channel island of Guernsey, and at the age of six, was sent to a local golf pro for his first lesson. Later, he claimed this lesson opened his eyes to the secret of the golf swing, known as "the release." It had just rained and the golf course was closed. Perhaps hoping to get rid of the young Austin, the pro handed the boy a "mashie niblick" (a 7 iron) and said, "Take this over to that mud bank and bury the head of the club in the dirt. But if you come back here with any mud on your sleeve I'll kick you right in your rump!" This exercise taught Austin to let the clubhead freely pass ahead of his hands at the moment of impact.

The Austin family moved from Guernsey to Scotland, then to Boston, Massachusetts. After his father suffered a severe auto accident, they moved again to Florida. There, Austin was beset by local boys for being a foreigner and a "Yankee." They lay in wait and beat him mercilessly. Austin's father, Joseph, got wind of what was happening, and sent young Mike to a boxing gym to learn to defend himself. Soon, he was wreaking havoc on his enemies. A short time later the family moved once more, to Atlanta, Georgia, and located close to the East Lake Country Club, where young Bobby Jones was often seen practicing.

At first, Austin sneaked into East Lake to hit balls. The pro there, Stewart Maiden, caught him on the grounds. But instead of banishing him, Maiden said, "You have a good swing. You can practice here as long as you don't come on the weekends." One day, Jones saw Mike driving the ball across a lake that required a 300 yard carry. He said to Austin, "How do you do that?" Austin answered, "I'm not a pro; ask Mr. Maiden -- he'll tell you."

"The Golfing Bandit"

During the Depression, Austin ran a local golf shop in Atlanta during the summer. In the winter he frequented the courses farther south in Florida playing big money games against vacationing gangsters from Chicago. After the first year, they wouldn't bet against him so he found a set of left-handed clubs and played with that handicap. The next year he played one-handed. He often thought up impossible-sounding side bets. Once, he won a $5,000 bet that he could make par hitting the ball with a Coke bottle. His exploits earned him the nickname of "The Golfing Bandit."

Austin also traveled across the country performing trick shots and challenging anyone to try to outdrive him. He said he could hit a variety of shots with an ordinary set of golf clubs. No one was ever able to hit the ball farther than Austin. He told a biographer that he "lived like a maharaja" during that time.

Moving to Hollywood

In the late 1930s, Austin moved to Los Angeles to become a pro at the Wilshire Country Club. When he arrived, the job fell through so he worked at other golf courses, teaching and competing. His roommate was Errol Flynn and they frequented local nightclubs in search of women. Austin also auditioned for roles in movies and eventually appeared in a number of motion pictures. However, his golfing and acting were put on hold when he joined the service. Having never completed U.S. citizenship, he went to Canada and joined the R.A.F. He served as an intelligence officer in Africa, often flying what appeared to be a supply plane as a cover for covert operations. At one point, Austin's plane crashed in a swamp in Africa and he broke both his legs. As water filled the cockpit he saw the waters were teeming with crocodiles. He was rescued before further injuries were inflicted.

Back in Los Angeles, Austin worked to get a PhD in kinesiology, the study of muscular movement, and eventually became a pioneer in that field. He also established a name for himself as a golf teacher and was eventually sought out by Howard Hughes for lessons. He eventually established a gym in Hollywood where he taught boxing, tennis, baseball and golf. The walls of the gym were covered with mirrors which he said sped up the learning process. When he gave lectures about golf he dressed in a tight-fitting black leotard with white outlines of the skeleton. He wanted students to see how the bones were positioned in the correct golf swing.

Setting the World Record

For years Austin was well known by professional golfers for his length off the tee. But it was one drive in 1974 that secured his name in history. While playing in the U.S. National Seniors Tournament, at the Winterwood Golf Course (now the Desert Rose) Austin was put in a foursome with PGA Champion Chandler Harper. After hitting several 400-yard drives, Chandler said, "Mike, let's see you really let one go." Austin drove the ball on 450-yard par 4. It carried to the edge of the green, bounced over and rolled past the pin and off the back edge. In a 2003 interview, Chandler said he found a ball on the next tee box and called to Austin, "This is impossible, but there is a ball over here." They identified the ball as Austin's and stepped off the distance back to the center of the green. The drive was 515 yards. As of 2009, the record still stands for the longest drive in a golf tournament.

Several factors make this record feat especially amazing, although there was a tailwind estimated at 27-35 mph. The drive was done on level ground, using a persimmon wood driver with 10 degrees of loft and a 43.5" extra-stiff steel shaft, the ball was a soft balata and Mike Austin was 64 years old. The improved technology of today should achieve far greater distances in the same conditions.

Controversy About Austin's Teachings

Austin attributed his ability to hit record long drives to two things: what he called "supple quickness" and leverage. He said power came from the weight shift and the lateral motion of the hips, which produced power through leverage. This is different than the teaching of many golf pros, including Tiger Woods, who describe the golf swing as a spinning the hips. Austin believed that this turning motion put an unacceptable strain on the lower back.

Supple quickness was important, Austin said, because it allowed the club head to move freely, and rapidly, through impact. He said that flexing muscle was freezing muscle and would limit a golfer's distance. This is very much in line with other golf teaching which stresses the importance of a relaxed grip.

Another point of controversy was the hand action that Austin recommended in his later years. By viewing early footage of Austin's swing, it appears he uses a conventional method that fans the club face open and then rolls it closed at impact. In later years, Austin told his students to use a "counter rotation" which kept the club face "square to the line of flight" throughout the swing. It is unknown if Austin actually used this swing or only introduced it later, after a stroke made it impossible for him to hit golf balls.

Biography and Instructional Materials

Mike talked about setting the world record and revealed his secrets for hitting it long and straight in his video "Golf is Mental Imagery and Austinology," The videos were produced by Mike Austin, himself.

Details of Austin's life and golf swing are included in the 2004 biography In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing by Philip Reed .

Austin's last instructional DVD, Mike Austin: Secrets of the Game's Longest Hitter, was produced by Peace River Golf .

Other instructional and Austin related materials are:

• Mike Dunaway's "World's Best Driver" DVD
• Dan Shauger's "How to Kill the Ball" books and DVDs
• Jaacob Bowden's "The Mike Austin Swing with Jaacob Bowden"
• Steve Pratt's HitItLonger.com website
• Chuck's MentoredByTheLegend.com website
• DJ Watts' Blog and MCS Golf Swing (never met Mike but based upon the Austin swing)
• The Mike Austin Golf Swing Facebook group

External links

• LA Times - The Man Who Cracked the Code by Philip Reed
• In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing by Philip Reed
• Mighty Mike Austin & the 515-Yard Drive by David Hochman
• Going Deep by Golf Channel's Casey Bierer