Swing Analysis: Calvin Peete

 
We all know that Calvin Peete was one of the most accurate drivers of the golf ball who ever played the game. We probably have some memory of Peete’s swing, a bit odd looking due to a poorly set broken arm as a youth, but the main memory is of a ball rolling down the fairway. Peete was the Tour’s leader in percentage of fairways hit for 10 consecutive years, and won 11 Tour events in 5 years from 1983-88 before Tourette ’Syndrome drove him off the Tour and eventually out of competitive golf.
 
Peete’s swing is built around his misshapen arm, and his routing of the club combined with his exotic wrist action in transition and through impact is nothing short of phenomenal. Again, we watch the swing with the knowledge of how good it worked. It would be impossible to predict that kind of success with these swing mechanics. In other words, you can’t really put your finger on anything in particular here to present as a reason or reasons that this swing was one of the most effective and repetitive in history. It really doesn’t seem possible, but it was, and that makes Calvin Peete a total genius.

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