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About Mike Austin
Click here for a 4 page article "Mike Austin's Swing Article"
Reprinted from the Los Angeles Times - November 23, 2005
Mike Austin, 95; Set World Record for Longest Golf Drive: 515 Yards
By Peter Yoon, Times Staff Writer
Mike Austin, the world record holder for longest drive in a professional golf tournament, died Tuesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills. He was 95.
Austin is best known for a 515-yard drive made during a 1974 U.S. National Seniors Open championship in Las Vegas, when he was 64. He used a steel-shafted persimmon wood driver and a balata-covered ball and had a 22-mph tail wind. The drive is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Born on Guernsey in Britain's Channel Islands in 1910, Austin lived in Scotland, Boston and Atlanta before moving to Los Angeles in 1939.
Austin relied on teaching and hustling for income. He once won $5,000 when he made a par with a Coke bottle. He won matches while playing left-handed and one-handed. His exploits earned him the nickname "The Golfing Bandit."
Austin earned bachelor's degrees in physics and engineering at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology. He also earned a doctorate in kinesiology at Georgia Tech. He applied his scientific background to develop a swing that relied on efficiency of body movement.
The key to his swing was a concept called "supple quickness," which generated club-head speed by relaxing all the pertinent muscles.
As a teacher he was a lifetime member of the Professional Golfers Assn. of America. Austin, was voted the Southern California Golf Professional of the Year in 1984. He was voted one of the top 50 golf instructors in the United States in 1991 by PGA of America.
"He is the dean of all golf instruction from the beginning of time, as far as I'm concerned," said Mike Dunaway, who won the 1991 World Super Long Drive title after working with Austin. "I worked with him for 28 years, and I learned something from him every time I met with him."
In his early years, Austin played with golfing legends such as Sam Snead, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen.
Biographer Philip Reed said that when steel shafts came on the scene, Snead received a set of clubs from a manufacturer but gave them to Austin saying, "You're the only one who swings fast enough to use these."
Austin suffered a stroke in 1989 that left him partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Still, he taught golf until about two weeks before his death.
Dan Shauger the creater behind the "How to Kill the Ball" and "The 21st Century Golf Swing" worked and studied under Mike Austin for over 25 years.
Without a doubt their Golf Swing Instruction is the most effective and efficient way to swing a golf club.
The best book that has the best background on Mike Austin is Philip Reeds "In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing" This is a a great read if you are truly searching for one of the best golf swings there is.
Mike Austin played with some of the greats of the game including Ben Hogan,Sam Snead, Gene Sarazan and many more.
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