Nick was 6'3" and 215 in his prime. He wasn't a small wimpy golfer.
but he was a powder puff hitter, hit it short. But that was his game, accuracy and consistency. He was also one of the greatest of all time, but the game changed and he couldn't change. Golf is a lot more than simply being stronger. Well it was, it is changing. You need to hit it now.
Obviously.
For the golfers following this thread I thought you might find this clip interesting, happens to have Bryson DeChambeau with Nick Faldo doing a little challenge....
Sir Nick Faldo vs. Bryson DeChambeau: Iron Accuracy Challenge - YouTube
Rip- your writing of this article is what led me to finally get a login and post on the board. The golf community is deeply invested in and sold on the use of functional training to improve the strength and "fitness" of golfers. Most facets of the game are fickle, but power is an obvious exception. While I think players and coaches are coming to this realization more and more, it seems they're going about solving for it in the wrong fashion. There are many highly paid and highly reputed "trainers" in the golf world that have a vested interest in maintaining the functional training status quo so I'm very interested to see if this catches on.
We are too.
Compared to today, Faldo was a powder puff hitter. But also remember that part of the reason guys swing differently is that they are basically hitting a small ball with a toaster on the end of the stick. When you have no fear of missing the ball you swing harder. NOt to mention the spin, etc. back in those days was completely different. But Faldo was plenty long for his time. Could he be longer? Sure. BUt he was no powder puff. And Jack Nicklaus was hitting it prodigious distances when most of us were in diapers or not present on this mortal coil. He did ok hitting it.
Also keep in mind a lot of golfers don't appear to swing hard because their sequencing is so good they appear effortless. But clubhead speed doesn't lie.
But whenever people ask me, I always say unless you can't get the club in the right positions, you can never be too strong to play golf. The likelihood of anyone asking that question getting so big that they can't set the club right is so miniscule, yet the number of people who think it will happen to them is unreal.