In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing

Description

In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing: Chasing the Legend of Mike Austin, the Man Who Launched the World’s Longest Drive and Taught Me to Hit Like a Pro

The tale of an eager golf disciple and Mike Austin, the sport’s most legendary long-driver and keeper of the secret to the most powerful golf swing.

“Can you teach an ordinary golfer like me to drive the ball 300 yards?” With this question sportswriter Philip Reed’s search for the greatest golf swing begins. When Reed met ninety-year old Mike Austin, he knew that Austin held the record for the longest drive ever—an awesome 515-yard shot during a Senior PGA event. What he didn’t know is that he was forging a bond with a man whose amazing life he has now chronicled in a book that is charming, funny, and wise. As Reed’s tutelage under his cantankerous teacher begins, he learns of Austin’s winning wagers on trick shots, sharing a Hollywood apartment with Errol Flynn; giving secret lessons to Howard Hughes; and matching shots against Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. As Reed’s drives get longer, Austin’s health worsens. Mike soon suffers a stroke that silences him, but Reed is sure that Mike wants someone to tell his story—of a man who could do one thing better than anyone else, who possessed the most prodigious golf swing ever. This book is not just for golfers, but for all readers who savor heartwarming stories of unexpected friendships and are eager to learn secrets of living life to the fullest.

In this book, Reed chronicles his tutelage under the cantankerous Austin as his drives get longer and longer while his understanding of Austin’s prodigious legend grows. More than a revealing tale of golfing secrets this is the story about a great man in the twilight of his life handing down a legacy of extraordinary stories, hard-earned lessons, and tough love. In the end, one man’s search for the greatest golf swing leads him to a treasured friendship and the secrets of living life to the fullest.