5 Best Golf Swings Of All Time (Ranked By A PGA Master Professional)
Whittling down the golf swings of legends in the game into a list of the 5 best is a devilishly difficult task, but fortunately we have just the expert to do it
Anders Mankert
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When you consider the wealth of immensely talented players who have teed it up in our sport, picking the five best golf swings of all time is incredibly difficult.
You could argue that some of the best golfers of all time have not necessarily had the most textbook golf swing, but how much does that matter and what exactly should you look for when whittling down the list?
5 Best Golf Swings Of All Time
Anders Mankert is the owner and head professional at Leicester Golf Centre, with a coaching career spanning almost three decades. In 2024, Anders received the title of Master PGA Professional - becoming only the 65th person in history to be awarded that accolade, and in 2025 he was awarded a medal by The King for services to golf and disability sport. His vast coaching experience has transformed the golf swing of many amateurs and professionals, while also striving to grow the game through his revolutionary work at Leicester Golf Centre.
This was a particularly tricky assignment, in truth, because there are always inevitably going to be some incredible players left out who really have a strong shout to be included.
Legends like Nick Price, Tom Purtzer, Steve Elkington, Nick Faldo, Sam Snead and Mickey Wright all could easily have made it into this list, but decision had to be made and these are my top five.
In the end, I went for Tiger Woods, Nelly Korda, Ben Hogan, Moe Norman and Rory McIlroy.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic, as I am sure your list would be different to mine, so pick your favorite and drop me a comment at the bottom of this article. Let's see if we can come to some sort of consensus on this debate.
Tiger Woods
Tiger's career speaks for itself and makes him one of the best players in the history of the game, but I want to focus on Tiger Woods in the year 2000.
He was working under Butch Harmon at the time and his golf swing was simply sublime. He had a tendency when he was younger to get the club too long across the line at the top, which meant the club came down on the inside, flipped his hands and caused a block or a hook.
Butch and Tiger decided to shorten the swing and tighten it right up. They made his grip slightly weaker on his left hand and worked on keeping the club outside the hands in the backswing.
He also flattened his left wrist slightly at the top, which meant he didn't have to use his hands so much through impact.
This was all designed to keep the club in front of his body, in the backswing and the downswing, to stop the club getting behind him and flippy with the hands.
His feel, that he described, was hitting the ball at the bottom of the arc and less handsy at the bottom.
This golf swing helped him to win the Tiger Slam, claiming all four consecutive Majors between 2000 and 2001.
Tiger Woods incredible golf swing powered him to the Tiger Slam between 2000 and 2001
Moe Norman
Next is Moe Norman. As Tiger said, Moe Norman is 'one of only two people who owned their own golf swing fully'.
He is also widely acknowledged as one of the straightest hitters in golf history. Norman had a very quirky setup, with his hands incredibly high and the club around a foot behind the golf ball at address.
He was the original one plane golf swing, which many have aspired to but rarely happens. His biggest attribute was his use of the ground, which is a common thing now, but he was perhaps the first to acknowledge its importance.
He had a tremendous lateral move in the change of direction from backswing to downswing, with a big slide to the left. Most top players do this, but he had this more than most.
His clubhead travelled down the line longer than anybody, according to him, but the videos showed it still exited left but perhaps a little later than most modern players.
Nelly Korda
Nelly Korda hits the ball long and straight - making her one of the best players in the game
This was a tough decision between Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam. As a huge Sorenstam fan, and her golf swing, I've decided to fall on the side of Nelly this time.
Her stats tipped the scales in her favour, as she is one of the best Strokes Gained players from tee to green in the last three years. Her power to accuracy ratio is fantastic and rarely bettered in the game's history.
Korda has an interesting move in the backswing as she lets her head tilt slightly to the right, so her face turns right in a similar fashion to Rory McIlroy.
That move allows her to create even more shoulder turn, perhaps somewhere in the region of 110 to 120 degrees, with very modest leg or hip turn.
In the downswing, with this massive shoulder turn, she has to drive her hips quite a bit - but she has the best posting of the legs in the game.
From that squat position, she let's that lead leg stand up, generating huge amounts of power, using the ground extremely effectively.
The distance that Korda gets, partnered with her consistency and accuracy, make her one of the greatest in the game.
Ben Hogan
Ben Hogan had to be on this list. He is widely regarded by PGA Professionals all over the world as the Godfather of the modern golf swing.
For a relatively small man he generated incredible amounts of power, achieved through unbelievable athleticism.
He was plagued with a hook throughout his career and devised a golf swing to eliminate this issue. This is also what many of the modern day professionals do also.
He changed his grip slightly, around halfway through his career, and won nine Majors with a slightly weaker right hand grip.
That helped to eliminate the left shot, but he also had a huge lateral movement through impact and used his legs incredibly well.
There is an interesting diagram somewhere, outlining the fact that he felt he had a elastic from his left hip to a wall behind him. This snapped back and opened the hips, clearing left and allowing the club to exit left.
All of this was to prevent that left miss, as if he achieved this feeling the club was less likely to flip.
He shallowed it very similarly to Sergio Garcia and his shaft angle returned at the point of impact, almost exactly and sometimes under, to the point at which it started - which was incredibly unusual.
His right elbow at the start of the downswing actually came slightly forward and the clubhead shallowed behind him. His left knee and hip went forward creating a squat, bowed hip action, which is what you see on the greatest players (even today).
He was way before his time and wrote the book on golf swing technique - so rightly included in this list as the best ball striker of all time.
Rory McIlroy
We can't leave Rory McIlroy off this list because his golf swing is the absolute epitome of dynamism and effective creation of torque.
As he takes his backswing, he takes almost 120 degrees of shoulder turn with very little hip turn. That requires impressive physical attributes to achieve, with great flexibility, but he has all that in abundance.
Rory is starting his downswing with his lower half while the upper body is still winding up in the backswing - which is very difficult but adds tremendous amounts of torque.
In the downswing, he gets a real squat. You'll see, if you watch his swing, that his left knee goes downwards and towards the toes of his left foot.
Rory McIlroy's shoulder turn helps him to produce incredible amounts of power in the golf swing
He then posts and explodes upwards, which is a massive power move, allowing him to be one of the longest hitters on tour for years - despite not being the biggest.
All of this is complimented perfectly by a buttery smooth rhythm, as he moves from very wide in the backswing to very narrow in the downswing.
His swing looks effortless, but it's propelled him to a career grand slam win and a place in the history books of our sport forevermore.
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