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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
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 Author:Philip Reed, Mike Austin The tale of an eager golf disciple and Mike Austin, the sports most legendary long-driver and keeper of the secret to the perfect golf swing "Can you teach an ordinary golfer like me to drive the ball 300 yards?" With this question Philip Reeds search for the greatest golf swing begins, and so does his unanticipated journey through ... more »the triumphs, rumors, boasts, and heartaches in the life of ninety-one-year-old golf legend Mike Austin. As a middle-aged journalist striving to learn the simple task of driving a golf ball for distance, Reed discovers the complex soul of the man who has driven it farther and better than anyone elseand did it in his own inimitable way. When Reed met Mike Austin, he already knew that the elder man held the record for the longest drive everrecognized in the Guinness Book of World Recordsan awesome 515-yard shot during the 1974 U.S. National Seniors Open. But what Reed didnt know was that his enrollment in the Mike Austin school of golf would offer him a degree in history, Austin-styleturning pro at age eighteen; winning wagers on miraculous trick shots and earning the nickname of the "golfing bandit"; sharing a Hollywood apartment with Errol Flynn; giving secret golf lessons to Howard Hughes; matching shots against Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, and Chandler Harper; and training todays long-drive champions, such as the mighty Mike Dunaway. In this book, Reed chronicles his tutelage under the cantankerous Austin as his drives get longer and longer while his understanding of Austins prodigious legend grows. More than a revealing tale of golfing secrets, this is a story about a great man in the twilight of life handing down a legacy of extraordinary stories, hard-earned lessons, and tough love. In the end, one mans search for the greatest golf swing leads him to a treasured friendship and the secrets of living life to the fullest.« less