How Pigskin and Powder Made Olin Browne

Although he got a late start in golf, Olin Browne is well aware of its hallowed reputation as the “last gentleman’s game.” Indeed, Olin got his start playing prep school football and skiing the snowy peaks of New Hamphsire – a veritable mix of raw strength and fluid grace – but he found his true passion on the sunny greens of Occidental College in Southern California. At Occidental, Olin Browne decided he’d better learn golf after injuring himself playing football. He found he had a real knack for the game, and he just absolutely took to it like a natural. And though to most people golf couldn’t be more different than football or skiing, but it’s obvious that Olin took a lot from both sports to supplement and improve his golf game.

Football rare combination of brutal power and careful strategizing made for a perfect golfer’s mindset and physical skill set. Football gave him the physical strength necessary to hit those long balls, while the critical thinking skills he employed on the football field – where and when to block, intricate offensive playcalling – helped him with his golf game. Olin Browne likes to choose his spots carefully, preferring to strategize on the green and think several steps ahead rather than blast ahead with powerful, mindless shots. This duality of football – the power mixed with the mental – goes unheeded by the general public, who assume that football’s all about physical strength. Similarly, many of the public downplay a golfer’s physical talent and strength, instead assuming that it’s all about strategy and thinking. Olin Browne defies all that conventional wisdom – he’s the former football jock who plays golf smart.

Skiing also informs his knowledge of the game. Olin Browne, who credits Jim Hardy with introducing him to the one plane swing, plays golf like he’s skiing: fluid, smooth, and graceful. Just as he once glided down a mountain face smoothly avoiding obstacles and carving a gentle steady path through the snow, so does Olin Browne swing the golf club with a consistent trajectory, arms and shoulders squared. The result is a powerful, cracking swing, a swing that smoothly and naturally travels a constant spatial plane: the one plane swing.

Additional Resources

Wikipedia Article On Olin Browne
PGA Tour: Olin Browne Profile
SamuiFootballGolf.com