Harold ‘Doc’ Edgerton was a pioneer in the field of stroboscopic photography. You might be familiar with some of his more famous works like ‘Bullet Through An Apple’ or Milk Drop Coronet:
Through his capturing of high speed events like bullets and hummingbirds, Edgerton assisted our scientific knowledge of things. Later on, he also helped the war effort through the invention of aerial nighttime photography for reconnaissance. In the 70’s he joined Jacque Cousteau’s incredible documentation of the oceans and sea life.
He also started filming golf swings in the early 30’s, and had some of the greatest golfers of the era into his lab at MIT for sessions. The great Bobby Jones and Francis Ouimet had their swings captured with such great detail, that they could be measured and analyzed.
It was determined that Bobby Jones was swinging 166 feet per second, which is 112 mph. Not too shabby for the heavier shafts of that era! Interestingly, it was found that most of the professional golfers of the time were hitting upwards on their drives.
Mike Austin had always said that while he was in Chicago a guy had measured his swing speed at the University of Illinois. He claimed that he was the only golfer ever measured who’s clubhead actually sped back up again just past impact. Of course this sounded outlandish at the time.
As it turns out, Doc Edgerton was in Illinois in 1939 with all his equipment. There is little doubt that he filmed Mike’s swing there and determined his clubhead speed at over 150 mph! This has been corroborated by other sources as well.
Today’s long drivers seem to have an upper limit of around 150-155 mph with lighter weight 48″ drivers. So Mike must have had the same powerful physique as a Joe Miller or Tim Burke, but possibly with more efficient technique.
This would also have been the era that Mike Austin crossed paths with Count Yogi, but that is a tale for another day.