Open Stance Also Helps Clear Hips

Blake adopted an open stance in the mid-1970s and incorporated it into his swing description in GTTB. He specifically wrote of how the open stance, which turns the hips to about square in the backswing, made clearing of the hips simpler.

About the open stance, Blake wrote:

"Sam Snead repeatedly made the point that golf is a very much easier game if a method is found of getting the left side out of the way; and the general trend in golf, particularly in the short game, has been towards a more open stance. It was a combination of years of brainwashing and a natural inclination not to be too non-conformist that prevented me from pursuing this trend to its logical conclusion. As soon as I decided to take the plunge, however, a whole lot of things slipped into place. It became clear that I had been groping towards the stone-skimmer's shoulder turn, which I described at the beginning of this chapter and which is entirely different from the shoulder turn in either the old Scottish swing or the square-to-square swing and is a completely athletic movement which anyone can perform. I realised that, in some respects, I had been making life unnecessarily complicated, and an open position of the feet made for a swing which, while founded on the principles I put forward in "The Golf Swing of the Future," was very much simpler and very much easier to perform."

Blake's words show that he was still quite certain that his legs were providing his swing power, but I think what you are saying is that he was actually just making a conventional swing, powered by the upper body, easier to perform. Jim
Jim