The Swing
The head
and feet don’t move, but certainly the rest of your body must in the execution
of your swing. It is in this area, more
than any other, the theoreticians have, in my opinion, over-complicated
things. They talk about wrist break,
weight shift, hip and shoulder turn, high finish. Sure, these all are a part of the good golf
swing, but they are matters that need not clutter up your mind.
To my way
of thinking, the swing can be reduced to two very important principles that the
golfer must follow every time he takes a cut at the ball:
- Start the backswing with a smooth, even motion and without breaking your wrists for at least the first foot or so.
- Don’t take the club back beyond your physical ability to keep it under complete control.
Let’s take these points one at a
time.
The
rhythmic start of the backswing without wrist break is what we are talking
about with the popular golf phrase—the one-piece takeaway. If you concentrate on doing this, the rest of
your body will respond naturally to get the club to the right position for the
stroke through the ball. The one-piece
takeaway requires the use of your leg, torso and shoulder muscles. Once in motion smoothly and together, it is
hard for anything to go wrong with the backswing, presuming our grip is sound
and your head is still.
Since your
stance has you in balance, your weight can do nothing else except shift to your
right foot. There is no reason in the
world to even think about it. This is
equally true about the body turn. With
the head and feet set in one place and the club started back as I have
described, the torso, from the hips to the shoulder, has to turn. Your left shoulder has moved up under the
chin.
The other
vital element to which I referred is the compact swing. It means taking the club back only as far as
your body and its muscles permit you to do comfortably and effortlessly. This seems rather obvious, yet so many
golfers overdo the backswing constantly in the mistaken feeling that they must
exert themselves fully to get the most from their swings in way of distance
with the shots. Whenever they go beyond
the easy limit of their physical agility on the backswing, one of two things
happen—and both are bad. The golfer will
either bend his left elbow or loosen his grip on the club. The elbow-bending is particularly common
among beginner and, at times, among older golfers who don’t allow for the less
limber muscles and joints of increasing age.
Letting go of the club to any degree at the top of an overextended
backswing is a very common flaw among all levels of golfers. In either case, once it happens, it is
virtually impossible for the swing to follow the same path back to the ball,
which is almost a necessity for a good shot.
The grip’s
most vulnerable points when extended at the top of the backswing are the last
three fingers of the left hand and the palm of the right hand. And it takes so little loosening to do the
damage. I know, because it once took me
days of practice to discover this when even photographs of my swing and the
keen study of my father, who knows my swing better than anybody else, couldn’t
detect it.
With the
head in the same position, the club taken back as prescribed and kept in
complete control to the top, the downswing and follow-through come naturally.
Let me make
an important point about the compact swing that should help convince you that
there is no real reason to reach beyond your means and control on the backswing
for extra power.
I once took
a five-iron and hit a bunch of shots from the same spot in the same direction
at the same velocity but with three different backswings—my full backswing,
which takes the club back to a horizontal postion, a three-quarter backswing
and a half backswing, in which the club barely gets past the vertical. When all the shots were measured, the full
shots averaged 165 yards, the three quarter shots 160 yards and the half shots
150 yards.
Now, 15
yards, particularly with wood shots and long irons, can make quite a difference
for we pros in tournament competition, where we need every yard we can safely
get. But for the average player,
distance is not so important. The mere ability
to hit a true shot is much more important to him. If he takes a four-iron instead of that
five-iron and keeps the backswing comfortably within his limits, he will be a
lot better off. How many times I have
seen senior golfers, their swings and agility restricted by age, beat the pants
off younger, more nimble players simply because of their compact swings,
playing “within themselves” on every shot.
Not long, but straight.
As I have
said many times, the swing is the easiest part of golf.