Front View of the Address. The Head Should Be 
 Turned Slightly Away. 
 
GOLF 
 
 FOR BEGINNERS — AND OTHERS 
 
 BY 
 
 MARSHALL WHITLATCH 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 MCMX 
 

 Copyright, 1910, by 
 OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 C CI. A •? 6 1 - J 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 "When I get very old and feeble and my joints 
 creak and I begin to find croquet too strenuous 
 a pastime, then I may take up golf." This was 
 my answer to the first invitation I had to play 
 this game. I felt that to ask me to take up a 
 game suitable only for mollycoddles, as it then 
 seemed to me, was asking too much; I, who had 
 been intensely interested in athletic sports ever 
 since I could remember — baseball, football, row- 
 ing and what not. 
 
 I can remember how my lip curled with disdain 
 when I saw the red coats and knickerbockers. 
 
 It was up in Connecticut, a few miles below 
 New Haven, at a summering place called Wood- 
 mont, that the above remarks were made, and it 
 was to a young lady that they were addressed. 
 However, I was inveigled into watching the 
 game. We reached the first tee and she made a 
 little mountain of sand about two inches high and 
 
 5 
 
GOLF 
 
 asked me to get a ball out of the pocket of the 
 bag. I did it rather awkwardly, as the whole 
 outfit was strange and I wasn't interested. I 
 remember how critically I viewed the old Silver- 
 town gutty ball as I took it out of the bag and 
 bounded it on the bottom of one of the clubs to 
 see whether it was lively or not. 
 
 I handed it over and she put it on the mound 
 of sand, which still further prejudiced me against 
 the game and convinced me that there was no 
 doubt of its being suitable for mollycoddles ; why, 
 they didn't even give the ball a chance. In base- 
 ball the ball had a look in; it took some skill to 
 hit a ball in motion and still more if it had a curve 
 and was coming fast. 
 
 She took out a driver — she explained that was 
 the name of the club selected — and then began a 
 still further preliminary course of action in the 
 nature of trial swings, shifting of grip, gage of 
 wind, light, humidity, and doubtless a hundred 
 other things, till I was thoroughly disgusted. If 
 they did all that in order to hit a miserable little 
 white pill on a mound they were carrying the 
 thing to absurdity. 
 
 6 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The young lady said nothing, but swung and 
 hit the ball with a sharp clicking sound and we 
 were off. The ball went about a hundred yards 
 and had an inshoot. "Gee! see it curve!" I ex- 
 claimed, and then she said in answer to my criti- 
 cism that the ball didn't go very far for all the 
 trouble she had taken: "I have been off my drive 
 for over a week and have been slicing right along, 
 but that was rather a fair drive, and I'll wager 
 a box of candy that you cannot do as well." 
 
 That was more than I could stand, and I took 
 the candy against its equivalent in cigars. I 
 took another ball out of the bag and asked if I 
 could baby it up on a mound of sand as she had 
 done. "Certainly." Well, I did. No foolish 
 preliminaries for me. I swung at it with a force 
 that would have sent a baseball over the outfield 
 fence. My hat flew off, and I felt as though I 
 had broken my collar-bone. My fingers tingled, 
 and I was dizzy. Laughter brought me to my- 
 self, and glancing at the mound of sand I saw 
 that white, clean ball still resting there. That 
 roused all the fury in me. I hated that ball then, 
 and I have yet a lingering suspicion of all balls, 
 
 7 
 
GOLF 
 
 and am always on my guard in their presence. I 
 had lost my bet, and the remark that "It isn't 
 as easy as it looks" only added to my discom- 
 fiture. 
 
 Ha! thought I, it's a game of wits. I had bet- 
 ter see how the trouble had happened, and I 
 walked away from the ball, as she had done, and 
 took a more cautious swing at a blade of grass. 
 Missed that, too. Saw the trouble now, and hit 
 the grass next time. Now I could hit the ball. 
 I swung good and hard and reached for it and 
 connected. That drive was my undoing. The 
 feel of the club sinking through that ball and the 
 way that ball traveled sent a thrill through me 
 that I'll never forget. 
 
 That was ten years ago, and what time I could 
 spare from business since has been spent on the 
 links. Rain, snow, or sunshine, I have had more 
 genuine pleasure at the game and met more fine 
 fellows than at all other sports combined; I felt 
 very far indeed from being a mollycoddle, and I 
 think there are enough converts already to justify 
 us in calling golf the national business men's 
 game. 
 
 8 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Balance the Foundation of Golf 15 
 
 II. Getting the Power Into the Ball 35 
 
 III. Looking at the Ball 43 
 
 IV. The Follow Through 53 
 
 V. Fundamentals of the Swing 67 
 
 VI. Accuracy — Not Distance 77 
 
 VII. Getting the Ball Up . . 89 
 
 VIII. Making the Swing 105 
 
 IX. Making the Swing (Continued) 119 
 
 X. Ease Rather Than Effort 133 
 
 XI. The Part the Body Plays 155 
 
 XII. The Vardon Grip 165 
 
 XIII. Playing the Cleek 175 
 
 XIV. The Midiron Shot 211 
 
 XV. What You Can Do With the Midiron .... 223 
 
 XVI. Use of the Mashie 239 
 
 XVII. With Jigger and Niblick 257 
 
 XVIII. On the Putting Green .... > :«'••-• 271 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Front view of the Address. The head should be turned 
 
 slightly away Frontispiece " 
 
 Top of Swing for the Driver or Brassey . . Facing page 18 * 
 
 Following Through in the Drive 28 >' 
 
 In the Lower Part of the Swing the Club Head is moving 
 in a very Flat Arc 38 
 
 The blurred image of the ball shows that it does not rise at 
 a very acute angle. (See Page 73) 48 
 
 The position of the hands shows how long the effort is con- 
 tinued to keep the club head against the ball . . . 58 
 
 Side view of the Address. Note how low the hands are held 
 and also the incline of body. (See Page 106) ... 68 
 
 At the moment of striking the ball 78 
 
 Shows the relative positions of club head and hands at the 
 
 moment of striking the ball 84 ^ 
 
 Finish of Stroke. The incline of the body is the same as in 
 
 the address and at the top of the swing 92-'' 
 
 Imagine the club head moving rapidly and note how slowly 
 the shoulders must move in proportion 100 
 
 The Address from overhead, showing angles and lines of mo- 
 tion as they appear to the one driving. (See Page 99) . 110 
 
 It is a mistake for older men to address the ball as though 
 
 they were trying to aim along the shaft 120 ' 
 
 This is an easier way for older men to address the ball . . 134 
 
 Bird's-eye view of the finish of the swing 144 
 
 First stage of the Vardon Grip 166 
 
 The Vardon Grip completed 166 
 
 Top of the swing for a full Cleek shot ....... 176 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Address with mid-iron or cleek for the " picked " shot . . 184 v 
 Address with mid-iron or cleek for the squeeze shot. Note 
 that the lowest point in the swing will be ahead of the 
 ball 192 l 
 
 Follow through with the cleek, using the squeeze shot. (See 
 Page 193) 200 
 
 Address for the running up shot with the mid-iron . . . 224 
 
 Top of swing for running up shot with the mid-iron. The 
 club is dragged forward rather than pivoted at the wrists 
 and comes down mostly of its own weight 224 
 
 Striking the ball in running up shot with mid-iron. The 
 effort is made downward and the club does the work . 224 
 
 Finish of running up shot with mid-iron. Note that the toe 
 of the club is pointing up 224 
 
 Address with the mashie for the squeeze shot. The lowest 
 point in the swing is opposite the pivotal center and 
 ahead of the ball 240 
 
 Address with mashie for squeeze shot. Note that the lowest 
 point in the swing will be ahead of the ball .... 246 
 
 Address with mashie for "picked" shot . 252 
 
 Address with niblick for squeeze shot 264 
 
 Following through in the high pitch shot with niblick. Keep 
 
 the eyes on the ground 264 
 
 Using the niblick in a bunker. Play the sand rather than 
 the ball 264 
 
 The high-pitched shot with the niblick. Don't be afraid, to 
 bend the shaft 264 
 
 A way of putting which, helps the player relax • * «' . 272 
 
BALANCE THE FOUNDATION OF 
 
 GOLF 
 
GOLF 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BALANCE THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 GOLF hit me hard at the start. I had the 
 fever as thoroughly as one could get it. 
 I talked golf when I could and I 
 dreamed golf when I could not talk it. Every- 
 one I saw with a golf bag seemed a personal 
 friend of mine. 
 
 I had only one day a week when I could play, 
 as my business did not allow of any other time, 
 but at odd moments I pored over Vardon's ar- 
 ticles in the golfing papers and also Taylor's. 
 Vardon was making his memorable trip through 
 the country that year and I knew every wrinkle 
 on his hand, as far as one could learn from photo- 
 graphs. I had only Vardon clubs, an enterpris- 
 ing maker having put out a line with his name 
 
 15 
 
GOLE 
 
 on them. I bought all the papers which pub- 
 lished golfing news and knew Vardon's every, 
 move. I marveled at his skill, as many; a golfer 
 has done. 
 
 If I could play; golf but once a week, that 
 didn't prevent my practicing at home — nearly 
 every evening I went out in the kitchen after 
 the maid had gone upstairs and I was at it. I 
 had the photographs of great players on the 
 kitchen table, and I was sure I was doing every- 
 thing according to the book. I committed all the 
 instructions for playing to memory and was dead 
 certain I observed them all. Hour after hour I 
 went through this practice, but when I got out 
 on the links my finely-trained strokes wouldn't 
 work. Mornings I would be beaten invariably. 
 Afternoons I would give up form and get there 
 any old way. I always did better afternoons. 
 
 During the following week when I got home 
 at night from business I would start all over 
 again to reconstruct my theories and develop 
 form. Form was the only way to become a 
 golfer. I made up my mind that I would culti- 
 vate the correct way to play if I never won a 
 
 16 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 match. I persisted for over two years in this 
 endeavor, with but a slight improvement in my 
 game. The fellows I played with, who took up 
 golf at the same time I did, were allowing me 
 four and five strokes, and I was discouraged. 
 
 Finally I decided to discontinue trying to fol- 
 low others and build up a method of my own, 
 founded on sound mechanical principles. I was 
 always a good mechanic, and the same application 
 to my own ideas that I had given to others began 
 to show in my play. My game steadied and my 
 improvement was regular. I was on the same 
 handicap basis as my friends in a few months, 
 playing only when they did. In the fall I con- 
 ceded three strokes to them. I have been im- 
 proving ever since. 
 
 I really believe that the time spent in trying to 
 copy any one's style or in any way trying to 
 play imitatively is wasted. To be coached by a 
 professional will sometimes help in calling atten- 
 tion to a fault which the player has unconsciously 
 developed and to have him furnish suggestions 
 which may tend to make the playing of certain 
 shots easier I think is a good idea. In such cases 
 
 17 
 
GOLF 
 
 go only to a first-rate player, and instead of hav- 
 ing him stand by and watch you try to develop 
 a swing or cultivate form in sixty minutes, get 
 him to show you the principles or explain the 
 less obvious shots such as playing out of long 
 grass, sand, mud, and water. There is a knack 
 about playing shots of this kind which it would 
 take endless time to learn without help or a sug- 
 gestion from some one who understands them. 
 
 In the case of young folks in their teens I 
 consider that they have the imitative faculty so 
 strong that if a really fine professional takes hold 
 of them when they start he will make golfers of 
 them. For the average person, however, I doubt 
 if anything but playing the game itself will ever 
 be of advantage. No two people will ever swing 
 at a ball in the same way. Each one develops a 
 different set of muscles, due to his environment, 
 and a method of playing golf used by one man 
 who has developed one set of muscles and is 
 naturally strong in them would be of no value 
 to another player who has not developed that set. 
 Golf is essentially individual ; let any one hit on a 
 method of playing that will produce results and 
 
 18 
 
:« 
 
 ■*[r Z* : **\ 
 
 
 1 SB^liM iiP. * 
 
 Top of Swing for the Driver or Brassey. 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 become sufficiently skilful, immediately a new 
 school is started. 
 
 The first step of all is to decide just what you 
 want to do and refuse to be persuaded to change 
 your method every time you find yourself off 
 your game. It is my purpose in this book to call 
 attention to those things which, no matter what 
 your form or method may be, must be observed 
 in making a stroke, as they are fundamental 
 principles. Much confusion arises in the mind 
 of a beginner from the endless list of instruction 
 regarding the grip of the hands, the position of 
 the feet, the position of the ball, and the style 
 and weight of clubs, length of shafts, keeping 
 the eye on the ball, following through, and what 
 not. I have tried conscientiously to think of six 
 or eight things at once in endeavoring to play a 
 shot, and it cannot be done. It requires intense 
 concentration for just an instant in golf to make 
 a stroke successfully, and the thing to do is to 
 determine just what you must concentrate on and 
 stick to that. 
 
 My object in this chapter is to bring out what 
 I consider the foundation of a stroke with any 
 
 19 
 
GOLF 
 
 club, and that is the matter of balance. As any 
 part of the stroke, no matter whether it is the grip 
 of the hands, the turn of the wrists, or any of 
 the details which compose a swing, is rendered 
 of no value if the player loses his balance in the 
 delivery of the stroke, I think no one can 
 gainsay that balance or equilibrium, or center of 
 gravity (call it what you will), is the more im- 
 portant. A stroke may be partly saved by a 
 heroic effort sometimes, but no properly played 
 stroke is ever made when the balance is not main- 
 tained throughout the swing. 
 
 To keep one's balance may seem simple enough, 
 and the majority of golfers will say that they 
 do. True, indeed, they do; they waste the ma- 
 jority of the effort of their swing in doing it. 
 Comparatively little of the energy expended goes 
 into the ball; most of it goes into a death grip 
 on the club, one leg trying to maintain the bal- 
 ance which the other leg is trying to disturb, a 
 stiffening of the arms, shoulders and countless 
 other losses, and a wild endeavor as the club nears 
 the ball to throw everything into it and get the 
 ball away anyhow. When the ball is struck the 
 
 20 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 instinctive effort is to restore the equilibrium by 
 pulling in the arms in order to keep from f ailing 
 over. Every beginner I ever saw had to be 
 warned to go at it easier. Now if the experience 
 of all good players agrees that this is so, be 
 sensible and at least consider what they say. All 
 golf wisdom boiled down will only teach you to 
 "master yourself." 
 
 That is where golf is so peculiar. This is the 
 real foundation of golf, but I despair of ever 
 putting that clearly enough before any one to 
 have him understand it, so I start with the matter 
 of balance, presuming that it is useless at the 
 outset to try to bring out the philosophy of golf. 
 That will be learned in what some one has called 
 "the seven years it takes to become a golfer." 
 
 Few experienced golfers will deny that a little 
 energy well directed and smoothly applied will 
 drive the ball farther than a more vigorous effort 
 which does not connect the ball and the center 
 of the club. The more easily the balance is pre- 
 served, the more freedom you will have for the 
 making of the stroke. If you can devise some 
 way of keeping your head in one spot, by that I 
 
 21 
 
GOLF 
 
 mean not swaying the head, your eyes will be 
 able to see the ball (the object to be struck) 
 clearly. To illustrate what I mean by keeping 
 the head in one spot : 
 
 You will remember that when you have your 
 photograph taken in a gallery the photographer 
 places a rest back of your head, with a couple of 
 prongs on it, to keep your head from swaying 
 to the right or left, or up and down. Your 
 head occupies one spot or position with reference 
 to the camera. If the man jars the camera so 
 that it sways during the exposure of the plate 
 the image will be blurred, more than when you 
 sway your head. Now, then, if your eye repre- 
 sents the camera and the ball the image, the more 
 successful you become in keeping your head in 
 one spot the better chance you have of seeing the 
 ball clearly. No matter what method you use, 
 this one thing must be mastered if you ever ex- 
 pect to play golf well. Certainly anything which 
 tends to destroy your balance will make it im- 
 possible to see the ball clearly, and you cannot 
 do this if your head moves from the spot you 
 started from. 
 
 22 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 You will find from experience that you cannot 
 keep your head in one spot if you stiffen your 
 muscles in any way. Keep your mind on keep- 
 ing your head in one spot, as I have described, 
 and you will correct a hundred errors into which 
 you would otherwise drift. It will make you 
 loosen up unconsciously. It will prevent you 
 from making any sudden exertion which would 
 tend to destroy your balance and thereby make 
 your head sway. It will cause you to finish the 
 stroke smoothly, naturally and easily, and thus 
 prevent slicing, because you will not have to draw 
 in your hands to restore your balance, as you 
 will not lose it. 
 
 Regardless of how much you perfect your 
 style, you cannot develop any method which will 
 not require you to keep the head still so that you 
 can see your ball clearly. It is worthy of notice 
 that I have never seen any first-class player or 
 even a good player who did not observe this 
 fundamental principle, and there are endless 
 methods of swinging at a ball. Jerome D. 
 Travers told me on his return from the West 
 after winning his first national championship, 
 
 23 
 
GOLF 
 
 in answer to my question as to what particular 
 thing he kept his mind on most during his 
 matches, that he kept repeating to himself as he 
 walked up to the ball at each shot, "Keep your 
 head still," "Keep your head still." This con- 
 vinced me that it was the most important thing 
 to be observed, and I can say that my improve- 
 ment was more rapid after I began to master 
 this one item than as a result of all other details 
 put together. Now when I make a poor shot I 
 put my entire attention on the next stroke to 
 keeping my head still, and I find it gives the 
 desired result. 
 
 You cannot play "hard" and observe this fun- 
 damental rule. When you stand with your legs 
 spread rigidly apart and the muscles braced for 
 the effort of your stroke, you will find at the very 
 first attempt to draw your club back from the 
 ball that unless you relax the muscles your head 
 will move. Stand in front of your mirror, or, 
 if out-doors, stand so that your shadow is cast 
 toward the ball in front of you, and you will 
 find that the muscles all over the body, with the 
 exception of those which hold the head in position, 
 
 24 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 must be relaxed or you cannot keep the head still 
 when you are making your stroke. Allow this 
 fact to sink into your mind and absorb it thor- 
 oughly, and then you will find that many of your 
 faults will disappear. 
 
 From the foregoing it is obvious that it will 
 be next to impossible to introduce a jerk or a 
 sudden violent effort into any part of the swing 
 without disturbing the balance or moving the 
 head. You cannot jerk the club away from the 
 ball and keep the head still; you cannot swing 
 back too far, or too short, or any way other than 
 is natural to your particular physique. No two 
 persons have the same frame or type of muscles 
 or equal physical development, and it is useless 
 to try to give any rule for these details. Work 
 them out for yourself, but the keeping of the 
 head in one position is the base upon which you 
 must start, because that is the only way you can 
 see the ball clearly. 
 
 If your head is still, you see your ball clearly 
 and can not fail to turn your hands at the right 
 instant. You will find that you can not grip 
 your club in the wrong way without introducing 
 
 25 
 
GOLF 
 
 at some point in the swing a factor which will 
 disturb your balance and make your head sway. 
 You can not keep your balance at the finish of 
 your swing without following through correctly. 
 If the player will keep in mind this very im- 
 portant fact, and will govern his effort by his 
 ability to keep his head still, he will readily work 
 out for himself ways and means for accomplish- 
 ing the desired result, and I believe that the 
 average business man with the average physique 
 is as capable of first-class golf as any youngster 
 if he can acquire the right mental foundation 
 upon which to build. Golf is mostly mental and 
 players improve more from a correct grasp of 
 the fundamentals than they do from merely 
 playing around the course. 
 
 I want to drive home the fact that this is abso- 
 lutely essential. Even though in trying to do 
 it players may find they go off their game tem- 
 porarily, they should realize that they never will 
 learn to play well unless they have the courage 
 to persist in acquiring a method which their com- 
 mon sense should tell them is the only way they 
 can be sure of hitting the ball accurately. 
 
 26 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 You need have no fears of overswinging if 
 your mind is concentrated on your balance or the 
 position of the head, as you cannot possibly over- 
 swing and keep it still. You cannot jerk your 
 club away without altering the position of your 
 head. You cannot introduce too much effort at 
 any one point and be successful. It will govern 
 the extent of your follow through. It will take 
 the stiffness out of your swing, and one thing 
 that it especially accomplishes is to give that 
 smooth, even rhythm to the swing, which does 
 the work. It will give you the fine finish, which 
 offers the least chance for a slice or a pull. In 
 fact, it is the cure-all of a host of golfing errors. 
 
 Don't think because I have called attention to 
 this important fact that you will be able to accom- 
 plish it in a week. It can't put you off your 
 game if you go at it patiently and easily. You 
 will find it very difficult at first to keep your 
 head absolutely still. Don't compromise with 
 yourself when you begin to improve; keep at it 
 and fix your mind on acquiring the knack thor- 
 oughly and you have laid the foundation for real 
 first-class golf. 
 
 21 
 
GOLF 
 
 The great fault of all golfers, the root of all 
 golfing errors, is the desire to swing hard. For 
 the benefit of those who cannot master them- 
 selves sufficiently to swing easily and freely at 
 the ball, I desire to make the following pertinent 
 observation. The closer you bring your feet 
 together the more you reduce your physical abil- 
 ity to swing hard. If you brace yourself, you 
 are bound to use too much effort. Relax, and 
 you will not. It is only the expert who can take 
 a wide, open stance and swing easily. 
 
 It would seem a commonplace to say that it is 
 far easier to maintain the balance on two legs 
 than on one and yet most golfers fail to realize 
 this and adapt the idea to their method. I desire 
 to call especial attention to the fact that in try- 
 ing to imitate a good player the vast majority of 
 beginners seem to have an idea that he throws 
 his weight first on the right leg and then on 
 the left. In my opinion this idea or mental pic- 
 ture is one thing which makes for rigidity in the 
 swing and right from the start seriously handi- 
 caps the player in his effort to develop a correct 
 swing; as the majority of people go along the 
 
 28 
 

 < - . v*\ V 
 
 J ^ 
 
 Following Through in the Drive. 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 lines of least resistance they never develop the 
 proper way. 
 
 I know that to the uninitiated a good player 
 seems to make such a shift of weight from one leg 
 to another, but he really does not. If he did his 
 head would move. It would have to move. 
 His head stays still and his body moves, but 
 the center of gravity remains in the same 
 place, constant. I think it is the idea of most 
 beginners when they are told to shift their 
 weight that they must shift the center of gravity ; 
 I know that is what I understood. So long as 
 you have both feet on the ground in approxi- 
 mately the same position as when you start and 
 you keep your head still, you will not change 
 your center of gravity. The speed of the club 
 is gained purely from a twist of the body and 
 any method which depends upon a shifting of 
 the weight or center of gravity (call it what 
 you will) is to my mind extremely hazardous and 
 unreliable. 
 
 If I am correct in my statement that the weight 
 or center of gravity should not change, the whole 
 scheme can be simplified by studying out some 
 
 29 
 
GOLF 
 
 way of acquiring speed and power by the twist 
 of the body and shoulders. It being evident that 
 the feet or foundation must be kept in approxi- 
 mately the same position from start to finish in 
 order to maintain the center of gravity constant, 
 as in that way only can the head be kept still, 
 the next step is to find out how you can exert 
 the greatest muscular force to advantage while 
 making your club travel along the line you desire 
 to send the ball. 
 
 In the photograph showing the position imme- 
 diately after striking the ball it is apparent that 
 the legs play but little part in my stroke after I 
 reach my ball and yet at the top of my swing, 
 which you can see by reference to another illus- 
 tration, you will observe that they have every 
 appearance of exerting considerable power. 
 They do, but it is very slowly applied, because 
 the body should not return to the position assumed 
 in the address until the club head reaches the ball, 
 and that takes more time than players realize. 
 Jumping at the ball destroys the whole founda- 
 tion of the position held by the body with refer- 
 ence to the ball, and a sudden or extra effort 
 
 30 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF GOLF 
 
 made with either leg, or both, will cause your 
 head to move so that you do not see the ball 
 clearly and you change the position of the pivotal 
 center with relation to the ball. 
 
 The speed with which, as well as the manner 
 in which, you can utilize the power of the legs will 
 be governed by your ability to keep the head ab- 
 solutely still. In my own case I find that I am 
 not conscious of any effort made with the legs 
 at all ; apparently I use them principally to keep 
 the tilt of the body constant. At any rate, it is 
 plain from the photograph that my weight is well 
 supported on the flat of my feet when I connect 
 with the ball, and as in boxing, a blow delivered 
 with the weight firmly planted on both feet has 
 the greater power. 
 
 By observing the left arm you will see that it 
 is in line with the club shaft. That should be 
 evidence that the left arm is not applying power 
 but is merely guiding the club. It will be seen 
 from the photograph also that my head is still 
 pointed at the spot upon which the ball rested, 
 and I keep it there in order that the pivotal cen- 
 ter will remain constant until the ball has left the 
 
 31 
 
GOLF 
 
 club head. I then look up to see where my ball 
 goes, and not before. 
 
 Many players keep their heads still until the 
 instant before they connect with their ball and 
 then they relax to get a heave which spoils the 
 whole thing. When you connect properly with 
 your ball with your head perfectly still there 
 should be a total lack of the feeling of power, 
 as everything should go into the ball and not to 
 disturbing the frame. Everything is so smooth 
 when you go through your ball properly that you 
 are conscious of very little effort. 
 
 These two facts mastered thoroughly will do 
 much to start you with a correct foundation upon 
 which to develop a good game. The ability to 
 hit the ball at all depends upon your being able 
 to see what you are striking at and applying the 
 power in a straight line during the time the club 
 head is in contact with the ball is what governs 
 your direction. 
 
 32 
 
GETTING THE POWER INTO 
 THE BALL 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 GETTING THE POWER INTO THE BALL 
 
 WHEN you have learned how to hit the 
 ball, the next thing in order is the 
 amount of energy or power you can 
 apply to it. It is only the energy which is trans- 
 mitted to the ball that counts. Let us then ex- 
 amine the different facts which confront us and 
 determine their relative importance. 
 
 In the first place we must remember that it is 
 necessary to maintain the balance or the head will 
 move so that we cannot see the ball clearly. The 
 next is that as the face of the club is to be con- 
 nected with the ball in a straight line we must 
 endeavor in starting our swing to do nothing 
 which will prevent our bringing the club back to 
 the ball in the same way. The natural tendency 
 of the beginner is to brace himself for the effort. 
 Every one knows that the beginner does not play 
 good golf. His method must be wrong then. 
 
 35 
 
GOLF 
 
 He is too stiff. It takes most golfers years to 
 learn this simple fact, and they always have a 
 lingering tendency to stiffen up. I know golfers 
 who set themselves rigidly to start and unbend 
 one muscle at a time till they have thought out 
 each individual step in the process. They remind 
 one of a mechanical toy playing golf. 
 
 If you will take a club in your hand and start 
 your back swing easily and naturally, direct- 
 ing your attention to observing when your head 
 starts to sway, you will find that it happens at 
 the instant when you stiffen a single muscle. The 
 slightest tendency to stiffen will instantly destroy 
 the balance. It is well worth your while to con- 
 vince yourself that this is so. 
 
 Many players can make a perfect practice 
 swing, and yet the moment the ball is in front 
 of them they swing in an entirely different man- 
 ner. This is because in the trial swing the eye 
 has no responsibility and the player allows the 
 club to go where it will. The eye should observe 
 in golf and not direct the lines of force or angles. 
 In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred beginners 
 unconsciously try to bring the lines along which 
 
 36 
 
GETTING THE POWER 
 
 the power is applied into the visible angles as 
 interpreted by the eyes. In other words, the 
 player is trying to see and direct everything as 
 though he were shooting a rifle. 
 
 It takes a number of years in golf to learn to 
 "shoot from the hips" or waist, so to speak. The 
 vast majority of beginners are up on their toes 
 in applying the power, instead of being well down 
 on the flat of the foot with the weight well 
 grounded. This desire to "aim" at the ball along 
 the shaft is the worst fault and the hardest to 
 change or cure in the older players. It is not so 
 much their age or muscular equipment which is at 
 fault, but their lack of adaptability and dogged- 
 ness in holding to their own way of playing. 
 They assume at the start that they cannot get a 
 long ball, and promptly devise ways and means to 
 absolutely prevent their doing it. 
 
 A lack of flexibility is a part of their natural 
 equipment, but it should be their endeavor to 
 overcome this handicap and not to intensify it. 
 They start with a lack of distance with the in- 
 evitable result that they get into trouble; then 
 they acquire the habit of trying to lift the ball 
 
 37 
 
GOLF 
 
 over the trouble by hitting up instead of trying 
 to get more distance. This results in a very high 
 percentage of topped shots. 
 
 The trouble with these older players is never 
 lack of care, because they are a painstaking lot, 
 but a lack of understanding of the principles of 
 the stroke. They start by reaching out farther 
 than the younger man as a rule, making it more 
 difficult to maintain the balance and requiring 
 considerable muscular effort to keep their feet 
 when they swing. This eliminates the compact- 
 ness which comes from one set of muscles sup- 
 porting the other. Then they lower their heads 
 to get a better aim along the shaft, thus bringing 
 more directly in the line of vision a lot of moving 
 objects, which tends to distract the attention when 
 they are on their downward swing. 
 
 Instead of reaching the top of the swing com- 
 fortably they expend most of their energy in 
 keeping their balance, and in the great majority 
 of cases they make all their effort in one violent 
 heave as they reach the ball. The eyes are about 
 a foot above the real pivotal center of the stroke, 
 and consequently everything should appear more 
 
 38 
 
GETTING THE POWER 
 
 or less flat to the player in a properly played 
 stroke. In other words, the base or pivot of the 
 stroke should really appear to be behind him and 
 not in a line between the eyes and the ball. 
 
 The player must depend more upon the "feel" 
 of the shot ; that is to say, his sense of touch must 
 be cultivated more, and he must depend upon his 
 vision rather as a check on the "feel" of the shot 
 than as a guide to making it. Constant practice 
 will give a player this "feel" of the shot, while 
 observation will show him how to make his allow- 
 ances for the way the shot looks, or the angles 
 appear, when a shot is properly played. In a 
 later chapter I show the stance or address I use 
 on the drive, and while it looks wrong, I know 
 from experience that it "feels right" and is right. 
 I have proved it. I have learned to be guided 
 more by the "feel" than by the "view." 
 
 I think it is the constant antagonism between 
 the eyes and the sense of touch, or feeling, which 
 is influencing the reason which causes the con- 
 scious muscular control and holds back the in- 
 stinctive or natural muscular action, thereby in- 
 creasing the difficulty of falling naturally into 
 
 39 
 
GOLF 
 
 the stroke. In practical language this means 
 that it will be far more profitable for the aver- 
 age golfer to observe the simple formula of keep- 
 ing his head still and making his club head go 
 along a straight line while in contact with the 
 ball than to try to work out all the difficult angles 
 and confusing details in the making of a stroke. 
 These two simple rules will fill the bill if they are 
 given a chance. 
 
 40 
 
LOOKING AT THE BALL 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LOOKING AT THE BALL 
 
 WE now come to the point of supreme 
 importance in golf, and that is look- 
 ing at the ball. I presume that my; 
 statement that there is perhaps one golfer in a 
 hundred who knows how to look at a ball, will 
 cause many smiles, yet that is an exact fact. 
 About one golfer in ten stands perfectly still in 
 addressing his ball and really concentrates his 
 attention on seeing the ball clearly. Most of the 
 time is spent in a hasty glance in the direction it 
 is proposed to drive and back again to the ball, 
 before focusing the eyes on that point. The club 
 is being waggled over the ball with the head 
 swaying as the weight is seesawed from one leg 
 to the other and then before the eyes have been 
 able to focus clearly upon the ball the attempt 
 is made to hit it. 
 
 Golfers as a rule are superficial and too com- 
 
 43 
 
GOLF 
 
 placent to come to a realizing sense of their faults. 
 They really believe that they do not need to be 
 told so simple a thing as to stand still and look 
 at their ball steadily and clearly in order that 
 they can see it properly, and yet the number 
 who can do that is mighty small. The instant 
 you shift your gaze on the ball during any part 
 of the swing, that instant you invite disaster. 
 More golfers hit their ball in spite of, and not 
 because of, the way they look at it than is real- 
 ized. 
 
 It is purely a lack of concentration that is re- 
 sponsible for most golfing errors, and it is of 
 the very greatest importance that, as the mind 
 can concentrate upon but one thing at a time, 
 it should be the most important thing to which 
 you devote your entire ability. I have shown 
 that to be keeping the head still. In that way 
 only can you look at the ball properly. In that 
 way only can you see the ball clearly. The only 
 time when you are really accomplishing that is 
 when you can see the ball at every point in your 
 swing, from start to finish, clearly. 
 
 I have repeated some of my remarks, especially 
 
 44 
 
 
LOOKING AT THE BALL 
 
 that about keeping the head still, very often, and 
 I might as well say here that it is the beginners 
 I am aiming at. If they can really grasp this 
 fact at the start, a year or two with even a small 
 amount of practice will enable them to catch up 
 with those who have started a year and two years 
 before them who do not observe it. The tendency 
 of most golfers is to drift into this habit or that, 
 generally a compromise, due to the fact that it is 
 not easy to accomplish a certain definite thing. 
 For instance, if a player misses or tops or sclaffs 
 a ball two or three times running, he immediately 
 commences to hit at it harder and harder in the 
 effort to get it away, instead of acknowledging 
 his lack of care and skill in not hitting accurately 
 and devoting his attention to a clearer view of his 
 ball on the next shot and a less violent effort for 
 distance. 
 
 In looking at my ball I know, of course, from 
 experience, what line my club will travel along, 
 and when I start out for an afternoon's play 
 I take a trial swing or two to see what my line 
 is ; then I have the line fixed in my mind. I know 
 from experience where the ball will go if I hit 
 
 45 
 
GOLF 
 
 it accurately. Before I draw my club away from 
 the ball I turn my head very slightly by moving 
 my chin to the right a couple of inches, while 
 the top of the head inclines to the left. I do this 
 for a variety of reasons. The first and most 
 important is that it makes my head the last thing 
 I have my mind on in starting my swing. The 
 second is that it gives me more room for my left 
 shoulder at the top of my swing, and there is no 
 chance of the shoulder touching my chin sud- 
 denly, thereby jarring my head and disturbing 
 my view of the ball. The third reason is that it 
 inclines the bulk of the weight of the head to the 
 left, and as the head is very heavy it requires a 
 little tension on the neck muscles to hold it in that 
 position, and this tension retards any tendency 
 to look away from the ball too soon. The fourth 
 is that at the top of the swing the head is more 
 nearly in the same position with reference to the 
 shoulders as in addressing the ball and it relieves 
 any stiffness and adds comfort to the position of 
 the shoulders at this point. The fifth is that it 
 brings the eyes to the upper left hand corner of 
 their orbit, and is the limit beyond which they 
 
 46 
 
LOOKING AT THE BALL 
 
 cannot go even if anxiety to see where the ball 
 is going should make the player want to look up. 
 It is the best preventive measure I know. 
 
 If the player has a fixed determination in his 
 mind that from the top of his swing until he 
 reaches the ball he will see his ball clearly it will 
 effectually cure him of the faults of "hitting too 
 soon" and "looking up too soon," the two worst 
 faults in golf, because they involve a missed or 
 topped or sclaffed ball. Slicing is a fault which 
 can be allowed for, but a missed or topped or 
 sclaffed ball will effectually put you out of the 
 running. 
 
 Fundamental in this matter of looking at the 
 ball is its effect upon the confidence with which 
 you play. Lack of confidence in golf is of 
 many kinds, and it takes a long time to break 
 oneself of the habit, for it is a habit. It is bred 
 in the early stages and comes from sound causes, 
 the chief of which is that you do not see the ball 
 clearly. Naturally when you swing you are 
 trusting to a very large extent to good fortune in 
 connecting with the ball. When your game is 
 based upon any other foundation than that of see- 
 
 47 
 
GOLF 
 
 ing your ball clearly, practice may make you more 
 hopeful, and it is well to be optimistic in golf, 
 but your confidence will vanish in a flash if you 
 swing with care and yet miss your shot in an 
 important match. On the other hand, if you have 
 learned to keep your head still and look at the 
 ball when you make your stroke, you will have 
 developed a confidence in yourself, which is prop- 
 erly founded, and nothing that your opponent 
 can bring off will destroy your belief that you can 
 match his shot and perhaps go him one better. 
 
 You may be ever so nervous and eager to win 
 your match, yet if you have the ability to con- 
 centrate upon the one idea of seeing that ball 
 clearly throughout the swing until your club 
 reaches it, your confidence in yourself will remain 
 unshaken and you will be bringing off your shots 
 even though your knees are quivering with nerv- 
 ousness. 
 
 Take two players of equal ability, one with 
 plenty of tournament experience and the other 
 without, and the chances are much in favor of 
 the player of experience, simply because the les- 
 sons he has learned have been driven home harder. 
 
 48 
 
 , 
 
The Blurred Ima >e of the Ball Shows That It Does 
 Not Rise at a Very Acute Angle. (See Page 73.) 
 
LOOKING AT THE BALL 
 
 He knows from experience that anxiety to see 
 the result of his shot has caused him to look up 
 too soon and he is on his guard, while the other 
 player has not had the lesson driven home by 
 such a failure at a critical moment. 
 
 The bulk of golfers I have met are successful 
 business men, and I think they will average pretty 
 much alike in their capacity to master themselves, 
 but the difficulty is in properly impressing them 
 with the importance of the fundamental prin- 
 ciples. My experience is that the majority be- 
 come bewildered in the maze of instructions they 
 hear as to the playing of the game and they lose 
 their sense of proportion, or that sense becomes 
 dulled and their minds are concentrated upon the 
 wrong thing. I don't care at what stage of the 
 game a golfer may be, if he will limit his effort 
 to his ability to see that ball clearly until he con- 
 nects with it he will get his stroke away in pretty 
 fair shape, and the first and most elementary 
 thing in golf is to hit the ball. 
 
 Every course is one mass of temptation and 
 pitfalls for the unwary and every hole presents 
 a new feature to take his mind from the essential 
 
 49 
 
GOLF 
 
 thing in golf, and that is that he must see his 
 ball clearly to hit it accurately. 
 
 Every kind of a he on the links is a temptation 
 to divert the mind from the essential thing. No 
 matter how badly your ball may be cupped, or 
 in long grass, or on a down slope, or up slope, 
 or with hazards in front of you, or around you, 
 this one thing is the supreme factor in getting 
 the ball away. Your opponent, lying dead to 
 the hole, is the supreme temptation of all, but 
 when you have once mastered the lesson of seeing 
 your own ball clearly until you hit it, you will 
 be able to smile to yourself when you walk up to 
 your ball and say, "If you think that will make 
 me look up, just wait." Mastery of this one 
 item will pull many a hole "out of the fire" and 
 save many a match which looks pretty desperate. 
 
 50 
 
THE FOLLOW THROUGH 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FOLLOW THROUGH 
 
 SOME years ago when I was an oarsman I 
 learned that the arms have not a great 
 amount of strength. The real strength 
 of the body is in the heavy muscles of the shoul- 
 ders, back, and thighs. In rowing, the arms 
 merely guide the oars and move them in and out 
 of the water. One of the first things a novice 
 learns in rowing is that his arms are not much 
 use for power. They tire too quickly. You 
 cannot time the grip on the water properly if 
 you use your arms to pull. 
 
 The same thing is true of golf. It is the heavy 
 muscles which do the real work. The arms should 
 merely guide the club ; not exert the power. No- 
 tice the criticism of the professional, "Get your 
 back into it." Most beginners try to do all the 
 work with their arms. If they had any such work 
 
 53 
 
GOLF 
 
 to do as in rowing the arms would tire so quickly; 
 that they would be glad to shift the burden of 
 the work to the muscles best able to stand it. 
 There's the rub. They don't tire, and the con- 
 sequence is that it takes years to learn to put 
 the shoulders, back, and thighs into the stroke. 
 That is what gives the distance. That is what 
 takes the load from the arms and enables them 
 to merely direct the power. The arms propelling 
 the club and trying to pull the body around 
 remind one of the "tail wagging the dog." The 
 principle is wrong. The arms sweeping through 
 the swing without the powerful muscles giving 
 substance to the stroke prevent the various factors 
 composing the swing from synchronizing. 
 
 If, therefore, the player will realize where his 
 greatest power lies he will be in a fair way to 
 develop his method upon sound theories. It will 
 enable him to avoid the spiteful, vicious jerk to 
 get the ball away and rely more upon the steady, 
 powerful sweep of the club to give him his dis- 
 tance. There should be in the player's mind no 
 desire or intention of "swatting" the ball; merely 
 connect and keep up a steady, firm pressure^ 
 
 54 
 
THE FOLLOW THROUGH 
 
 You can then begin to press more firmly 
 against the ball in order to keep the club head 
 in contact with it for a longer time and this will 
 not only increase your distance, but smooth out 
 your whole stroke. There are very few players 
 who do not have ample speed, but they fail to 
 keep the pressure steadily against the ball until 
 it rebounds from the club head. 
 
 Many players have observed the fact that they 
 can swing beautifully at the ground when they 
 have no ball there, and yet they make a mess 
 of the stroke when they attempt to strike the ball. 
 Ninety times out of a hundred the practice swing 
 is wrong for it is hard to tell when you are swing- 
 ing correctly if you do not hit a ball. The ball 
 shows how correctly you really do swing. As a 
 general rule a practice swing is decidedly mislead- 
 ing and is very apt to put you off as you accustom 
 yourself to swinging with no opposition and the 
 balance is entirely different. As the club goes 
 through the air so fast, meeting with no resist- 
 ance, it throws the timing of the effort off because 
 the stroke is finished so much more quickly with 
 no ball there. The player attempts, when he 
 
 55 
 
GOLF 
 
 swings at the ball, to get the same timing and it 
 cannot be done. When the club head meets the 
 ball there is a tremendous amount of drag applied 
 to the speed of the swing, far more than is real- 
 ized, and the habit of swinging hard is a great 
 handicap. I know I took twenty-seven practice 
 swings playing one hole in a match once and did 
 not realize it until an enterprising reporter called 
 my attention to it after the match. I have 
 learned since and seldom take a practice swing 
 now and when I do I swing very slowly. 
 
 If your club was so heavy that it took your 
 entire ability to swing it merely, you would de- 
 pend principally upon the weight of the club to 
 do the work of propelling the ball forward and 
 would be satisfied to devote your entire attention 
 to striking it accurately. If the ball was made 
 of lead and was a little larger you would find that 
 the shaft of your club would break because the 
 weight of the club would not be sufficient to get 
 the ball away quickly enough to transmit the 
 strain from the shaft, and something would have 
 to give. The ball would not give; it would be 
 the shaft. The reason that the shaft does not 
 
 56 
 
THE FOLLOW THROUGH 
 
 break when you hit your ball is that unlike a 
 leaden or iron ball your ball is made of rubber 
 which is very elastic and yielding, much more so 
 than the club head, and so the strain is taken up 
 by the ball. 
 
 Now the first effect of the blow is to transmit 
 much energy to the ball, which is compressed 
 partly and propelled forward partly, and if the 
 power is not kept up or "followed through," as 
 the saying is, the amount of power in the blow 
 which made the ball collapse would be lost because 
 the ball would spring back into shape again as 
 soon as the club head ceased to be against it. But 
 if the power is "followed through" properly so 
 that the club head is still going forward and 
 against the ball while the latter is springing back 
 into shape a very considerable impetus is added. 
 
 To illustrate the point of the spring back or 
 rebound of the ball : if you were to throw the ball 
 against a blanket hung on a line, the blanket 
 would yield and the ball would drop straight 
 down. If you were to stand a board up and 
 throw the ball against it, the ball would rebound 
 from it because the ball would be compressed and 
 
 57 
 
GOLF 
 
 would rebound from the board with as much 
 speed as was used in compressing it less the 
 amount of energy which the board took up. If 
 you throw the ball against a stone wall it will 
 spring back with great speed because the wall 
 holds its position so firmly that practically all 
 the energy which is used in making the ball col- 
 lapse is returned in the ball upon the rebound. 
 
 It is this principle which is lost sight of by 
 most golfers. In order to get this rebound of 
 the ball from the club head the power must be 
 kept up and the club head pressed steadily against 
 the ball until the latter has regained its shape; 
 it is the firmness with which the pressure is main- 
 tained rather than any heave or jerk to the swing 
 which gives the distance. 
 
 I consider that this elementary principle should 
 be thoroughly understood, as it is this part of the 
 game which is spoken of as "mental." A correct 
 understanding of these basic principles has much 
 to do with the way the player swings at his ball, 
 and the fact that beginners do not "follow 
 through" is proof that they do not understand 
 this fact or their common sense would make them 
 
 58 
 
The Position of the Haxds Shows How Long the Ef- 
 fort Is Continued to Keep the Club Head 
 Against the Ball. 
 
THE FOLLOW THROUGH 
 
 observe it. If they grasp the idea correctly as 
 I have shown, their own intelligence will insist on 
 their maintaining a firm, steady pressure on the 
 ball after the first impact. 
 
 It is the player's mental conception of his stroke 
 that is responsible for his way of playing, and 
 that is something which he alone knows and which 
 dictates his style. I have always hesitated to say 
 anything a player does is wrong until I find out 
 what his idea is in doing it. He may be making 
 a very intelligent effort to play his stroke accord- 
 ing to his understanding. If he is violating some 
 basic principle the cure will not be found in mak- 
 ing him swing differently, but in changing his 
 mental picture of the stroke. If he can explain 
 his purpose in swinging so and so, then I can 
 grasp his idea, and if he is wrong show him why. 
 
 In my own case I have found that my improve- 
 ment has come more from correcting wrong the- 
 ories of the stroke than from practicing on false 
 premises. The theories of golf are not so diffi- 
 cult that any man of average sense cannot under- 
 stand them. One does not need to be an engineer 
 to grasp the idea of the rebound of a rubber ball, 
 
 59 
 
GOLF 
 
 or that his head must be still to see a ball clearly. 
 
 In order to bring out what takes place while 
 
 the ball is in contact with the club head I have 
 
 provided a diagram. The ball is shown in posi- 
 
 tion A immediately before the club head reaches 
 it in solid lines. The dotted lines show the club 
 head in contact and at the point of greatest com- 
 pression. In position B it is shown in a collapsed 
 condition, the driver forward from the tee about 
 
 60 
 
THE FOLLOW THROUGH 
 
 half the width of the club head. It has taken 
 considerable force to compress the ball, and this 
 force will react the instant the ball starts from 
 the tee, and as the shaft of the club has yielded to 
 the blow, it will begin to straighten out as soon 
 as the ball gains headway. This keeps the club 
 head against the ball while the ball is returning 
 to shape again. 
 
 The instant the ball regains its shape, as shown 
 in position C, it leaves the club head sharply; 
 without any additional contact of any kind, be- 
 cause it will at that instant travel with the speed 
 of the club head plus the additional speed added 
 by the spring back of the shaft and the rebound 
 from being compressed. In other words, it will 
 be traveling forward the instant it passes position 
 C faster than the club head is traveling. 
 
 If you will chalk the face of your driver and 
 hit the ball clean you will find that it will leave 
 the imprint of the bramble on the face about the 
 size of a quarter. This proves it must collapse. 
 If it collapses it must rebound. As the club 
 head was traveling very fast when it first com- 
 pressed the ball the rebound must be very rapid. 
 
 61 
 
GOLF 
 
 In order to get the full benefit of the rebound 
 you must have the face of the club in contact with 
 the ball. 
 
 The first effect of meeting the ball is to bend 
 the shaft because the head of the club is delayed 
 by the contact. The shaft will stay bent, if the 
 power is applied steadily, until the strength of 
 the shaft has overcome the drag of the ball and 
 straightens out again. This should make it feel, 
 when the ball is correctly struck, as though the 
 ball and club head were in contact for a couple 
 of feet. The more limber the shaft the longer 
 this contact seems to last. 
 
 I have found from my own experience that 
 I get an equally long ball with a "whippy" shaft 
 and with a stiff one. I prefer a stiff shaft be- 
 cause it wears longer, on account of the greater 
 amount of wood in it, but I think that older 
 players and those who do not naturally have a 
 rapid swing should use the "whippy" shaft be- 
 cause their slower swing is transmitted into speed 
 by the whippy shaft when they maintain a 
 steady pressure against the ball. A stiff er shaft 
 
 62 
 
THE FOLLOW THROUGH 
 
 moving slower will not keep the club head 
 against the ball so well. 
 
 These details, however, are refinements of the 
 game and I suggest that the beginner give but 
 little attention to them. 
 
 If you apply all the power you are capable of 
 before you connect with your ball you will lose a 
 great deal of the rebound. Grasp this idea 
 thoroughly and you will find it will take care of 
 the "timing" of the stroke. The next time you 
 go out to play just think of this matter of apply- 
 ing your greatest effort after hitting the ball and 
 it will astonish you how many things it will 
 smooth out in your stroke, as well as the amount 
 of distance you can obtain. It was undoubtedly 
 the discovery of this fact that changed James 
 Braid, the famous Scotch professional, from a 
 very ordinary driver to one of the longest drivers 
 in the world. 
 
 63 
 
FUNDAMENTALS OF THE SWING 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 FUNDAMENTALS OF THE SWING 
 
 THERE are two circles or sweeps which, 
 merged together, form the swing. One 
 is imparted by the twist of the body (I 
 call that the horizontal sweep) and the other is 
 imparted by the arms lifting the club up over the 
 right shoulder; this I call the vertical sweep. 
 I desire to call the player's attention to a few 
 facts concerning them which may be a guide in 
 understanding the functions of each. 
 
 These two forces are the most important items 
 in the stroke, and the mechanical problem they 
 offer requires some nice calculation to work out 
 properly in the player's mind. To begin with, 
 I do not consider that many players realize the 
 importance of the bearing of these two distinct 
 forces upon the swing, and what the function of 
 each is. As our pivot or center must remain 
 
 67 
 
GOLF 
 
 fixed in order that we may be able to see the 
 ball clearly, as well as to have that pivot remain 
 constant with reference to its distance from the 
 ball, we must remember that the pivot is located 
 between the shoulders, as it is through the shoul- 
 ders and arms that the power is immediately 
 transferred to the club. 
 
 We will now consider the vertical swing or 
 circle, for that is the one which causes the great- 
 est amount of trouble to players, as it is the 
 preponderance of it which results in pulling in 
 the hands. To make this point perfectly clear I 
 suggest that you try the following experiment: 
 Address the ball in your usual manner and 
 eliminate everything which does not pertain to 
 a vertical swing in making your stroke ; that is to 
 say, every item which has anything in the nature 
 of a horizontal or parallel-with-the-ground move- 
 ment. You will find that you will merely raise 
 your club up over your head and bring it down 
 again. If you will notice carefully you will 
 observe that in order to keep from slapping the 
 ground you will have to draw in your hands. 
 You will observe that the club head goes out 
 
 68 
 
FUNDAMENTALS OF THE SWING 
 
 beyond the ball as you raise your club away from 
 the ground, and you will also observe, on your 
 downward swing, that the vertical sweep is 
 making your club cut the line along which you 
 
 t 
 
 • 
 
 / 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 • 
 
 i 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 • 
 
 
 / 
 
 I 
 I / 
 
 / 
 
 * *s Y 
 
 wish to send the ball, at right angles. To com- 
 plete the vertical circle or swing you have to 
 draw in your hands. 
 
 As you are always drawing in your hands 
 when you get a slice it is evident that the 
 vertical swing has been delayed too long and is 
 
 69 
 
GOLF 
 
 predominating as you are nearing your ball. 
 
 I have made a diagram for the purpose of 
 illustration. Line A is the line along which it 
 is desired to send the ball. By line B, I represent 
 the dividing line which should govern the time 
 of application of the two forces, the horizontal 
 imparted by the twist of the body and the vertical 
 imparted by the sweep of the arms in raising and 
 lowering the club from the ground. 
 
 From experience I have found that those 
 players who do not practically complete their 
 downward sweep before they reach line B have 
 trouble with slicing because the force being ap- 
 plied to bring the club head down to the ball in 
 time is greater than that which is twisting the 
 body around. The consequence is that there is 
 more force being applied vertically than hori- 
 zontally, and they must pull in the hands to hit 
 the ball at all. The majority of beginners start 
 their vertical swing too quickly in order to get the 
 club up over their heads, and this results in their 
 predisposing their minds in favor of finishing the 
 vertical part of the swing last. A sliced ball is 
 inevitable under these circumstances. 
 
 70 
 
FUNDAMENTALS OF THE SWING 
 
 There seems to be a peculiar construction of 
 the mind which makes players return to the ball 
 in the same way that they draw back from it, and 
 if a step in the back swing is in its wrong order, 
 that order will prevail on the downward swing. 
 Any fault which is developed in the back swing 
 is intensified on the downward swing because you 
 are applying your maximum power at that 
 time. 
 
 The clubs are built to give the ball the proper 
 angle of rise when you are swinging parallel with 
 the ground. What a very small percentage of 
 players get off a fine, low ball when they hit it! 
 The majority seem to devote great care to get- 
 ting their ball high in the air. In fact, I think 
 that one of the commonest faults I see on the 
 links is that of trying to get the ball up. 
 
 Habits are easily developed in golf and hard 
 to break. Every one will occasionally get a ball 
 off right, but it is the average that counts. A 
 great many of the experienced players will feel 
 that they do not need to have their attention 
 directed to this point, but if they were to get a 
 strong sense of this fact they would be able to 
 
 71 
 
GOLF 
 
 add very materially to their distance and ac- 
 curacy. For instance, if you will make the 
 attempt to get off an unusually high drive you 
 will find it will have a slice nine times out of 
 ten. It is almost impossible to avoid it. 
 
 As this point is one of the fundamental prin- 
 ciples in golf I think it would be well for all 
 players to consider carefully when they go off on 
 a certain club to stop and see whether they are 
 not trying to do the lifting instead of letting the 
 club do the work. I know that in my own case 
 it is one of the first things I think of when the 
 suggestion of a slice appears in any of my shots. 
 
 If players will give this serious attention they 
 will find that it will be of the very greatest help 
 to them in curing many of their troubles. 
 
 The most prevalent cause of topped iron shots 
 is not looking up, as most every one will tell you, 
 but is the mental desire to get the ball up. 
 With a desire to lift the ball, and not to leave 
 that to the club which was built to do it, the 
 player will unconsciously shift his pivotal center 
 to the right of the ball, and in his downward 
 swing the effort to avoid hitting the ground is 
 
 72 
 
FUNDAMENTALS OF THE SWING 
 
 bound to make him top in the majority of cases. 
 
 The instant you shift the pivotal center your 
 eye is the watchful guide which shows you your 
 mistake, and it is practically impossible to avoid 
 topping. If you have had the habit long enough 
 you may have been able to make enough allow- 
 ance for it in order to hit the ball, but you will 
 be bound to get a slice, even if you don't top. 
 
 When you realize what a small percentage of 
 players really get good iron shots it may strike 
 home if you will really try to take a fresh gage 
 of your ball the next time you go out to play 
 and see how low you can send your ball and how 
 clear on the center of the club you can connect 
 with it. This will probably do more to correct 
 slicing with irons than anything I know of, and 
 it applies equally to the wooden shots. 
 
 In the photograph opposite page 48 will be seen 
 a blurred image of the ball above the line of 
 flight and to the right of the picture; you can 
 see that it does not start off at a very acute angle. 
 A perfectly hit ball with a driver should never 
 rise over twenty to twenty-five feet above the 
 ground, and on the average course with such a 
 
 73 
 
GOLF 
 
 drive you get about thirty to fifty yards roll, 
 while the ball which goes high is not only at the 
 mercy of the wind, but will be liable to kick off to 
 the right or left very badly on rough ground. 
 
 74 
 
ACCURACY— NOT DISTANCE 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ACCURACY — NOT DISTANCE 
 
 THE two great faults of the majority of 
 players are "hitting too soon" and "look- 
 ing up too soon." The majority of pro- 
 fessionals will tell you this. Now looking up is 
 inevitable, and I always do it to see where my 
 ball goes, but as I have not made my effort too 
 soon I have applied the limit of my power to the 
 stroke before I have any desire to look up. 
 Those players who apply the power too soon 
 cannot help looking up too soon. 
 
 When you stop to consider the difference be- 
 tween the good players and poor players you will 
 quickly see that it is more in accuracy than in 
 power. A well-made stroke conveys the idea of 
 great power, and immediately the inexperienced 
 makes a more violent effort to duplicate the dis- 
 tance of the good player. I do not hesitate to 
 
 77 
 
GOLF 
 
 say that the vast majority of golfers expend 
 more energy than they can control accurately. I 
 know from experience that I have never yet 
 taken out a friend to initiate into this game that 
 he did not use twice as much energy as I did, and 
 yet I always use the limit to which I can go and 
 control it. Yet in spite of this statement, when 
 I direct the player's attention to the fact that he 
 is using more power than it is possible to con- 
 trol, he keeps on making the same violent effort. 
 I have seen players blister their hands badly on 
 their first try at golf, and that generally means 
 that the lesson is so painful that it is driven home, 
 and the next time they go out they take it more 
 easily. 
 
 I am not hitting at the ball as hard to-day as 
 I did on my first attempt to play. The increase 
 in distance comes from increase in accuracy. 
 My constant effort in studying the game is to 
 find how much easier I can get the same distance 
 and how much more I can control my direction. 
 I never am bothered and no one will ever be 
 bothered in not applying enough power. How, 
 
 78 
 
ACCURACY— NOT DISTANCE 
 
 then, can I drive this home in a practical manner 
 to the player? 
 
 It would seem as though a business man should 
 understand figures, and I make the statement 
 that about one per cent of golf shots are accu- 
 rate, or approximately so. Yet players are con- 
 tinually striving to add distance which reduces 
 the chance of improving that one per cent. 
 Players will go out on the course after reading 
 this and find that they begin to get distance while 
 their minds are on accuracy, and the lesson will be 
 lost. They will immediately try to increase that 
 distance by going back to the cause of a lack of 
 it. You cannot be accurate if you are unable to 
 see your ball clearly, and you cannot see it clearly 
 if your head sways while you are making your 
 stroke. You cannot make anything approach- 
 ing a violent effort and keep your head still, and 
 knowing this you have less than a quarter of one 
 per cent of a chance to be master of your stroke 
 if you are swinging so rapidly that you have not 
 perfect control every instant during your 
 swing. 
 
 79 
 
GOLF 
 
 I have called attention to the fact that if the 
 club head is not moving along the line of flight 
 while in contact with the ball, the ball cannot 
 travel along that line, and that only is the thing 
 to look for in your practice. Keep your head 
 still and have your club head going straight when 
 you meet the ball and you have nothing else to 
 consider. The longer you can have your club 
 head going along the line of flight the flatter 
 will be your arc and the less the tendency to sclaff 
 or top. 
 
 Very few beginners can associate ease of effort 
 and accuracy with a long ball. They feel that 
 only a most violent effort will produce the long 
 drive. Every time they swing they are making 
 a much greater effort than the longest driver I 
 know of. It is all wasted. They cannot be 
 brought to see that it is accuracy and "timing" 
 that do the work. If they do see the point they 
 make no attempt to take practical advantage of 
 it. My longest drives come off when I am not 
 trying for anything but to put the ball down the 
 line I am aiming at as true as I can. They sel- 
 dom come if I am trying for distance. If you 
 
 80 
 
ACCURACY— NOT DISTANCE 
 
 desire to get an unusually long ball your mind 
 must more than ever be directed for accuracy be- 
 cause it will be harder to be accurate with a 
 greater effort than you are accustomed to. It 
 is also harder to keep the head still. 
 
 The point where I find the average player falls 
 down in his swing is with the shoulders and body. 
 He invariably starts them too soon and too fast, 
 and there is little chance of the hands being able 
 to straighten the club in time. Wait until you 
 can feel the drag of the club at the shoulders 
 before you attempt to use them. Your club 
 head must be around in position before you can 
 feel the strain at the shoulders, and then you can 
 move them as fast as you like. 
 
 Take the photograph opposite page 48 and 
 just imagine the club head moving at a good 
 speed, and you will understand how slowly in 
 proportion the shoulders should move. Now, if 
 you will stop and consider that the right arm is 
 bent at the elbow from the top of the swing until 
 just as you get to your ball you will see that any 
 sudden effort of the shoulders until both arms 
 are straight will be wasted. 
 
 81 
 
GOLF 
 
 If the weapon was a heavy hammer it would 
 not take long to get at the points which give the 
 power. If you have ever seen a lumberman 
 swing his ax at the base of a tree you can under- 
 stand about the way he applies his power. By 
 reference to the photograph you will grasp the 
 idea of the speed with which I apply the body and 
 shoulders to the stroke, if you can gage about 
 what the woodman's speed would be with his ax. 
 You would never find him looking away from the 
 spot he wished to sink his ax into, and you would 
 find that he w r ould never tire himself out by 
 applying his power before the ax was in a posi- 
 tion to take it. The idea is to get a gradually 
 increasing speed until you connect with the ball, 
 and then press steadily. The only difference be- 
 tween you and the woodman is that you would 
 throw yourself clean off your feet if you were to 
 apply any such amount of power when you con- 
 nect with the ball, as he uses in swinging an ax. 
 
 I have had a great many players ask me how 
 still they should keep their heads, even though I 
 have tried to explain that it should be kept as 
 still as though it were held in the one position 
 
 82 
 
ACCURACY— NOT DISTANCE 
 
 with a brace. An illustration I used which 
 seemed to help one friend of mine was this: Im- 
 agine that you had a glass of water balanced 
 upon your head and you were trying to swing as 
 hard as you could without spilling any of the 
 water out of the glass, and you have a pretty 
 fair idea of the way you have to swing to avoid 
 moving your head. You would avoid making 
 any particular effort at any one point in the 
 swing, because it would jar the head. If any- 
 thing in the nature of a jerk is introduced any- 
 where in the swing it is a sign that you are pulling 
 in the hands somewhere. If the swing is made 
 properly you have a total absence of the feeling 
 of power anywhere in the stroke. The club head 
 goes through the ball smoothly and you should 
 be on your guard the moment you can feel the 
 power in the stroke. 
 
 As I have stated repeatedly, it is the accuracy 
 and smoothness which give distance and not the 
 tremendous effort. You will never lack in 
 effort. It is the hardest thing you have to con- 
 trol. 
 
 There is another feature which I have observed 
 
 83 
 
GOLF 
 
 in the majority of amateurs, and that is 
 they swing back too slowly. If you will swing 
 at a fair speed throughout you will overcome 
 largely the tendency to stiffen up, and this is 
 what causes the irrepressible desire to get speed 
 at the last minute by one tremendous heave. 
 Swing at a fairly good speed and don't worry 
 so much about every little step in the swing. 
 When you are trying any of my suggestions, 
 try one at a time and only lend a touch of it to 
 your effort. If you dwell too long on any one 
 detail you are apt to develop it out of proportion. 
 If you swing too slowly it makes quite a physical 
 effort of the stroke and you will find greater 
 difficulty in keeping the head still. 
 
 The mental attitude has more to do with your 
 success than anything else, and the direct result 
 of the lack of feeling of power in every inexperi- 
 enced player's stroke is a determined endeavor 
 on his part to swing hard enough so that he can 
 feel it. The result is a foregone conclusion; he 
 makes more effort than he can control and gets 
 practically none of it to the ball. The scheme, 
 
 84 
 
Shows the Relative Positions of Club-Head and Hands 
 at the Moment of Striking the Ball. 
 
ACCURACY— NOT DISTANCE 
 
 therefore, is never to swing so hard that you are 
 conscious of the effort. 
 
 Take the case of nearly every beginner: when 
 he gets about sixty or seventy yards from the 
 green he swings easier at the ball in order not 
 to go over, and almost invariably he connects 
 cleaner and the ball goes about twice as far as 
 he planned. The great difficulty in learning is 
 the fact that the player has an ever-present desire 
 to feel the power go into the ball, and the few 
 shots that come off in spite of his violent effort 
 only mislead him more and more. Any muscular 
 effort which produces the slightest jerk in the 
 swing requires a corresponding muscular effort 
 to overcome it, and it is the play of the muscles 
 working at cross purposes which makes you con- 
 scious of the effort you are making. To guide 
 the club correctly and to keep it from flying out 
 of the hands requires a good firm grip with the 
 fingers, and this is the only place where you 
 should be conscious of a strain of any kind. 
 
 85 
 
GETTING THE BALL UP 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 GETTING THE BALL UP 
 
 POWER or force is always transmitted in 
 a straight line. This is a fundamental 
 law of the universe. It cannot possibly 
 be transmitted in any other way. Is it not rea- 
 sonable, therefore, that if the club head is travel- 
 ing in a dead straight line during the time it is in 
 contact with the ball the ball must inevitably 
 be impelled along that same line? It is as sure 
 as that two and two make four. 
 
 How, then, can any successful style be devel- 
 oped which does not take this fact into consid- 
 eration? You can be sure that if your club head 
 is traveling along the imaginary line which runs 
 through the center of your ball, the ball will also 
 go along that line. There is nothing about the 
 club which will make it do otherwise. 
 
 It being evident that there is only one way that 
 the ball can possibly be sent away straight, is 
 
 89 
 
GOLF 
 
 not that the paramount issue? That is what you 
 should concentrate your attention on when you 
 have developed a hook or a slice. Don't shift 
 your grip, or change your stance, or have a club 
 built for a hook when you have developed a slice, 
 or vice versa. The thing is simple enough to 
 understand and within any one's capacity. When 
 you get off your game and develop these faults 
 just go back to first principles, and you can cure 
 them without much trouble. Remember to keep 
 your head in one spot, so that your eyes can see 
 clearly whether your club head is going along 
 that straight line or not. 
 
 In golf the ball is on the ground, and we know 
 from experience that it must be driven off the 
 ground and into the air to get the greatest dis- 
 tance. In order to illustrate the point I wish to 
 make I have provided a sketch. In the cut the 
 solid line marked X is the line along which we 
 wish to send the ball, because we must get the 
 ball off the ground and into the air to obtain the 
 greatest flight. By reference to the face of 
 the club you will find that the club is "lofted" or 
 inclined, in order to present a surface at right 
 
 90 
 
GETTING THE BALL UP 
 
 angles to the desired line of flight. This "loft- 
 ing," or inclining, of the face of the club then will 
 get the ball off the ground, which should relieve 
 the player from worry on that score. He can 
 concentrate all his attention on propelling the 
 ball forward. 
 
 Right here is where the vast majority of begin- 
 ners make a serious mistake. Instead of confin- 
 
 ing themselves to an endeavor to propel the ball 
 forward merely, they feel they must get under 
 the ball and hit upward. The club is "lofted" to 
 lift the ball. All the clubs are built with that 
 very object. If a beginner was taught that thor- 
 oughly instead of a lot of confusing and com- 
 plicated directions for swinging, etc., he would 
 have a correct mental conception of what he is 
 trying to accomplish. He would find his own 
 
 91 
 
GOLF 
 
 correct angles for swinging at his ball, and would 
 be working on a correct understanding of the 
 stroke. Incidentally he would not take two 
 handfuls of sand for a tee. He would also find 
 when he addressed his ball that instead of the 
 club head being about two inches below his ball 
 he would have the ball directly in front of the 
 face of the club. This gives an easier angle to 
 see the ball and helps the player to hold his head 
 still, because if a ball is teed a couple of inches 
 in the air, and the club is on the ground when he 
 starts, he must make a correction somewhere or he 
 will not connect with the ball, but go under it. 
 These corrections all tend to disturb the balance 
 and make it difficult to see the ball clearly. 
 
 By referring again to the diagram you will 
 notice that the straight line to apply the force 
 propelling the ball should be along the dotted 
 line marked A. The point on which the player 
 should fix his eye is at the back of the ball, at 
 the point where the dotted line marked B and the 
 line through the center of the ball marked A in- 
 tersect. Don't try to get farther back after you 
 have started your swing and attempt to see under 
 
 92 
 
Finish of Stroke. The Incline of the Body Is the 
 
 Same as in the Address and at the 
 
 Top of the Swing. 
 
GETTING THE BALL UP 
 
 the center of the ball — fix your attention solely 
 on propelling it forward. If you do not keep 
 your head rigidly in one spot you will not see 
 anything but a blurred image and you will find it 
 very difficult to hit anything accurately. 
 
 A very important factor in accuracy is what is 
 known as the "snap of the wrist" and therefore 
 I shall endeavor to bring out its purpose more 
 clearly. The "snap of the wrist" is made to 
 maintain the position of the face of the club at 
 right angles to the desired line of flight of the 
 ball along line A, as shown in the diagram. It 
 is much more important that the face of the club 
 is at exact right angles to that line when the ball 
 leaves it than when it is first struck on the tee, 
 as far as direction goes. The fact that most 
 players do hit their ball at right angles and yet 
 get a slice is evidence that what I say is so. 
 
 Many players face their clubs in while address- 
 ing in order to overcome the slice and to avoid 
 foundering their ball or smothering it ; they have 
 to gouge at the ball or turn the face of the club 
 up as they come to it in order to hit the ball 
 clean. It is astonishing how many experienced 
 
 93 
 
GOLF 
 
 players do this. It comes from a misconception 
 of what happens to the club during the back 
 swing. 
 
 You will observe that I have drawn a line on 
 the shaft of the club in position, marked I. If 
 your club was resting on the ground back of your 
 
 ball and you made a hue in the center of the staff, 
 such as I have in number 1, when you start your 
 back swing properly that line should be turned 
 to the right very slowly, so that if you keep your 
 head absolutely still you can just manage to see 
 this line off to the right out of the corner of 
 your eye when the club is about three or four 
 feet awav from the ball. That is as far as it 
 should be turned away. It should be turned that 
 
 94 
 
GETTING THE BALL UP 
 
 far when the club head is traveling through three 
 or four feet of its arc. The club face is thus 
 away from the ball and it should be parallel with 
 line A, the line you desire to send the ball along 
 when it gets opposite the shoulders. This is done 
 by rolling the wrists slightly. 
 
 When you come back to the ball don't attempt 
 to roll your wrists back too soon in your anxiety; 
 to get them back in time, because even if you do 
 hit the ground before you strike the ball it will 
 be with the bottom of the club at the back near 
 the lead, and it will straighten in ample time. 
 This motion I have described is what is called the 
 "roll of the wrist" by the professionals. It is 
 comparatively gradual and the club travels 
 through about four feet while it is being made. 
 The snap of the wrist comes at the end of the 
 turn the instant the club head connects with the 
 ball, and it is done in a flash, while the ball is 
 still in contact with the club, so quickly that the 
 eye cannot see it. 
 
 By reference to the diagram you will observe 
 that the line on the shaft marked 1 is in the center 
 and about two-thirds of the way to the left in 
 
 95 
 
GOLF 
 
 position 2, while it is just visible in position 3. 
 This change in position takes place while the club 
 is traveling from the tee to about six inches be- 
 yond the ball, and it is when this turn, or "snap 
 of the wrist," is made properly that direction is 
 absolutely assured. The ball will leave the club 
 on a beautiful line and with a low, gradual rise. 
 It is this "snap of the wrist" which prevents 
 the ball from going away to the right when the 
 club head comes in contact with it, because the 
 ball flattens when it is first struck, as shown at D, 
 and when it rebounds from the club, about the 
 position marked E, the ball is traveling much 
 faster than the club head, because it has the speed 
 of the club head plus the rebound due to its being 
 compressed when it was first struck at C. This 
 turn, or "snap of the wrist," also enables the 
 club head to remain on the line A, and the player 
 should remember that it is while this is being 
 done that the right arm should finish the sweep 
 extended as was the left arm on the back swing. 
 The left arm is the guiding arm on the back 
 swing and the right arm should be the guiding 
 
 96 
 
GETTING THE BALL UP 
 
 arm the instant the club reaches the ball. The 
 transfer is made with a "snap of the wrists." 
 
 Many players have an idea that if they turn 
 in the face of the club, as I have described, they 
 will hook the ball, but they are mistaken. The 
 ball is going very much faster than the club head 
 before the club head leaves line A. This "snap 
 of the wrist" takes place while the arms are both 
 extended, and the idea should be to see how far 
 you can keep your club head going along line A. 
 
 I made the experiment recently and I found 
 that my club head would hit three sand tees each 
 one inch high and six inches between centers or 
 twelve inches between the two ends. I aimed at 
 the center one and just clipped the top off each. 
 This is not a bad experiment to try. 
 
 One great difficulty, as it appears to me, is that 
 players are not able to judge as to the direction 
 of their own movements, owing to the constant 
 change in the location of their arms, shoulders, 
 and hands, with reference to the ball. The angles 
 are very difficult to gage, and it is my desire to 
 work out a series of steps for those players who 
 
 97 
 
GOLF. 
 
 have little time to work them out for themselves, 
 and to give simple methods of obtaining the cor- 
 rect lines of force. With that end in view I 
 have had a series of photographs taken, which will 
 give readers a clearer idea of the lines of force 
 than would a word picture. These photographs 
 were not posed for in the ordinary sense, for the 
 reason that they were taken while actually mak- 
 ing the strokes ; in every case my own mind was 
 centered upon hitting the ball clean and hard, 
 and in every instance a ball was driven away. 
 
 As I have built my game up on the premise 
 that keeping the head still in order to see the ball 
 clearly is the thing which is most important, all 
 the subsequent steps have been constantly modi- 
 fied by that. I do not obtain my power by any 
 heave at any one point in the swing, but am 
 constantly endeavoring to obtain greater smooth- 
 ness rather than increase my speed. This has 
 actually increased my distance while my direction 
 has improved correspondingly. 
 
 In one photograph is given a view at the top 
 of my swing, and while the position may suggest 
 the most vigorous effort I suggest that the reader 
 
 98 
 
GETTING THE BALL UP 
 
 will remember how much I have dwelt upon 
 the fact that I consider "keeping the head still" 
 the foundation of the game. I do not hurry my 
 swing in order to get distance, and I do not know 
 of any set of muscles I use more than another. I 
 think that the principal thing that I have in mind 
 when working on my swing is to see how evenly 
 I can swing and how I can avoid introducing the 
 slightest jerk of any sort, rather than to get more 
 power. 
 
 Many players dwell upon the fact that they 
 are not limber enough to get a free swing, but it 
 is only because they continually strive to get more 
 power rather than greater accuracy. At the 
 point shown in the illustration every muscle in 
 my body is relaxed to its fullest extent, and the 
 only thing approaching firmness which I am 
 conscious of is in the fingers. 
 
 One photograph which I publish is a bird's-eye 
 view of the way I stand to my ball (as though 
 the reader was above me), because that is the 
 best way to give him an idea of how the stance 
 and ball and mental picture of the stroke look to 
 me. I think that most any beginner or any one 
 i ••• 99 
 
GOLF 
 
 who has not studied the theory of the game will 
 see at once how different my plan looks from his 
 point of view or the mental picture or theory upon 
 which he works. In the first place, I know that 
 very few players will agree with me offhand that 
 my club shaft is addressing the ball at the correct 
 angle. They cannot conceive that a ball will 
 go off on line A if the hands are to the left of 
 line C, as shown in the illustration. To any one 
 not familiar with the game it looks in the illus- 
 tration as though the ball would certainly go off 
 to the right of line A, but I know from experi- 
 ence that it will not, and the reason is that the 
 stance has but little bearing upon the stroke. It 
 is the gage you take at the top of your swing 
 which counts. The real pivotal center of the 
 stroke is not the hands, or wrists, or head, but 
 is a point exactly between the two shoulders, and 
 I have marked it in the illustration at the base 
 of the neck, indicated by a cross (x) . 
 
 The reason I have placed so much emphasis 
 upon keeping the head still is in order that this 
 pivotal center between the shoulders at the base 
 of the neck may preserve its relation to the ball, 
 
 100 
 
Imagine the Club-Head Moving Rapidly and Note 
 
 How Slowly the Shoulders Must 
 
 Move in Proportion. 
 
GETTIXG THE BALL UP 
 
 and you can readily see how important that is if 
 you are to hit the ball accurately and along the 
 line you desire to send it. All the muscles of the 
 body below that pivotal center are in action and 
 helping to expend their energy to propel the club 
 forward, except those which are controlling the 
 head. The reason I say that keeping the head 
 still and in one spot is the foundation of golf is 
 twofold. The first reason is that that is the 
 only way in which you can see the ball clearly; 
 the second is that in that way only can you 
 preserve the pivotal center constant in relation 
 to the ball. 
 
 Now, if the centrifugal force is an important 
 factor to be considered, and experience has taught 
 all golfers after a few swings that it is, allowance 
 must be made for it somewhere. It is evident 
 that the balance must be preserved, and I have 
 found in my own case that if my arms are kept 
 straight — that is, the elbows not bent — and I ad- 
 dress the ball at the toe of the club instead of the 
 center of the face, it gives me the correct distance 
 when I come back to the ball. This address is one 
 preventive measure because it keeps me from go- 
 
 101 
 
GOLF 
 
 ing beyond the ball and having to draw my hands 
 in to hit it. 
 
 As there is more power transferred through the 
 arms by the shoulders and back when the arms are 
 extended than when they are bent (due partly to 
 the greater leverage by reason of the greater dis- 
 tance between the club head and the pivotal cen- 
 ter, and the fact that with them extended you 
 cannot use the forearms) , you have more nearly a 
 fixed line for guiding the club when the club shaft 
 and the left arm are in line and you have 
 more play of the wrists when your club reaches 
 the ball in this style, as shown in the illustration, 
 because there is no bend in the left wrist as there 
 is when your club shaft is in line between the 
 pivotal center and the ball. Not only this, but 
 it gives greater freedom on the turn when you 
 come to the follow through, and if you have more 
 natural freedom at this point than on the back 
 swing, you have provided a favorable condition 
 for applying your greatest power where it is 
 needed. 
 
 102 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MAKING THE SWING 
 
 THE majority of players devote too much 
 time and place too much importance on 
 their address. The result is that they fix 
 in their minds the appearance of the angles which 
 are presented by the position of the arms, legs, 
 and club shaft, and it is largely the desire to 
 retain these angles constant which results in their 
 moving their heads and stiffening their muscles 
 so that there is no freedom in the swing. The 
 idea of many is to have all the angles which 
 they have studied out kept constant until they 
 get back to their ball, and this results in shifting 
 the feet, changing the grip, and various other 
 faults which are seen so often on the links. 
 
 There is only one point which vitally affects 
 the stroke, and the only reason why that should be 
 kept constant is that you are thus enabled to see 
 your ball clearly. That is the pivotal point marked 
 
 105 
 
GOLF 
 
 at the base of the neck, and a line drawn from this 
 point to the ball should be directly at right angles 
 to the desired line of flight. The address shown 
 in the photograph opposite page 68 with the arms 
 extended downward, not bent at the elbows, is 
 the only position which I find is comfortable to 
 maintain. I desire to caution players that by 
 the word extended I do not mean to have it 
 understood that the arms are reaching out for 
 the ball, but are extended down, with absolutely 
 no bend in the left wrist. If the player will 
 grasp his club with the left hand, more especially 
 in the fingers, rather than in the palm of his 
 hand, and place the head of the club in the 
 position shown in the illustration, and fix his 
 mind solely on finding the most comfortable posi- 
 tion he can assume, rather than upon the angle 
 of the club face or shaft, he will have grasped 
 the idea I wish to convey. My purpose in assum- 
 ing the stance shown is to obtain greater comfort, 
 thereby giving greater freedom to the play of 
 the muscles and avoiding the slightest tendency 
 to stiffen, which destroys the freedom of the 
 swing. I have found it to be a basic principle 
 
 106 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 for my; own case in golf that the instant I find 
 any stiffening of the muscles at any particular 
 point in my stroke to search for some way; to 
 give greater freedom and overcome this "setting" 
 of the muscles. That will destroy the accuracy; 
 of any stroke and also reduce its power. 
 
 As I have found in my early experience that 
 bending the elbows in the address results in 
 the centrifugal force in the downward stroke 
 tending to pull my club head beyond the 
 ball and making it impossible to strike accu- 
 rately unless I draw them in, thus giving 
 a slice, I decided that keeping the arms 
 straight should be the simplest way of over- 
 coming this trouble. As the majority of golfers 
 do this, it is evident that they have reached the 
 same conclusion I did. The trouble is that they 
 straighten them and reach for the ball besides. 
 Reaching for the ball in the address stiffens the 
 muscles and prevents any freedom in the swing. 
 
 It is far easier to control the amount of play 
 you will allow the arms in the downward stroke, 
 if you are coming down inside the ball, than if 
 you are going beyond it, because the centrifugal 
 
 107 
 
GOLF 
 
 force is helping it go out, and you only have to 
 yield a little to reach the ball; but if you are 
 going beyond the ball you have the centrifugal 
 force to overcome in pulling in the hands, which 
 multiplies the effort. Therefore it is a decided 
 advantage to keep the arms well in toward the 
 body. 
 
 My own scheme is to get to the fop of my 
 swing in the easiest way I can, and I let the 
 centrifugal force carry my club out in the down- 
 ward swing until it reaches the ball. This en- 
 ables me to exert all my energy in propelling 
 my club and leaves but very little effort required 
 to guide it. The very first time a beginner 
 swings at a ball he invariably swings too short 
 because the amount of centrifugal force, or force 
 which tends to pull the club outward, is so great 
 that he involuntarily pulls in his hands for fear 
 he will go beyond the ball. After two or three 
 tries he finally lets his arms out enough to reach 
 it. There is usually plenty of energy in his 
 swing, and he has only to consider how far he 
 has to reach to the ball. As soon as he begins 
 
 108 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 to learn to hit his ball accurately he loses the 
 natural freedom of his swing. 
 
 If the hands and arms were in motion in the 
 address it would be necessary to have them reach- 
 ing for the ball, but as they are stationary the 
 idea should be to obtain the easiest and most 
 comfortable position in order that as the player 
 reaches the top of his swing he will not have 
 tired the muscles from holding a set position. 
 In the illustration I show the hands to the left 
 of the line between the eyes and the ball. This 
 position of the hand insures that I will not reach 
 the bottom of my swing until after I have reached 
 my ball. When the player considers that the 
 pivot of the sweep is not at the hands, but at 
 the pivotal center between the shoulders, he will 
 better grasp the flatness of the arc made by the 
 sweep of the club when it goes through the ball. 
 Bear in mind that the angles at which you address 
 the ball have little or no influence, but it is the way 
 you take your gage at the top of the swing that 
 counts. 
 
 The distance between the pivotal center and 
 
 109 
 
GOLF 
 
 the ball as you address it is the equivalent in a 
 man of say five feet seven using forty-three-inch 
 clubs of a circle the radius of which is seventy 
 inches. This would give a circle nearly twelve 
 feet in diameter. This is why it is possible to 
 get such a flat arc when you reach the ball. 
 
 From the illustration it may be thought that 
 I am reaching out for the ball, but that is not the 
 case. My arms are both close to my body and 
 both are straight. The club shaft and left arm 
 are in line and both are parallel to the right leg. 
 This gives the player a firmer control of the 
 club with the left arm or guiding arm than when 
 the left wrist is bent in as you are compelled 
 to do when the ball is addressed with the club 
 shaft in line between the eyes and the ball. The 
 position shown also gives a little more play to 
 the left arm in starting the back swing and much 
 greater freedom in the wrist. 
 
 The moment the left knee is bent in it throws 
 the left shoulder forward while the right hip is 
 drawn backward and this makes it possible to 
 draw the left arm around close to the body. As 
 the body is tilted at an angle of nearly forty-five 
 
 110 
 
The Address from Overhead, Showing Angles and 
 
 Lines of Motion as They Appear to the One 
 
 Driving. (See Page 99). 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 degrees, it is necessary to bring the left shoulder 
 around as low as possible to avoid striking the 
 chin at the top of the swing, thus moving or 
 jarring the head and interfering with a clear 
 view of the ball. The mistake with the vast 
 majority of players is that they do not keep the 
 body tilted at the same angle as when they ad- 
 dressed their ball, due to the fact that they at- 
 tempt to bring the club up over their shoulders 
 by a direct lifting up of the club instead of by 
 tilting the body. 
 
 The shoulders play a very vital part in the 
 swing due to their great power, and any undue 
 play of the shoulders is bound to affect the arms 
 and the club. The entire effort should be to 
 keep the shoulders in the same plane throughout 
 their sweep. Avoid raising them, as that changes 
 the relative position of the club to the ball. If 
 I were to make a general criticism of the majority 
 of players I think I should say "Relax!" "Re- 
 lax!" Avoid the "setting" of any of the muscles 
 rigidly. 
 
 In the early days of my golf I had an idea 
 that there was something almost supernatural 
 
 111 
 
 
GOLF 
 
 and weird about the way the professionals could 
 bring off their shots. I had my mind on a hun- 
 dred things and couldn't do any of them well. 
 In golf, as in everything else, I have found that 
 when anything is not easy and simple to under- 
 stand, I had better dispense with it. Do nothing 
 you do not understand and have not a definite 
 reason for. 
 
 Instead of raising the left heel from the ground 
 the effort should be, if at all, to keep it down. 
 If your physique will allow you to do so and get 
 around to the top of your swing, you will find 
 it easier to maintain your balance with both feet 
 and both heels on the ground. The more support 
 you get the better. My left heel comes off the 
 ground because I am not limber enough to keep 
 it down and get to the top of my swing easily. 
 
 No one can assume a stance at the outset that 
 will be final. As golf is a gradual development, 
 the stance, or position in relation to the ball, must 
 be progressive and should be changed from time 
 to time as the player works out his theories and 
 improves the mental picture of his stroke. A 
 stance that might be perfectly correct for one 
 
 112 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 scheme of hitting the ball would be utterly un- 
 suitable to another. To my way of thinking, the 
 stance must be subordinate to the swing, and as 
 the swing is governed by the player's physique, 
 I think that setting oneself in a definite position 
 and making the swing subordinate to that is 
 absurd. 
 
 As I have shown that one of the elementary 
 things in golf is the fact that unless the club head 
 is traveling along a dead straight line while in 
 contact with the ball, the ball won't go along 
 that line, it is evident that the player must sat- 
 isfy himself by swinging as to what line his club 
 travels in its sweep, and then adjust himself in 
 his stance so that the desired line of flight and the 
 natural line of his sweep coincide. Whether 
 the ball is off the right foot or the left foot, or the 
 left foot is farther advanced than the right, 
 or vice versa, I think is of no consequence, and 
 too much time is wasted on the subject by the 
 majority of players, with the result that the 
 really important item is befogged or overlooked. 
 It is the player's swing which should govern his 
 stance and not the stance the swing. You can 
 
 113 
 
GOLF 
 
 and do change your stance every time you strike 
 a side hill or down slope or any of the hundred 
 varieties of lies on the course, but the swing 
 should not be tampered with lightly. 
 
 When I find an awkward shot to be played 
 I first satisfy myself as to how I can swing 
 without losing my balance and moving my head; 
 then I note the line my club travels along and 
 walk up to my ball, knowing what to expect. 
 
 As the club head is in contact with the ball for 
 several inches of its arc, it is important that the 
 ball should be first met at a little distance, say; 
 a couple of inches, before the club has reached 
 the lowest point in its sweep, because the ball will 
 stay against the club head from that point in a 
 partially collapsed condition, and the full force 
 of the blow will be exerted at a time when the 
 club is traveling more nearly parallel with the 
 ground. The ball will be less likely to rise 
 beyond the line at right angles to the face of the 
 club. The thing to observe before assuming 
 the stance is where the club head will travel 
 for the greatest distance along a straight line in 
 whatever swing you have perfected ; then remem- 
 
 114 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 ber that the ball is in contact with the club head 
 for several inches, and after a few trial swings 
 you can see what relation your feet have with 
 regard to that line. This will determine your 
 stance. 
 
 My practice in the address is to keep the hands 
 to the left of a line directly between the eyes and 
 the ball in order to obtain, first, a clearer view of 
 the ball; second, an easier position to start my 
 club away from the ball; third, to obtain a more 
 comfortable position when holding my left arm 
 well extended or straightened, not outward but 
 down, because it is easier to maintain the balance 
 when the arms do not reach out so far and gives 
 greater freedom and flexibility; fourth, in order 
 to keep my weight on the flat of my feet, which 
 makes it easier to control the swaying of the 
 body than when reaching out with the arms and 
 throwing the weight on the ball of the foot ; fifth, 
 keeping the left arm down also keeps my left 
 shoulder down, and gives me a more comfortable 
 position when I get to the top of my swing; 
 sixth, it prevents my stopping my hands when I 
 come down at the ball but fixes in my mind the 
 
 lid 
 
GOLF 
 
 maintenance of the application of power until my 
 ball leaves the club; seventh, because when my 
 ball leaves the club head after having been in con- 
 tact with it for several inches of its sweep, my 
 club face is at exact right angles and my hands 
 and the club shaft are at perfect right angles to 
 the desired line of flight; eighth, because when 
 the ball leaves the club at that point the momen- 
 tum still being imparted to the club head draws 
 the right arm out after the ball and the finish 
 of the stroke takes care of itself without my 
 giving thought to it and enables me to finish 
 without any tendency to lose my balance; ninth, 
 and of the utmost importance, it makes me turn 
 my wrists with the right hand over the left, 
 and makes it impossible to get the ball away at 
 all if I turn the right hand under the left with 
 the face of the club up, which is so productive 
 of slicing. 
 
 116 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 (continued) 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 MAKING THE SWING 
 
 (continued) 
 
 A POINT to which I wish to direct especial 
 attention is the matter of keeping the 
 eyes, club shaft, and club face at dead 
 right angles to the desired line of flight of the ball. 
 I think it is a great mistake to attempt this, as 
 it gives an awkward bend to the left wrist, which 
 has to be accommodated at the top of the swing, 
 and you will find great difficulty in keeping the 
 left arm properly extended if you use that stance. 
 Besides this you will experience great difficulty 
 in turning the right hand over the left the instant 
 your club head meets the ball. It also brings a 
 shock upon the wrist which doesn't belong there. 
 The worst objection of all is its effect on the 
 eyes, as they see so many things moving in a 
 line with the ball that they unconsciously have a 
 tendency to follow. The fewer things you have 
 
 119 
 
GOLF 
 
 directly in your line of view the better. This 
 is another reason for keeping the hands low. 
 
 The majority of elderly men I have observed 
 have a tendency to raise their shoulders too high, 
 apparently as though they were trying to get a 
 sight on the ball, as if their club shaft was a rifle 
 barrel. This only distracts the attention and 
 makes it more difficult to keep the balance, as the 
 more the arms are reaching out and the shoulders 
 raised the more the weight is thrown forward on 
 the toes or ball of the foot, and the greater the 
 tendency to fall forward the moment they start 
 their back swing. It is very difficult to make 
 allowances and corrections after the swing has 
 begun. 
 
 I have noticed also that the vast majority of 
 the older men stand too far away from their ball. 
 It is much easier to get speed in the club in a 
 short than in a long circle, and yet I have seen 
 players take still longer shafts in the hope of 
 making up in leverage what they lack in speed. 
 I am pretty strong, and yet I have found that 
 swinging long-shafted clubs tires me and I am 
 sure it must tire them. I have observed that with 
 
 120 
 
It Is a Mistake for Older Men to Address the Ball 
 
 as Though They Were Trying to Aim 
 
 Along the Shaft. 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 few exceptions the professionals have all dis- 
 carded the long clubs. 
 
 There is a certain amount of speed necessary 
 to get distance of any extent, and I should advise 
 the older men to use lighter instead of longer 
 clubs to accomplish the purpose. They could 
 then get up speed in a shorter swing than when 
 using clubs of normal weight, and could rely 
 more upon maintaining a steady pressure at a 
 good speed rather than greater leverage at a 
 much slower rate. The effort would be far less 
 tiring. 
 
 It should be remembered that in the address I 
 keep my arms straight down, close to the body, 
 and when I start my club back from the ball 
 I keep it on the line of flight upon which the 
 ball is resting and against that line as long as 
 I can comfortably. As my body is tilted it seems 
 that I am making my sweep along the ground 
 until my club head is past the base line upon 
 which I am standing. 
 
 When it is realized that the circle described 
 with the arms extended is equal to the radius in 
 a twelve-foot circle it will be apparent how grad- 
 
 121 
 
GOLF 
 
 ual is the rise of the club from the ground or 
 near the ground. I also find that by keeping 
 the club on the ground or near the ground until 
 I pass the base line upon which I am standing, 
 I hardly notice when I turn my wrist, as the turn 
 is so gradual. Another thing I observe is that it 
 seems as though the left hand parallels the line 
 of flight upon which the ball rests. Keeping my 
 club close to the ground until I have passed the 
 base line upon which I stand also keeps my left 
 shoulder from coming up, which would result 
 in my straightening up and thus changing the 
 whole plane of the swing, and this is exactly 
 what the majority of players do. 
 
 To get to the position shown in the illustration 
 it is necessary to bend the least bit at the waist 
 on the left side of the body. Otherwise the left 
 shoulder will be forced around so that it strikes 
 the chin at the top of the swing. The bend at 
 the waist should only be in the very slightest 
 degree, or it will be overdone. It should be per- 
 fectly comfortable and hardly noticeable to an 
 observer. Most players overdo everything. 
 
 When you bend the left knee have it come in 
 
 122 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 a very little bit toward the base line upon which 
 you are standing. Bend only the least bit, how- 
 ever, or you will overdo it. Keep your left heel 
 on the ground if you can comfortably. Any- 
 thing which causes your attention to be attracted 
 to it is being overdone. Now if the player in 
 practicing the turn to bring his club to the top 
 of the swing will keep his head still, he will find 
 that he can comfortably do each of the steps only 
 a little. He will also find it to be wise not to put 
 his strength into the stroke faster than his wrists 
 will get his club into position to take it. 
 
 One of the main things I look for in my pre- 
 liminary swing or "waggle" over the ball is to 
 "feel" that the natural arc I am using in my 
 swing is sure to be flat and "down" to the ball; 
 in other words, to be sure that my stance is taken 
 in such a manner that it is almost impossible to 
 go over the ball. As this has been of such great 
 assistance to me I wish that it could be shown 
 by a diagram. It is purely by the sense of 
 "touch" or feeling that I am conscious of this 
 "balance," as it might be called, but it is the main 
 thing I watch in my preliminary "waggle." I 
 
 123 
 
GOLF 
 
 think it is more of a poise of the club, as the guid- 
 ing of the club is shifted from the left hand be- 
 fore you reach the ball to the right hand after 
 you get to the ball. 
 
 It is a very hard point to bring out without 
 being able to swing a club to show the idea. I 
 note from a careful analysis of the effort that 
 one of the points I became conscious of by close 
 observation is that the pivot is not made in 
 the hands so much, but it is a sort of trial to see 
 how my head acts when my arms, shoulders, and 
 body are in motion ; if there is the slightest diffi- 
 culty in keeping my balance I keep shifting my 
 position very slightly until I feel absolutely com- 
 fortable and am certain that there will be no 
 stiffness at any point in the swing. In other 
 words, I endeavor to get everything "free" in 
 order that I may not become conscious of a dis- 
 turbing element in the swing. My deliberate 
 purpose, as I explained in a previous chapter, is 
 to keep my head absolutely still in order that I 
 can see clearly. 
 
 I do not approve of seesawing from one leg 
 to another in the address, because I cannot see 
 
 124 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 the ball clearly. Do all the "waggling" with 
 the arms, shoulders, and hands; if you do that 
 well in the preliminary and do not disturb your 
 view of the ball, you will have a much greater 
 chance of doing it correctly when you make your 
 actual swing. Keep the feet still as well, and 
 do not sway the body. Seesawing and wiggling 
 the feet are bad habits because they disturb you 
 in your effort to concentrate upon your ball. 
 
 I made the experiment recently with a friend 
 who was badly off his game, and who had been 
 off for months, of making him concentrate his 
 entire attention in looking at his ball and elim- 
 inating every effort and purpose except to see 
 that ball clearly every instant on his back swing 
 and downward swing. In other words, I insisted 
 that he actually "see" his ball clearly the whole 
 time occupied in his swing. It cured him of his 
 troubles at once, and he said, "Well, I never have 
 actually seen that ball right since I took up the 
 game." 
 
 This is an illustration of how simple a rule will 
 cure all, or nearly all, golfing ills if it is prop- 
 erly observed. If the player can actually con- 
 
 125 
 
GOLF 
 
 trol his effort to the point where he actually sees 
 the ball from the start until he hits it, never shift- 
 ing his gaze for the least instant, he will never 
 have any trouble in hitting that ball, no matter 
 what his form may be. If that one point is 
 observed it will cure stiffness in the swing, swing- 
 ing back too far or too short, or hitting too soon. 
 Don't look up an instant or shift your gaze until 
 your club head reaches the ball. When you have 
 a particularly hard shot to get off put your whole 
 mind on this one thing. The best plan is to prac- 
 tice hitting a ball a few times in this way and 
 you will quickly gain confidence. Shifting the 
 glance is as bad as looking away from the ball. 
 Keep it on the one spot on the ball throughout. 
 Do not look at your club to see if it is squared 
 to the ball or allow your eye to follow it as you 
 draw it away. The ball and the ball only is the 
 one thing to look at. 
 
 Now if you will consider the matter of the 
 centrifugal force and will remember the old 
 figure of swinging a stone around your head at 
 the end of a string, you will remember that the 
 stone will gradually leave the ground and go 
 
 126 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 higher and higher as you increase the speed, until 
 when you get up high speed the stone will be 
 about as far from the ground as the hand which 
 is whirling it. As your club shaft is stiff you are 
 able to get up a very high speed at once, and 
 you have the same effect upon the club, due to 
 the weight of the club head, that the stone has 
 upon the string. In addition to this you have 
 a complication due to the fact that you are de- 
 scribing an upright circle as well as a horizontal 
 one, and consequently you must direct the power 
 so that these two circles synchronize. 
 
 One very natural result of the player's dis- 
 covery of this fact is the effort to get the shoul- 
 ders up nearly in a line with the eyes in order 
 to see this line. He should remember that the 
 eyes are about a foot above the pivotal center, and 
 raising the shoulders is not the remedy. The 
 more you can get away from taking a sight of the 
 ball along the line of the shaft of the club and 
 the nearer you can come to getting a bird's-eye 
 view of the ball, keeping the line along which 
 the power is directed below the line between the 
 eyes and the ball, the greater will be the absence 
 
 127 
 
GOLF 
 
 of disturbing elements along the line of vision 
 and the more compact the muscles and the greater 
 the flexibility throughout. 
 
 As the head is so far above the line between 
 the pivotal center between the shoulders and the 
 ball, I find it a great help in my own case to 
 look down on the ball rather than to get my 
 angles from along the shaft. I have observed 
 that I have much better results from this view 
 of the ball and far less tendency to look up too 
 soon than when I used to take my gage more 
 along the shaft. You can get a much better 
 view of the position of the face of the club from 
 looking down on top of it than when looking 
 along the club shaft. In one case the natural 
 tendency is to look away when you start to draw 
 the club back, as the instinctive desire seems to 
 be to follow a moving object. The other way 
 your aim has been taken regardless of the club 
 shaft and you stand a better chance of hitting 
 the ball. I have found from experience that 
 much depends upon the way you see your lines 
 and fix the angles mentally. 
 
 Before leaving this subject, I must call atten- 
 
 128 
 
MAKING THE SWING 
 
 tion to a point which may help players to under- 
 stand how they can keep their club head traveling 
 along the line of flight, which has so much to do 
 with the direction. If you will take the view 
 shown in the photograph, i. e., looking down on 
 top of the ball rather than along the line of the 
 shaft, you will notice that if you are leaning over 
 properly the only way you can keep the club head 
 upon the line of flight is to keep the hands mov- 
 ing along parallel with that line. In other 
 words, if you draw in your hands you will draw 
 in the club head also. The idea should be as 
 though you were trying to keep the club shaft 
 at right angles with the line of flight as long as 
 the ball and the club head are in contact. In 
 short, you should sweep the hands along with the 
 club head while the ball and club head are in 
 contact. This is what the professionals mean 
 when they say to "throw the hands out after the 
 ball," or "throw the club at the ball." 
 
 129 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 THE idea of being comfortable and doing 
 things easily seems to be a hard one for 
 many golfers to grasp. We hear so 
 much about physique being so different with dif- 
 ferent people that players are apt to assume that 
 theirs is one of the remarkable physiques without 
 flexibility, and we hear them apologize for their 
 lack of freedom by blaming it upon nature. 
 This is silly. Everyone is built pretty much alike 
 as far as the frame goes, and there is about so 
 much play to each hinge joint and each ball and 
 socket joint in the body. The point where peo- 
 ple differ most, as regards golf, is in their men- 
 tal make up. One man grasps a principle easily 
 that another man has to "saw wood" to master. 
 They say with a mysterious confidence: "It is 
 mental," much as they would say: "It is a 
 secret, let it go no further." They nurse a pet 
 
 '133 
 
GOLF 
 
 idea with such persistency that they become in- 
 fatuated with it. I have seen players stand for 
 minutes, marbleized in an effort to address the 
 ball as though the address solved the making of 
 the stroke. 
 
 I have often wondered what can be in such 
 players' minds. To stand in front of the ball 
 with every muscle set and not a trace of move- 
 ment, even of an eyelid, is inviting almost sure 
 disaster. It is not the way you keep your eye 
 on the ball when you are "set" in the address 
 which enables you to hit it accurately, but the 
 way you keep it on the ball when you are in ac- 
 tion that counts. 
 
 Doing things comfortably is the keynote of the 
 whole swing. It is what gives the results, be- 
 cause the strength is being properly applied. 
 The instant you have to brace your muscles you 
 should be warned that you are drifting away 
 from the correct method of playing. If you will 
 let comfort be the check upon any scheme of play 
 you adopt, you will not go far wrong. 
 
 As I stated in another chapter, only youngsters 
 
 134 
 
■ 
 
 
 This Is an Easier Way for Older Men to Address 
 
 the Ball. 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 will ever be able to learn imitatively. If you get 
 better results by your own method, that is the one 
 to follow. Don't try to look like somebody else. 
 Fix in your mind what you are really trying to 
 accomplish, and let your common sense be your 
 guide in solving the problem. Do not ask if you 
 are rolling your wrists correctly, but ask what 
 the object is, and get the player to show you what 
 he has in mind in swinging in such and such a 
 fashion. If you can learn his reason or purpose, 
 you can apply the knowledge. If you merely 
 try to imitate his swing, you are not getting any 
 permanent benefit from his teaching. You can 
 only learn golf little by little, and the steps come 
 one at a time. It is so with everyone. 
 
 The three steps in the order of their impor- 
 tance, which you must constantly bear in mind 
 when working out the various details, are: (1) 
 Keep the head still; (2) keep your club head 
 traveling in a straight line while in contact with 
 the ball; and (3) do not "set" the muscles. If 
 you find you are going off your game these are 
 the things you must run over in your mind and 
 
 135 
 
GOLF 
 
 in the order of their importance. Do not change 
 your stance and swing. Apply these three items 
 in this order and you will get "back" again. 
 
 It is the confusion between pushing and lift- 
 ing, of which the player is perfectly conscious 
 through his sense of touch or feeling, which 
 makes the "timing" of the maximum effort so 
 difficult to accomplish. Very few players have 
 thought out these two distinct efforts, and it is 
 the struggle of the two sets of muscles for mas- 
 tery which is responsible for so much lost power, 
 those which are used in lifting being opposed to 
 those which are used in pushing. 
 
 If you were to grasp with both hands a pole 
 about an inch in diameter, firmly fastened to the 
 ground and to the ceiling, and attempt to push 
 it downward you would find that it would use one 
 set of muscles and to lift or push it upward would 
 use an entirely different set. When you pushed 
 downward it would take most of the weight from 
 your legs. When you tried to lift or push up- 
 ward it would leave all your weight upon your 
 legs, and in addition the amount of extra weight 
 
 136 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 corresponding to the amount of energy you were 
 exerting. 
 
 A golf swing is one of the most complicated 
 things to study, because the motion is made in a 
 circle, but the maximum power is exerted in 
 either one way or the other, lifting or pushing 
 down, according to the peculiar physique of the 
 player and the style he has adopted. The dub 
 tries to use both at once. The average player 
 compromises and tries first a little of the down- 
 ward push and then a little of the lift, and to do 
 this he has to shift his head and body to allow for 
 whichever set of muscles he is compelled to use. 
 This moving or shifting results in disturbing the 
 view of the ball, preventing him from seeing it 
 clearly, and naturally makes it extremely difficult 
 to hit it accurately. 
 
 Players must make up their minds that either 
 one system or the other must be sacrificed. If 
 you are to use a lift, you can accomplish nothing 
 by attempting to lift before your club head 
 reaches the ball. If you are going to push, you 
 must hold back your maximum effort until the 
 
 137 
 
GOLF 
 
 club head reaches the ball, or you will have noth- 
 ing in reserve to keep the club head against the 
 ball long enough to accumulate power and the 
 follow through is of no use. 
 
 Mere motion, when not backed up by weight, 
 will not transfer much energy to the ball. In 
 other words, it would be just as easy to drive a 
 ball a great distance with the club head attached 
 to a string if it were not for the fact that there 
 is not much more than one chance in a million of 
 connecting at the exact point of the natural bal- 
 ance of the club. The great difficulty in hitting 
 the ball with the club at the exact balancing point 
 makes necessary a firm grip to overcome the in- 
 equalities in the blow. This inequality is distrib- 
 uted partly in the player's frame, partly in the 
 club shaft, and partly in the ball. The more 
 accurately the club strikes at its exact point of 
 balance the smaller are these losses, and it is here 
 that the attention of beginners should be focused 
 — not on a scheme of developing greater power. 
 The losses will multiply in a much greater ratio 
 than the power can be increased. 
 
 Taking the fact that the weight is the only 
 
 138 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 thing which can be used in an effort exerted 
 downward, on the principle that a man can get 
 upon a platform and lift much more weight than 
 he can pull down on a rope, where the limit he 
 can pull is his own weight, the point is to apply 
 this weight practically. The player cannot be 
 accurate under any conditions where the pull 
 downward toward the ball is exerted violently or 
 with a heave. The way to hit is to exert the pull 
 steadily and accumulate power in the club head, 
 which is coming down partly of its own weight 
 and partly with the "leaning upon the club," 
 which the player exerts and which I have proved 
 should be but little. 
 
 You can lean or shift the weight only very 
 slowly, and the idea in the player's mind when 
 striking downward should be to have the club head 
 whirled around by the arms and hands before you 
 attempt to lean on the ball, as it were. If you 
 are to shift your weight so as to lean on the club, 
 you must wait until the club reaches the ball or 
 you will not have enough distance to clear the 
 ground and avoid hitting back of the ball. It is 
 as though you were to lean the weight of the 
 
 139 
 
GOLF 
 
 shoulders against the ball at the instant the club 
 head reaches it. Players start to lean upon the 
 ball too soon and shorten the distance between the 
 shoulders and the ball too much, and to take up 
 the slack, so to speak, are forced to draw in their 
 arms. 
 
 When the ball is badly cupped it is common 
 sense that you cannot lift it out, as it will be im- 
 possible to get down to the ball in order to have 
 the lift count. To get down to a cupped ball you 
 must lean on the club. 
 
 !A rule in golf which I have thought out care- 
 fully is to bring the feet nearer and nearer to- 
 gether as you find that you are either hitting too 
 soon, looking up too soon, or hitting too hard. 
 For instance, if you will take your driver in your 
 hands and instead of taking your stance place 
 both heels together you will find that it will abso- 
 lutely control your effort to hit too hard. You 
 cannot hit too hard and stay on your feet and you 
 will unconsciously ease up. Many things have 
 drawn my attention to this fact and it has been 
 so impressed upon my mind that I have decided 
 
 140 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 to offer it as a rule. I have noticed that those 
 players who spread their feet far apart on a shot 
 are invariably "over" when they hit the ball true. 
 I have noticed that those players who play the 
 finest " sunning up " approaches and keep the 
 finest line stand with the feet close together. I 
 have noticed that those players who sclaff and 
 top the most invariably stand with what is called 
 a "wide open stance." I find in my own case 
 that this rule invariably has put me back on my 
 drive at once when I get a little off. I have also 
 found that it is absolutely efficacious in a high 
 wind. The harder the wind blows the more you 
 should bring the feet together. This may not 
 seem reasonable, but I have tried it out thor- 
 oughly and know it will accomplish the desired 
 result. 
 
 It would seem as though the wind would blow 
 you off your balance when you do not brace 
 yourself against it, but that very bracing of the 
 muscles makes accuracy still more difficult. The 
 average player thinks that he should hit harder 
 when driving into a wind, but it is not the way to 
 
 141 
 
GOLF 
 
 get off a good ball. Be more careful to hit 
 perfectly true and you will be astonished to see 
 the distance you get. 
 
 I have tried the idea out with beginners and 
 they invariably respond with an improvement. 
 On short shots it has been absolutely reliable. It 
 makes for an easy, graceful swing ; it helps won- 
 derfully in keeping the head still and it over- 
 comes the tendency to stiffen up so common with 
 beginners. It will teach you to use the body and 
 shoulders more and correct most of the faults in 
 "timing'' the stroke. It overcomes the natural 
 tendency to throw the balance off, or from one 
 foot to the other, which will always disturb the 
 position of the head and change the relative posi- 
 tions of the entire scheme upon which you take 
 your gage. 
 
 Taken in connection with the first and most 
 important rule of golf — that is, to keep the head 
 absolutely still throughout the swing — it is prob- 
 ably one item which will accomplish more good 
 than paying attention to fifty other things. 
 
 A suggestion in connection with these two rules 
 is to allow the "follow through" to pull you 
 
 142 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 around. This will stop your "hitting so blamed 
 hard." I have noticed that those players who 
 use the "wide-open stance" invariably are hard 
 hitters and very wild in direction. Just consider 
 that if you spread your feet apart and brace your- 
 self very firmly your natural instinct is to swing 
 hard. The reason is probably the fact that the 
 muscles have been trained by years of experience 
 to respond with a great effort when such a posi- 
 tion is assumed, and the desire to "kill the ball" 
 which is so strong in everyone, and against which 
 I have been warning players, is perfectly natural 
 with a "wide-open stance." 
 
 If you had to balance yourself on one foot your 
 effort would be very mild, no matter what your 
 desire was. The instinct to keep your feet would 
 be too strong to be resisted. 
 
 In the practice swings of the majority of play- 
 ers you will notice that they do not spread their 
 feet apart ; they merely try out the arms, and that 
 is why they get such a smooth, easy swing. The 
 moment they attempt to hit the ball the very firm- 
 ness of the stance predisposes them toward a more 
 violent effort, and that is where they "fall down" 
 
 143 
 
GOLF 
 
 on the shot. The more difficult the shot the 
 greater freedom you require for the play of the 
 muscles to bring it off, and this same rule will 
 apply to it. A little experimenting with this idea 
 in mind will do much to help players who find 
 they are "off their game." 
 
 I do not want to be understood as advocating 
 a stance for a drive with the heels together, but 
 I do say that when you find yourself hitting too 
 soon, looking up too soon, or hitting too hard, 
 you should bring the feet closer and closer to- 
 gether until you have overcome the tendency. 
 This rule applies also to the playing of short 
 shots and should be followed without the slightest 
 hesitancy. The shorter the shot the nearer the 
 feet should be brought together. 
 
 A fact which requires careful consideration is 
 that if you stand a little nearer to the ball than 
 you are accustomed to, you are naturally more 
 over it, or at least it brings the head more over 
 it, which amounts to the same thing. Naturally 
 you cannot make a very great effort without dig- 
 ging into the ground behind the ball, because the 
 centrifugal force generated in the downward 
 
 144 
 
; - ■ ; 
 
 
 f 
 
 . / / 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 Bird's-Eye View of the Finish of the Swing. 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 swing will carry the club beyond or below the 
 ball. 
 
 This may appear to be wrong, but it is not. 
 The reason it is not is that it makes you hold back 
 your maximum effort until your arms have room 
 to go out to the limit of your reach which enables 
 you to apply the greatest power at the right time ; 
 that is, after you have connected with the ball. 
 In other words, you first connect with the ball 
 when your arms and shoulders have not been ex- 
 tended to their limit. You have some leeway 
 still to follow up the blow by letting the arms 
 and shoulders go out after the ball and keeping 
 the club head against it. If you try to keep your 
 club head against the ball steadily, when the arms 
 and shoulders have reached out to their limit, you 
 must yield somewhere in order to do so, because 
 when the arms and shoulders have reached their 
 limit the club must start upon its upward jour- 
 ney, and as the ball moves out in a straight line 
 while the club is moving upward on a curved line 
 the only way that the club head can stay against 
 the ball is for you to yield somewhere. The mo- 
 ment you yield with the body your head moves 
 
 145 
 
GOLF 
 
 and your muscles must stop work or you will fall 
 over forward. 
 
 This is exactly what the average player does. 
 He has no leeway to follow up the blow of the 
 first impact of the club, and that is all the power 
 that is exerted upon the ball. In other words, the 
 ball is slapped away instead of having a steady, 
 accumulating pressure against it. You are com- 
 pelled to look up because you cannot continue 
 your effort. Your eye, as well as your sense of 
 touch, tells you that you are going beyond your 
 ball, and you involuntarily let up on the power 
 because you know you will not connect with the 
 ball if you keep up the effort, and as I have 
 shown in a previous chapter, you will always let 
 up when your principal purpose is accomplished. 
 You cannot help doing it. 
 
 If you have held something in reserve in order 
 to maintain the pressure against the ball for some 
 distance after you first connect with it you will 
 keep adding to its speed, and if it were possible 
 for you to swing fast enough to increase the speed 
 of the club as rapidly as the ball is moving after 
 you connect with it so that your club head would 
 
 146 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 still be against it for a couple of feet farther out, 
 it would give you a tremendous distance. Now 
 the harder you hit the ball when you first meet 
 it with the club head the quicker it will bounce 
 away and the shorter the time you can keep the 
 club head against it. This not only reduces the 
 distance obtained but it also emphasizes any slight 
 error in hitting it. 
 
 In suggesting that players stand over their 
 ball more in addressing it, the fact that this brings 
 the center of gravity nearer to the place where it 
 belongs should be at once apparent. The con- 
 sequent increase in ability to maintain the balance 
 should convince the player that it is a decided ad- 
 vantage. Instead of having to brace the muscles 
 all over the body to maintain the equilibrium con- 
 stant you can stand comfortably and reach your 
 ball easily. According to the Standard diction- 
 ary, "Equilibrium signifies the state of a body 
 which, submitted to action of any number of 
 forces, is still in the same condition as if those 
 forces did not act." 
 
 So far as propelling the ball is concerned, the 
 only muscles which add anything to the force of 
 
 147 
 
GOLF 
 
 gravity which pulls upon the club head on its 
 downward sweep, increasing the speed at which 
 it is traveling, are those muscles which would twist 
 the body around. The muscles which are used 
 in lifting are useless. They are the most power- 
 ful, as they get the most exercise, and the most 
 powerful of all are in the legs. The effort to use 
 them causes you to change the relative distance 
 between the pivotal center of the stroke and the 
 ball. As they are the strongest muscles in the 
 body, and any effort to use them is neutralizing 
 whatever effort you are making to increase the 
 downward and forward sweep of the club, it 
 should be evident that you must avoid any such 
 effort. If you do use them they will only keep 
 your head swaying around and destroying any 
 chance you may have to hold it still and see your 
 ball clearly. 
 
 If you wish to keep your head still, and that is 
 really the only thing to master in golf, regardless 
 of all the things I have written, you will find that 
 when you absolutely stop every tendency to use 
 the lifting muscles, you can use all the strength 
 you have in the other muscles without disturbing 
 
 148 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 the position of the head. If you brace yourself 
 by standing with the feet far apart you cannot 
 help using the lifting muscles. It is bound to 
 happen, because the action is involuntary. If 
 you are not so braced you cannot use them, be- 
 cause your body is not in the right position to do 
 so. If you cannot use them by reason of stand- 
 ing with the feet fairly close together, you cannot 
 move your head much, even if you want to. 
 
 The only thing which you can possibly accom- 
 plish by using the lifting muscles and bracing 
 yourself with the feet well apart is to lift the club 
 up quickly, and every rule I have ever heard 
 given is to go back slowly. If you are not braced, 
 your muscles cannot raise the club quickly. This 
 is accomplishing much. If you are in a comfort- 
 able position, such as you are accustomed to stand 
 in naturally, you will easily see that you cannot 
 reach for the ball very much without spreading 
 the feet apart. As reaching for the ball gives 
 you no leeway, this is another point where stand- 
 ing easily and comfortably is curing a fault. 
 
 To look at a good player with the intention of 
 noticing the difference in his method and that of a 
 
 149 
 
GOLF 
 
 poor player, this easy, comfortable position is at 
 once apparent in the better player's stance. He 
 does everything easily. He has learned to cut out 
 the things which spoil a poor player's efforts. 
 He has learned to relax his lifting muscles and 
 can take slight liberties in the matter of stance. 
 For the average player a stance with the feet 
 closer together is bound to be a great help. What 
 the beginner and the average player need is not 
 power, as I have said so many times, but accuracy. 
 That gives the distance and there is then time 
 enough to refine and perfect the accuracy to gain 
 more power. It is the harmony of perfect action 
 in the good player's swing which gives the results. 
 All the energy in excess of that which passes 
 into the ball is wasted. Players swing so hard as 
 a rule that they cannot get the feel of a correctly 
 hit ball and consequently their muscles are not ed- 
 ucated to the "feel" of correct balance, etc. 
 Neither are their eyes trained, which would, to an 
 extent, govern the involuntary action of the mus- 
 cles. Certainly a man who is not swinging cor- 
 rectly may be supposed to be moving his head 
 
 150 
 
EASE RATHER THAN EFFORT 
 
 also, so that he cannot see the ball clearly when 
 the club head meets it. 
 
 Players can tell the moment they are going to 
 play a good game because they have the "feel" of 
 the shot, which is only another way of saying 
 that the muscles and sense of touch have been 
 awakened to the correct gage and balance, and 
 the player knows he can hit the ball. A couple 
 of times a year is about as often as the average 
 player gets right on his game and plays his best, 
 because about that often he has worked and 
 slaved and finally got the "feel" of it. 
 
 The secret of it is to study this matter of lift- 
 ing and pushing down. I have demonstrated 
 that each effort requires an absolutely different 
 set of muscles, and have called attention to exam- 
 ples of what I call exercise by the resistance 
 method. You get exercise but not speed. 
 
 Get the right idea clearly in mind and you will 
 be astonished at the distance you begin to get 
 and the peculiar "feel" of the shot. You will get 
 a smoothness which you never had before and you 
 will connect very easily with your ball. Nat- 
 
 151 
 
GOLF 
 
 urally you get the increased distance and the 
 longer ball you require. Bear in mind that the 
 slightest tendency to lift in any way is cutting 
 down your power, because for every bit of "lift" 
 you add, just so much "leaning upon the ball" is 
 neutralized; or just so much weight is taken away 
 from the blow. A little practice along these lines 
 will soon train your muscles correctly and you will 
 get the "feel" of the shot and after that the con- 
 fidence will come quickly. 
 
 1152 
 
THE PART THE BODY PLAYS 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE PART THE BODY PLAYS 
 
 ATTENTION has been directed to the po- 
 sition of the body in the address, and es- 
 pecially to the tilt of the body, which 
 I have said must remain constant with reference 
 to the ball, but this is easier said than done. It is 
 very difficult to execute, but it is not difficult to 
 understand, once the correct idea is grasped. It 
 is immaterial to the player to know each particu- 
 lar bend and twist of the spinal column in order 
 to accomplish this desirable object, as it will be 
 sufficient that his purpose is to keep his body tilted 
 at the angle I have shown. 
 
 The real point to grasp is the position of the 
 left arm at the top of the swing. By reference 
 to the figure you will see that the shoulders 
 are not raised at all. The angle at which the 
 body is tilted makes it look as though the right 
 shoulder was raised, but it is not. The left arm 
 
 155 
 
GOLF 
 
 is not raised above the right shoulder. To show 
 that this is so I have made a drawing (Fig. 2) 
 to show the positions as they would appear if the 
 body was not tilted. In my own case it took me 
 a long time to unlearn what I had read and been 
 told about raising my arms and getting my club 
 over my right shoulder. If the body is tilted 
 properly there is very little, if any, tendency to 
 
 -V#^=T 
 
 T 
 
 I 
 
 Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 
 
 raise the head and jump at the ball or duck the 
 knees. 
 
 If the player can get through his head that 
 there should be no "lunging" at the ball, but that 
 the power should be developed by twisting the 
 body, he will find that it does not take three or 
 four years to hit the ball easily and get good dis- 
 tance. The fact that so many, practically all, 
 players in the early stages endeavor to heave vio- 
 
 156 
 
THE PART THE BODY PLAYS 
 
 lently at the ball shows that it must be their un- 
 derstanding of the stroke that is at fault and not 
 the lack of the physical ability to drive the ball a 
 good distance which is to blame. 
 
 It is a hard game, mighty hard, if you Have to 
 learn all these little factors from experience, but 
 if the player can get the right idea in his mind 
 the shots are not difficult to play. That is why 
 so many golfers in talking about the game keep 
 saying, "It is all mental," as though there was 
 some mysterious gift which made a golfer of a 
 man. I never took much stock in any method 
 of playing a stroke which could not be explained, 
 and I think the average golfer is built the same 
 way. Of course, after a thousand attempts with 
 as many different schemes for playing a shot, and 
 still without success, a player is apt to despair, 
 but he should not. Any man of average intelli- 
 gence and physique can play shots as well as the 
 best of them if he can get the correct basis to 
 work upon into his head. 
 
 When you keep making a failure of a certain 
 shot just stop and consider what you are doing 
 and what you are trying to accomplish and don't 
 
 157 
 
GOLF 
 
 try schemes unless you have a definite purpose in 
 using them. By referring to Figure 1 you will 
 understand why "keeping the head still" is the 
 foundation of golf. If you move the head by 
 raising up you destroy the whole plane upon 
 which the swing is based and make the twist of the 
 body act nearer the planes shown in Figure 2. 
 If you try to use any lift at all in the stroke you 
 can easily understand why you will be going over 
 your ball, as any twisting motion that does not 
 keep the body tilted is bound to be acting nearer 
 the planes shown in Figure 2. If you attempt 
 to gain power by using anything but the twist 
 of the body, which you are forced to do when 
 standing erect, or anywhere near erect, you can 
 see that the twist will be wasted and you are com- 
 pelled to use all your muscular energy to main- 
 tain your balance. If you attempt to strike the 
 ball on any other plane or angle than the lower 
 one, shown in Figure 1, you will find that the 
 club is not built to connect with the ball on such 
 a plane. 
 
 If you can learn to depend wholly upon the 
 twist of the body to do the work, you cannot have 
 
 158 
 
THE PART THE BODY PLAYS 
 
 any difficulty in keeping the head in one place, 
 because if you will look at the cut you can see 
 that twisting the body leaves the head in a direct 
 line with the center of the circle or sweep. That 
 is why I continually refer to the head as being 
 the foundation of the stroke. I am merely try- 
 ing to lead up to that fact from various points of 
 view to impress upon players its true significance. 
 You can also see that if you depend solely upon 
 the twist of the body for power you cannot intro- 
 duce a single lifting motion when you swing 
 downward at the ball without destroying the rela- 
 tive position of the body toward the ball. The 
 true pivotal center, therefore, is not a single spot 
 between the shoulders, but a line running 
 through the top of the head straight downward 
 through the center of the body. 
 
 When it is remembered that the greatest speed 
 is necessary the instant the club head meets the 
 ball in order that the ball will not get away from 
 the club head too soon, it will enable you to hold 
 enough back to get this increased speed as you 
 "go through" the ball. In short, you get a grad- 
 ually increasing speed, not only to the club, but 
 
 159 
 
GOLF 
 
 to the twist of the body, and to do that properly 
 there should be no apparent effort to increase it. 
 The power necessary to keep increasing the speed 
 after it once starts is very little. If you start 
 slowly, the same amount of power required to 
 start, if maintained steadily, will make the club 
 head and body move or twist around faster and 
 faster, just as in the case of the familiar example 
 of the child's merry-go-round. It starts slowly 
 and the same amount of energy applied steadily 
 gives an ever-increasing speed. 
 
 It is difficult, very difficult, for players to learn 
 this apparently simple fact. It is very hard to 
 swing easily, because the player cannot "feel" this 
 gradually increasing speed. All players seem to 
 think it is necessary to "feel" the power, and the 
 pnly way that it is possible to "feel" it 
 is to destroy the balance in some way in or- 
 der that the energy being developed can react 
 upon the frame. You will "feel" the power the 
 instant you lose your balance in the slightest de- 
 gree, and it is too bad you cannot transfer the 
 sense of touch or feeling to the club head. If 
 you could, you would quickly be educated to the 
 
 160 
 
THE PART THE BODY PLAYS 
 
 correct idea. It is the energy which is trans- 
 ferred to the ball that counts, and the only way 
 to get much transferred is to hit the ball per- 
 fectly true. 
 
 If the player will study continually how to elim- 
 inate every little detail which offers resistance, or 
 which tends to destroy the balance in the slightest 
 degree, he will quickly get upon the right track. 
 This resolved into a simple formula is, cut out 
 everything which is not comfortable. The ability 
 to keep the balance comfortably is the measure of 
 the amount of power you can use successfully. 
 
 Nine players out of ten lif t their heads at the 
 last instant. That does not add power to the 
 stroke; on the contrary, it takes just that much 
 power away from the blow. It is at the end of 
 the stroke that you must "lean upon the ball," so 
 to speak, because it is the weight added to the 
 momentum of the club and following the blow 
 which gives substance to it. Drive the ball down. 
 If you hit down your weight is bound to follow 
 into the blow. 
 
 161 
 
THE VARDON GRIP 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE VARDON GRIP 
 
 THE year I first took up golf and the first 
 week I played I adopted the "Vardon 
 grip," and I have never had occasion to 
 change it. Each year I have only become more 
 and more convinced of its advantages. Vardon 
 was on his famous tour of the United States that 
 year and photographs of his grip were published 
 in the golf magazines, and that is where I first 
 saw it. 
 
 I argued that as Vardon, Braid, and Taylor all 
 used this grip, and they were the world's greatest 
 golfers, they had probably given it a thorough 
 tryout and were convinced of its merit. 
 
 Since I first started to work on my game that 
 was one thing I never had trouble with, and I will 
 give for the benefit of any who may not be famil- 
 iar with it a description. The handle of the club, 
 or grip, is grasped with the left hand, with the 
 
 165 
 
GOLF 
 
 thumb pointing down the shaft at the center of 
 the club head and with about a half inch of the 
 shaft projecting back of the hand. The right 
 hand is placed open underneath the shaft just 
 ahead of the left hand toward the club head and 
 the two middle fingers are brought upward 
 against the shaft and then slid along toward the 
 left hand until the finger next to the little finger 
 touches the forefinger of the left hand and the two 
 middle fingers are then folded part way around 
 the shaft. The thumb of the right hand is then 
 brought over the shaft and closed equally upon 
 the second finger and the shaft at right angles to 
 the shaft. The forefinger, or index finger, is 
 then brought around under the shaft until the tip 
 touches lightly the tip of the thumb. The little 
 finger of the right hand is then closed equally 
 upon the forefinger of the left hand and the third 
 finger of the right hand. 
 
 I have found this grip to be an improvement 
 over the orthodox grip for the following reasons : 
 It prevents the shifting of the hands at the top 
 of the grip, a very common fault with beginners. 
 It curtails the freedom of the wrists and prevents 
 
 166 
 
1 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 \ J 
 
THE VARDON GRIP 
 
 the tendency to use the forearm too freely in the 
 swing, as you can readily see by making the fol- 
 lowing experiment : 
 
 Place the two hands extended at arm's length 
 together, the palm of the right hand up, the left 
 hand down. Double the fists as you would in 
 grasping a club by the orthodox method. Then 
 observe that if you had a club in your hands you 
 could make a half circle by turning the wrists and 
 hands over so that the palm of the right hand is 
 down and the left up. There is the greatest free- 
 dom in turning the wrists, and as the most com- 
 mon fault with beginners is using the arms to do 
 the work which the shoulders, back, and legs are 
 better fitted for, anything which helps to restrain 
 the natural tendency in this direction as the Var- 
 don grip does is beneficial. It will influence you 
 unconsciously to utilize the more powerful mus- 
 cles. 
 
 It has the further advantage of being a guide 
 in bringing the hands and club back to the ball 
 in the correct position as they were in the address, 
 because you will find by a few experiments how 
 awkward it is to get back to the ball from the top 
 
 167 
 
GOLF 
 
 of your swing, using the "Vardon grip," in any 
 other way than by turning on a perfect pivot. If 
 you are compelled by the lack of freedom in the 
 wrists to extend the arms fully to get any play at 
 all in the w r rists, it will be bound to reduce the 
 tendency to pull in the arms too soon, and will 
 thereby largely overcome the tendency to slice. 
 
 The same experiment I suggested above, which 
 shows the freedom and play of the wrists in the 
 orthodox grip, made with the Vardon grip, will 
 show you how much this grip curtails the freedom 
 of the wrists. In comparing the two methods the 
 difference will be more noticeable if the hands are 
 clenched tightly as you would in grasping a club. 
 Then by bending the elbows slightly you will ob- 
 serve how extremely difficult it is to turn the wrists 
 at all, keeping the hands tightly closed as in grip- 
 ping a club. If the grip prevents turning the 
 wrists freely and makes you extend the arms to 
 turn them at all, naturally your shoulders will re- 
 spond and begin to help. 
 
 Take a club in your hands and try lifting it up 
 over your right shoulder, keeping the left arm 
 
 168 
 
THE VARDON GRIE 
 
 firmly extended throughout and bending the right 
 elbow sufficiently to pull the club over until the 
 shaft touches the shoulder, and you will find you 
 have equal freedom with both the orthodox and 
 the "Vardon grip." In the raising and lowering 
 of your club you need freedom, but any grip 
 which causes you to rely upon twisting your 
 shoulders around to get the sweep of the club and 
 makes it extremely difficult to get any sweep at 
 all in rolling the wrists is placing the burden of 
 the work where it belongs. It will force you to 
 turn the body to get around any distance with 
 the shoulders. This is a very desirable result. 
 This grip for the same reason makes it extremely 
 difficult to finish the swing in any but a correct 
 and complete turn of the body and shoulders, and 
 naturally makes a good "follow through" impera- 
 tive. 
 
 A very important advantage of the "Vardon 
 grip" is the added firmness or control of the tend- 
 ency of the club to twist in the hands as you 
 strike the ball. This is due to the fact that the 
 left thumb down the shaft with the base of the 
 
 169 
 
GOLF 
 
 right thumb pressing on it acts as a brake, so to 
 speak, and saves many a shot struck too near 
 the toe of the club. 
 
 If you will make the experiment of drawing 
 up your club to the top of your swing very slowly, 
 using the Vardon grip, in the same manner as you 
 would use with the orthodox grip, you will find it 
 extremely awkward in the first place and lacking 
 in the feel of power in the next place. This awk- 
 wardness and lack of the feeling of power have 
 condemned the grip to many who have tried it su- 
 perficially and unadvisedly, but if they had real- 
 ized what a remarkably clever invention it is to 
 carry a golfer over the difficult spots in the swing, 
 they would never discard it, especially with such 
 a criticism as I have heard frequently: "Oh, I 
 could never get any power in my swing with that 
 grip." This very remark shows the mental pic- 
 ture of such a player's stroke. He gets his power 
 principally from his forearms and misses the free- 
 dom he gets with the orthodox grip. 
 
 Various reasons have been given to explain why 
 Vardon, Taylor, Braid, and others, use this grip, 
 but I have heard most frequently the one that 
 
 170 
 
THE VARDON GRIP 
 
 because their hands are so large they are compelled 
 by that fact to adopt the grip. If it is so bene- 
 ficial to a man with large hands, I fail to see the 
 logic in the inference that it would not be bene- 
 ficial to a man with small hands as well. A man 
 with small hands is presumed to have less strength 
 in them than the man with large hands. A firmer 
 grip would seem to be a decided benefit. 
 
 It is when you come to play the irons that you 
 will find the "Vardon grip" of the greatest bene- 
 fit. The more perfect control of the club and the 
 restraining action on the freedom of the wrists 
 from turning over too freely will give material re- 
 sults when you are trying to keep a good line. 
 As an illustration of the better control of the Var- 
 don grip and ability to place and direct the club 
 with accuracy, make the following experiment: 
 Take a nail and drive it into a board until it will 
 hold its position. Then take your cleek and at- 
 tempt to drive that nail farther into the board 
 with the bottom of the club with each grip. You 
 will observe the better control of the overlapped 
 grip if you will strike a good, firm blow on the 
 nail. With the left thumb down the shaft, as in 
 
 171 
 
GOLF 
 
 the Vardon grip, the club shaft and left arm are 
 more in line and form one continuous shaft from 
 the shoulder to the club head, and the left arm is 
 the arm to watch in golf. 
 
 172 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEE 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 THE designers of clubs have produced a 
 model which takes care of the difference 
 in the nature of the blow to be struck with 
 a cleek and with a wooden club by "lofting" or 
 inchning the face of the club more, which causes 
 the ball to rise more quickly, as well as higher. 
 Also by reason of a shorter and stiff er shaft the 
 arc of the sweep is sharper or less "flat." That 
 is to say, the design of the club will take care of 
 all the differences without any effort of the player 
 at all. The same effort and the same "timing," 
 as in wooden shots, will get the desired result. 
 Leave all the changes to be made to the club. 
 
 The one great fault with poor iron players is 
 that they swing so hard and fast that the club does 
 not have a chance and no accurate blow is possible 
 with such a violent effort. As the shaft is stiff er 
 the weight goes into the blow quicker or the reac- 
 
 175 
 
GOLF 
 
 tion of the shaft is quicker once you connect with 
 
 the ball. 
 
 I have drawn a sketch showing the theoretical 
 
 as well as actual result of playing a cleek with the 
 
 same style of stroke as used with a driver, that is, 
 
 by picking it off the ground clean. In position 
 
 1 I have shown the cleek against the ball and 
 drawn a dotted line marked P at perfect right 
 angles to the face which is the line along which 
 the ball should rise theoretically. I have also 
 shown by the dotted line S the arc of the sweep 
 when perfectly described with the hands moving 
 parallel with the line of flight with the whole 
 leverage of the blow extending from the pivotal 
 center between the shoulders. In position 3 is 
 shown the club at the instant the ball is leaving it, 
 
 176 
 
Top of the Swing for a Full Cleek Shot. 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 and you will see by dotted line marked A the 
 actual line or angle of rise; the line is drawn at 
 perfect right angles to the club face. This, re- 
 member, gives a very high ball without turning 
 up the club face with the hands, but by simply 
 propelling the club forward as low as you can. 
 
 By referring to position 1 you will notice that 
 the club touches the ball below the center and also 
 that the distance between that point of contact 
 and the ground is very little, giving but a very 
 small latitude for error in hitting the ball. For 
 instance, if the club is not well down to the ball 
 — is even as little as a quarter of an inch too high 
 — you are sure to have a three-quarter or half 
 topped ball, and by reference to position 2 you 
 will readily understand what a loss of power will 
 result, because the weight of the club head does 
 not go into the ball; the shock of the blow is taken 
 up by the shaft and not by the ball. This results 
 in that uncomfortable "feel" which a three-quar- 
 ter topped ball gives. 
 
 If the blow is delivered a quarter of an inch 
 too low the club strikes the ground several inches 
 too far back and a partly sclafFed ball is the re- 
 
 177 
 
GOLF 
 
 suit, due to the blow being wasted on the ground 
 partly and partly to the fact that the dirt and 
 grass get between the club face and the ball, 
 deadening the blow. 
 
 As the rebound of the ball is so much more 
 rapid from metal than from wood the ball is ac- 
 tually in contact with the club face a very much 
 smaller period of time. The sharper blow is 
 given by the design of the club as I have ex- 
 plained and the whole distance depends entirely 
 upon the first impulse or sharpness of the blow. 
 This method is by long odds the most difficult way 
 of playing the club, as it gives so little latitude 
 for error and so little time to deliver the power 
 due to the quick rebound from the metal face. 
 As it is the theory of the average golfer I have 
 taken it up here in order to demonstrate how little 
 this way compares with the way a professional 
 plays his cleek. 
 
 The vast majority of spoiled cleek shots are 
 topped, for the reason that it is almost impossible 
 to avoid topping when you consider how little 
 space you have to get "down" to the ball. By 
 again referring to the diagram you will observe 
 
 178 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 that the dotted line P, drawn at right angles to 
 the club face as shown in position 1, marks the 
 highest point which the club can reach and not 
 half top the ball, while the ground is the bound- 
 ary, below which the club cannot go without 
 wasting the strength of the blow or sclaffing the 
 stroke. As a matter of fact, there is even less 
 latitude for a well-hit ball. 
 
 More important than this is the fact that you 
 have practically no latitude as regards the arc or 
 sweep of the club. The ball must be met abso- 
 lutely at the lowest point in the sweep of the club 
 to get the best distance, because the club face is 
 tilted at the same angle that a hoe is when drawn 
 toward the one using it, and feeds into the ground 
 if it meets with resistance. In the illustration I 
 have shown the club meeting the ball under ideal 
 conditions with that scheme of playing it, and 
 with the eyes and pivotal center at perfect right 
 
 * 
 
 angles to the ball. 
 
 The pivotal center between the shoulders gov- 
 erns the lowest point in the arc or sweep of the 
 club, as I have shown in other chapters, and in 
 order to meet your ball at the lowest point in the 
 
 179 
 
GOLF 
 
 circle, or sweep, the center between the shoulders 
 must be opposite the ball. Falling back from 
 the direction you are trying to send the ball will 
 not get the club "down" to the ball, but on the 
 contrary will top the ball. You cannot possibly 
 help it, because the club is on its upward travel, 
 due to your having shifted the pivotal center to 
 the right and back of the ball. 
 
 Many players have a habit of "facing the club 
 in" in addressing iron shots. This is the result 
 of a desire on the part of the player to "square" 
 the club face with the line he is to send the ball 
 along, and unless he commits some other neutral- 
 izing fault the ball is bound to be "hooked" or 
 pulled off the line. All these schemes are wrong, 
 and it is because they require the player to tam- 
 per with his swing that they are very objectiona- 
 ble. In any event they yield but a temporary im- 
 provement, if any, and in the long run are worse 
 than useless because they make it necessary to 
 "unlearn" them, which is very hard to do. 
 
 The idea in the player's mind should be to take 
 his stance in such a manner that the lowest point 
 in his swing will be about five inches ahead of his 
 
 180 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 ball, in order that he will be sure to connect with 
 the ball while still on the downward sweep. If 
 the hands, in the address, are directly opposite the 
 lowest point in the swing, as they should be, and 
 the club face is against the ball (which is five 
 inches behind the lowest point) the player will 
 find that in order to have the club face at right 
 angles to the line of flight when it reaches the 
 
 *-*.. 
 
 lowest point in the arc or sweep that the face 
 must turn away to the right when addressing the 
 ball. By referring to the diagram, position 1, 
 this point is very plain. Position 3 shows that 
 the club face is squared to the line of flight at 
 the time the ball leaves it, and this is why the ball 
 goes straight. 
 As the club face is turned away slightly in the 
 
 181 
 
GOLF 
 
 address it should be turned away still more as the 
 club is drawn back, and this turning should con- 
 tinue as far as you can to the top of the swing. 
 As the club returns to the ball it should connect 
 as it did in the address, and the turn be continued 
 as is shown in the illustration. The turn is not 
 stopped when position 3 is reached, but is con- 
 tinued to the end of the stroke. One of the great 
 difficulties in playing the cleek as well as the 
 other irons is that players do not make this turn, 
 but endeavor to keep the club face squared 
 throughout; this not only destroys much of the 
 vigor and snap in the stroke, but absolutely pre- 
 vents freedom of the play of the muscles. 
 
 Players are prone to believe that the ball will 
 go off from the proper line if they do not keep 
 the club face squared. This is not the secret. If 
 the club is traveling along a straight line while in 
 contact with the ball, it makes little difference 
 if the face of the club is not exactly squared, be- 
 cause the ball responds to the greatest force work- 
 ing upon it. If that force is being exerted along 
 a certain line the slight imperfection of the club 
 face being pointed a little to the right or left at 
 
 182 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 the moment of contact will not aff ect the stroke 
 very considerably. Players are apt to believe 
 that making this turn complicates the scheme, but 
 a few trials will soon convince them that it really 
 simplifies the stroke. 
 
 In addressing the ball remember that in using 
 the method shown in the cut the "aim" is to drive 
 the ball downward. Do not be afraid that your 
 club is going too deep into the ground, because 
 it cannot; as the shaft is shorter than that of the 
 driver, it comes away from the ground quicker, 
 and the one thing to consider is the fact that 
 ninety per cent of all cleek shots by those who 
 cannot play them are topped. Just pound the 
 ball into the ground and put your shoulders into 
 it. That will do the trick. 
 
 In properly starting any scheme for playing 
 a shot with the cleek, it is of vital importance to 
 understand thoroughly just what happens to the 
 ball or how the transmission of energy to it from 
 the club head affects its flight. I have shown by 
 illustration why a glancing blow or a blow struck 
 with a club with an inclined or lofted face is lack- 
 ing in power, due partly to the ball skidding on 
 
 183 
 
GOLF 
 
 the surface of the metal club, partly to the fact 
 that the ball bounces away quicker, being com- 
 pressed less, and partly to the fact that it requires 
 far more accuracy to get the contact exactly in 
 the middle of the club face, on account of the very 
 small latitude for error when attempting to play 
 the cleek as you would your driver, picking the 
 ball off the turf clean without injuring or cut- 
 ting it. 
 
 Right at this point I might say that the "greens 
 committees" of the best kept courses in the coun- 
 try have not the slightest objections to players 
 taking any sized divot or piece of turf they desire. 
 What they do object to is carelessness in not re- 
 placing it. If you replace the turf it will grow 
 again, hardy as ever. If you knock the divot 
 into such small pieces that you cannot find them 
 you should tramp the edges of the cut in the turf 
 down tight in order that the grass which is hang- 
 ing loose will grow again. If that is done the 
 grass will grow over the cut and soon fill it up, 
 because it is the nature of grass to protect its 
 roots. 
 
 Manjr experiments and a great many thousands 
 
 184 
 
Address With Mid-Iron or Cleek for the 
 "Picked" Shot. 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 of dollars have been spent by the different gov- 
 ernments in trying to develop a shell which will 
 not "skid" or glance off the armor of vessels. 
 The power in the shell or momentum and weight 
 are amply sufficient to penetrate the heavy steel 
 plates if the blow can be concentrated, and this 
 they have accomplished by putting a soft nose 
 around the point of the shell. The same princi- 
 ple governs the contact of the ball on the face of 
 the cleek and other irons, and to pick a ball off the 
 turf clean requires an exactness of skill which is 
 beyond the ability of even the professionals, and 
 they would get but a small part of the power into 
 the ball if they used that method. 
 
 I have shown in the diagram on page 181 (Posi- 
 tion 2) the grass piled up in front of the ball but 
 not that which the club picks up on each side. 
 When it is considered how quickly the grass is 
 cut and packed on each side of the ball it will be 
 readily understood what a brace or support is 
 given to prevent any of the power being wasted 
 by the ball sliding sideways in either direction. 
 Also it will be noticed that if there is any slipping 
 or yielding up or down it will not be up because 
 
 185 
 
GOLF 
 
 the face of the club is inclined forward. This is 
 the reason that so much more power is transferred 
 to the ball when taking turf as against picking 
 the ball off the ground clear. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that this extra power 
 comes purely from the method of making the shot 
 and by reason of the action of the grass or turf 
 and not from an extra heave in the swing. I 
 have already drawn attention to the fact that the 
 club shaft is shorter than that of the driver, 
 thereby reducing the leverage of the club and 
 making it possible to get up speed very quickly. 
 This should be kept in mind because the pre- 
 vailing fault of the majority of golfers is "hit- 
 ting too soon." Then the fact that the club is 
 designed to enable the player to swing faster, as 
 the blow must be sharper than with a wooden 
 club, should warn the player to use every en- 
 deavor to hold back and not make such an effort 
 as he would with a wooden shot, where it requires 
 more strength. 
 
 The very fact that an iron shot is required is 
 sufficient evidence that the time for greater accu- 
 racy is at hand, and there is no hope for the player 
 
 186 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 who is trying to make "beef" or brute strength 
 do what he should use a wooden shot for. The 
 day the player masters his desire for distance 
 with cleek shots is the day he begins to bring 
 them off. 
 
 Previous chapters have demonstrated that hit- 
 ting too hard is the cause of "hitting too soon," 
 and as the length of the club shaft enables the 
 player to swing a cleek faster than a driver it is 
 sure that the fault of "hitting too soon" is 
 emphasized by the average player in consequence. 
 This fact when properly driven home should con- 
 vince him that it should "feel" as though he is 
 not making enough effort when he is swinging 
 correctly. There is little chance that the player 
 has not made his maximum effort heretofore, and 
 if he has the proper mental equipment it should 
 be possible for him to go out the next time he 
 tries his cleek and swing freely and easily with 
 his whole mind given to seeing his ball clearly 
 from the start of his swing until he connects with 
 the ball, never shifting his glance for an instant. 
 
 One thing I have found to be of assistance to 
 me in getting the power into a cleek shot is to 
 
 187 
 
GOLF 
 
 forget that I have hands and attempt to hit with 
 the shoulders. In other words, when you start 
 down toward your ball let the shoulders lean on 
 the ball, so to speak, and have your hands drag 
 along behind. Do not attempt to control the 
 club with the hands so much, but allow the shoul- 
 ders to get into the stroke. Put your entire at- 
 tention upon keeping your head still and swing 
 easily, almost lazily. 
 
 Very few players really use a cleek at the right 
 time. In the majority of cases they should take 
 their brassey, because the distance they are try- 
 ing for is beyond their skill with a cleek. To 
 use a cleek well it is essential that the player be 
 sure of his line, and if he is not he had much bet- 
 ter play a brassey and take it more easily. The 
 trouble is that a player who is master of a cleek 
 will reach a green of say one hundred and eighty 
 to two hundred yards with a fine line to the pin ; 
 and then because he has done so, another player 
 standing by who uses a cleek indifferently will 
 attempt the same shot when the distance is beyond 
 him. It is a peculiar fact that players keep try- 
 ing to force themselves beyond their capacity, and 
 
 188 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 there seems to be a tendency on the part of all 
 players in the early stages of the game to try to 
 make up in Brute strength what they lack in 
 skill. 
 
 .There are varieties of shots which it is possible 
 to bring off with the cleek, such as hooked shots, 
 sliced shots, push shots, etc., but I consider that it 
 would only confuse beginners to mention them 
 at this time. The finest shot of all is the one 
 which goes on a dead straight line for the pin 
 and never wavers in its flight. It is the only one 
 which the beginner should attempt. In learning 
 it he will perform the first two I speak of and will 
 be able to play them when necessary once he has 
 mastered the perfectly straight ball. 
 
 The best professional in the field would find it 
 extremely difficult to bring off a shot with the 
 complicated scheme of the average amateur. 
 The average amateur has too many things on his 
 mind. He is fearful he will not hit his ball, and 
 immediately begins a series of maneuvers which 
 usually accomplish the very thing he is most 
 anxious to avoid. If you keep your head still 
 every instant occupied in making your swing, so 
 
 189 
 
GOLF 
 
 as to see the Ball clearly, and do not try to kill it, 
 but merely swing in an easy, comfortable manner, 
 you will find that it will accomplish more than 
 hours spent upon your grip, your stance, or the 
 hundred things the average player has on his 
 mind. 
 
 I do not mean to hurry your stroke, but I do 
 think that a player's common sense should tell 
 him that he is tiring his muscles by posing in front 
 of his ball and destroying the very elements which 
 bring off the shot successfully. The professional 
 has no finer brain capacity than the amateur, and 
 golf is not a brain fatiguing pastime. The diffi- 
 culty is that the player endeavors to make a brain- 
 racking game of it instead of a muscular exer- 
 cise where the freedom of the play of the muscles 
 is cultivated. Perseverance on a rigid, fixed 
 method of play is not evidence of a superior 
 quality of mind, but of pig-headedness. 
 
 Remember I do not urge that you use my 
 schemes of play, but I am calling attention to 
 facts which cannot be ignored. Golf is only a 
 very difficult game because players make it so. 
 The reforms in your method of play must be 
 
 190 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 thought out at times when you are not trying to 
 hit a ball, when your whole attention should be 
 devoted to seeing clearly every instant what you 
 are trying to hit. All your calculations are 
 based upon the idea that you hit your ball true, 
 and when you do not do this the remedy is not 
 in making more calculations. Cut out some of! 
 them and concentrate upon the simplest. 
 
 Back of all bad shots is the monumental ego- 
 tism which makes you believe you can make up 
 in effort what you lack in skill. If you get only 
 fifty yards and can put it where you intend to 
 you are master of that shot. The foolish desire 
 to equal a more experienced and skilful player 
 will be your master if you will allow it. Per- 
 severance and patience will accomplish what you 
 desire. 
 
 The particular point to which I wish to call 
 players' attention in playing the cleek is the mat- 
 ter of how the effort should "feel" when properly 
 played. The real gage of the effort you can 
 make successfully is your ability to keep your 
 eyes on the ball without shifting the glance for 
 the slightest instant. When you make the stroke 
 
 191 
 
GOLF 
 
 and accomplish this it "feels" as though you 
 would never get any distance at all. As a matter 
 of fact it is one of the most difficult clubs to learn 
 for this very reason. It does not seem as though 
 you could obtain anything like the distance with 
 a cleek when played this way that you do with the 
 brassey because it "feels" so differently, but 
 learn to swing very easily with your cleek and 
 hit the ball absolutely true and it will soon con- 
 vince you what wonderful distance the little ap- 
 parent effort gives. 
 
 The effort, as a matter of fact, is the same. 
 The same amount of energy is generated by an 
 effort which "feels" in the case of the cleek about 
 one-half of what you use in the brassey shot. 
 The reason is that the club shaft, being shorter, 
 responds more quickly to the effort and as the 
 swing itself is shorter, or should be, there is no 
 strain upon the body and legs to get to the top 
 of the swing as in the wooden shots, and this 
 makes it "feel" that you are not applying enough 
 power. When you realize fully that the swing 
 is so much faster with the cleek than with the 
 wooden shots, it should bring home the fact that 
 
 192 
 
Address With Mid-Iron and Cleek for the Squeeze 
 
 Shot. Note That the Lowest Point in the Swing 
 
 Will Be Ahead of the Ball. 
 
PLAYIXG THE CLEEK 
 
 you are very; likely to get the club to the ball 
 with the arms alone, ahead of the heavy 
 muscles of the back and shoulders. There is no 
 earthly use, as I explained in discussing the 
 wooden shots, in trying to have the arms do the 
 work. There is not enough power in them. Un- 
 less the heavy and slower-moving muscles get into 
 the stroke you will get no distance. 
 
 I give here my scheme of addressing the ball, 
 which is the simplest I can devise for my own 
 use. I stand with my right foot advanced a little 
 more than in the address with the driver because 
 I wish to shorten my swing a little. The hands 
 are to the left of the center line, or line between 
 the eyes and the ball, and I assume that stance 
 because it brings the pivotal center between the 
 shoulders and the hands exactly opposite the 
 lowest point in the sweep, which is about four to 
 five inches ahead of the ball as it is shown. In 
 making the stroke shown in the photograph oppo- 
 site page 200, showing the follow through, the 
 tape shown was cut in two about four inches ahead 
 of the center line, after connecting with the ball. 
 In other words, I get my distance entirely on the 
 
 193 
 
 I 
 
GOLF 
 
 first bounce and not on the carry. As the ball 
 is driven downward against the turf the carry is 
 about two inches and the bulk of the distance 
 is obtained on the first rebound. When the 
 ball is picked off the turf the carry is greatest. 
 
 The difference is that the club head stays 
 against the ball at right angles to the direction the 
 power is being applied during the carry and part 
 of the rebound, making a longer period of con- 
 tact which gives an additional quantity of energy. 
 Remember that this extra energy is not applied 
 by an extra effort but purely from the way you 
 play it. You are merely applying the energy to 
 better advantage. 
 
 One mistake that a great many golfers make 
 is in taking their gage from the top of the club 
 instead of the bottom. All iron clubs I have seen 
 are wider at the toe than at the heel, and this 
 makes it look as though the club was facing much 
 farther to the right than it really does. It should 
 be remembered also that the bottom of the swing 
 is ahead of the ball and that the hands are to 
 turn the face of the club in as the ball is in con- 
 tact with it, until the club face is at exact right 
 
 194 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 angles to the line of flight at the point where the 
 ball leaves the club head. If the ball is addressed 
 with the club face at exact right angles to the 
 line of flight, it will hook the ball to the left if 
 the hands are turned properly, and if they are not 
 turned the ball is bound to be sliced. 
 
 In observing a good professional player you 
 can always get the angles he uses if you will get 
 in a position in direct line with a line drawn be- 
 tween his eyes and the ball. You will note that 
 he has his hands to the left of such a line if you 
 are behind him and to the right of that line if 
 viewed from in front of him. The bulk of the 
 weight when on the flat of the feet is directly op- 
 posite the point at the lowest part of the sweep 
 and where it will do the most good. 
 
 In making this stroke or any other stj T le of 
 stroke, remember that unless the club head is 
 traveling along the line of flight while in contact 
 with the ball, the ball won't go along that line, 
 and your entire effort is simplified if you can 
 stretch the length of the arc of travel in order 
 that the timing may be easier. In other words, 
 the longer you can make the club head travel 
 
 195 
 
GOLF 
 
 along that line the surer you will be of the ball 
 going along the same line. Also, if the hands 
 are not moving parallel with that line the club 
 head cannot stay upon that line. This should 
 enable the player to work out his own scheme to 
 accomplish the purpose. 
 
 In practicing with the cleek I have found it 
 to be a very decided advantage to practice hitting 
 the ball true in the center of the club face and 
 make no attempt to get over fifty to seventy-five 
 yards. If you will have a piece of soft chalk 
 handy and chalk the face of the club you will be 
 able to observe just where you connect with the 
 ball and soon get the gage. It is as necessary 
 to educate the muscles to the correct gage as the 
 eyes, because the eyes must be governed by the 
 muscles in the end. It is no easy matter to hit 
 a cleek shot perfectly true for even that distance, 
 as the player will soon learn when he tries it. 
 
 I have found in my own case that when driving 
 the ball with the cleek a distance of, say, fifty 
 yards, I let the weight of the club alone do the 
 work and merely guide it. This is fine practice 
 in learning to turn the hands over correctly as 
 
 196 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 well as in grazing the turf after hitting down- 
 ward through the ball. There is not much of 
 a divot taken ; it is more as though you were cut- 
 ting the grass off at the roots after going 
 through the ball. No attempt should be made to 
 send the ball high, because that will take care of 
 itself when you hit harder. In addition to this 
 I practice with the idea of letting my arms swing 
 freely and make no attempt to use the body. 
 The idea in this is to accustom the arms to work 
 correctly in guiding the club and swinging 
 smoothly. Then when I have succeeded in train- 
 ing the muscles to the correct swing and rhythm 
 of the stroke, I find that it comes perfectly nat- 
 ural to get away a fine, long, low ball with a 
 tremendous run. 
 
 I notice that I soon acquire the habit of watch- 
 ing my ball intently until the club head meets it, 
 and I also find that I get the best results when I 
 keep my head absolutely rigid. This was the 
 scheme which made me learn to rely upon the 
 cleek, and when it is properly used it will totally 
 outclass any spoon shot ever invented. A spoon 
 is not versatile. You cannot play a fine low ball 
 
 197 
 
GOLF 
 
 into the wind with it nor will it get you out of 
 the difficult lies with the accuracy that a cleek will. 
 Because a player may get a better ball with a 
 spoon is no evidence that the spoon is the better 
 club inherently. It shows only that the player 
 has not learned his cleek. Once master your cleek 
 and you can play all the other irons without any 
 [trouble. Using the spoon necessitates the same 
 Care and attention that would be used to master 
 the next iron in line, and that is the midiron. 
 In mjr own experience I have never seen a spoon 
 player who played a really fine midiron shot. 
 [There was always a tendency to get a bad line. 
 
 Every player of experience has of course re- 
 marked the great difference between the pro- 
 fessionals and the amateurs, and it is in the irons 
 that the former excel so markedly. A cleek in 
 their hands is as accurate and will put the ball 
 against the pin as well as the midiron or mashie, 
 and when it is considered that it is in the distance 
 they; are designed to send the ball and not direc- 
 tion that they differ, the player will grasp the 
 fact that he is wofully lacking when he cannot 
 put the cleek on as good a line as he would the 
 
 198 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 mashie. In fact, the mashie is the more difficult 
 club inherently to control. 
 
 Players who know can tell you that they can- 
 not force a mashie shot and keep their line, but 
 these same players are not aware, practically, that 
 they force both their midiron and cleek. If they 
 were to use the same self-control in playing their 
 cleek that they do in playing their mashie they 
 would quickly see how much they are forcing 
 their cleek shots. The same easy swing they use 
 on their mashie would give them a beautiful long 
 ball, purely from the difference in the design of 
 the club, due to the greater leverage and the 
 straight face. Every one knows how easily he 
 can get one hundred yards with a mashie, and 
 yet it cannot be brought home that the same 
 effort exactly will produce with a cleek from fifty 
 to ninety yards more, simply from the design of 
 the club. It does not require one ounce more 
 power. 
 
 A fact that I would like to draw attention to 
 in playing the cleek, and it is the same exactly 
 with the other irons, is the matter of the fore- 
 arms and wrists and the greater extent to which 
 
 199 
 
GOLF 
 
 these enter into the playing of irons than with 
 the wooden shots. The wooden shots are 
 really sweep strokes, with the forearm doing 
 comparatively little work at the instant 
 of contact with the ball, while with irons 
 it is the forearms which put the ginger into the 
 stroke at the last instant ; this is because turf must 
 be taken and the shorter circle is necessary. 
 By this I mean that in the wooden shots, 
 with the club once under way, it is as though the 
 arms were flabby or held loosely, and the swing 
 made from the shoulder with the arms just sweep- 
 ing along to keep up with the club head, while 
 with irons the arms are held a little more firmly 
 or the muscles tightened slightly so that a sharper 
 and shorter circle can be performed by pivoting 
 the bulk of the stroke upon the left wrist. 
 
 It is as though the circle or sweep was being 
 performed with the club only, with the circle 
 pivoting upon the left wrist while you sweep the 
 arms along only enough to bring the hands into 
 position as the club head reaches the ball. The 
 reason for doing this is that you use, or should 
 use, a shorter swing with irons, as your shaft is 
 
 200 
 
Follow Through with the Cleek, Using the Squeeze 
 
 / 
 
 Shot. (See Page 193) 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 shorter than with wooden clubs and you can get 
 up speed more quickly with the same amount of 
 energy. The shorter swing enables you to be 
 more accurate since your weight is on both feet 
 longer because you do not have to turn so far 
 around. 
 
 If you will take the trouble to observe the 
 average professional's forearm development you 
 will know that the forearms are doing a great deal 
 of work. The forearms of the average amateur 
 are used mostly in a death grip upon the club 
 and their power is not utilized in making the 
 short circle I have just described. Stiff arms but 
 flexible wrists make for good iron play. Meet- 
 ing the turf with stiffened wrists means a great 
 shock to the frame, and the natural result is that 
 the player on his next attempt tries to "pick" the 
 ball off the turf, and I have already demonstrated 
 that this is not only the hardest way because of 
 the greater accuracy required, but it is absolutely 
 impossible to get as long a ball, as it bounces 
 away quicker. The resultant lack of distance 
 means an almost sure attempt to swing harder in 
 the next shot to get more distance, and the in- 
 
 201 
 
GOLF 
 
 evitable result of that is failure to hit the ball 
 true. 
 
 Now the rule in the playing of irons is to keep 
 the wrists limber and free, while in the sweep 
 stroke with wooden clubs the reverse is the case; 
 the wrists should be stiff to make one continuous 
 shaft from shoulder to club head. 
 
 The reason, in my opinion, why so few 
 amateurs play the cleek well is because they at- 
 tempt to play with stiffened wrists, as they would 
 with the wooden shots. Another reason is that 
 they do not use light enough clubs. A heavy 
 cleek is hard to swing fast with the forearms, be- 
 cause they are not strong enough to keep the club 
 up with the shoulders and when a player once 
 "feels" this he tries to swing as he does with the 
 heavier wooden clubs. It is a peculiar fact, and 
 yet not peculiar if you analyze it, that players who 
 use light clubs are much more inclined to depend 
 upon the forearms than those who use the heavy 
 ones, and the reason is obvious. 
 
 Another item which should not be lost sight of 
 is the fact that the wrists are not covered with 
 muscles at all but are made principally of bone, 
 
 202 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 ligaments and tendons; and the muscles which 
 hold the wrists firm are located in the forearm. 
 Therefore, if you stiffen any of the muscles of 
 the forearm you have no play, and if you have 
 no play of those muscles the forearms do not enter 
 into the stroke and you are compelled to fall back 
 entirely upon the twist of the body when you do 
 not need any such great amount of power. You 
 need only a small part of the twist of the body, 
 because the speed of the club depends upon your 
 ability to get the club into position. 
 
 The fact is that you need but a very short twist 
 of the body and a good stiff dose of forearms to 
 make up for the slow-moving body. This can 
 only be accomplished with free and active play of 
 the muscles of the forearms. You can get much 
 more power from the twist of the body than from 
 any other source, but it does not move fast enough 
 for cleek play when not supported by the fore- 
 arms. The forearms act as the transformer, 
 changing the low voltage, powerful current of 
 the slow-moving body and arms into high tension 
 current and speed when transmitted to the club 
 shaft. Let this matter sink into your under- 
 
 203 
 
GOLF 
 
 standing of cleek and iron play and you will have 
 learned one of the best ways to keep your head 
 still when you are playing irons. 
 
 With the majority of beginners the effort to 
 "kill" the ball begins even before the club reaches 
 the top of the swing as the club is on its way up- 
 ward, and their bodies have made the effort before 
 the fingers and forearms can get the club started 
 downward again. As the greatest power is in 
 the body they naturally try to use that first, and 
 in nine cases out of ten they use more power than 
 their grip of fingers can transmit to the club. 
 Naturally the club head lags behind the point 
 where it should be when the great power of the 
 legs, back, and shoulders is applied. The entire 
 effort should "feel" to be in the hands, as the 
 body travels comparatively slowly in following 
 around, because it is in the hands that the greatest 
 strain at any one point is felt. Any sudden jerk 
 or extra effort made with the body will apply 
 power out of all proportion to the strength of 
 the fingers to transmit it. Therefore, it 
 inevitably follows that nothing like the full 
 
 204 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 strength can possibly be used, due to this propor- 
 tionate weakness in the fingers. 
 
 If the right hand was grasping the club half 
 way down the shaft with the left hand at the end 
 of the grip it would be possible to use the greatest 
 amount of power in twisting the body around, 
 just as this strength is used in swinging a pickax. 
 But with a golf club the hands are close together, 
 and the power applied with the legs, back, and 
 shoulders that you would use in swinging a 
 pickax is so totally out of proportion to the ability 
 of the hands to transmit under the circumstances, 
 that the stroke must inevitably be ruined. If you 
 were to swing a pickax with the hands grasping 
 the handle at the end, close together, and start to 
 bring it to the top of the swing as you do in golf, 
 you would be quickly convinced, when you 
 reached the top and started to bring it down again 
 suddenly, how little power proportionately you 
 have in the hands; yet golfers are trying all the 
 time to make the same amount of exertion with 
 their legs, back and shoulders that they would 
 in swinging a pickax and then marvel at the 
 
 205 
 
GOLF 
 
 difficulty in getting off a long ball, when the 
 whole effort is wasted because the club head does 
 not meet the ball true. 
 
 Keep the forearms and wrist as flexible as pos- 
 sible, and you will be astonished to find how little 
 power is required of the body. It is easy and 
 very comfortable and you quickly learn the 
 valuable lesson of hitting the ball accurately, be- 
 cause as your body is so well under control you 
 have no difficulty in keeping your balance, and 
 that means your head has a good chance to keep 
 from swaying, and naturally your eyes see the 
 ball so much more clearly that it is comparatively 
 easy to hit it very true. Then you will begin to 
 get the distance. As a matter of fact the play- 
 ing of irons requires no such effort as the wooden 
 shots, and the great difficulty, as I have said be- 
 fore, is in keeping from swinging or twisting the 
 body too fast. The principle of the stroke is 
 different and it is more like the game of "crack 
 the whip," which the boys play. The entire 
 energy is transmitted to the club head and it is 
 more than sufficient if you connect with the ball 
 accurately. A point to remember is the matter of 
 
 206 
 
PLAYING THE CLEEK 
 
 moving the hands along parallel with the ball 
 after you first connect with it in order to keep the 
 face of the club at right angles and the club head 
 on the line of flight. 
 
 207 
 
THE MIDIRON SHOT 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE MIDIKON SHOT 
 
 FIRST cousin to the cleek is the midiron, 
 and yet the master of the former may 
 have something to learn about the use of 
 the latter. In the diagram I show how the mid- 
 iron is used by the professionals and all those who 
 "take turf" after "going through" the ball. A 
 thing which has a most decided influence upon the 
 ball is the fact that the club face is more at right 
 angles or less lofted in relation to the ground and 
 meets the ball at the same angle or loft that the 
 driver does and naturally a longer ball results. 
 The ball is lifted or sent into the air by its re- 
 bound from the "springy" turf, due in part to the 
 fact that the club is coming downward, forcing 
 the ball against the ground, and partly to the 
 fact that, the ball, being collapsed or compressed, 
 as shown in position 2, the natural expansion of 
 the ends, especially the lower end, for it becomes 
 
 211 
 
GOLF 
 
 an oval, meets with resistance which upon reaction 
 emphasizes the bounce upward. Besides this you 
 have the pressure under the ball of the turf, 
 which has been cut, forcing the ball up sharply, 
 which aids materially in overcoming the back 
 spin. 
 
 Tke Oftuwia SWX 
 
 In playing this shot the player must remember 
 that instead of looking at the ball and taking the 
 gage of it as though he were driving it up, he 
 must realize that it should look to him as though 
 he were actually driving the ball into the ground 
 four or five inches ahead of position 1, and in 
 order to make the shot successfully he must really 
 try to accomplish this. By noting the dotted line 
 T, which shows the line of travel of the ball, you 
 will see that the ball does actually start down, but 
 
 212 
 
THE MIDIRON SHOT 
 
 it bounces away and forward before the club 
 comes up again. The club still keeps onward and 
 down until it reaches position 3. The idea should 
 be to cut into the earth below the roots of the 
 grass but lightly and not to bury the club into 
 the turf after hitting the ball. 
 
 The whole success of the stroke depends upon 
 the player connecting with the ball before the club 
 reaches the bottom of the swing in order that the 
 lowest point in the swing will be about four or five 
 inches ahead of the ball. 
 
 The club, while being faced off to the right in 
 the address, must be turned in as well, and if the 
 illustration is viewed as though dotted line A, 
 showing the arc of the club, was running parallel 
 with the printing upon this page, he will see that 
 it makes a new base line, which will give the same 
 view of the club and ball as in the "picked shot." 
 The difference in the scheme of play, however, is 
 that here you have the whole width of the club 
 face to allow for error instead of one-quarter of 
 an inch, as you have in the "picked shot." The 
 ball can be practically half topped, and yet go off 
 on a good line, because the ground forces the ball 
 
 213 
 
GOLF 
 
 up on to the center of the club face before the 
 club reaches position 3. If you come down too 
 low to the ball the shot will not be badly spoiled, 
 because much of the power will be transmitted to 
 the ball before the club meets the earth. You will 
 not get quite as much distance, but that will be the 
 only difference. 
 
 A large part of the difference between profes- 
 sionals and amateurs in playing this club is in 
 the matter of direction. No stronger object les- 
 son can be had than to notice the painstaking, 
 careful finish to the stroke when the professional 
 makes his shot and the reckless heave for distance 
 of the amateur. The predominating idea of each 
 player is plain to be seen. One tries solely for 
 direction and the other only for distance. If the 
 ball goes straight it is an accident in the latter 
 case. Even those players who hit the ball are ap- 
 parently satisfied if they come within twenty 
 yards of the line aimed at. 
 
 The general trouble is the foolish pride players 
 seem to take in reaching a green with the midiron, 
 when in reality it is a cleek shot, with great care 
 to be dead on the line. Of course it is possible 
 
 214 
 
THE MIDIRON SHOT 
 
 to reach a green many times with a midiron by 
 forcing it, where you can reach the same green 
 and be sure of your direction by using a cleek. 
 A midiron was originally designed to obtain one 
 hundred and thirty-five yards with the old hard 
 ball, and because the ball has become livelier play- 
 ers seem to feel that they should get one hundred 
 and eighty to two hundred yards with the same 
 club. So they can, but there is no merit in so 
 forcing the club. 
 
 To bring this lesson home, the next time you go 
 out on the course observe the results that players 
 get and you will find ninety per cent of midiron 
 shots are short, most of them never reaching the 
 green, and the next point you will notice is that 
 they are away off the line as well as short. 
 If you will try the experiment of using your 
 cleek every time you think you have a full midiron 
 shot and put your attention to hitting your ball 
 absolutely true you will make a curious discovery ; 
 not five per cent of a hundred shots will be over, 
 and of that five per cent not one-half will be as 
 far over as you are accustomed to be short with 
 your midiron. 
 
 215 
 
GOLF 
 
 Players will often boast that they have reached 
 a certain green with a drive and a midiron, when 
 the real point is that they were so surprised at the 
 fact themselves that it was worthy of comment. 
 How much oftener they will reach that same 
 green easily with a drive and a cleek, and not be 
 required to force either shot. It is the number 
 of strokes used in playing a hole and not the 
 number of yards that counts. I know from expe- 
 rience that the tendency is to try for distance, and 
 only repeated failures have driven home the les- 
 son that it is the accuracy you obtain in playing 
 whatever distance you are capable of which makes 
 lower scores. When you comment upon a really 
 well-played hole, one which leaves the most last- 
 ing impression, the real fact is that you have 
 placed your iron shot close enough to get down in 
 one putt. No one cares whether you used a 
 mashie or a cleek. 
 
 How many times a player will take a club to 
 play safe — to avoid the risk of getting into a 
 bunker, say — and then swing easily and carefully 
 at the ball, hit it perfectly true, and find himself 
 in the very difficulty he was trying to avoid! 
 
 216 
 
THE MIDIRON SHOT 
 
 This has Happened to many players, and their sur- 
 prise is usually very great. They say : "Why, I 
 played that safe on purpose, and there I am in the 
 bunker." The fact is that the player is not 
 familiar with the distance he obtains with a cor- 
 rectly hit ball. He so seldom hits a ball really 
 true that he is not accustomed to see it go so 
 far. 
 
 That is the one thing to learn, hit the ball true ! 
 It doesn't make much difference whether your 
 grip is right or wrong according to some theories, 
 or whether your swing is upright or flat, if the 
 club meets the ball with the center of the face, 
 that ball is going to go off pretty well. 
 
 I have observed that those players who have 
 trouble in playing the midiron will invariably try 
 to pick the ball up or off the ground clean, with 
 the idea of not injuring the turf. Many players 
 who get off a fairly good ball, but with a slice, 
 have the same mental picture or they would not 
 swing as they do. I have shown how the "squeeze 
 shot," as I call that which takes turf after going 
 through the ball, should be played. For the bene- 
 fit of those who want an easy scheme for play- 
 
 2171 
 
GOLF 
 
 ing it I have made a sketch of what they should 
 try to do. The idea is to let them play the shot 
 as they are accustomed to do in every detail except 
 that of purpose. That purpose should be to drive 
 the ball into the ground, as is shown in posi- 
 tion 3. The ball is supposed to be held up by 
 the grass, and the only object the player should 
 have in mind is to drive the ball into the ground 
 
 / > 
 
 / / 
 
 WW* 
 
 "' » - — ~ I t 
 
 ft — ^> I • ^*"^ 
 
 l if A 
 
 ^^^^Z 
 
 as suggested. The ball will actually follow along 
 the dotted line which shows its flight, but that 
 should not alter the player's purpose. 
 
 The great difficulty with players is that they 
 cannot bring themselves to believe that the ball 
 will get up, and at the last instant, before hitting 
 it, they change their purpose and try to hit up. 
 Any one can see this by watching a player who 
 has trouble with his midiron. This is a habit 
 
 218 
 
THE MIDIRON SHOT 
 
 which has been so firmly imbedded in the minds 
 of most golfers that they cannot seem to overcome 
 it. It is a persistent enemy of all the iron shots, 
 and unless a player firmly decides to actually 
 drive that ball down, he will find that the old de- 
 sire to hit up will be too strong to be resisted. 
 All the things which happen to the ball should be 
 eliminated from the mind ; the scheme of play will 
 take care of the shot. 
 
 Do not try to see all the steps in the stroke. 
 Make your swing freely and do not spare the 
 turf. Hit the ball clean and true and you can- 
 not possibly make any mistake. Remember that 
 the fact that you take turf is no excuse for hitting 
 harder for the reason that at the time the turf 
 begins to stop your club the ball is away on its 
 journey. It will feel as though it needed more 
 power but it does not. The scheme gives a great 
 deal more leeway for the shot to be brought off in 
 the first place and there is nothing in the blow 
 being delivered which requires more power. The 
 same thing I have spoken of before, regarding 
 accuracy giving distance, applies here, as in fact 
 to every club in the bag. If you are to get the 
 
 219 
 
GOLF, 
 
 ball up you must make your stroke down as I 
 show in the cut; otherwise the shot will be of no 
 value. Midiron shots will never be well played 
 by a player who is afraid of spoiling the turf. 
 
 220 
 
WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH THE 
 MID IRON 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH THE MIDIRON 
 
 WHEN it is considered how the first in- 
 structions a player receives become 
 fixed in his mind it is no wonder that 
 one of the most useful midiron shots in the entire 
 list is neglected. That shot is the "running-up" 
 
 I approach. When the average player initiates a 
 friend he usually advises him to take a mashie for 
 all short shots, but those who have cultivated the 
 "running-up" approach with the midiron have 
 been well paid for their pains, and it is astonish- 
 ing how few players realize that the shot is safer 
 and easier than with the mashie. In only one 
 case, that is when the nature of the ground ahead 
 of the player absolutely compels a pitched shot, is 
 the mashie more useful. When the player finds 
 himself short or over the green with nothing in- 
 tervening, and from forty yards down from the 
 pin, he will have occasion to utilize this shot. 
 
 223 
 
GOLF 
 
 The same mechanical principles which govern 
 the full "squeeze shot," which I have described, 
 obtain with the shorter shot. That is, the idea 
 must be to drive the ball downward against the 
 turf and the ball will rise upon the rebound and 
 run along over any kind of ground with the 
 greatest tenacity to hold its line. This is due to 
 the forward twist, as a result of the drag put upon 
 the under side of the ball by the ground while in 
 contact with it in the initial part of the journey. 
 It should be remembered that the ball is not com- 
 pressed to the same extent as when it is hit harder, 
 and that in consequence it will not rise much, but 
 will gain its distance from the roll. 
 
 Reference to the diagram of the squeeze shot 
 on page 212 will serve to illustrate the method of 
 playing this shot, but the club does not go into 
 the turf so deep. At the moment of striking the 
 ball the face of the club turns away to the right 
 of the desired line a little and as the ball leaves 
 the club the club face is at exact right angles 
 to the desired direction. The toe of the club is 
 not stopped there, however, but continues the 
 turn which brought it at right angles when the 
 
 224 
 
Address for the Running Up Shot With the Mid-Iron. 
 
Top of Swing for Running Up Shot With the Mid- 
 Iron. The Club Is Dragged Forward Rather 
 Than Pivoted at the Wrists and Comes Down 
 Mostly of Its Own Weight. 
 
Striking the Ball in Running Up Shot With Mid- 
 Iron. The Effort Is Made Downward and 
 the Club Does the Work. 
 
Finish of Running Up Shot With Mid-Iron. Note 
 That the Toe of the Club Is Pointing Up. 
 
THE MIDIRON 
 
 ball left the club. There is only one point which 
 should be watched carefully, and that is to have 
 the toe of the club point down more than in the 
 ordinary method of playing it, because this gives 
 the hands a chance to lend greater delicacy to the 
 shot. 
 
 The player will find from experience that he 
 has far more of a tendency to look up than with 
 any other shot, and a good thing to remember in 
 playing all shots is to keep the head absolutely 
 still and never allow the eye to leave the ball for 
 an instant until the club head meets it. There 
 is always more anxiety to see where the ball is 
 going on a short shot than on a long one, because 
 the short shot is played at a more critical time 
 and when the winner of the hole is soon to be 
 determined. There are more things to be con- 
 sidered as well, because the player is using his 
 club with a greater proportionate range than 
 when playing a club to its maximum distance. 
 Besides this, the distance the club is traveling 
 through its sweep or arc is consuming much more 
 time than the same distance with the same club 
 consumes in a full shot. 
 
 225 
 
GOLF 
 
 The common fault with all players is in hur- 
 rying the stroke. The stroke is delicate and 
 should be played with much of the pendulum 
 idea, the same as with a putter. Accuracy in 
 hitting is the keynote of success with this short 
 shot. 
 
 I have learned from experience that "half -top- 
 ping" is the fault which happens most, on a short, 
 running-up shot, as sclaffing is on a short pitched 
 shot, and that a scheme to prevent these faults 
 is a great help in inspiring confidence and even 
 in bringing off the shot although anxiety does 
 make the player look up too soon. For instance, 
 if the player can assume some stance or attitude 
 whereby he cannot swing over his ball, or even 
 go above a certain point, that is an advantage. 
 As most of the power in a short shot comes from 
 the weight of the club alone and the distance back 
 it is lifted, it should be an easy matter for the 
 player to devise some scheme which will make 
 it extremely awkward to use the arms and hands 
 for anything else than lifting the club and guid- 
 ing it again. 
 
 In my own case I use the elbow of my right 
 
 226 
 
THE MIDIRON 
 
 arm as the pivot of the stroke, bringing my elbow 
 close to my side. This prevents shifting the 
 pivot of the stroke. As the lowest point in a 
 vertical circle will always be exactly opposite and 
 at right angles to the pivot, it is necessary, if the 
 club is to strike the ball before that lowest point 
 is reached, that the pivot be located ahead of the 
 ball as in all the other shots. The player must 
 bear in mind that all these factors are solved when 
 you take your stance. Your purpose, as I have 
 previously explained, must be to hit the ball down 
 against the ground. Do not jerk the club at the 
 ball, but let it come down freely with its own 
 weight. You will then educate your muscles to 
 the "feel" of the correct amount of back swing to 
 obtain a given distance. 
 
 You will find from experience that you will 
 always look up the instant you have made your 
 effort, whether it is a short shot or a full shot, 
 and this is a fact which few players have ever 
 considered. It is an involuntary action. Mak- 
 ing the effort too soon results in looking up too 
 soon, and it is the cause of more strokes added to 
 one's score than all other causes combined. Mak- 
 
 227 
 
GOLF 
 
 ing the effort too soon is in itself the result of 
 trying to hit too hard and not waiting for the club 
 to do the work. The mental discipline necessary 
 to hold one's self in check is the thing to be 
 sought after. Hit the ball true in the center of 
 the club face a few times and your confidence in 
 yourself will come quickly. 
 
 Figure 1 
 
 Absolute freedom and comfort are essential in 
 the stroke, and nothing approaching stiffness 
 must be introduced at any point. Practice alone 
 will accomplish this, and the whole operation must 
 be an endeavor to keep the club perfectly bal- 
 anced and poised throughout. Avoid timidity in 
 hitting and strike firmly, but not hard. 
 
 Among the very useful shots which it is pos- 
 
 228 
 
THE MIDIRON 
 
 sible to play with the midiron — and that is the 
 best club to get distance — is that out of water. 
 This shot gives a nice little problem to be solved, 
 if it is played successfully. It is well known that 
 water is incompressible, but at the same time it 
 is very fluid. By referring to figure 1, you will 
 observe that the aim and sweep of the club are as 
 
 Figure 2 
 
 though you were going to half top the ball and 
 first meet the water about two inches back of it. 
 The result of the blow against the water is to 
 make the water in front of the club rise to a 
 higher level with a very sharp jump, and no mat- 
 ter how fast the club is moving, the water will 
 jump up and carry the ball with it with an equal 
 speed. 
 
 229 
 
GOLF 
 
 In addition to the wave created ahead of it by 
 the club, the pressure of the water in every direc- 
 tion, forcing up to replace that which is splashed 
 in the air, causes the ball to move with it to meet 
 the club and intensifies the blow which is being re- 
 duced by the resistance of the water. By the time 
 the club actually reaches the spot formerly occu- 
 pied by the ball these various forces have jumped 
 the ball up so that it is practically suspended for 
 an instant in the direct path of the center of the 
 club face, but there is yet considerable speed and 
 power to the club, and the ball will go forward 
 about fifty to seventy-five yards if the shot is 
 well played. The success of the shot depends 
 upon striking the water at the right point, neither 
 too far back of the ball nor too near it. In the 
 former case too much water will be taken and the 
 ball will jump up so high that the club will come 
 under it, and in the latter case the ball will actu- 
 ally be half -topped. The correct distance is 
 about two to three inches back of the ball, and the 
 player should endeavor to skim off about a half 
 inch of the water ahead of it. 
 
 The blow must not be delivered with a cut as 
 
 230 
 
THE MIDIRON 
 
 though you were cutting into the water with the 
 bottom edge of the club, but should be as though 
 you were trying to see how far you could plow 
 along the surface of the water with the club sunk 
 about a half inch into it. Taking too much water 
 will kill the force of the blow, while too little will 
 not jump the ball up high enough to meet it 
 squarely. Study the illustrations carefully and 
 you will get the right idea. 
 
 The follow through is of the very greatest im- 
 portance, and to make the shot successfully the 
 player must not fear being splashed. Above all 
 else, it is important to keep the head still in order 
 to see that you hit the correct distance back of 
 the ball. By tilting the mashie or niblick so 
 that the club face is presented at the same angle 
 as the cut, or at right angles to the surface of the 
 water, the same shot can be played with those 
 clubs, but the shot is not as sure, because the tend- 
 ency is to go under the ball, as these two clubs 
 feed into the water too quickly, too much water 
 is taken, and the ball jumps over the club head. 
 Hit hard and freely. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most important shots which 
 
 231 
 
GOLF 
 
 the midiron is called upon to play is when the ball 
 is lying in long grass, from four to eight inches 
 tall, and when it is not too heavy with clover or 
 too thick and matted ; that, for instance, which is 
 most common upon our average American course. 
 It is an absolute fluke in the majority of cases 
 when the beginner manages to get his ball out 
 at all with his midiron played in the ordinary 
 manner. 
 
 Played as though the ball was lying on the fair 
 green, where you can get at it, and this is the 
 usual way the shot is played, you have no chance, 
 for a great number of reasons. In the first place, 
 the eye unconsciously guides the club too high in 
 order not to hit the surface of the ground, which 
 it sees in the form of grass much higher than the 
 ball. It is presumed, of course, that the player 
 is looking at his ball in a general way, because 
 he is endeavoring to get it out of the grass. If 
 the club does get down to the ball it cannot be 
 struck with the face, because there is three-quar- 
 ters of an inch of grass between the ball and it, 
 and because the grass is actually being folded over 
 the ball and preventing its rise. 
 
 232 
 
L THE midiron 
 
 Besides this, the club face being brought 
 straight down through the grass offers its full 
 width to the resistance. Furthermore the angle 
 at which the shaft of the club is going through 
 enables the grass to wind itself around the shank 
 of the club, twisting it in the bands, no matter 
 how strong the grip. This turns the face of the 
 club in still more and absolutely kills any chance 
 of getting the ball out. The result of this scheme 
 of play is that the ball jumps ahead a yard or two 
 and the operation is continued. The same result 
 often happens almost to the same degree with the 
 mashie. 
 
 Naturally the common sense of the player will 
 convince him after a few trials that he has not a 
 chance of getting much power to the ball with the 
 club head attempting to pull up all the grass by 
 the roots which it meets on its sweep along the 
 ground. But he need not despair. There is a 
 way, and a very practicable way, of playing the 
 midiron out of rough. 
 
 In the first place, if you will make the experi- 
 ment of hitting down on the grass in a perpendic- 
 ular direction you will find that it offers little or 
 
 233 
 
GOLF 
 
 no resistance to the club. If you will swing 
 through the grass with the face of the club drag- 
 ging behind the shank, parallel with the direction 
 the club is traveling, you will find that the club 
 will plough through pretty easily. These two 
 facts should indicate that if there is to be much 
 power and speed carried to the ball the blow must 
 be a combination of these two factors ; that is, the 
 predominating effort must be to strike the grass 
 in a direction that will meet with the least resist- 
 ance, and that is downward, and not forward. 
 
 In any case the blow must be struck so as not 
 to fold the grass over upon the ball, and this is 
 bound to be done unless the grass for about four 
 inches back of the ball is cut off at the roots by 
 the sharp edge of the club when it is about to 
 meet the ball. To get to the roots of the grass 
 that far back of the ball and have much speed the 
 club must be brought down vertically, with the 
 face of the club pointing well away from the ball. 
 When that point is reached the club must be 
 forced with great rapidity around so that the bot- 
 tom edge of the club will cut the grass off at the 
 roots and meet the ball square. This turn will 
 
 234 
 
THE MIDIRON 
 
 be greatly facilitated by the action of the grass 
 which winds around the shank of the club, due to 
 the fact that the club shaft is pointing at the 
 ground at an angle of about fifty degrees. 
 
 This is one of the cases where drawing in the 
 hands and getting a slice is a decided advantage, 
 because, as you were coming down so straight, 
 drawing in the hands prevents the club going too 
 deep into the ground and thus wasting the effort, 
 and as the ball is shot out of the grass it has the 
 usual twist given by the club drawing across 
 the ball. This twist is emphasized by the drag of 
 the grass upon the under side of the ball as it comes 
 out and forward. The result is that you get a ball 
 which comes out quickly, but which ducks quite 
 sharply and shoots forward with a tremendous 
 roll when it strikes the ground. In moderately 
 heavy rough grass it is possible for the average 
 player to get one hundred and fifty to one hun- 
 dred and seventy-five yards if the stroke is played 
 correctly. 
 
 To gain a simple mental picture of the stroke 
 the player should imagine that he is playing a 
 regular midiron shot on the fair green, down hill, 
 
 235 
 
GOLF 
 
 on a very steep incline and is trying to drive the 
 ball along the ground by aiming about four inches 
 back of the ball in order to be "down" when he 
 reaches it. If the grass is very heavy it will be 
 possible to get a very fair ball away by empha- 
 sizing the slice by turning the face of the club 
 away to the right of the hole and aiming an equal 
 distance to the left to allow for the slice which 
 results. The whole success of the stroke depends 
 upon pounding the club down hard into the turf 
 back of the ball. Don't be afraid of your club 
 shaft and hit hard. 
 
 236 
 
USE OF THE MASHIE 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 USE OF THE MASHIE 
 
 IT is with real pleasure that I take up the 
 mashie shot, because the mashie is my favor- 
 ite club, if favorite there can be, as I have 
 devoted more time and study to the shot than all 
 others. It is a club which has vast possibilities, 
 and is called upon to play a greater range of shots 
 than all the other clubs combined. At the same 
 time it is understood by comparatively few play- 
 ers, and even among the professionals I have 
 heard some mighty funny theories advanced as 
 to the way it should be played. From what I 
 have observed, the majority of professionals play 
 the club correctly from practice and in spite of 
 their theories. 
 
 To look at the club and note the angle or loft 
 to the face of it, the theory of the correct method 
 of playing it may seem, simple, but it is not a 
 simple club to play according to the theory. The 
 
 239 
 
GOLF 
 
 fact that almost every player you see addresses 
 his ball with the club shaft at right angles to the 
 desired line of flight shows that his mental picture 
 of the stroke must be that also, or he would not 
 so address the ball. The idea is that the ball 
 takes the angle of the face of the club, as I show 
 by dotted line called the angle of rise. Players 
 have informed me that they can play off a 
 
 board floor that way, and it must be correct. It 
 is correct for a board floor, because the club can- 
 not go too low and is bound to slide along the 
 floor, but for soft turf and grass, it is not the 
 easiest way. 
 
 The latitude for error is too small and the 
 amount of latitude is shown by the small arrow 
 marked A. In proportion to the width of the 
 club face, this is a very small margin, something 
 
 240 
 

 <^% 
 
 ****- ^ 
 
 
 
 
 Address With the Mashie for the Squeeze Shot. The 
 
 Lowest Point in the Swing Is Opposite the 
 
 Pivotal Center and Ahead of the Ball. 
 
USE OF THE MASHIE 
 
 like a quarter of an inch of space, into which the 
 wedge formed by the bottom of the club must be 
 driven to hit the ball accurately, to avoid topping 
 and cutting it, on the one hand, and to avoid 
 driving the wedge at the bottom of the club into 
 the ground, on the other. 
 
 The bottom edge of a mashie is very sharp, 
 and it is expensive, to say the least, to top the 
 ball or even half top it. You can readily see 
 what the effect would be to strike the ball in the 
 middle with this club. Besides this, to drive that 
 sharp wedge into the soft turf is wasting the 
 force of the blow upon the ground and not the 
 ball. This very fact is one which is productive 
 of one of the most useful shots with the mashie, 
 as I shall explain in another place, but the shot 
 is not played with any idea of the club moving 
 in the arc shown by the dotted line marked C. 
 
 The theory of the shot as I have drawn it is 
 rendered still more difficult and almost impossible 
 by players who seem to think they must get under 
 the ball and hit up, applying the power to push 
 the ball up along the line of the angle of rise, at 
 right angles to the face of the club. Even with 
 
 241 
 
GOLF 
 
 this theory of play the arc of the club head should 
 be very flat in order to hit the ball, but nine play- 
 ers out of ten do not try for the flat arc. At 
 the last moment when they meet the ball they 
 lift the club by turning the wrists up in order to 
 get the ball up or "lift" it, their idea being that 
 in order to get the height the club must come up 
 with the ball along the solid line marked D. 
 
 With this theory the club must sweep through 
 the arc shown by dotted line C, but even then the 
 latitude for error is so small that it is very, very; 
 difficult to bring any kind of a shot off with cer- 
 tainty, and the amount of spoiled mashie shots 
 is shown in the scores of the high handicap men. 
 In addition to this the player has no such hitting 
 surface to use as the width of the club face might 
 indicate. In reality he has only the width shown 
 by the dotted line B, and that is narrower than the 
 face of his cleek. 
 
 I have drawn three views of the club and ball 
 in order to show what takes place during the short 
 interval of time when the club is against the 
 ground. In the first place I direct attention to 
 position 1 to show how much more latitude for 
 
 242 
 
USE OF THE MASHIE 
 
 error is given by hitting down instead of parallel 
 with the ground, as in the average player's theory. 
 By referring to the solid line marked A, you will 
 observe that you have a space nearly as wide as 
 the club head in which to hit with the bottom 
 edge of the club and still get off a very fair shot. 
 This is about four times as much leeway as you 
 
 /% 
 
 r 
 
 ' " ft i ^ MY ' 
 
 7-7T 
 
 have in the other scheme. In order to have the 
 club coming down and the shaft pointing at the 
 angle it is, the hands must be ahead of the ball. 
 To give a simple explanation of this way of 
 playing the shot, just imagine you are playing 
 on the same theory you have been, and instead 
 of taking the usual stance, take a position as 
 though the ground under your left foot was to 
 sink down six inches. Then you will pick off the 
 
 243 
 
GOLF 
 
 ball in the same way, but your club will go into 
 the ground after you hit it instead of starting 
 to rise from the ground the instant you hit the 
 ball. As the club meets the ground the tend- 
 ency of the head of the club is to turn away 
 to the right. This must be overcome by turning 
 the club face in more than you are accustomed to 
 by turning the wrists over harder when you meet 
 the ball. You will find that your ball goes a 
 little more to the left than you have been used 
 to, but by facing the club more to the right, as 
 shown in position 1, this is easily overcome. Then 
 when the ball is struck the club head moves along 
 almost parallel with the angle of rise and you 
 have no need of hitting so hard, because you are 
 tilting the face of your club at an angle equiva- 
 lent to the loft on a midiron. 
 
 This is the simplest shot with the mashie, be- 
 cause it gives the greatest amount of leeway, and 
 does not require such accuracy as does the average 
 player's theory. It is as though the ball were 
 teed up when you strike at it, with more room 
 to get under it. By facing the club to the right 
 in the address the face comes at perfect right 
 
 244 
 
USE OF THE MASHIE 
 
 angles to the desired line at the instant the ball 
 leaves it, as shown in position 2. In order to be 
 sure of this the hands must be turned hard, or 
 the club will feed too deep into the turf, killing 
 the distance and spoiling the direction. This shot 
 enables the player to strike with more confidence 
 and freedom, which is much to be desired. The 
 purpose in the player's mind must be to drive 
 the ball down along the same line as shown by 
 the dotted line running from the center of the ball 
 in position 1. Never give a thought to the ball 
 getting up or you will start to turn the wrists 
 up and spoil the shot. 
 
 In every iron shot the purpose in the player's 
 mind must be to hit down if he is going to get 
 the ball up. The club will take care of the rise. 
 If you do not have that purpose in your mind 
 you will top your shot nine times out of ten. 
 By noting the incline of the club shaft you will 
 see that the hands must not be stopped when 
 your club reaches the ball, but must sweep along 
 with the club. Also there should be a good deal 
 of a drag in the shot, with the left elbow pointing 
 out at the flag and the right hand pushed forward 
 
 245 
 
GOLF 
 
 with the hand bent backward very much. As 
 such details, however, are apt to be confusing, I 
 recommend that the player make his club head 
 act as shown in the cut, and thrash out his own 
 method of doing it. The important thing is to 
 keep the club in contact with the ball, because 
 that is what affects the ball's flight. 
 
 Players are apt to be so much impressed by 
 another player's swing that they lose sight of the 
 vital point, which is the way the club head meets 
 the ball and acts while in contact with it. Do 
 not hit hard, and above all else fix your attention, 
 after you have mapped out your purpose, upon 
 keeping your head absolutely still, and you will 
 become in a short time a first-class mashie player. 
 
 An important shot with the mashie is the high 
 pitch. In offering my method of playing this 
 shot I know that it differs from the usual theory 
 in that I put no "cut" or back spin upon the ball 
 whatever. I have found from experience that I 
 can get the ball up quicker or at a more acute 
 angle by my scheme than by the so-called "cut 
 stroke," which is supposed to put a back spin 
 upon the ball and stop it quickly. I have made 
 
 246 
 

 Address With Mashie for Squeeze Shot. Note That 
 
 the Lowest Point in the Swing Will Be 
 
 Ahead of the Ball. 
 
USE OF THE MASHIE 
 
 two drawings showing the principal stages of the 
 club head and ball, and from them it will be 
 seen that the angle of the club face is directly 
 contrary to the usual idea, in which the club face 
 is "laid back" or tilted with a still greater angle 
 than that with which it was built. The prevailing 
 
 idea is to get under the ball and hit up. The 
 principle in my method is to drive my club head, 
 which is built like a wedge at the bottom, into the 
 ground behind the ball in order to push up the 
 ground upon which the ball is resting, and it is 
 the combination of the two forces, one propelling 
 the ball and turf forward, and the other driv- 
 ing the club down, which gives the desired rise to 
 the ball. In the diagram, position 1, you will see 
 
 247 
 
GOLF 
 
 that the first effect of the club meeting the ball is 
 to put a back spin upon it, but that is instantly- 
 stopped by the brake being applied by the turf 
 and the result is a reaction, emphasizing the tend- 
 ency of the ball to come up straight in the air. 
 As the turf slides up the face of the club, as 
 shown in position 2, the ball is pushed up with it 
 while both the turf and the ball are being driven 
 forward by the general direction in which the 
 club head is traveling. 
 
 By noting position 3 in the diagram you will 
 see that the ball is rising at a greater angle than 
 the angle of the club face, due to the fact that the 
 turf is sliding up over the club face as the club 
 head is driven deeper and forward and the ball is 
 pushed up and forward with it. As the turf is in 
 contact with the ball during the entire time that 
 the energy is being transmitted, it effectually 
 prevents any spin being imparted to it. The ball 
 goes away on its flight without any eccentric mo- 
 tions and when it lands it bounces straight in the 
 direction it is 'being propelled, and does not have 
 the tendency to kick off to one side, which a ball 
 with back spin does. In other words, I do not 
 
 248 
 
iTJSE OF THE MASHIE 
 
 slice the ball at all, it has no tendency to duck, 
 and it will stop quicker than any "cut stroke" I 
 have ever seen. It allows for three or four times 
 as much leeway for error, requires no delicate tim- 
 ing as does the other method, and is simple to play 
 in consequence. Every good professional golfer 
 I have seen plays the shot in this way, and they 
 take a good big divot the full width of the club 
 face. 
 
 The confidence necessary to pound the club 
 down into the ground in a contrary direction to 
 that in which you wish to send the ball will come 
 quickly if the player will think of the club head 
 plowing along under the turf upon which the ball 
 is resting. Of course a reasonable amount of 
 care must be exercised to avoid meeting the turf 
 too far back of the ball; about half an inch to 
 an inch is the proper distance, according to the 
 amount of rise required and the distance forward 
 you wish to send it. To make the shot success- 
 fully do not attempt to turn up the wrists when 
 your club is in the turf, but, on the contrary, 
 turn the hands over — as in all the iron shots — as 
 though you were trying to push the toe of the 
 
 249 
 
GOLE 
 
 club deeper into the ground. Also play the shot 
 as though it were the divot you were trying to 
 play forward and not the ball. This will enable 
 you to "follow through" correctly. Do not spare 
 the turf, and remember that you never see a pro- 
 fessional break a shaft, although he takes a much 
 larger divot than you do as a rule. Strike firmly 
 and freely, and spare not. 
 
 In regard to the stance with the mashie, I have 
 tried every conceivable method, and I am con- 
 vinced that the best scheme is to study the ball 
 more and the flag less. The first glance at the 
 flag will tell you as much as fifteen minutes gaz- 
 ing at it; the balance of the time occupied in 
 making the stroke should be devoted solely to the 
 space occupying about a yard circle in which you 
 are standing with the ball in front of you. Bad 
 direction does not come from a faulty study of 
 the line, but from faulty connection between the 
 club head and the ball. It is really astonishing 
 how the player unconsciously sends his ball off 
 on the correct line when he hits it perfectly 
 true. 
 
 Common sense should tell you that you cannot 
 
 250 
 
USE OF THE MASHIE 
 
 watch the line and the ball at the same time. The 
 purpose in taking the stance is to give you gour 
 direction. How seldom you see an amateur rely 
 upon that, however. He takes his stance and 
 then commences to tire his eyes and muscles by a 
 further study of the direction. Once you take 
 your stance you should never again think of the 
 direction. One more glance to gage the distance 
 and then everything should be devoted to hitting 
 the ball true. Have more confidence, and the 
 best way to get that is to acquire experience and 
 familiarity with the "feel" of a correctly hit ball. 
 
 All the careful study of line and distance is lost 
 in any case when you do not hit true, and fifty 
 shots are spoiled by not hitting true to one which 
 is off direction as a result of lack of study of 
 the line. It is the way your club head meets the 
 ball which affects the flight and not the way your 
 shoulders are acting or your hands or a hundred 
 other things are behaving. Forget all those 
 items and think only of keeping your head still 
 when you are swinging at the ball. 
 
 Do not spend so much time in studying the 
 nature of the ground between the cup and your- 
 
 251 
 
GOLF 
 
 self or where you must drop the ball or anything 
 of that sort. Look at the flag and gage the dis- 
 tance and then hit your ball to go that distance. 
 The club hitting the ball true will take care of all 
 the trouble between you and the cup. Bunkers 
 are really more of a mental than a physical haz- 
 ard, because if you hit your ball true and for the 
 correct distance the bunkers might just as well 
 not exist, as far as affecting the flight of the ball 
 is concerned. If a good player could exchange 
 his knowledge with a poor player the latter would 
 be astonished at the few things which he has to 
 observe to bring off his shot. If I could con- 
 vince players that keeping my head absolutely 
 still was the secret of bringing off shots which 
 look mighty difficult, they would be dissatisfied 
 with its simplicity and begin to create new mental 
 hazards, because they are apparently anxious to 
 make the game as difficult as possible. 
 
 I presume every player who has mastered a 
 certain difficult shot has laughed in his sleeve 
 when his less skilful mates have marveled at his 
 cleverness. Let them think it is cleverness and 
 don't tell them that hitting the ball true did all 
 
 252 
 
Address With Mashie for "Picked" Shot. 
 
USE OF THE MASHIE 
 
 the difficult work. "A pit full of starving 
 bears," as I read in a humorous article some time 
 ago, is only a mental hazard and cannot possibly 
 affect a well hit ball. 
 
 The most difficult hazard in golf is the desire 
 to swing hard. 
 
 253 
 
WITH JIGGER AND NIBLICK 
 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 WITH JIGGER AND NIBLICK 
 
 THE jigger is a cross between a midiron 
 and a mashie, with nearly the range of 
 the midiron and nearly the capacity for 
 raising the ball which the mashie has. The prin- 
 ciple of playing it is identically the same as with 
 the other iron shots. Turf should be taken after 
 meeting the ball. The idea is to strike so as to 
 drive the ball against the ground, and the club 
 will keep on into the turf, but the ball will be 
 pushed up or bounced up by reason of the impact 
 with the ground. I have explained in previous 
 chapters why this method of playing irons not 
 only will give greater distance but far greater 
 accuracy of line. In addition to this, it is prac- 
 tically hitting a teed ball every time. 
 
 If a ball is on an upward incline it is easy to 
 hit it clean with the club, and if the purpose in 
 the player's mind is to drive the ball against the 
 
 257 
 
GOLF, 
 
 ground it brings all the effort in a similar direc- 
 tion, just as though the ball was teed, or was 
 resting upon an upward incline. By referring 
 frequently to the illustrations I have made in 
 previous chapters it will become clearer and 
 clearer to the player what that method of playing 
 
 the stroke will accomplish. 
 
 The vast majority of so-called jiggers are mis- 
 nomers. Generally they are distorted mashies. 
 They have not the hitting surface of the mashie, 
 yet they have the same "loft." A true jigger 
 should have nearly the incline which a midiron 
 has, but a narrower blade, in order to have the 
 bulk of the weight well below the center of the 
 ball to emphasize its tendency to make the ball 
 rise. It should really give a much longer ball 
 than a mashie is capable of if played with the 
 same amount of effort. The player should re- 
 member that his club should propel the ball down 
 against the ground. The ball will bounce back, 
 while the club continues along practically the 
 same line. This is how turf is taken after hitting 
 the ball. This is really the only club with which 
 it is comparatively easy to pick a ball off hard 
 
 258 
 
WITH JIGGER AND NIBLICK 
 
 surface or sand. The broad base prevents it feed- 
 ing too deep into the turf or sand, and a very 
 long ball is possible. The majority of jiggers 
 are laid back too much and do not allow of a 
 sufficient additional distance with the same effort 
 you would make with the mashie. 
 
 For low running-up shots where it is desired 
 to "kill" the run on the ball the jigger is much 
 easier to play than the mashie, but as it always 
 requires greater skill to play any stroke with a cut 
 to it than a plain running shot, I very much pre- 
 fer the midiron, as the same amount of skill will 
 give much finer results. The amount of "kill" 
 or drag depends very largely upon the nature of 
 the ground upon which the ball lands, and I have 
 found from experience that I get better average 
 results with the midiron. 
 
 The high pitched shot with a niblick is as useful 
 if not more useful than the high pitch with a 
 mashie, not only because it is possible to get the 
 ball up much more quickly, but that very fact 
 means that it will come down straighter, meeting 
 the ground more nearly at right angles and con- 
 sequently stopping quicker. Many players seem 
 
 259 
 
GOLE 
 
 to think that a niblick should be played only in 
 traps or difficulties, and that it looks unskilful to 
 use a niblick on the fair green. 
 
 In my own case I always try for the easiest 
 way to play a shot, and I find that I can get 
 results with a niblick for pitched shots up to 
 ninety yards that I cannot get with my mashie. 
 With the turf in good shape I can drop a fifty- 
 yard pitch practically dead, and this I cannot do 
 with certainty with the mashie. The mashie gives 
 me more distance than I need when I have occa- 
 sion to get it up quickly. Say that you have 
 about forty yards to go to the flag and two-thirds 
 of the distance away there is a bunker and trap 
 guarding the hole, and you cannot play a pitch 
 and run shot because you are landing on a smooth 
 green with the flag too near to hold it; this is 
 where the shot with the niblick comes in very 
 well. 
 
 The swing is made very vertically with the 
 hands well ahead of the club head, and the pur- 
 pose in the player's mind must be to drive the club 
 head deep into the ground close behind the ball, 
 with the idea of playing the divot up to the 
 
 260 
 
WITH JIGGER AND NIBLICK 
 
 flag. You are really driving a wedge down close 
 behind the ball, and as the thicker part of the 
 wedge meets the ball, which has already started 
 nearly straight up in the air (due to the small 
 end of the wedge pushing the turf up under the 
 ball), it is propelled forward, but as the ball is 
 already in motion the bulk of the force of the 
 blow is sending the ball up and not forward. 
 There is practically no back spin on the ball, and 
 the reason it stops dead short is that it comes 
 down so straight. 
 
 The player should think only of the wedge go- 
 ing into the turf because it is the sharp impact 
 of the club meeting and displacing the turf which 
 sends the ball away rather than the direct blow 
 of the club head upon the ball. Do not be afraid 
 of taking a big divot and getting well under the 
 roots of the grass. Follow through, but let it 
 be well into the ground. 
 
 You cannot get over ninety yards, and it is 
 wiser not to attempt even that distance until you 
 have mastered the shot. You strike the ball with 
 a very glancing blow and the turf stops the back 
 spin and emphasizes the quick rise. As you play 
 
 261 
 
GOLF 
 
 the shot, be even more particular to Hit firmly 
 and freely, and on no account allow yourself to 
 look up. The stroke is played with the hands 
 pretty well down, with the left arm kept well 
 down at all stages, and the principal movement 
 in the wrists. The farther back of the ball you 
 hit, the more the rise to the ball is emphasized, 
 but the shorter the distance forward the ball will 
 go. It will pay to cultivate this shot, as the 
 player will find many occasions where it will be 
 extremely useful. 
 
 When I play this shot, I take a divot about an 
 inch thick and seven to twelve inches long, with 
 a great deal of earth coming out with the grass. 
 Hit freely and firmly. 
 
 It sometimes happens in golf that you find 
 your ball in a sand trap behind a bunker with the 
 green on the other side. It is a shot that can He 
 played with accuracy and precision if the player 
 gets the correct idea. The basic idea in this shot 
 is to come down very sharply and drive the bottom 
 of the club deep down and well below the ball, 
 treating the shot as though the ball were not 
 there at all and you were trying merely to play 
 
 262 
 
WITH JIGGER AND NIBLICK 
 
 about as much sand as you can get your club 
 head into the distance you desire to go. Aim at 
 least the width of the club head behind the ball 
 and hit freely and firmly, remembering to follow 
 through in order to throw the sand at the point 
 you want to reach. There is no delicacy required. 
 Give a good stiff poke and the ball will go as 
 far as a piece of gravel would and not much more. 
 
 It is the sand you are playing to the cup and 
 not the ball. Any attempt to strike the ball with 
 the club head will spoil the shot. Hit down sharp 
 and when you get into the sand push ahead hard. 
 You are really gouging out the amount of sand 
 your club head will hold and jerking it over the 
 bunker. I stand well ahead of my ball with my 
 left knee bent considerably in order to pull the 
 club forward instead of pushing it forward, as it 
 is easier and you can get a much greater amount 
 of the body into the stroke. In clean, dry sea 
 sand it is possible to send a ball well up in the 
 air and for fifty yards forward. 
 
 The reason for the failure of the majority of 
 players in this shot is that they think they must 
 strike the ball with the club. Do not look at the 
 
 263 
 
GOLF 
 
 ball at all. Gage about the width of the club 
 face back of the ball and hit down hard and 
 straight into the sand and then yank the club 
 forward and you will not only get out and over 
 the bunker, but a little practice will enable you 
 to place the ball very close to the pin. You must 
 hit just as hard as you would in playing a hun- 
 dred yards on the fair green, but be careful not 
 to hit too near the ball. 
 
 This is a shot which is well worth the time de- 
 voted to practicing it and it is the despair of a 
 competitor who is counting that hole as won. I 
 have seen players not only get a half by playing 
 this shot well but often to win the hole, as the 
 recovery so rattled their opponent. 
 
 It is not my purpose to enter into more detailed 
 shots with this club, such as "lofting a stymie' ' 
 or "cut strokes," or any similar shots, for the 
 reason that such shots are only within the com- 
 pass of the advanced player and the relative im- 
 portance of them for the average player is not 
 great. Learn any of the shots I have indicated 
 and the others will be well within your range. 
 
 Do not have the foolish idea that your niblick 
 
 264 
 
Address With Xiblick for Squeeze Shot. 
 
Following Through in the High Pitch Shot With 
 Niblick. Keep the Eyes on the Ground. 
 
Using the Niblick in a Bunker. Play the Sand 
 Rather Than the Ball. 
 
The High-Pitched Shot With the Xiblick. Don't Be 
 Afraid to Bend the Shaft. 
 
WITH JIGGER AND NIBLICK 
 
 should only be used when in "trouble." Many 
 a pitched shot is a simple pitch with a niblick 
 which would be a very difficult shot with the 
 ordinary mashie. Many players have the same 
 amount of "loft" or incline to the face of their 
 mashie that they have on their niblick; there is 
 no sense in this because it gives you insufficient 
 range between the two shots. Make a practice 
 of using the club which will accomplish the de- 
 sired result in the easiest manner. If you are 
 compelled to pitch a ball high on a short shot 
 and stop very quickly when you land, use your 
 niblick. The shot is far easier than with the 
 mashie. 
 
 Remember that if the high pitched shot which 
 I have described is to be played a short distance, 
 you must hit down with the same amount of 
 effort you always use, and allow only that you 
 should hit a little farther back of the ball. The 
 same swing you are accustomed to use when strik- 
 ing the ground farther back will net less distance 
 but will give you a good high ball which will stop 
 quickly. In your scheme of play you can get 
 better average results from swinging in an accus- 
 
 265 
 
GOLF 
 
 tomed manner and with the same amount of 
 effort. 
 
 A fact which may help some is that the time 
 occupied in a short shot in swinging through the 
 lower part of the arc of the circle should really 
 be longer than when swinging the same distance 
 with a full swing. The idea is to lift the club 
 up a certain height and then let it come down 
 mostly with its own weight. The reason that 
 many players fail is that they look up too soon, 
 and this is a natural result. The effort on the 
 player's part has ceased, and he will always look 
 up in spite of himself the instant he completes 
 his main effort or purpose. As the purpose with 
 the average player is to propel his ball, the instant 
 he ceases to exert his muscles in propelling his 
 club he looks up to see the result of his effort. 
 As the effort is or should be, on a short shot, 
 to lift the club only, he must have absolute mas- 
 tery of himself if he is to avoid raising his eyes 
 before the club head reaches the ball on its down- 
 ward sweep, which is the result of letting the 
 club come down with its own momentum. 
 
 To bring this home to your own case, take a 
 
 266 
 
WITH JIGGER AND NIBLICK 
 
 dozen balls and try out the idea of pitching the 
 ball, say twenty yards, with a niblick and it will 
 astonish you how difficult it is to wait long enough 
 to see the club head meet the ball with its own 
 momentum. 
 
 The club should be held loosely and with the 
 idea of feeling the natural balance of the club 
 and not to make any effort to increase the speed. 
 Guide it accurately and keep at it until you can 
 see the club head meet the ball. This will be a 
 valuable object lesson, not only in playing the 
 niblick, but in playing a short shot with any club 
 in the bag. It is difficult, mighty difficult, and 
 yet it is the only successful way to play the shot. 
 
 267 
 
ON THE PUTTING GREEN 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 ON THE PUTTING GREEN 
 
 WHEN it comes to putting I expect 
 that every man who reads this will 
 feel that here at least I am going to 
 touch upon a subject which he is as well qualified 
 to solve for himself as any one. I believe I have 
 missed more foot and two foot putts than any 
 living man who has played golf the same length 
 of time, and what I have to say about this stroke 
 is based upon more careful and general experi- 
 ence than any one I have met thus far. I have 
 little doubt that my views may not parallel those 
 of many good putters, but I know that the plan 
 I pursued so persistently for eight years was the 
 reason for my erratic putting. 
 
 Right at the start I state flatly that putting is 
 not a matter of nerve or will power at all, 
 although I know that this opinion is directly con- 
 trary to the views I hear most often. Bitter 
 
 271 
 
GOLF 
 
 experience has been my teacher and I purpose to 
 stick to my opinions. I changed in a year and 
 a half from a most erratic putter to a very con- 
 sistent putter and I know the reason why. If 
 nerve or will power would have holed putts for 
 me I should never have missed a putt. I simply 
 worked from a false theory. I have putted as 
 well in critical matches as I ever putted in my 
 life, and I have putted as abominably in a friendly 
 round as I ever did in a critical match. I did 
 what I have preached against so much, and that 
 is "stiffened" my muscles. I made the game 
 hard for myself. 
 
 My theory was to reduce the art of putting 
 to an exact science by some method of controlling 
 the club which would make it impossible to go 
 wrong. The club would have to go that way, 
 and it was a physical impossibility for it to go 
 any other way than that which I intended. I 
 putted the two extremes all the years I tried 
 that idea ; brilliantly at times and horribly at 
 other times ; worse than a man who never played 
 the game before in his life. The putt with me 
 was built upon an entirely different basis than 
 
 272 
 

 / 
 
 
 
 ^^tm 
 
 1&* — m 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 wS^^Ejy* 
 
 • \ 
 
 
 
 ^^^H^^r 
 
 
 
ON THE PUTTING GREEN 
 
 all the rest of my game*. I "set" my muscles 
 as one would try to guide a car on wheels along 
 a track, in such a fashion that I couldn't move 
 the club except upon such and such a line. It 
 was all wrong. 
 
 I kept my head still, absolutely. My grip of 
 the club was correct. My stance was correct. 
 My line was studied out with such care that I 
 could not be mistaken. My club face was squared 
 to the thousandth part of an inch. My eyes 
 were glued upon the ball. Yet I missed short 
 putts in a heart-breaking manner. To my mind 
 it requires far more nerve and courage to keep 
 on trying hard, hole after hole, knowing you 
 have missed these baby putts, than will ever be 
 required to hole one. 
 
 The basis of good putting, as with any other 
 kind of shot, is in absolute relaxation of the 
 muscles in order that they may have perfect free- 
 dom and play. The instant you "set" yourself 
 in your address when putting, in any way where 
 it requires you to brace yourself to keep your 
 balance, that instant you are inviting disaster. 
 It will "get you" sooner or later, and when you 
 
 273 
 
GOLF 
 
 get off your putt it will take you a long time 
 to come back. You are reducing your chance 
 of keeping your eye on the ball till the club 
 reaches it to about five per cent of what it should 
 be and it is almost impossible to keep from look- 
 ing up too soon. 
 
 To be sure, every one will putt well at times by 
 any old method, but of this one fact you may be 
 sure, when you are putting well you are putting 
 easily and freely and your confidence is great. 
 The moment you miss an easy putt your anxiety 
 causes you to become more careful and you be- 
 come more tense and brace yourself more care- 
 fully to avoid missing the next time; you "set" 
 yourself more and more as your putting gets 
 poorer, until finally you couldn't hole a yard putt 
 into a bushel basket with anv confidence. 
 
 I have changed putters and my stance and 
 done everything under the sun to improve my 
 putting when I have reached these stages, and 
 neglected the one thing which was responsible 
 for the damage, and that was to loosen up, hold 
 myself flabby and limp, and putt so that my 
 muscles were as loose and free as they^ were 
 
 274 
 
ON THE PUTTING GREEN 
 
 intended to be. I have gone to the oculist even, 
 and spent a five-dollar bill to see if faulty vision 
 was not responsible for my plight, only to be 
 informed that my vision was as perfect as it could 
 possibly be. Back I would go to the golf course 
 to master this part of the game if I never accom- 
 plished another thing. I would putt for hours 
 at a time and try every method which could be 
 thought of but the right one. 
 
 The correct way was too easy for me to see it. 
 I had at one time eleven putters in my locker. 
 I know every form and make of putter inti- 
 mately. I have had experience and plenty of it, 
 and I sincerely trust no golfer will ever have to 
 go through the bitter experience I have been 
 through to learn to putt. When I have a critical 
 putt to hole now I laugh to myself to think how 
 such a putt has worried me in the days gone by. 
 I know now, but I didn't then. 
 
 As I say, my idea in putting for many years 
 was that if I "set" every muscle in my body 
 rigidly and allowed only my wrists or arms, as 
 the case might be, to move, and to so "set" my- 
 self that they could move only in a certain defined 
 
 275 
 
GOLF 
 
 way, I could reduce the art of putting down to 
 an exact science. The principle involved was to 
 so hold and swing the club that it would move as 
 though it were moving along a groove, and it 
 would be bound to send the ball upon the correct 
 line. 
 
 The fallacy of such a theory was not so ap- 
 parent, because after an hour or two of practice 
 I could putt with great accuracy. I had so 
 trained my muscles that they would act only in 
 a well-defined manner and I would putt well for 
 a few days, sometimes for a week or two at a 
 time, but once I lost the gage of the shot I was 
 as helpless as a baby. I would at such times try 
 every possible stance and angle, and for years I 
 could not seem to get out of my head that I was 
 not "slicing" the ball, while every one would in- 
 sist that I was. I would practice to overcome it, 
 and my friends would tell me I had succeeded. 
 By constant and careful attention I would putt 
 and putt, and gradually get to a point where I 
 would be able to hole the ball regularly from 
 good distances, and as my confidence came I 
 would putt more and more freely, and naturally 
 
 276 
 
ON THE PUTTING GREEN 
 
 would relax more and more as my confidence 
 grew and my putting improved. 
 
 It never came home to me that it was the re- 
 laxing of my painstaking rigid method of play- 
 ing which was causing my improvement and not 
 the perfecting of my method as I then believed 
 it to be. 
 
 I would try, and did try, for months at a time, 
 the stance and style I saw the different profes- 
 sionals use whose style appealed to me. I would 
 talk to them and attempt to analyze the secret 
 of their success, and it would seem to me that I 
 had at last found the real secret because after 
 much painstaking effort I would begin to putt 
 well. In every case, as I look back upon it, the 
 success of the scheme was due solely to the fact 
 that constant practice was making me swing 
 more freely and naturally and consequently re- 
 laxing my muscles more and more. 
 
 I am satisfied that I have nailed the really im- 
 portant secret of good putting, and that is to 
 eliminate every item, from the moment I walk 
 up to my putt, which in the slightest degree has 
 a tendency to make me "set" my muscles in any 
 
 277 
 
GOLF 
 
 way. For the past two years I have putted con- 
 sistently and well, in spite of the fact that I have 
 had no time for practice. 
 
 I have tried standing in the address at va- 
 rious angles, sometimes putting off the right 
 foot, sometimes off the left foot, and sometimes 
 standing square, the only idea in my mind being 
 that of holding myself as loosely and flabbily as 
 I could and keep my balance, and it works 
 equally well at any angle. I have had critical 
 putts to hole, and down they went with delightful 
 frequency. The approach putts would inva- 
 riably be closer than anything I had ever done 
 before with any regularity. I never did "set" 
 my muscles much in the other shots, and for years 
 my game at other parts totally outclassed any- 
 thing I could do with the putter. 
 
 Many players with whom I have played have 
 remarked at the way my other shots outclassed 
 my putting. In justice to myself I can say that 
 I putted as badly at times in friendly rounds as 
 I have ever done in matches. I have played 
 against good golfers, and beaten them, who have 
 thought I was a good putter and had plenty of 
 
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ON THE PUTTING GREEN 
 
 "nerve." I have played other good players who 
 have thought I had no "nerve" at all. The only 
 difference has been that if I was putting well 
 and had the gage I would putt well no matter 
 whom I played, and if I was "off" my putt all 
 my will power and determination were only em- 
 phasizing the cause of my bad putting, and that 
 was "setting" my muscles. 
 
 For the encouragement of those players who 
 have been inclined at times to think they lacked 
 "nerve," I can say that it is probably more the 
 "setting" of the muscles than lack of courage 
 that puts them off in their putting. The average 
 man has the average courage, and give him a 
 reasonable chance of knowing what to do he 
 can do it. Older men and youngsters can putt 
 because they don't care. They go at the cup 
 freely and give their muscles their natural play, 
 but to the ambitious man this matter of "setting" 
 the muscles is a serious one. When it is realized 
 that nothing will cause the tension to the muscles 
 or "setting" them so much as anxiety, it will 
 readily be understood what a field this one item 
 will open up. If the player deliberately adopts a 
 
 279 
 
GOLF 
 
 style which requires him to brace or "set" him- 
 self, he can be sure that he is bound to go off 
 his putting, and all the will power in the world 
 will not hole the putts, because it makes it very 
 nearly a physical impossibility to do so. 
 
 It is unnatural to believe that a man with 
 courage in everything else will not display it 
 in putting if he has the knowledge of how to putt 
 and understands the cause of his failure to do 
 so. This is why I say that it is not a matter of 
 "nerve" at all, but knowledge of how to do it 
 and willingness to give the muscles a chance that 
 make a good putter. 
 
 THE END 
 
 28Q 
 
 :v.77-2