50 Years of Golfing Wisdom

What you should do instead is set the swing off smoothly at a pace that will enable you to come down quicker than you go up. I find most players swing at the correct pace when they remember they want their maximum speed at impact.

‘Tuck in the right elbow’: A right elbow flying away from the body is usually caused by a steep tilt of the shoulders in the backswing, rather than a combined tilt-turn. It is equally wrong, however, to suggest – as some teachers still do – placing a handkerchief between the right elbow and the body and keeping it there in the backswing and downswing. The right elbow will find its correct position if the shoulder turn and the arm swing are correct.

‘Follow through’: Making a conscious effort to follow through nicely when the rest of the swing is thoroughly bad leads to nothing but confusion and frustration. The initiation of the downswing completely commits you all the way to and through the followthrough. So, if you think your followthrough is bad, look for something wrong much earlier – possibly your grip, set-up, backswing or the way you start your downswing. Remember that a correct followthrough is the result of a correct start down.

Sweep those arms down and through

The action of the arms is the most neglected area in golf instruction. There have been ‘hands’ methods, and ‘body’ methods, but the fact is that, whatever method he hung his hat on, every good golfer in history has swept the club through the ball fast and freely with his arms.

Words always in season

When I am teaching I continually find myself using some phrases over and over again to player after player. Since these would seem to be the ones I have found most helpful to the most players, it may be worth repeating them yet once more. They are:

1 Don’t lift up; wind up.

2 Start the backswing with the right shoulder getting out of the way.

3 Point the clubhead at the target in the backswing. This, incidentally, is a quick way of getting a beginner to pivot, and to cock the wrists.

4 As near as possible, keep your feet flat on the ground.

5 Stay ‘sat down’ as you turn your shoulders.

How – and what – to practise

I assume that the fact that you are reading this book means you want to improve your golf. I further assume that you want to improve badly enough to be prepared to give some time – even time that you would normally have spent playing – to practising the game. Some of us are ‘naturally’ more talented golfers than others, but all of us need to practise to develop and hold our full potential.

I have spent a lot of time teaching, so I know a fair amount about the habits of the average golfer in terms of their approach to practice. And what has come home to me is that he has a great deal to learn, not simply about the technicalities of golf, but about the sheer mechanics of practising it. What seven out of ten golfers do when they go to a driving range, or down to the club with a bag of balls, may be exercise, but it isn’t practice.

Let us start, therefore, by defining practice. It has three distinct forms.

The first and absolute primary form of practice you do at home sitting in an armchair, or driving the car to work. You can do it with your brain, and it consists of thinking through the cause-and-effect of whatever you were doing the last time you played golf. From here, still strictly on the mental plane, you decide through a logical reasoning process, not guesswork, exactly what you will be trying to achieve the next time you practise. Ideally, these thought processes should be based on lessons you have been taking from a professional in whom you have confidence. There is no substitute for personal tuition – for advice tailor-made for you as an individual. The vitally important thing, however, is never to practise until you have a clear picture of what you are trying to do.

The next form of practice is the physical execution of what you have planned mentally. This is swing-building and game-improving practice, and we will look at it in detail in a moment.

The third form of practice, which all good players do, and which I’d like to persuade you to do, is the prelude to any important round of golf. It isn’t practice in the previous sense, because you are not trying to rebuild your game (or at least you shouldn’t be). What you are trying to do, with anything from 10 to 50 shots, is to tune up the game you possess on that particular day; to loosen muscles, to get the ‘feel’ of the clubs, to bring the clubface into the ball squarely and solidly and thereby boost your confidence for the ensuing round. And to find one workable swing thought for the day. This is the form of practice few club players bother to make the effort to do, but which is indispensable if you have serious golfing ambitions.

Having defined practice, let us now get back to the actual techniques of its swing-building form. Once you get to the practice ground with cause, effect and treatment all clearly in mind, don’t worry too much about where you hit the balls – especially if you are making a major swing change. Your fault will have been grooved, and the action incorporating it will probably feel comfortable. The cure might at first feel very strange, but you must persevere if a lasting improvement is to be made. If no improvement can be made over a reasonable period, rethink the problem or go back to your golf teacher.

Next, before you even draw a club from the bag, pick a definite point of aim. It doesn’t matter what it is or how far away it is, so long as you can focus upon it easily.

Now, take out not your sand-wedge nor your driver, but your 6-iron. This club represents the mean average between the extremes of loft, shaft-length and power. It is the ideal swing-building club.

With the 6-iron in your hand, the point of aim in your eye, and your swing objectives crystal clear in your mind, ‘break down the adhesions’ with a few easy – but not careless – shots. Right from the outset try to grip correctly, aim the club as the first step in setting-up and set yourself correctly to that clubface alignment.

As you move into the session, try with every shot – and I mean every single shot – to do what your preliminary analysis has told you will give you a more solid strike or a straighter flight. Stick to your guns on this long enough to determine whether your mental assessment and cure was right. If it was, keep on practising it only as long as you have plenty of mental and physical energy and enthusiasm. Then plant the relevant ‘feel’ firmly in your mind for the next actual game you play.

My method of doing this sort of work – and it is work mentally and physically – would involve basically a 6-iron, a hundred balls and as many one-hour spells a week as I could manage. Even if I were a weekend player, I think I would be prepared to sacrifice actual playing time in order to make a lasting improvement. For instance, if I normally played 12 hours a week, I would play perhaps six and practise the other six.

If your assessment and cure are proved wrong after fair trial, do not give up, start experimenting at random, or lose your temper and pop off balls like a pom-pom gun. Take a rest. Go and sit down somewhere and think it all through sensibly again.

The flight of the ball tells you what you are doing, in your grip, in your swing line relative to the target line, and in the angle at which your club is attacking the ball. Use this information at all times. Therein lies the only ‘secret’ of golf.

A lot of resolution is necessary to carry through this kind of programme, as it is to stick with any change in method when actually playing the course. Until the new system works, rounds played can be less than satisfying (which is a good reason for not playing too many!). If it is essential to try to play well on occasion while in the middle of changing your swing, obviously a compromise will have to be made.

I know only too well that weather and golf club facilities in Britain are against consistent and studied practice, but I am equally sure that if a golfer is keen enough he will find a means. As a last resort, he can erect a golf net at home. For years I used to smash golf balls into a net in my garage, and this is very valuable swing-changing practice, first because you haven’t got a result to worry about, and secondly because there is no one to see how badly you are hitting the ball. If you are that keen but don’t have the facilities to put up a net, try knocking lightweight plastic balls off an old doormat. Anything you can do to build up your golf muscles, to ‘groove’ good actions, to keep swinging, must eventually pay dividends.

At the very worst, try every day to swing a club at home for a few minutes – concentrating on what you would be doing if you were hitting balls.

One more important point. There is yet another type of practice – the kind one does on the course in preparing for a tournament. Many people go about it wrongly.

Never play more than 27 holes a day in practice, especially the day before an event. It is essential to conserve both energy and enthusiasm for the actual competition. Very few world-class golfers ever play more than one round a day in practice.

Don’t play sloppily in practice rounds. Try to hit the ball solidly, and don’t be frightened of scoring well. A good practice round builds confidence.

Give yourself time to take note of the course and your own play. You need two or three extra balls handy to play extra shots, especially bunker shots, chips and putts, hitting them from where you think you will have to hit them on the big day. Take particular note of the clubs you play, especially if the weather is fair. In windy or wet conditions, of course, your practice round estimates may have to be revised.

Finally, although you may use your practice rounds to loosen up and make final swing adjustments, never fundamentally change your method during practice rounds. You are stuck with what you’ve brought with you. Try to make it work as best as possible.

This happens in every good golf swing

Stand facing any good golfer and watch the space between his hands and right shoulder during the downswing. You will see that it widens like lightning. Then watch any golfing friend who slices the ball repeatedly. The space between his hands and right shoulder will not widen as fast, because he swings his body rather than his arms. The speed at which all good golfers widen this angle is proof positive that, although the lower body initiates the downswing, leg and hip action must always be married to a fast, free arm swing.

Baseball analogy helps keep your swing on plane

One last thought, which may ring a bell with one or two readers. I think golf is very akin to baseball – in this way; in baseball a player swings in plane with the flight of the ball as it comes towards him. In golf, all we have to do is swing in plane with however far away we are from the ball, which partly depends on what club we are using. For any shot and any club, the plane most likely to be easiest really is that ranging straight up from the ball just over the shoulders, as you stand to address it for the shot.

In any good golfer’s swing, the space between the bands and right shoulder widens ‘like lightning’ in the downswing.

Try ‘two turns and a swish’

Golfers, I am afraid, sometimes like to make the game more complicated than it actually is. My simple definition of the golfing action is ‘Two turns combined with an arm and hand swing’. And I am often accused of oversimplification when I use this phrase.

Well, here’s a suggestion for you. If your game isn’t what you would like it to be at the moment, and especially if you feel confused and snarled up by theory, play your next three rounds strictly on the basis of ‘two turns combined with an arm and hand swing’.

Don’t think of the backswing as a set of complicated and separate movements, but simply as the first turn. Think only of moving your right side out of the way as your hands and arms swing the club back and up. Simplify your downswing likewise. Forget all the stuff about head, hips, late hitting, and what-have-you. Simply picture your downswing as the second turn, moving your left side out of the way as your arms and hands swing the club down and through the ball.

If you have a decent grip and set-up, and can keep your head reasonably still and your feet firmly on the ground in the backswing, approaching golf this way could do wonders for your score.

You will very quickly learn that the swing really isn’t a complicated movement, and that the ‘secret’ of golf lies in coordinating the turns with the actual swinging of the club – not in a series of geometrically exact, deliberate placement of the club in certain ‘positions’.

Find a way to turn … even if it’s not exactly like Ernie

Ernie Els achieves a massive upper-body turn without lifting his left heel. The hips don’t turn much, either, so together that creates a lot of resistance in the legs – the action of a supple man and a powerful hitter.

Most of you reading this will not be as supple as Ernie, but it’s important that you find a way to turn your body, in whatever way is appropriate for you personally. For many, this means making certain compromises, such as lifting the left heel to ‘release’ the left side and thus make it possible to turn. You won’t generate as much resistance in the legs, but it’s better to do that than keep your left heel planted which might not give you the flexibility to make a sufficient turn.

On a personal note, currently 80 years of age, I can say from experience that it is necessary to release from the ground in order to complete the full upper body turn.