The Golfing Method and It's Objective

Positive  teaching-Fundamentals-Shaping  the swing-

Delivery of the club head-Every ball is driven forward-

Dangerous cliches

  What is the point of curing a slice by planting the germ of a hook which erupts within the next few days? The wretched golfer, overjoyed at losing his slice, is soon in despair again as he struggles on the left-hand side of the course instead of the right.

  Solving one problem by creating another simply adds to the pupil's confusion and depresses his morale. It is negative teaching which can never lead to lasting progress.

  The method of instruction to be outlined in this website is not built upon a vague series of hit-or-miss experiments one or other of which may give temporary tidiness to a pupil's game.  My aim is a positive one to build a sound and lasting technique in which all the fundamentals which go to make consistent stroke-making are fitted together into one cohesive golf swing unit.

  What precisely are these fundamental parts of the movement?  How are they applied to the precise task of controlling and building up power in the club head?  That you will discover in the course of this book.

  In settling upon them I drew on a close and lengthy study of the strongest features of the swings of outstanding players over the years, such as Abe Mitchell before the Second World War and Ben Hogan since.

  Let me make it clear that I am not concerned with individual characteristics and mannerisms, only with common factors some of which were, and are, more distinctly demonstrated by one player than by another.

  I am not prepared to waste time on gimmicks or smart tricks, and I will admit at once that I know of no short cut to success at this fascinating game.  It demands hard work and practice before one even begins to master the precise art of delivering the centre of the club-face firmly and squarely to the back of the ball and on through along the line of flight.

  There is positively no secret tip which can turn a mediocre player into a good one overnight.  Yet there are players strug­gling vaguely along, pathetically looking out for this elixir of a new golfing life in the upper strata of the game.

  I have in mind a pupil who came into my school for the first and only time some two years ago.  He really had no swing backwards and forwards in a series of wristy jerks, the Crown Prince of Snatchers.

  I set him to work on the first and elementary stage which leads in due course to the shaping of a serviceable swing.  I had quickly seen that this player lacked the ability to become good at the game, but I could have worked a definite improvement in him had he been prepared to listen to my first instructions.

  I never saw that pupil again though.  And this is why.  Meeting the person who had introduced him to me he said with un­concealed amazement, "Do you know, he treated me as if I were a beginner!''

  I was genuinely sorry to lose him as a pupil, notwithstanding that I always have more work than I can fit in.  My secretary is regularly working on my appointments book for weeks ahead and claims a constant headache as a result.

  But I could have given him a sound foundation and helped to build on that foundation a modest but none the less reward­ing game.  This player, however, quite obviously had a sadly inflated assessment of his own ability and potential.  In this attitude of mind he came to me expecting to impress with what he already knew, requiring me to provide the subtle (or simple) tip which would shoot him straightaway into the single-figure handicap class.

  He flattered not only himself but me as well.  I could work no sudden miracle.  I had to treat him as the golf beginner that he was, desperate to run before he could walk.

  In sharp contrast is the case of Ian Caldwell, 1961 English Amateur Champion who came to me at the beginning of 1960 in an unhappy frame of mind about his golfing game.

  I decided that his swing needed re-shaping on a major scale, and I set to work on him in exactly the same way as I had done with the pupil I have just referred to.