The socket arises from one of two movements either (a) an exaggerated "in to out" action or (b) the most common, the shoulders turning too early in the downswing and the right hand rolling over the left.

In effect I treat the victim by administering his own poison.  I tell him to address the ball towards the heel of the club!  This instinctively leads the player to bring the hands and club head inside on the downswing as distinct from the dangerous throwing out of the arms from the body.  It also encourages the essential lateral movement into the ball bringing the shoulders square at impact.

  If you are afflicted by socketing or striking the ball with the heel of the woods, if you find difficulty in tracing a club-line straight through the ball, adopt this method of address, but take care not to move your feet nearer to the ball in doing so.

  This is no gimmick.  I have already made it clear that gimmicks and golf do not go together and I would be the last to foist one upon a pupil.  It is simply a slight, but permissible, exaggeration which gives the correct movement into the ball.

  Two outstanding players who habitually addressed the ball in this way were former Open Champion, Dick Burton, and the American Densmore Shute.  I do not quarrel with it at all.  Far better address the ball towards the heel than towards the toe of the club.

  The art of making a delivery of the club head within the framework of a shaped swing is not one to be learned overnight.  I have outlined what you must strive after, and why.  The answer is to be found in that all-important eight o'clock position of the club head as the hands arrive almost at ball level.

  There is an exercise which I have proved can help enormously, though you will not find it easy to perform at first.  This is the swinging of the club head down into the impact position and stopping, otherwise known as "hitting and stopping''.

  The object is to increase hand-control of the club head.  To allow you to stop it at impact the hands must retain control in the downswing with the back of the left hand in line with the forearm as the club head comes into the impact position.

  If you find persistent difficulty in stopping the club head it can only be because the club head has been allowed to overtake the hands too early.  Remember that while you are aiming to stop at impact the club must still be SWUNG down.  Work on this exercise and train yourself and your hands to master it.  Utilise all the phases of the movement I have outlined in the backswing and the downswing and when you bring the club head to a stop, check that your impact position, left hand in line with forearm and square to the line of flight, left shoulder up, right knee folding in ... is precisely the posed position we arrived at in the chapter on the downswing.

  You will not be able to perform this exercise unless you keep firmly in your mind the need to wait for it, and to keep the movement from the top smooth and unhurried.

  But master it and perform it repeatedly.  When you feel your hands and forearms aching as you persevere with this invaluable exercise you will know you are really achieving something.

  You will be training the hands to do their work, gaining control over the shoulder-action (remember what was written about the backswing?) and consolidating the delivery of the club head.

  Furthermore it will help to keep the head steady.  "Head up", as rife in golf as the common cold in everyday life, is caused by hitting too early.  Bear in mind the phrase, "Hit early, look early".  Better still make it the positive maxim, "Hit late, look late".

  And look at the back of the ball with BOTH eyes.  You have two.  Use them.

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