Methods. I

(i) In the ideal swing the hands and fingers force the pace all the time, and other members of the body and the body itself respond: they do no less; they do no more.

(ii) In the normal shot the club-head, at the moment of going through the ball, is moving on the line of intended direction, and the face of the club is at right angles to that line.

(iii) The player stands to the ball so that in making the swing as in (i) the club-head behaves as in (ii).

(iv) The player keeps his balance; he does this by taking up his position as in (iii), by standing on his feet and not on his heels alone, and by swinging as in (i).

II

When a fault creeps in, or smashes in, to a player's game he should proceed as follows: (a) Reflect that something has gone wrong under one or more of the four heads set out above.

(b) Resist the temptation to move ferociously or gloomily away from the scene of the outrage, and, instead, carefully note his position and the position of the club, so that he may know exactly what sort of caper he has cut.

(c) Compare this position with the relative position in the correct shot, noting the points of dissimilarity.

id) From the comparison ascertain the method by which the faulty shot can be produced.

III

The player who can most readily produce the faulty shot by design is the player who is least likely either to produce the faulty shot by accident or to be worried by it if he does. To know how to commit is to know how to cure.

Principles

Here are a few of the basic ideas recapitulated. Golf is not a trick, and is not to be learned by trickery. Power is applied by and through the hands and fingers. All golfing faults are aspects of one root fault. Faults occur when the fingers have failed to lead or where the other members of the body have failed to follow. The player should have a clear mental picture of each shot. The player must learn to control the club. The club is a good servant, but a bad master. The body should not be kept back - the hands and fingers should make the club-head lead. There must be no stiffness at any point of the swing. All joints and muscles should be free from tension except those concerned in the grip of the forefinger and thumb. Notably, the wrist and forearm and shoulders must be perfectly free. Control in the fingers, and freedom everywhere else - that is the doctrine. The golfer who concentrates on hitting and controlling the ball by the exertion of power through the hands and fingers will not want to look up. Head-lifting is not a disease, it is a symptom of disease: no golfer really impressed with the necessity of controlling the club will be in danger of prematurely lifting his head. The golfer should beware of stiffening the wrist and forearm as the ball is hit - unless it has to be punched out of a bad lie.

The tendency to stiffen the wrist and forearm, and all other evil tendencies, recede when the player concentrates throughout the swing on continuously applying impetus by and through the fingers.

Even though approached from the simplest and the sanest point of view, it is apprehended that golf will still be found to be a sufficiently difficult and elusive game to keep the player's interest alive. Even Ernest Jones nods.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LTD., GUILDFORD AND ESHER