Bobby Jones on Golf by Robert Tyre Jones

Author:Robert Tyre Jones [Jones, Robert Tyre (Bobby)]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-48235-8
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2010-06-09T04:00:00+00:00

7 DELAYING THE HIT

I wish everyone could study carefully a few sets of motion pictures snowing the proper action of the right side, noting particularly the successive positions of the wrists. In the case of an expert player, the wrists remain fully cocked, just as they were at the top of the swing, until at least half of the down-stroke has been completed by the arms.

The dub, on the other hand, starts immediately when coming down to whip the club with his wrists. He forthwith takes all the coil out of his spring, and when his hands reach the position corresponding to the numeral eight on the dial of a watch, his wrists are perfectly straight, and all the power left is in his arms and shoulders, to be utilized by any twist or contortion the player can execute.

Whenever you see a player (who is apparently going along easily) blow wide open under the strain of competition, the chances are that the most immediate cause of the detonation is an unruly right hand, a hand that has gotten out of control because of the anxiety and nervousness of the player.

I think I can say truthfully that I am always on guard against a misapplication of right-hand power, but that even then it gets me. For a right-handed person it is, of course, perfectly natural to want to do everything with that hand, and it becomes necessary not to call it in when it is needed, but to keep it out when it is not. The consciousness is of exclusion rather than of use. To my mind, the right hand is absolutely useless, except as a steadying factor, throughout the entire backswing, and nearly half of the downstroke, or hitting stroke. Its first real use comes when it assumes command for the actual delivery of the blow.

If we allow the right hand to take hold at the very beginning of the downstroke, we are hitting too soon. The swing has not a chance to get started in the right groove, and the power is apt to be spent too soon; the wrists will have been uncocked before the stored-up energy can be expended upon the ball.

Of course, so long as we swing a golf club with two hands, in order to swing it properly, both hands must be used correctly. But with most players the effort must be to subdue the right at certain important stages, rather than to direct it to positive activity. It has been said that the correct swing is a wholly artificial, unnatural procedure. In the sense that a naturally right-handed person must force the left side and discourage the right, this is certainly true.

This alone is sufficient reason for stressing the left side most strongly; since it must be used, and yet it is unnatural to use it, it requires more conscious direction than the right. A right-handed person, swinging a right-handed golf club, will not need to think about hitting with his right hand; he will need only to make certain that he does not begin to use it too soon, or incorrectly.

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