Tips To Improve Your Golf Swing – Part 4 –  Your Stance 

The feet, quite naturally, come in for plenty of attention. How far apart should they be? What is their position in relation to the direction line? Which way should they point? And should the weight be forward, on the balls of the feet, or backward, on the heels? 

It is generally agreed now that the feet should be about as far apart as the width of the shoulders—the feet at the instep, that is. This is wide enough for good balance, and balance is important in getting ready to swing the club. Bob Jones used an abnormally narrow stance. He liked it because with it he could get the full hip turn that he wanted on the backswing. 

Jones had a bigger hip turn than most of the good golfers of his day, or since. There were others in the Jones and pre-Jones eras, though, who took very wide stances, particularly some of the early British stars. 

In fact, at that time, stances and swings generally varied a great deal more than they do now. 

As to the feet in relation to the direction line, use the square stance. That is, have the feet an equal distance from the line, especially for any full shot with a No.5 iron up to a driver. With a square stance the average person will have enough freedom for a backswing which is full, and for a forward swing that is free. 

The closed stance, with the right foot withdrawn a couple of inches farther from the direction line than the left, makes it easier to get the full backswing, probably with a flattened plane, but tends to restrict the forward swing.  Read More…

Tips To Improve Your Golf Swing – Part 3 - Hold It Tight. 

The next question is how tight to take this grip. Let it be known here and now that we do not go along with the knife-and-fork school of gripping—unless it should be a very dull knife operating on a tough piece of meat. In other words, we do not want a loose grip. Not even a firm grip. We want a tight grip. 

We do not mean so tight that the muscles of the upper arms and shoulders are tied up with tension. By no means. But we do want those hands tight on the club. What, you will ask, about the wrists? If they are tight, won’t the swing be stiff and wooden? And how will I get my wrist break? Never mind about the wrists. 

We have rarely seen anybody too stiff or too tight in swinging a golf club (except perhaps for frightened beginners), but we have seen thousands too loose. 

The whole tendency in pupils is to take too light a grip. The loose grip leads into faults opening the hands at the top, collapsing the left wrist, over swinging, and so on.  Read More…

Tips To Improve Your Golf Swing – Part 2 – Grip

Such a grip calls for the hands to be in practically direct opposition as they grasp the club—that is, with the palms facing each other squarely. The (left) hand is placed against the shaft in such a manner that the shaft makes a diagonal contact from the crook of the index finger across the palm.

It is, with this left hand, a combination palm and finger grip. When this hand is closed the club should be held in the first two fingers and the palm. There should be a fold of flesh between the club and the little finger. 

This, as a matter of fact, is a check point by which you can tell whether you have the palm-and-finger grip. Now we also want nay, demand—that only two knuckles of this left hand be visible when the hand is closed tightly on the club. As you address the ball and look down at your hands, you must see no more than two knuckles, those at the base of the index finger and the big finger. Not four knuckles, not three knuckles, not one knuckle. Two knuckles! 

This is your second and last check point for the position of this hand. So much emphasis has been put on the left hand over the years that many people believe the right doesn’t amount to much in the grip. They couldn’t be more wrong. The right hand is very important, both in the way it grasps the club and in the way it fits against the left. Let’s take the club first.  Read More…

 Tips To Improve Your Golf Swing – Part 1 –  Grip And Stance

There can be no doubt whatever that the first mistakes a golfer can make when preparing to make his golf swing, are to hold the club with a defective grip and to stand up to the ball the wrong way. Either puts a heavy impost on a player before he makes a move to swing the club. Together they make a good golf swing almost impossible.

Any golf swing , of course, is measured by two standards. One is direction, the other is distance. Direction is governed partly by the position of the club face at impact and partly by the path the club head is following.

 Distance, on the other hand, is the product of club-head speed and the accuracy with which the head makes contact with the ball. These, in turn, are produced by body, arm, and hand action during the swing. But the position of the club face is largely determined by the grip, and the path of the club head is influenced considerably by the stance.

So to get these aspects wrong will result in a bad golf swing.

 The grip, to a very large degree, determines whether the face will be square to the direction line, open, closed, or even hooded, therefore whether the ball flies straight, is sliced, hooked, smothered, or even skied. Any one of these golf swings brings trouble, and with trouble the strokes begin to mount up.  Read More…