Next comes the question of how far to stand from the ball. There is general agreement we should not reach for it. It is easy to stand too far away but impossible to stand too close. This is an exaggeration. 

If we stand very close to the ball the proximity cramps our swing and forces it to too upright a plane. A flatter plane is more desirable, and we will not get it if we crowd the ball. If we stand very close we get the feeling that there is not room for our hands to go through. This tends to throw us outside, where there is plenty of room but also ruination. 

It is very easy, though, to stand too far away. In fact the tendency is to do exactly this. The average player, once he gets the idea that he must hit the ball from the inside out, promptly moves farther from the ball so he’ll make it easier to come from the inside. This is a fallacy, of course, but that’s what he does. 

For the average player it is a fact that standing an abnormal distance from the ball makes him bend and reach to hit it. He bends at the waist and he gets his hands too far from his body. He will also invariably move his weight forward onto the balls of his feet. 

All this is wrong. He thinks he is giving himself plenty of room to bring the club head to the ball from the inside. Actually, every move he has made is one that tends to make him throw the club from the top and hit the ball from the outside. The pronounced bend at the waist, the distance of the hands from the body, and the weight pitched forward —each alone is an invitation to throw from the top. All three put together make such a disastrous move almost a certainty. 

How, then, do we know what is the right distance? Well, strange to say, your club, if it is the standard 43-inch driver, will tell you. Measure the length of the grip. It will be about 11 inches. Next measure from the lower end of the grip to the little colored plastic band or collar which the manufacturer has put at the top of the hosel. You will find that the distance is 28 inches. This is the length of the bare or naked part of the shaft. 

If you are from 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet 4 inches tall, the length of this naked shaft is the distance you should stand from the ball for a drive. And by distance we mean the distance from the tee to a line drawn from the tip of one toe to the tip of the other. 

The simple graph below shows how easy it is to measure the distance you should stand from the ball, depending on your height. 

Simple, isn’t it? Almost too simple to be true, but that’s the way it works out for the vast majority of players of average build using the normal driver. Adjustments have to be made, of course, for persons with abnormally long or short arms and those with big waistlines. But the basic formula is sound. Lower your driver to the ground with the hosel collar at the tee and place your feet so that the line from toe to toe is where the grip begins. You should now be about 28 inches from the ball. 

Players shorter than 5 feet 10 will stand farther away, persons taller than 6 feet 4 will stand closer, with the same standard-length driver. A person 5 feet 8, for example, will stand about 31 inches from the ball; one 5 feet 6 will stand about 33 inches from it. 

The formula holds for the other wooden clubs too, the Nos. 2, 3, and 4, in which the length of the naked shaft shortens slightly with each, and with each of which we stand a little closer to the ball. 

Unfortunately, no such measuring rod can be used for the irons. The shorter the iron, the closer we stand to the ball, but in varying degrees. For instance, a person 6 feet 2 will stand a distance from the ball which is about 1½ inches less than the length of the naked shaft with a 2 iron. But for a 9 iron he will stand a distance of more than 5 inches less than the shaft length. 

For the 7 iron, a favorite for practice, for loosening up, and for instruction, we have given the approximate distances for persons of different heights in the following table. Fortunately for the convenience of the formula, all the leading club manufacturers have used the same length for their driver grips—11 inches—for several years. If at some time in the future they change, the convenience would be affected but the distance we stand from the ball would not change. Knowing what the distance should be, it would be simple enough to measure it on our club and put a mark of some kind on the grip or the shaft, depending on which was affected. 

DISTANCES FROM BALL

Driver No. 7 Iron

Height     Distance          Height    Distance

5 feet 6   33 inches      5 feet 6      20 inches

5 feet 8   31 inches      5 feet 8    19 inches

5 feet 10 28 inches   5 feet 10   18 inches

6 feet       28 inches        6 feet         18inches

6 feet 2   28 inches    6 feet 2    18 inches

6 feet 4 28 inches    6 feet 4    18 inches 

These distances, we repeat, will be altered by arm length and girth. Otherwise, they are a reliable guide for persons of normal build.

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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. 

The open stance, with the left foot drawn back farther than the right, has the opposite effect, restricting the backswing and forcing it into a more upright position, but facilitating the forward swing. 

You will be able to work into the open and closed stances later, using them for certain shots and to influence a particular swing you want. But while you are learning the method given here, content yourself with the square stance. It presents no problems and requires no adjustments. 

Neither foot, we believe, should be exactly perpendicular to the direction line. Both should be pointed outward somewhat, the left more than the right. 

Here the rest of the player’s body should be considered. Like the open and closed stance, the position of the feet has a tendency to influence the back and forward swings. 

A right foot that is perpendicular to the line will restrict the backswing. A person with a big trunk and heavy shoulders is liable to have trouble getting the club back far enough. For him, to make things easier, we would definitely point the right foot somewhat to the right. 

The pointing of the left foot to the left is a natural action, one of the few in this game. This position makes swinging through the ball easier, and, so long as the swing is in the right direction, we certainly don’t want to do anything that impedes it. There is a strong tendency in almost anybody, in taking his stance, to get his weight forward, on the balls of his feet. This is natural, because the body is bent forward and the shoulders hunched over. 

But don’t let the weight get forward. Keep it evenly balanced, so far as you can, between the ball and heel of each foot, slightly favoring the heel. 

This little point, small as it is, has a decided effect on the swing. Since it isn’t a natural action, you will have to consciously check it as you take your stance, until it becomes an established habit. Its importance lies in the fact that when the weight is forward we tend to take the club back in a more upright arc, which we don’t want. 

When the weight is more on the heels, the flatter plane that we do want comes easier. With the weight forward there is a tendency, too, to get the swing outside the line on the way down, a disastrous action. 

The position of the arms, particularly the elbows, also is is a part of the stance. We do not want loose arms or elbows that crook and point outward, left and right. These lead to a loose and sloppy swing. 

The arms should be very nearly straight, though by no means locked. The elbows, especially, should be pointed down, toward the ground, not out to the sides. You will notice, if you put the elbows in this position, that the very act of doing it brings the arms and the elbows closer together. This is where we want them. 

Beware the “Open” Body Now for the “open” body, cited earlier. There is a natural reason for this. It occurs unconsciously, because our right hand is lower on the shaft than our left. As we reach slightly lower with our right hand to grip the club, our right shoulder moves down and forward slightly and our right hip moves forward just a little bit. Slight as they are, these movements “open” our body to the ball. 

You can see the effect more easily if you drop your right hand a foot down the shaft from the left. This, by exaggerating the action, opens the body much more. It is just another of the natural actions we make in golf which are wrong. 

The effect of this “opening” is threefold. It causes us to aim to the left, restricts our backswing and shoulder turn, and puts us in a position to hit from the outside in before we have even started the club back. Heaven knows it is hard enough for the average player to swing from the inside without taking a preparatory position that almost prevents it. 

You can have a friend check your position at address by holding a club against the front of your shoulders and seeing where the club points. It will point to the left of the target an amazing number of times. 

To bring it around so that it points toward the target or parallel to the direction line requires a conscious effort with the hips and shoulders. But that effort must be made until it becomes a firmly established habit. For one who has been addressing the ball with an “open” body for a long time, the squaring around will seem awkward. 

For a while he will think he is looking at the target over the point of his left shoulder. This thought, in fact, is a good one to have. It will almost serve as a check point. For men there is another and surer check point. At ad-dress the hips should be so positioned, parallel to the direction line, that as the player looks down, the fly of his trousers is to the right of the club shaft by two inches. 

If his hips are “open,” the fly and the club will be in the same line, or the fly even a little to the left. Women wearing shorts or slacks can make the same check on the center seam. Women in skirts are out of luck on this one unless there is a pleat or some other decorative line directly down the front of the skirt. 

One more point about the hips. Don’t let them stick out to the rear. You are not a circus clown waiting to be whacked with a board. Tall people with long backs, especially sway-backs, are liable to do this. We want the derriere directly under the trunk, pushed forward a little, if anything. 

The squaring around of the hips and shoulders is more difficult if the foot stance is open. It is easier when the foot stance is square, easiest of all when the stance is closed. That is why, as a matter of fact, it is easier to hook a ball from a closed stance than from an open one. The club is coming farther from the inside because the body is square to the ball, or facing a shade to the right. 

We have had pupils with pretty good swings who found it almost impossible to take a straight divot, for instance. They persisted in swinging from the outside. Once they were shown the little trick of squaring their hips and shoulders, the straight divot, and even the inside-out divot, came easily. 

So be certain you are not deliberately handicapping yourself before you start by “opening” your body to the ball. The misalignment is slight but the effect is great. Remember the effect your stance is going to have on your golf swing!

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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. 

The tight grip, though it may feel awkward for a while, acts as a brace against these various faults and makes the whole swinging action easier to perform correctly. By a tight grip we also mean with practically all the fingers that are on the club. These would be the last three, principally, of the left hand and the first three of the right. Many players have a tendency to place the forefinger of the right hand, the one that hooks around the shaft just below the right thumb, very lightly on the club. Don’t do it. 

Hook this finger around the shaft firmly, so that the tip of it makes a definite contact with the tip of the thumb. If you don’t, the club will be liable to drop, at the top of the swing, into the big V between the forefinger and thumb. This means a loss of control at the top, which must be regained as the club comes down. 

So much for the grip a tight two knuckle overlap, to reduce it to capsule form. Now, how do we stand up the ball? No great mystery is involved in this either, although certain points must be observed. 

In the first place, we should take a position that enables us to swing the club back freely and to bring it down to the ball on an inside-out arc easily. For this the weight should be about equally divided between the feet. The knees must be slightly flexed, better too much than too little. 

The body should be bent slightly from the waist but the shoulders should be rounded or hunched over. The head should be down, not to an exaggerated extent, but down rather than up. The right shoulder, of course, will be lower than the left, because the right hand is farther down on the, shaft than the left hand. Remember these tips when you next set up your golf grip.

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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. 

Inside the left hand. 

The important point here is that the club lies diagonally across the palm, from the crook of the index finger, and comes out halfway between the root of the little finger and the base of the palm. There must always be a fold of flesh between the club and the root of the little finger. 

It has been said that the grip with the right hand is a finger grip. This is true. But where in the fingers? There is only one place that is correct, and that is at the very base or root of the second and third fingers, where they meet the palm. 

This is the best place because there the club can be held most securely. There is not only less chance but less inclination, with such a grip, to loosen the hand at the top of the swing or anywhere else. 

Such a grip, because it is at the very edge of the palm, makes for a tighter connecting joint between arm and club, with less give than any other. It transmits more power when the ball is struck 

Any grip higher in the fingers of the right hand, say along the inside of the middle knuckles of the second and third fingers, is untrustworthy. It is a loose grip to begin with, and the tendency is to loosen it further at the top of the swing. Finally, there is more give in it when the ball is hit. 

We have identified the right-hand grip as being taken with the second and third fingers because, of course, the index finger is separated slightly from the middle finger and is hooked low around the club. The little finger, in the over- lapping or interlocking grips, does not touch the club at all. In the so-called ten-finger grip, though, the little finger would grasp the club exactly as the second and third do. 

In taking our grip we recommend placing the left hand on the club first in its proper position, then sliding the right under the shaft, fingers extended and palm up.. As the club slips into the little groove where the fingers meet the palm, slide no farther. Close the hand then, moving it up the shaft slightly so that the third finger fits against the index finger of the left hand and the little finger overlaps or Hes on top of the left index finger. 

You will find that the palm of the right comes up and faces directly to the left, and that the center of the base of the right hand fits snugly over the big knuckle at the base of the left thumb. 

Both thumbs will be on the shaft, the, left lying a little to the right of the top (at about 2 o’clock in aviation parlance) and the right lying to the left of the top, at about 10 or 10:30 o’clock. The well-known V’s, formed by the folds of flesh between the thumb and fore-finger of each hand, should both point a shade to the right of the chin, to about the inside joint of the color bone 

Incidentally, one of the club manufacturers has a small ridge-line running down the underside of all its grips. This fits perfectly into the groove at the base of the fingers of the right hand, and practically locks the player into the correct right-hand position. Ridge-line or not, however, this is the overlapping grip. 

Its principal points are that the hands are opposed, the left has a palm-and-finger contact, the right a finger grip alone—and that only two knuckles of the left are visible at address. 

Two slight refinements should be mentioned. The crook of the right index finger, when the grip is completed, must always be farther down the shaft than the end of the right thumb. The crook of this index finger may be regarded, almost, as a hook, and it must never be higher than the tip of the thumb. 

It is also permissible to place the overlapping little finger down against the seam between the left hand’s index and big fingers. This is not too important. It may feel more comfortable that way to some and it may give a feeling of greater security to others. If you like the little finger down in the seam instead of riding on top of the index finger, by all means put it there. 

We believe this grip is better than the interlocking or the ten finger grips. The pure baseball grip is not even to be considered; it has nothing whatever to recommend it. The overlapping grip gives us a better chance to maintain full and tight contact with both hands at all stages of the swing. This is the grip we must have.

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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.  That is why the pros will tell you that the grip is the most important single factor in the golf swing. Gene Sarazen has said the grip is 75 per cent of golf. To him and the other pros it is, because they have all the distance they need. They make the moves that bring
distance—make them automatically, and have made them since they were kids.

A change of a couple of mm in the placing of one hand on the grip, however, producing better direction, could make, for them, the difference between a 69 and a 65.

People do all kinds of peculiar things with both the grip and the stance, even to the extent of changing both after they have been taken. You’ve often seen a player stand up to the ball with both a stance and grip that were good, and then start to fiddle around.

 He changes his hands a little, then moves his feet a little. Then moves his hands another little bit, then shifts his feet again. By this time the grip no longer is a good one and neither is the stance. Is it any wonder that the resulting golf swing is terrible?

We once had a pupil who was a pretty good player and who learned easily; he had a peculiarly good faculty of doing just what he was told to do, without arguing about it. It was no trick for him to take a good grip and stand up to the ball perfectly. The trick was to make him hit the ball before he changed either of them. If he changed them then his golf swing was really bad.

Common Faults
The most common faults in the grip are holding the club entirely in the fingers of the left hand, placing the left hand too much on top of the shaft, and getting the right hand under the shaft. An all-finger grip and getting the left hand on top, so that four knuckles show, go together.

It’s almost impossible to hold the club entirely in the fingers of the left, without getting the left on top of the shaft. Try it yourself and see. The reason most people keep dropping the right hand  lower and lower until it gets practically under the shaft, is that they feel they will get more power that way.

Well, they are all wrong and they go a long way toward ruining what might be a good golf swing. When the club is held entirely in the fingers of the left hand and that hand is on top of the shaft with three or four knuckles showing, there is an overpowering tendency to roll that hand over to the left as the club comes into the ball at impact.  When this happens, of course, the face of the club is turned over and closed, or even  hooded. The result is a bad golf swing, either a smother or hook.

 That is what happens with some players. The all finger, left-hand-on-top position leads to another fault. It has a strong tendency to make the player bend the left hand back at the top of the swing and get the left wrist under the shaft. This opens the face at the top, and it must then be closed on the downswing.

With the body and shoulder action most players have, plus their fear of getting the face closed too much, this is seldom accomplished. Hence we have what is by far the most common and exasperating bad golf swing of them all—the slice. Another move is for the player to try to hold the face of the club from turning as it goes through the ball. Then you see the lifting, lofting action which is so common, with the player trying to hold the face square long after it has hit the ball. This is a good way to bring on a slice.

When the right hand is dropped low, the faults of the left are compounded, for a low right hand tends to roll over at impact. The poor player may switch from slicing to smothering and go for several holes without getting the ball more than a few feet off the ground. This, we need hardly remind you, is a horrible experience and really counts as a bad golf swing.

Things go from bad to worse until the only thing certain is that the player will not hit two shots in a row in the same direction. He is all over the course, hacking out of trouble first on one side and then on the other., making one bad golf swing after another.

On any course and in almost any foursome you will see many peculiar stances. Most of them are not fundamentally bad, except for one thing: standing with an “open” body. This means, simply, that although the feet are in a perfectly square position (an equal distance from the direction line), the hips and the shoulders are facing a little to the left.

These players are, in effect, aiming to the left of their target without realizing it. You need hardly be reminded of the damage this can do. The player develops a pull to his shots, the ball starting out a shade to the left and, if it doesn’t slice, staying to the left.

 There are usually just as much rough and as many traps to the left of a fairway or green as there are to the right, and the chronic puller is sure to find most of them. There are other bad positions, such as bending over too much, standing too far from the ball, having the weight too far forward, and so on, but the “open” body is by all odds the most common fault the average player has in the stance department.

Let us turn now to the positive side and take the positions that will help so much to give us a square face at impact, a straight ball that goes where we aim it, and fewer shots.

Actually there is nothing mysterious about the grip. We merely want the club held in a certain way, a way that will help bring it to the top in the position we want and which will help bring it back to the ball at the correct angle to the line of flight. Then we’ll have a golf swing to be proud of.

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