DRIVING--PRELIMINARIES
Advantage of a good drive--And the pleasure of it--More about the
driver--Tee low--Why high tees are bad--The question of
stance--Eccentricities and bad habits--Begin in good
style--Measurements of the stance--The reason why--The grip of the
club--My own method and its advantages--Two hands like
one--Comparative tightness of the hands--Variations during the
swing--Certain disadvantages of the two-V grip--Addressing the
ball--Freaks of style--How they must be compensated for--Too much
waggling--The point to look at--Not the top of the ball but the
side of it.
It has been said that the amateur golfers of Great Britain are in these
days suffering from a "debauchery of long driving." The general sense of
Mr. Travis's remark is excellent, meaning that there is a tendency to
regard a very long drive as almost everything in the playing of a hole,
and to be utterly careless of straightness and the short game so long as
the ball has been hit from the tee to the full extent of the golfer's
power. A long drive is not by any means everything, and the young golfer
should resist any inclination to strive for the 250-yard ball to the
detriment or even the total neglect of other equally important, though
perhaps less showy, considerations in the playing of a hole. But having
said so much, and conveyed the solemn warning that is necessary, I am
obliged to admit that the long driver has very full justification for
himself, and that the wisely regulated ambition of the young player to
be one is both natural and laudable. The long drive, as I say, is not
everything; but to play well it is as necessary to make a good drive as
to hole a short putt, or nearly so, and from the golfer who does not
drive well a most marvellous excellence is required in the short game if
he is to hold his own in good company, or ever be anything more than a
long-handicap man. The good drive is the foundation of a good game, and
just as one and one make two, so it follows that the man who drives the
longer ball has the rest of the game made easier and more certain for
him. This apart, there is no stroke in golf that gives the same amount
of pleasure as does the perfect driving of the ball from the tee, none
that makes the heart feel lighter, and none that seems to bring the glow
of delight into the watching eye as this one does. The man who has never
stood upon the tee with a sturdy rival near him and driven a perfect
ball, the hands having followed well through and finished nicely up
against the head, while the little white speck in the distance, after
skimming the earth for a time, now rises and soars upwards, clearing all
obstacles, and seeming to revel in its freedom and speed until at last
it dips gracefully back to earth again--I say that the man who has not
done this thing has missed one of the joys of life. I have heard the
completest sportsmen say that there are very few things in the entire
world of sport that can be compared with it, and none that is superior.
So now let us get on to our drive.
In the first place, the driver must be selected, and the hints I have
already given upon the choice of clubs will serve tolerably well in this
respect. Let it only be said again that the golfer should do his utmost
to avoid extremes in length or shortness. One hears of the virtues of
fishing-rod drivers, and the next day that certain great players display
a tendency to shorten their clubs. There is nothing like the happy
medium, which has proved its capability of getting the longest balls.
The length of the club must, of course, vary according to the height of
the player, for what would be a short driver for a six-foot man would
almost be a fishing-rod to the diminutive person who stands but five
feet high. Let the weight be medium also; but for reasons already
stated do not let it err on the side of lightness. The shaft of the club
should be of moderate suppleness. As I have said, if it is too whippy it
may be hard to control, but if it is too stiff it leaves too much hard
work to be done by the muscles of the golfer. Practising what I preach,
my own drivers are carefully selected for this delicate medium of
suppleness of shaft, and when a stick is found that is exactly perfect
it is well worth great care for ever. Also I reiterate that the head of
the club should not be too large; driving is not thereby made any
easier, and carelessness is encouraged. The face should not be quite
vertical: if it were, only the top edge and not the full face would be
seen when the stance had been taken and the club head was resting upon
the tee in its proper place. There must be just so much loft that the
face can be seen when the golfer is ready and in position for the swing.
But avoid having too much loft filed on the club as a fancied remedy for
driving too low and getting into all the bunkers. You do not fail to get
the ball up because there is not sufficient loft on the club, but
because you are doing something wrong which can easily be remedied;
while, on the other hand, be very careful of the fact that, as you add
loft to the face of the driver so at the same time you are cutting off
distance and losing both power and the delightful sense of it. When the
weather is wet, it is a good plan to chalk the face of the club, as this
counteracts the tendency of the ball to skid from it.
Tee the ball low, rejecting the very prevalent but erroneous idea that
you are more certain of getting it away cleanly and well when it is
poised high off the ground. The stroke that sweeps the ball well away
from the low tee is the most natural and perfect, and it follows that
the ball, properly driven from this low tee, is the best of all.
Moreover, one is not so liable to get too much underneath the ball and
make a feeble shot into the sky, which is one of the most exasperating
forms of ineffectual effort in the whole range of golf. Another
convincing argument in favour of the low tee is that it preserves a
greater measure of similarity between the first shot and the second,
helping to make the latter, with the brassy, almost a repetition of the
first, and therefore simple and comparatively easy. If you make a high
tee, when you come to play your second stroke with your brassy, you will
be inclined to find fault with even the most perfect brassy lies--when
the ball is so well held up by the blades of grass that the best
possible shot with this far-sending club should be the result. If you
are favoured with an ordinary brassy lie, you imagine the ball to be in
a hole, exclaim that you are badly cupped, and call out vexatiously for
an iron. This is the regular result of playing from a high tee, whereas,
when the low one is systematically adopted, the difference between the
play with the driver and with the brassy from a good lie is
inconsiderable, the brassy is used more frequently, and the results are
regularly better. As I have already suggested, one of the principles of
my long game is to make the play with the brassy as nearly similar to
that with the driver as possible, and a low tee is the first step in
that direction.
There are wide variations in the stances adopted by different players,
and extremes of one sort or another are usually the result of bad habits
contracted in the early stages of initiation into the mysteries of the
game. Sometimes the ball is seen opposite the toe of the left foot; at
others it is far away to the right. Either of these players may get long
balls constantly, but it is in spite of the stance and not because of
it, for they are contending against a handicap all the time, and have
unconsciously to introduce other mannerisms into their play to
counteract the evil which a bad stance inevitably brings about. It is
certain that if they had driven in the easier way from their youth
upwards, they would in their golfing prime have been getting longer
balls than those with which they are after all apparently satisfied. But
I have already admitted generally, and here again admit in a specific
instance, the dissatisfaction, and even danger, that is likely to
accrue from an attempt to uproot a system of play which has been
established in an individual for many years. One can only insist upon
the necessity of starting well, and plead earnestly to any readers who
may not yet be far advanced in their experience of the game, to see that
their play is based on wise and sure foundations. There is nothing of my
own discovery or invention in my stance for the drive. It is simply that
which is theoretically and scientifically correct, being calculated,
that is, to afford the greatest freedom of movement to the arms, legs,
and body in the swinging of the club, so that the strength may be
exerted to the fullest advantage at the right moment and continued in
its effect upon the ball for the longest possible period.
First, then, as to distance from the ball. The player should stand so
far away from it that when he is in position and the club face is
resting against the teed ball, just as when ready to strike it, the end
of the shaft shall reach exactly up to his left knee when the latter is
ever so slightly bent. In this position he should be able, when he has
properly gripped the club, to reach the ball comfortably and without any
stretching, the arms indeed being not quite straight out but having a
slight bend at the elbows, so that when the club is waggled in the
preliminary address to the ball, plenty of play can be felt in them. I
must now invite the player who is following me in these remarks to give
his attention simultaneously to the photograph of myself, as I have
taken my stance upon the tee for an ordinary drive (Plate VI.), with the
object of getting the longest ball possible under conditions in all
respects normal; and to the small diagram in the corner of the picture
giving all the measurements necessary to a complete understanding of the
position. I may point out again that my height is 5 feet 9-1/4 inches,
and that the length of my driver from the heel to the end of the shaft
is 42 inches. My stature being medium, the majority of players who
desire to follow my suggestions will be able to do so without any
altering of the measurements given in these diagrams; and, indeed, until
any variation in height one way or the other becomes considerable, there
is no necessity to vary them. Remember that in this and all subsequent
illustrations the line marked A points to the direction in which it is
desired that the ball should travel, and that the B line over which the
player stands is at right angles to it. Those who wish at this moment to
examine the stance in the most practical manner, and to compare it with
that which they have been in the habit of playing from, need hardly be
informed that at the corners of nearly every carpet there are
rectangular lines either in the pattern or made by borders, which may be
taken to represent those in the diagram, and a penny placed at the
junction will stand for the ball. It will be observed that, for the most
lucid and complete exposition of the stances, in this and all subsequent
cases, the diagrams have been turned about, so that here the player has,
as it were, his back to the reader, while in the photographs he is, of
course, facing him. But the stances are identical. The diagrams have
been drawn to scale.
It will be noticed, in the first place, that I have my toes turned well
outwards. The pivoting which is necessary, and which will be described
in due course, is done naturally and without any effort when the toes
are pointed in this manner. While it is a mistake to place the feet too
near each other, there is a common tendency to place them too far apart.
When this is done, ease and perfection of the swing are destroyed and
power is wasted, whilst the whole movement is devoid of grace. It will
be seen that my left foot is a little, but not much, in advance of the
ball. My heel, indeed, is almost level with it, being but an inch from
the B line at the end of which the ball is teed. The toe, however, is
9-1/2 inches away from it, all measurements in this case and others
being taken from the exact centre of the point of the toe. The point of
the right toe is 19 inches distant from the B line, and while this toe
is 27-1/2 inches from the A line the other is 34 inches from it, so that
the right foot is 6-1/2 inches in advance of the left. After giving
these measurements, there is really little more to explain about the
stance, particularly as I shall show shortly how variations from it
almost certainly bring about imperfect drives. Theoretically, the reason
for the position is, I think, fairly obvious. The right foot is in
advance of the left, so that at the most critical period of the stroke
there shall be nothing to impede the follow-through, but everything to
encourage it, and so that at the finish the body itself can be thrown
forward in the last effort to continue the application of power. It
would not be in a position to do so if the left foot were in front to
bar the way. The position of the ball as between the right foot and the
left is such that the club will strike it just at the time when it is
capable of doing so to the utmost advantage, being then, and for the
very minute portion of a second during which ball and club may be
supposed to remain in contact, moving in as nearly as possible a
straight line and at its maximum speed.
[Illustration: _PLATE II._ THE GRIP WITH THE LEFT HAND]
[Illustration: _PLATE III._ THE OVERLAPPING GRIP]
[Illustration: _PLATE IV._ THE OVERLAPPING GRIP]
[Illus ration: _PLATE V._ THE OVERLAPPING GRIP]
Now comes the all-important consideration of the grip. This is another
matter in which the practice of golfers differs greatly, and upon which
there has been much controversy. My grip is one of my own invention. It
differs materially from most others, and if I am asked to offer any
excuse for it, I shall say that I adopted it only after a careful trial
of all the other grips of which I had ever heard, that in theory and
practice I find it admirable--more so than any other--and that in my
opinion it has contributed materially to the attainment of such skill as
I possess. The favour which I accord to my method might be viewed with
suspicion if it had been my natural or original grip, which came
naturally or accidentally to me when I first began to play as a boy, so
many habits that are bad being contracted at this stage and clinging to
the player for the rest of his life. But this was not the case, for when
I first began to play golf I grasped my club in what is generally
regarded as the orthodox manner, that is to say, across the palms of
both hands separately, with both thumbs right round the shaft (on the
left one, at all events), and with the joins between the thumbs and
first fingers showing like two V's over the top of the shaft. This is
usually described as the two-V grip, and it is the one which is taught
by the majority of professionals to whom the beginner appeals for first
instruction in the game. Of course it is beyond question that some
players achieve very fine results with this grip, but I abandoned it
many years ago in favour of one that I consider to be better. My
contention is that this grip of mine is sounder in theory and easier in
practice, tends to make a better stroke and to secure a straighter ball,
and that players who adopt it from the beginning will stand a much
better chance of driving well at an early stage than if they went in for
the old-fashioned two-V. My grip is an overlapping, but not an
interlocking one. Modifications of it are used by many fine players, and
it is coming into more general practice as its merits are understood and
appreciated. I use it for all my strokes, and it is only when putting
that I vary it in the least, and then the change is so slight as to be
scarcely noticeable. The photographs (Plates II., III., IV., and V.)
illustrating the grip of the left hand singly, and of the two together
from different points of view, should now be closely examined.
It will be seen at once that I do not grasp the club across the palm of
either hand. The club being taken in the left hand first, the shaft
passes from the knuckle joint of the first finger across the ball of the
second. The left thumb lies straight down the shaft--that is to say, it
is just to the left of the centre of the shaft. But the following are
the significant features of the grip. The right hand is brought up so
high that the palm of it covers over the left thumb, leaving very little
of the latter to be seen. The first and second fingers of the right hand
just reach round to the thumb of the left, and the third finger
completes the overlapping process, so that the club is held in the grip
as if it were in a vice. The little finger of the right hand rides on
the first finger of the left. The great advantage of this grip is that
both hands feel and act like one, and if, even while sitting in his
chair, a player who has never tried it before will take a stick in his
hands in the manner I have described, he must at once be convinced that
there is a great deal in what I say for it, although, of course, if he
has been accustomed to the two V's, the success of my grip cannot be
guaranteed at the first trial. It needs some time to become thoroughly
happy with it.
We must now consider the degree of tightness of the grip by either hand,
for this is an important matter. Some teachers of golf and various books
of instruction inform us that we should grasp the club firmly with the
left hand and only lightly with the right, leaving the former to do the
bulk of the work and the other merely to guide the operations. It is
astonishing with what persistency this error has been repeated, for
error I truly believe it is. Ask any really first-class player with what
comparative tightness he holds the club in his right and left hands, and
I am confident that in nearly every case he will declare that he holds
it nearly if not quite as tightly with the right hand as with the left.
Personally I grip quite as firmly with the right hand as with the other
one. When the other way is adopted, the left hand being tight and the
right hand simply watching it, as it were, there is an irresistible
tendency for the latter to tighten up suddenly at some part of the
upward or downward swing, and, as surely as there is a ball on the tee,
when it does so there will be mischief. Depend upon it the instinct of
activity will prevent the right hand from going through with the swing
in that indefinite state of looseness. Perhaps a yard from the ball in
the upward swing, or a yard from it when coming down, there will be a
convulsive grip of the right hand which, with an immediate
acknowledgment of guilt, will relax again. Such a happening is usually
fatal; it certainly deserves to be. Slicing, pulling, sclaffing, and the
foundering of the innocent globe--all these tragedies may at times be
traced to this determination of the right hand not to be ignored but to
have its part to play in the making of the drive. Therefore in all
respects my right hand is a joint partner with the left.
The grip with the first finger and thumb of my right hand is exceedingly
firm, and the pressure of the little finger on the knuckle of the left
hand is very decided. In the same way it is the thumb and first finger
of the left hand that have most of the gripping work to do. Again, the
palm of the right hand presses hard against the thumb of the left. In
the upward swing this pressure is gradually decreased, until when the
club reaches the turning-point there is no longer any such pressure;
indeed, at this point the palm and the thumb are barely in contact. This
release is a natural one, and will or should come naturally to the
player for the purpose of allowing the head of the club to swing well
and freely back. But the grip of the thumb and first finger of the right
hand, as well as that of the little finger upon the knuckle of the first
finger of the left hand, is still as firm as at the beginning. As the
club head is swung back again towards the ball, the palm of the right
hand and the thumb of the left gradually come together again. Both the
relaxing and the re-tightening are done with the most perfect
graduation, so that there shall be no jerk to take the club off the
straight line. The easing begins when the hands are about shoulder high
and the club shaft is perpendicular, because it is at this time that the
club begins to pull, and if it were not let out in the manner explained,
the result would certainly be a half shot or very little more than that,
for a full and perfect swing would be an impossibility. This relaxation
of the palm also serves to give more freedom to the wrist at the top of
the swing just when that freedom is desirable.
I have the strongest belief in the soundness of the grip that I have
thus explained, for when it is employed both hands are acting in unison
and to the utmost advantage, whereas it often happens in the two-V grip,
even when practised by the most skilful players, that in the downward
swing there is a sense of the left hand doing its utmost to get through
and of the right hand holding it back.
There is only one other small matter to mention in connection with the
question of grip. Some golfers imagine that if they rest the left thumb
down the shaft and let the right hand press upon it there will be a
considerable danger of breaking the thumb, so severe is the pressure
when the stroke is being made. As a matter of fact, I have quite
satisfied myself that if the thumb is kept in the same place there is
not the slightest risk of anything of the kind. Also if the thumb
remains immovable, as it should, there is no possibility of the club
turning in the hands as so often happens in the case of the two-V grip
when the ground is hit rather hard, a pull or a slice being the usual
consequence. I must be excused for treating upon these matters at such
length. They are often neglected, but they are of extreme importance in
laying the foundations of a good game of golf.
In addressing the ball, take care to do so with the centre of the face
of the club, that is, at the desired point of contact. Some awkward
eccentricities may frequently be observed on the tee. A player may be
seen addressing his ball from the toe of the driver, and I have even
noticed the address being made with the head of the club quite inside
the ball, while in other cases it is the heel of the club which is
applied to the object to be struck. The worthy golfers who are
responsible for these freaks of style no doubt imagine that they are
doing a wise and proper thing, and in the most effectual manner
counteracting some other irregularity of their method of play which may
not be discoverable, and which is in any case incurable. Yet nothing is
more certain than that another irregularity must be introduced into the
drive in order to correct the one made in the address. To the point at
which the club is addressed it will naturally return in the course of
the swing, and if it is to be guided to any other than the original
place, there must be a constant effort all through the swing to effect
this change in direction, and most likely somewhere or other there will
be sufficient jerk to spoil the drive. In the case where the ball is
addressed with the toe of the club, the player must find it necessary
almost to fall on the ball in coming down, and it is quite impossible
for him to get his full distance in such circumstances.
A waggle of the head of the club as a preliminary before commencing the
swing is sometimes necessary after the stance and grip have been taken,
but every young golfer should be warned against excess in this habit.
With the stance and grip arranged, the line of the shot in view, and a
full knowledge of what is required from the stroke, there is really very
little more that needs thinking about before the swing is taken. One
short preliminary waggle will tend to make the player feel comfortable
and confident, but some golfers may be observed trying the patience of
all about them by an interminable process of waggling, the most likely
result of which is a duffed shot, since, when at last the stroke is
made, the player is in a state of semi-catalepsy, and has no clear idea
of what he is going to do or how he is going to do it.
In addressing the ball, and during the upward and downward swings until
it has been safely despatched, the sight should be kept riveted, not on
the top of the ball, as is customary, but upon the ground immediately to
the right of it (see diagram on p. 170). To the point where the gaze is
fixed the head of the club will automatically be guided. That is why you
are told to keep your eye on the ball. But you do not want to hit the
top of the ball. So look to the side, where you do want to hit it.