Bobby Jones on Golf

by Robert Tyre Jones

  As a matter of fact, I doubt if it would be possible to notice any great difference in length between the swing an expert would use for a pitch of a hundred yards and the one he would employ for a shot of sixty yards. The chief difference is that in playing the shorter shot he expends less effort. The contact is kept crisp and clean but the acceleration becomes more gradual. The ample backswing certainly is more pleasing to the eye, and it overcomes to a great extent any tendency to hurry the stroke. We all know how difficult it is to play the little shots smoothly and without yielding to the temptation to look up before the ball starts on its way.

  The whole idea, it seems to me, is to encourage the player to swing the club head; the longer backswing gives him a feeling of freedom and ease that extends even to his state of mind, and relieves a good bit of his anxiety over the success of the stroke.

  7 THE PROPER PROCEDURE JUST OFF THE GREEN

  There is a greater variety in the short approach than in any other department of the game. To play these shots consistently well requires more experience and judgment than is called for anywhere else on a golf course. A drive is nearly always a drive, and a five-iron shot, just a five-iron shot. But a chip may be anything, and it rarely is the same thing twice. Especially over keen greens, a man must be a good judge of slopes, and the speed of putting surfaces; he must also be keenly appreciative of the effect upon the roll of the ball to be had from the lie of the ball the loft of the club, and the trajectory of its brief flight.

  The two most important rules to observe are, first, to pitch over the intervening fairway or rough onto the putting surface whenever possible; and, second, to play a straightforward shot without backspin wherever possible. In other words, when sizing up the shot, let the player ask himself a few questions in this order:

  “Is there room between the edge of the green and the flag for me to pitch to the green with a normal shot?”

  “If so, with what club?”

  “If not, can I pitch to the green with backspin and stop the ball quickly enough?”

  “If I can, will that shot be more risky than running the ball with a straight-faced club over the intervening ground?”

  Of course, all these questions are more easily put than answered correctly. Experience means everything, for every factor—ground, wind, slope, lie—everything must be accounted for and valued accurately.

  If the first question is answered in the affirmative, the club selected should be the one to allow a pitch to the edge of the green. Always, one should avoid a quick stopping shot except when it is absolutely necessary. Better results will be had by playing the shot in the simplest way possible. Backspin on such a short shot is very difficult to control. It is almost always better to pitch short of the putting surface or to run the ball across the intervening space, unless it be rough, than to attempt anything unusual or spectacular.

  It is also best to keep the trajectory of the ball as flat and allow for as much run as possible under the conditions and in keeping with what I have said above. Often the turf even on the putting surface is not uniform, and a steeper shot is more likely to be affected by irregularities on the surface or by variations in firmness.

  Since it is beyond all reasonable expectations that a person may hole a chip shot, little will be gained by playing always for the hole. Naturally, if the ball can be rolled to the edge of the hole, the putt will be simpler whatever the condition of the green, but there are times when a four-foot putt uphill is a far less annoying proposition than one of half that length across a keen slope. It is well to keep in mind that the success of the chip depends upon the success of the putt and is not measured by the number of inches separating the ball from the hole.

  CHAPTER SIX

  1 GETTING CONTROL

  2 A LIGHT GRIP

  3 LOOKING AT THE BALL

  4 NEVER IMITATE

  5 THE PENDULUM STROKE

  6 METHOD

  7 PUTTING PRACTICE

  8 MAKING CONTACT

  9 SHORT PUTTS

  10 STROKE OR TAP?

  11 APPROACH PUTTING

  12 SPOTTING THE LINE

  13 CHOOSING A PUTTER

  14 ATTITUDE

  Maximum Speed

  CHAPTER SIX

  1 GETTING CONTROL

  Putting—a game within a game—might justly be said to be the most important part of golf. In almost every championship, or even in friendly matches, if the competitors are anything like evenly matched, the man who will win will be the one enjoying a definite superiority on and around the greens; for it is usually only in finishing a hole that a clear stroke can be picked up. Among first-class competitors, it is hardly ever possible to gain enough in the long game to offset the least bit of loss in putting.

  Although much success on the greens may be the subject of moods and luck, I found a few things that happened to cause my moods and luck to be more uniform; particularly helpful did I find them at times when opportunities for practice were not plentiful. Since I regard this as a crucial test, I think they must be good.

  The most helpful single thing I was ever able to do to my putting style concerns the left elbow. I found that by bending over enough to produce a decided crook in both arms, and by moving my left elbow away from my body until it pointed almost directly toward the hole, I was able to create a condition of relaxation and easy freedom I could get in no other way. Although I should, by that time, have learned how deceitful are the gods of golf, I could not resist the temptation to write that this came very close to being a panacea for all putting ailments.

  The reason for the beneficial effect is that this location of the left elbow places the left hand and wrist under perfect control. I liked to make good use of my left hand in putting, but I knew it caused me many unhappy days, because of its tendency to turn over or to pull the club in as I tried to swing it through—a kind of involuntary flinching that can be ruinous. With the elbow out and the left hand gripping the club so that its back is presented squarely to the hole, I found that the tendency to turn or flinch was almost entirely eliminated.

  Whatever may be said by the exponents of all-wrist putting, I know that I did better making some use of my arms depending upon the length of the putt; and I believe others will do better in this way also. The position I have described places the left arm, wrist, and hand almost in one plane, and that plane is very nearly vertical, and parallel to the projected line of the putt. I then tried to complete the stroke by causing the left hand to move forward, keeping always in that plane, and never stopping suddenly at the ball.

  2 A LIGHT GRIP

  I was talking putting one day with Chandler Egan, who, in addition to being one of the keenest students of golf, was also one of the most reliable putters in the game. “My putting is never right,” said Egan, “unless I hold the club like this.” He had addressed an imaginary ball as he talked, whereupon he punctuated the sentence by kicking the putter out of his hands with a sharp tap of his foot. He was emphasizing the lightness of his grip. There is nothing more important to remember when one runs into a streak of bad putting. When the little ones begin to slip past the hole and the stroke feels a bit uncertain, there comes a great temptation to tighten the grip, shorten the backswing, and try to guide the ball into the hole; the fact that a similar procedure has failed innumerable times seldom prevents our trying it once more. The truth is that a putt can be successfully steered no more than any other golf shot. On the putting green, as elsewhere, the only hope of success lies in a smooth, accurate stroke that permits the club head to swing freely. When we become afraid to trust this swing, we can expect trouble.

  A backswing that is too short goes inevitably with a grip that is too tight. No one ever stabs or jabs a putt when the club is held gently, and the arms and legs are relaxed; but always something goes wrong when he drops down on the club, crouches low over the ball, and hits it sharply, with the idea that he won’t give the face of the club a chance to come off the proper alignment.

  Anot
her effort, commonly made to cure bad putting, that always fails, is to keep the body immovable. Alex Smith’s whimsical admonition to “miss ’em quick” was more than a waggish sally. Becoming too careful, trying too hard to be precise, causes the player to freeze in his address position. More often than not, this has the effect of introducing a tension or stiffness somewhere that makes a smooth stroke impossible.

  I liked to begin with Chandler Egan’s loose grip and relaxed position; I liked to feel this grip become a little firmer in the three smaller fingers of my left hand as the club started back; and then, to add a little crispness to the stroke, I liked to feel a tiny flick of the right hand as I struck the ball. I know of no better way of describing the mechanics than to say that the left hand controls the path of the stroke, and the alignment of the face, while the right hand supplies the touch—that nice adjustment of speed that rolls a long putt to the edge of the hole.

  To avoid freezing, I liked to keep my knees loose and mobile. It is not a matter of putting with body motion, but of keeping the legs and trunk responsive and ready to move if there should be the slightest suggestion that it may be necessary for them to do so. In other words, there should never be any attempt to putt with the wrists alone, or even with the wrists and arms. When making a very short putt, there may be no movement above the hands, but that is only because no such motion is necessary.

  3 LOOKING AT THE BALL

  Walter Travis, probably the greatest putter the game has ever seen, always said that he visualized the putting stroke as an attempt to drive an imaginary tack into the back of the ball I tried this conception and long ago found it to be a valuable aid in putting—to keep in mind the exact line upon which the ball should be started toward the hole. It is all very well to select a point between ball and hole over which the ball must pass; but it is impossible to keep such a point in view, and difficult to keep its location in mind while actually making the stroke. But having selected the spot and allowed the eye to follow the line back to the ball, it is not at all difficult to imagine the line continued through the ball until it emerges at a point on its back side. This is where the tack should be driven—a splendid way of simplifying the operation so that the player can give his entire attention to the making of the stroke. I doubt if any really expert players, except in putting, are aware of looking at any particular point on the surface of the ball. They know it is there and are aware of its location, but the habit of looking at it is so firmly rooted that the act requires no conscious direction. Nevertheless, such players will find that if they direct their sight away from the ball to any degree at all, although they will still strike it passably well, a great deal of their former accuracy will be lost.

  Whether or not such players are aware of it, an important factor in the nice control to which most of them are accustomed is the accurate sensing of the relationship between the face of the club and the rear side of the ball’s surface with which contact is to be made. In making the address, the sight is drawn to this area, to align the club, and to select the point through which the swing is to be directed; and once the club has moved away, it is the back of the ball, the thing that is to be struck, that holds the player’s attention.

  The expert golfer senses through his hands the location and alignment of the face of the club throughout his entire swing. Before he starts the club back, he has formed through his eye a mental picture of the way he wants to cause the face of his club to make contact with the ball. Naturally then, unless something disturbs him, he is going to look at the thing he intends to hit, and at the point where he intends to strike it. He would be no more likely to look at the front of the ball than he would be to look at his thumb if he were hammering a nail.

  For the average golfer, it will probably be helpful, in putting and in playing short approaches, to follow the suggestion of Walter Travis and to pick out a spot on the back of the ball into which to drive the imaginary tack.

  4 NEVER IMITATE

  In all my writings on golf, as well as in my motion pictures, the one thing I have tried to stress most is the necessity for assuming a comfortable position before making every shot. There are peculiarities of stance and address that tend to produce certain results; of course, these have to be watched after the player has progressed, but in the beginning I think it is safest simply to stand before the ball in a position that is so comfortable that it is easy to remain relaxed. This, to the beginner, is far more important than any worry about the exact location of the right or left foot.

  What I have said is of paramount importance in putting, and in the short game, and I think there is no one who has had a more convincing experience than have I. Up until 1921, my putting was about as bad as one could imagine; I had experimented with it for years, but most of my experiments had taken the form of attempted imitations of some of the good putters I had seen, notable among whom were Walter Travis and Walter Hagen. I had studied the styles of these men, particularly that of Hagen, and would always try to assume the same posture at address, and attempt to swing the putter in the same way. The result of these efforts—and it was a result that should have been expected—was a tension throughout my whole body that would not otherwise have been present, so that however accurately I might reproduce the stroke that had been successful for the man I was imitating, the effect of it was destroyed because I could never relax. After all these experiences, I determined to putt naturally.

  The putting stroke is the simplest of all because it is the shortest; once a person has developed a fairly good sense of what it is all about, and once he has developed a rhythmic stroke that can be counted upon to strike the ball truly, the only thing he should worry about is knocking the ball into the hole.

  From day to day, I found that my putting posture changed noticeably. I always employed the same grip; I always stood with my feet fairly close together, with my knees slightly bent. Always, too, I saw to it that my back stroke was ample; but sometimes I felt most comfortable facing directly toward the ball; at other times, perhaps a quarter turn away in either direction. Again, there were times when my confidence was increased by gripping the club a few inches down from the end; at other times I liked to hold it at the very end of the shaft.

  There are, of course, good putters among the so-called average golfers who by patience, study, and practice have developed putting methods they follow as they would a ritual; on the other hand, these instances are rare.

  Anyone who hopes to reduce putting—or any other department of the game of golf for that matter—to an exact science, is in for a serious disappointment, and will only suffer from the attempt. It is wholly a matter of touch, the ability to gauge a slope accurately, and most important of all, the ability to concentrate on the problem at hand, that of getting the ball into the hole and nothing more. I think more potentially good putters have been ruined by attempting to duplicate another method than by any other single factor; by the time they can place themselves in a position they think resembles the attitude of the other man, they find themselves so cramped and strained that a smooth, rhythmic stroke is impossible.

  5 THE PENDULUM STROKE

  There is one thing I wish people would stop talking about and writing about, because I think it causes much confusion in a beginner’s mind. I refer to the theory of the pendulum putting stroke. It has been described and expressed in different ways, but when boiled down, each demonstration resolves itself into a thing absolutely impossible of accomplishment so long as human beings are built as we know them.

  Unquestionably, a pendulum-like golf club with an absolutely true face, swung precisely along the line of the putt and suspended from a point exactly over the ball, furnishes the ideal conception of accurate striking. But so long as human toes stick out in front, and until a golf club turns into a croquet mallet and can be swung backward between the legs, there is little hope that this can be attained. For the present at least, it seems to me far better that we strive to find some way to improve our performance, using the method
more or less familiar to us all. I have not been converted by my observation of the few players now using putters designed to be swung between the player’s feet.

  The important considerations in putting are that the putter should be faced properly when it strikes the ball, and that, as it strikes, it should be moving in the direction of the hole. If these two requirements are met, it makes no difference in the world whether or not the club was faced properly or moved along the projected line of the putt throughout the backswing.

  6 METHOD

  After saying that the correct procedure on the putting green is to decide upon the line and then to concentrate solely upon hitting the ball along that line, it may be helpful to point out a few details of method that will make it easier to swing the club through in this way. As I have often written, to arrange the stance and position too carefully interferes with the freedom of movement so necessary to smooth stroking of the ball; nevertheless, it will pay to arrange certain details correctly.