The Soul of Golf

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Let us for a moment turn to _Advanced Golf_. There, James Braid,
speaking of the top of the swing, says: "Now for the return journey.
Here at the top, arms, wrists, body--all are in their highest state of
tension." Let me pause here for a moment to ask how it is possible for
"arms, wrists, body" all to be "in their highest state of tension," if
the right hand is to "open a little at the top of the swing to allow
the club to move easily"; and how is it possible for the right hand to
"automatically tighten itself in the downward swing" if it was already
in its "highest state of tension" when it was at the top of the swing?

It will be apparent that it is utterly impossible for the arms and
wrists to be tighter than they are when they are "in their highest
state of tension." Therefore, we must take it that James Braid's
advice at page 55 of _How to Play Golf_ is over-ridden by his advice
at page 57 of _Advanced Golf_, for I think that we are entitled to
consider that _Advanced Golf_ represents Braid's last word with regard
to the science of golf.

Quoting still from the same passage, page 57 of _Advanced Golf_, Braid
says: "Every muscle and joint in the human golfing machinery is wound
up to the highest point." It is impossible to get away from that. We
are told that at the beginning of the downward swing "every muscle and
joint in the human golfing machinery is wound up to the highest
point."

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Now the student of golf who desires to start his swing on a firm and
sure foundation must mark this statement well. I repeat it for the
third time: "Every muscle and joint in the human golfing machinery is
wound up to the highest point," and let it be remembered that Braid is
now speaking _of the start of the downward swing_.

We will now turn to _Taylor on Golf_. At page 193 Taylor says:

My contention is simply this: that the grasp of the right
hand upon the club must be sufficiently firm in itself to
hold it steady and true, but it must not be allowed on any
account to over-power the left. The idea is that the latter
arm must exercise a predominant influence in every stroke
that may be played. As regards my own position in the matter,
my grip with either hand is very firm, yet I should hesitate
before I told every golfer to go and do likewise.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Here we see that Taylor distinctly says that "the idea is that the
latter arm (_i.e._ the left) must exercise the predominant influence
in every stroke that may be played," and although he says explicitly
that his own grip with both hands is very firm, he puts the utterly
false idea of the predominance of the left into the minds of those who
are influenced by his teaching.

Taylor, at page 107 of _Great Golfers_, says in dealing with the
"Downward Swing":

The club is brought down principally by the left wrist, the
right doing very little until the hands are opposite the
right leg, when it begins to assert itself, bringing the full
face of the club to the ball.

It is almost unnecessary to say, especially in view of Taylor's
statement that he holds very firmly with both hands, that he does not
carry out this dangerous teaching. Harry Vardon says to attempt it is
fatal, and I am pleased to add my corroboration.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

This amazing fallacy is wonderfully deeply rooted. A friend of mine
some time ago was in trouble about his iron shots. He consulted a
professional, who endeavoured to cure him by telling him when playing
his stroke to hold so lightly with his right hand that at any time
during the stroke he could slide it up and down the shaft.

Oh no! He is not a duffer, nor is he mentally unbalanced. He is merely
a professional golfer who plays for England and suffers from the
hallucination handed on to him by more famous players than he.

What could be stronger than this? Let me quote Taylor again. At page
90 of _Taylor on Golf_ he says:

The right hand is naturally the stronger of the two--much
more powerful in the average man than the left--and the
learner is just as naturally prone to use it. But in the game
of golf he must keep in front of him at all times the fact
that the left hand should fill the position of guide, and it
must have the predominating influence over the stroke.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

That this is rather unnatural I am perfectly willing to
admit. Its being unnatural is the basis of its great
difficulty, but it is a difficulty that must needs be
grappled with and overcome by any man who desires to play the
game as it should be played.

But Taylor will not give in to this idea himself! Is not this
wonderful?

Harry Vardon says of the grip that one should "remember that the grip
with _both_ hands should be firm. That with the right hand should not
be slack as one is so often told." This is valuable corroboration, for
it must be remembered that Vardon only subscribes to the fetich of the
left _by implication_. Nowhere, I think, can we convict him of
actually preaching it.

Now let us turn to the volume on _Golf_ in the Badminton Library
contributed by Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson. At page 85 Mr. Hutchinson
says:

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Since, as will be shown later on, the club has to turn in the
right hand at a certain point in the swing, it should be held
lightly in the fingers, rather than in the palm, with that
hand. In the left hand it should be held well home in the
palm, and it is not to stir from this position throughout the
swing. It is the left hand, mainly, that communicates the
power of the swing; the chief function of the right hand is
as a guide in direction.

At page 87 Mr. Hutchinson continues:

So much, then, for the grip. Now, when the club, in the
course of its swing away from the ball, is beginning to rise
from the ground, and is reaching the horizontal with its head
pointing to the player's left, it should be allowed to turn
naturally in the right hand until it is resting upon the web
between the forefinger and the thumb.

We see here that this distinguished amateur is an out and out adherent
of the fallacy of the left. He tells us distinctly that it is the
"left hand, mainly, that communicates the power of the swing, and that
the chief function of the right hand is as a guide in direction," but
notwithstanding the fact that "the chief function of the right hand is
as a guide in direction," we see that at the top of the stroke it
turns loosely in the hand until it is "resting upon the web between
the forefinger and the thumb."

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Of course, in the circumstances, it will be very hard indeed for us to
follow out James Braid's idea of everything at this point being in
supreme tension, but it is interesting to see what Mr. Hutchinson
thinks about the matter.

We have here the opinions of the three most distinguished
professionals in the world, backed by that of one of the distinguished
amateurs in the game, a man who has distinguished himself both by his
play and his writing. In the face of this weight of authority it may
seem rash to venture to state plainly and explicitly that as a matter
of practical golf the right hand and arm is the dominant partner, and
that it is the duty of every normal golfer to have this idea firmly
implanted in his mind when he settles down to his address.

As the right is the dominant partner in the golf drive, so must the
predominance of the right be the dominant idea in one's mind, but the
domination of the right must not be abused, as we shall show later on.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

It is, of course, proper for a golfer to have clearly fixed in his
mind the fact that the right is the more important member of the two,
but when he has once got that fact carefully and well stowed away in
his mind, it will be no more trouble to him than it is at present to
every normal person to use his knife in his right hand with which to
cut his meat, for it is an absolutely natural proceeding. The trouble
with the fetich of the left is that not only is it a perfectly
unnatural proceeding, but it is also, on that account, something extra
for the golfer to cumber his mind with during his swing. If he plays
his stroke naturally and without any thought of the mismade maxims of
unpractical persons, he will inevitably let the right hand and arm
take charge of the stroke, but the right will not at any time
endeavour to do more than its proper share, and therefore the left
will be given every chance to do a fair amount of the work. It is the
interference with Nature by putting the left forward into a place
which it has no right to occupy, which ruins so many golf strokes.

Let us now turn to _The Complete Golfer_. Here, at page 60, Harry
Vardon says:

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.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

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.

If we sum up the advice of Vardon and Taylor, and of Braid as shown in
his latest work _Advanced Golf_, we see clearly that although they
subscribe to the idea of the predominance of the power of the left
hand and arm, they do not themselves carry it out in practice. Taylor
says that his grip with both hands is very firm, yet he should
hesitate before recommending other people to follow his methods. I
think we may take it for granted that a method which has resulted in
four open championships may be considered good enough to follow.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Vardon, as we have seen, only subscribes to this notion inferentially,
and nobody could be more emphatic than he is with regard to the
distribution of force in the grip. His words "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," present the case
exactly. Any man who plays golf properly will find it impossible to
tell you how he distributes the force of his grip on his club, and
what proportion of power the grip of the left bears to the right. As a
matter of fact, the man who plays golf properly has no time to think
of such nonsense as this. This is a matter which is regulated for him
by common sense and nature.

The trouble steps in when he is advised to interfere with the ordinary
course of Nature, and to put the left hand in a position of authority
which it has no right whatever to try to exercise. I say advisedly
"try" to exercise, because it never can exercise the power which it is
supposed to have. It stands to reason, therefore, that any attempt
whatever to make it exercise a power superior to the more powerful arm
must result in interfering with the proper functions of the hand and
arm which should be naturally in command of the stroke.