The more accurately the club strikes at its exact point of balance the smaller are these losses, and it is here that the attention of beginners should be focused -not on a scheme of developing greater power.
The losses will multiply in a much greater ratio than the power can be increased.
Taking the fact that the weight is the only thing which can be used in an effort exerted downward, on the principle that a man can get upon a platform and lift much more weight than he can pull down on a rope, where the limit he can pull is his own weight, the point is to apply this weight practically. The player cannot be accurate under any conditions where the pull downward toward the ball is exerted violently or with a heave. The way to hit is to exert the pull steadily and accumulate power in the club head, which is coming down partly of its own weight and partly with the “leaning upon the club,” which the player exerts and which I have proved should be but little.
You can lean or shift the weight only very slowly, and the idea in the player’s mind when striking downward should be to have the club head whirled around by the arms and hands before you attempt to lean on the ball, as it were. If you are to shift your weight so as to lean on the club, you must wait until the club reaches the ball or you will not have enough distance to clear the ground and avoid hitting back of the ball. It is as though you were to lean the weight of the shoulders against the ball at the instant the club head reaches it.
Players start to lean upon the ball too soon and shorten the distance between the shoulders and the ball too much, and to take up the slack, so to speak, are forced to draw in their arms.
When the ball is badly cupped it is common sense that you cannot lift it out, as it will be impossible to get down to the ball in order to have the lift count. To get down to a cupped ball you must lean on the club.
A rule in golf which I have thought out care-fully is to bring the feet nearer and nearer together as you find that you are either hitting too soon, looking up too soon, or hitting too hard. For instance, if you will take your driver in your hands and instead of taking your stance place both heels together you will find that it will absolutely control your effort to hit too hard.
You cannot hit too hard and stay on your feet and you will unconsciously ease up. Many things have drawn my attention to this fact and it has been so impressed upon my mind that I have decided to offer it as a rule.
I have noticed that those players who spread their feet far apart on a shot are invariably “over” when they hit the ball true. I have noticed that those players who play the finest ” sunning up ” approaches and keep the 4 finest line stand with the feet close together. I have noticed that those players who sclaff and top the most invariably stand with what is called a “wide open stance.” I find in my own case that this rule invariably has put me back on my drive at once when I get a little off.
