If I were to make a general criticism of the majority of players I think I should say “Relax!” “Relax!” Avoid the “setting” of any of the muscles rigidly.
In the early days of my golf I had an idea that there was something almost supernatural and weird about the way the professionals could – bring off their shots. I had my mind on a hundred things and couldn’t do any of them well. In golf, as in everything else, I have found that when anything is not easy and simple to under-stand, I had better dispense with it. Do nothing you do not understand and have not a definite reason for.
Instead of raising the left heel from the ground the effort should be, if at all, to keep it down. If your physique will allow you to do so and get around to the top of your swing, you will find it easier to maintain your balance with both feet and both heels on the ground. The more support you get the better. My left heel comes off the ground because I am not limber enough to keep it down and get to’ the top of my swing easily.
No one can assume a stance at the outset that will be final. As golf is a gradual development, the stance, or position in relation to the ball, must be progressive and should be changed from time to time as the player works out his theories and improves the mental picture of his stroke. A stance that might be perfectly correct for one scheme of hitting the ball would be utterly unsuitable to another.
To my way of thinking, the stance must be subordinate to the swing, and as the swing is governed by the player’s physique, I think that setting oneself in a definite position and making the swing subordinate to that is absurd.
As I have shown that one of the elementary things in golf is the fact that unless the club head is traveling along a dead straight line while in contact with the ball, the ball won’t go along
that line, it is evident that the player must satisfy himself by swinging as to what line his club travels in its sweep, and then adjust himself in his stance so that the desired line of flight and the natural line of his sweep coincide.
Whether the ball is off the right foot or the left foot, or the left foot is farther advanced than the right, or vice versa, I think is of no consequence, and too much time is wasted on the subject by the majority of players, with the result that the really important item is befogged or overlooked.
