Whenever we go to a golf tournament and see a really good player hit the ball, we receive two vivid impressions. The first is how far the ball goes with seemingly so little effort. The second is of a certain measured cadence in the upward and downward movement of the club. Both are accurate impressions.
Now if we happen to be on the practice tee, where we can watch this player hit shot after shot, we will notice two other things. One is that he swings all his clubs at about the same speed; he doesn't seem to hit the 3 wood any harder than he hits the 7 iron. The second thing we notice, when we let our gaze wander to other players practicing, is that while most of them are deliberate, there are differences in their swinging speeds.

Timing is the answer to the first accomplishment—the long hit with little effort. Rhythm produces the measured cadence in the upward and downward movement of the club. And the differences we notice in swinging speed among other players are differences in tempo.

Nearly all good players will give us impressions of timing and rhythm. The more graceful the player, the more vivid the impression will be. Sam Snead, among the moderns, is the perfect example. Among the giants of the past, Bob Jones's swing was once called the "poetry of motion," and the late Macdonald Smith was probably the most effortless swinger who ever played the game. The players of today swing harder at the ball than did their predecessors, with the result that theirs is more of a hitting than a swinging action.

Yet the ball still flies out much farther than it should, for the effort the player seems to be putting into it. This is very marked in the graceful players of smaller stature, such as Gene Littler, 1961 National Open champion, and Dow Finsterwald, former National PGA champion. Timing

The answer to the effort-distance puzzle being timing, just what is timing? For one thing, it is a word that has been used more loosely, perhaps, than any other in golf literature. We have been blandly told that we should work to improve our timing, that our timing is off, that without good timing we cannot hope to play well. But there, having given the word the once-over-lightly treatment, the oracles have left us. They have never adequately explained timing or told us what we should do to improve ours. Our private guess is that they don't know themselves what it is.

A dictionary will tell you that timing is: "The regulating of the speed of a motion, stroke, or blow, so that it reaches its maximum at the correct moment." In golf, obviously, this would mean regulating the speed of the club head so as to cause it to reach its maximum as it hits the ball.

The key phrase is "regulating of the speed." The better the speed is regulated, the better the timing; the poorer the regulation, the poorer the timing. It is here that at least 95 per cent of all golfers have their worst trouble.

They have it because the regulation of the speed depends not on how the club head is manipulated by the hands but on how and when other parts of the swinging system operate: the hips, the shoulders, the arms, the hands. If these move in the right way and in the right order, they will automati­cally regulate the speed of the club head so that it reaches its maximum as it hits the ball. It is, in effect, a chain reaction of movement, with the club head getting the final effect.

The reason the vast majority of golfers have such trouble timing a shot satisfactorily is that, subconsciously or con­sciously, they try to regulate the speed of the club head directly with their hands, without using the intermediary links of the hips, shoulders, and arms. When they do this they get an early but never very great reaction, in terms of speed, from the club head. This is the old familiar "hitting too soon" or "hitting from the top." When the intermediary links are used and the chain reaction is allowed to take its course, there is a late reaction by the club head, which then accelerates to great speed at impact. There is a common expression to describe the player who uses the chain reaction: "He waits on the club." It may not be grammatical but it is descriptive.

What this all comes down to is, the expression of good timing is the late hit. The expression of poor timing is the early hit. We have already, in previous chapters, explained the moves that produce the late hit and the early hit. Here, as we discuss timing, we isolate one key move that leads to good or improved timing. It is this: Let the body—not the hands—start moving the club on the downswing.

Once you can do this you are on the road to vastly better golf. You will have the feeling that you are starting down with arms and club close to the body—close to the axis— where they should be at this time.

So much has been written over the years about the im­portance of the hands in swinging the club, that many of us are entirely too hand conscious. A standing vote of thanks is due Bill Casper for stating, in a description of his swing as it reached the hitting position: "At this point my body is still swinging the club." Many of us have been sure of that for years, but Casper, to our knowledge, was the first of the top tournament pros with the courage to say it.

The hands will take over soon enough, as an automatic, reflex action. The problem is to keep them out while still keeping them moving. If we keep them out while our body moves the club from the top, our timing will be far better.

Rhythm and Tempo

Rhythm and tempo can be considered together, because in golf they mean very nearly the same thing.

We mentioned earlier that the rhythm in the swing of a good player is noticed because of the measured cadence in the upward and downward movement of the club. In his swing there appears to be—and there is—a definite relation­ship in time between his backswing and his downswing. It is measured in two parts, from the time the club leaves the ball until it stops at the top of the backswing, and from the time it starts to move again until it hits the ball. The club does have to stop at the top, of course, for the instant required to reverse its direction, whether we feel it or realize it or we don't. No object, not even a golf club, can be traveling in opposite directions at once.

These two segments of the swing can be accurately timed by a motion-picture camera, by the simple process of count­ing the number of pictures the camera takes during each segment. Such a count shows that the backswing of a good player takes almost exactly twice as long as the downswing.

This two-to-one ratio is the rhythm of the swing. The total time or tempo of the swing will vary with different good players, but the ratio or rhythm will not. Nor will it vary from club to club. The ratio will be the same for the 8 iron as it is for the driver. The tempo of the swing will not change, either, for the individual player.

This is why the good player looks so good when he swings at the ball. There seems to be a definite, unhurried, rela­tionship between the two parts of his swing. We sense it if we see him hit the ball only once, and it becomes more and more marked the oftener we see him swing. He has established a definite rhythm and he sticks to it. In fact, one of the things he does when he goes to the practice tee before a round is re-establish his rhythm, so that he hits a 5 iron, for instance, at exactly the same speed, with exactly the same effort, with exactly the same tempo, each time he swings it, whether the shot is simple or difficult.

We will always remember Jimmy Demaret playing the twelfth hole at Inverness in the National Open of 1957. Demaret was in contention and his drive on this hole wound up near the right edge of the fairway. It is a par 5 hole with the first half downhill, the second half uphill. Jimmy's drive had caught a slight downslope, so that he had a downhill lie. He was standing slightly above his ball. It was a most difficult shot to be made with a wooden club. To reach the green, Jimmy had to use the wood. His swing was as smooth and unhurried as if he had been hitting an 8 iron from a perfect lie to an open green. He hit it with his own estab­lished rhythm, and he reached the green with a perfect shot.

The poor or average player has no such established rhythm. Not only does he often have a different rhythm for each club but for different shots with the same club. He is prone to use a 7 and swing faster, when he should be using a 6 with a normal swing. He changes again to dig a ball out of the rough or a bad lie on the fairway. He slows down when he tries to steer the ball. He always speeds up when the situation of the round or match has increased his ten­sion. Most of these changes are noticeable in his backswing, which becomes faster, sometimes almost as fast as his down­swing.

This is why his swing looks so bad and the pro's looks so good.

Why, you may ask, should anyone bother to develop a rhythmic swing? Aside from how it looks, of what value is it?

It has two very definite values. One is that it promotes better timing. It doesn't assure or guarantee that we will time a shot better, but it helps. It makes good timing easier to achieve.

The second reason is that a rhythmic swing helps a great deal toward the goal of every swing, which is to strike the ball in the exact center of the club face—"on the screws," as the pros say. There is a very small area on the face, known to all golfers as the "sweet spot," which transmits the maxi­mum propelling force. When contact is made on this spot, the ball will go much farther than if the contact is toward the club's heel or toe.

Pertinent here are tests made for the United States Golf Association by the Arthur D. Little Co., a research organiza­tion, during the United States Amateur Championship at Brookline in 1957. Pictures were taken of the contact be­tween club and ball. These were compared with the distance attained and with the velocity of the club head at impact.

Among the conclusions drawn by the USGA was that ac­curacy of contact was highly important in gaining distance. By accuracy was meant contact with the exact center of the club face. Distance dropped, even with a faster swing, if contact was not made precisely at the center.

The average golfer rarely gets this perfect, flush contact, although most of the time he isn't conscious of not getting it. He thinks of it only when he hits the ball well out toward the toe or in toward the heel, or toward the top or the sole. The pros, on the other hand, hit many shots on the sweet spot, and many more which are very close to it. This is one of the reasons they hit the ball as far as they do. And one of the reasons they find the sweet spot and get close to it so often, is because their swings are grooved in a constant, unhurried rhythm.

We are not saying that everyone should swing the club at exactly the same speed. Each of us has his own tempo of doing things, depending on his individual temperament. Some of us drive automobiles faster than others, eat faster, walk faster. We are likely to have faster golf swings. The point is that whatever speed we use to swing the club, it should always be the same, regardless of the lie we have, the difficulty of the shot, or the length of the shot. If we have to change our rhythm to get a longer shot with a 5 iron, we should use the 4 and keep the rhythm the same. The good pro knows that he will get 160 yards with a 5 iron, and he will get it every time, not 153 yards once, 165 yards the second time, and maybe 160 the next, assuming he hits the ball squarely each time. He will get it because his rhythm is constant.

So determine your own rhythm, with the help of your pro, and then stick to it, for all shots and with all clubs. It will make the game a lot easier.

In arriving at a proper speed for yourself, you should not swing so fast that you cannot feel or sense each of the fun­damental moves that you make. These are the forward press, the immediate backward wrist break, the movement of the weight, the turn of the shoulders to the top, the lateral slide of the hips, and the slightly rocking action of the shoulders that start the downswing, and the definite feeling that the body is swinging the club until it gets near the ball. If, then, you can feel the hard forward swinging of the hands through the ball, so much the better.

We do not mean, we will hasten to say, that you should think of each of these movements each time you swing the club, or that you should feel each one separately every time you swing. What we do mean is that if at any time your pro should ask you what you feel you are doing at any stage of your swing, you can tell him, truthfully and exactly.

It is a fact, often brought out in lessons, that the average player has no idea what he feels or what he is doing during a large area of the swing. He will be conscious o£ starting the club away from the ball and getting it, maybe, halfway to the top. But from there on his mind is a blank. This is because emotion (in the form of fear of a bad shot) takes over and wipes all conscious thought from the mind. This "blacking out" is gradually overcome as the player gains confidence. His fear of a bad shot subsides to some extent, reason returns, and he has at least a partial feeling and memory of what he is doing.

For this reason it is important, in building a swing, to start it at a slow tempo, so that the player can feel all the movements. As these are executed correctly and become habit, the tempo may be increased.

We cannot tell anybody how hard to swing, because every­one has his own speed or tempo. We can only say that you should develop a definite rhythm, that you should swing with the same effort every time, and that this should not exceed the speed at which you know what you are doing all the time.

How the Early Break Helps

Strange as it may seem, the early backward wrist break is a positive aid to both timing and rhythm. Considering all the other good things the break does for us, this is icing on the cake. But it is true.

To understand precisely how this happens we will take another and closer look at the break itself, and also at the human wrist.

Let's take the wrist first. As any doctor will tell you, this is one of the most complex joints in the body. It is not a simple hinge like the elbow or the knee, nor a ball-and-socket joint like the hip. The wrist consists, in the main, of seven small bones and seven ligaments, and there are four basic directions in which it may move: (1) toward the palm of the hand (palmar flexion), (2) toward the back of the hand (dorsal flexion), (3) toward the little finger (ulnar deviation), and (4) toward the thumb (radial deviation). Any other movement represents a combination of the basics. The maximum unaided movement of the normal wrist is: palmar flexion, 90 degrees; dorsal flexion, 90 degrees; ulnar deviation, 45 degrees; radial deviation, 35 degrees.

Figs. 50A, 50B, 50C, 50D. The basic movements of the hand at the wrist joint: A, dorsal flexion; B, palmar flexion; C, ulnar deviation; D, radial deviation.

The only motion that need concern us here is the last, for it is the radial deviation that the left wrist finally assumes at the top of the backswing when it is in the proper position.

Where 98 per cent of golfers go wrong is in getting this radial deviation along with a. dorsal flexion at the top—the left hand bent backward and the left wrist under the shaft. This is the easy, the lazy, and the disastrous position. It leaves the club face open.

Fig. 51.   The final position of the wrists at the top of the swing, showing radial deviation.

Now, you can get the correct position, with only a radial deviation, if you take the club back with rigid wrists and no break until the shaft is parallel with the line of flight or beyond it, and then break the wrists straight up, in the radial direction, being careful not to let any backward flexion of the left wrist creep in. This is difficult, very difficult, and requires a great deal of practice to be done consistently, under all conditions, but it is worth noting that a lot of the pros do it that way.

Another way the correct position can be reached is by a rotation of the hands at the top or during the downswing. You can reach the top with the left hand in an extreme backward flex and the club face wide open, and then straighten out the left wrist. This pulls the right wrist under the shaft, rotates the shaft itself, and squares or closes the club face. Seen from the side, looking toward the butt end of the club, the movement is a counterclockwise rotation. When it is completed, the player has the true radial deviation he wants.

Far easier than either of these methods is the early back­ward break already taught in this book, which amounts to a palmar flex of the left wrist and a dorsal flex of the right. The great virtues of this are that it gets us as far away as possible from the lazy backward flex of the left wrist and that it flows or molds naturally as we bring the club up, into the pure radial deviation as we reach the top. Try it and see. Make the backswing at reduced speed and notice and feel how the wrist and hand position changes as the hands go up past the shoulders. By the time the swing reaches the top the left hand will have gone from a palmar flexion to a radial deviation without any effort on your part. It is the natural tendency. The only thing you have to watch is that it doesn't go too far and fall into a backward flex.

So why not use the break that brings you to the top naturally in the right position, instead of a break that you have to control carefully or manipulate?

Without going any further into anatomical details, it can be stated flatly that the longer the backward wrist break is delayed on thebackswing, the more difficult it becomes to make it correctly. The later this break takes place, the more liable we are to let the left hand bend backward, thus getting it under the shaft at the top and opening the face of the club. So, make the break early.

Start making it as soon as the club leaves the ball andyou will find it does a surprising number of things. We'll list them:

1. Sets you in the proper hand-wrist position early. (All you have to do is hold it.)
2. Everything you have to do with the hands and the club, in the way of manipulation, is done early and in your full view.
3. Gives you the feeling that you have plenty of time to go to the top and come down.
4. Starts your swing in the right plane.
5. Brings the right elbow in tight immediately.
6. Prevents a "bouncing" club head at the top.
7. Tends to shorten the swing, thereby providing a brace against over swinging.
8. Gives you a feeling at the top that you have to move the body in order to get the club down to the ball. (Reduces inclination to hit from the top.)
9. Tends to bring the club to the ball with the wrists leading, as they should be.
10. Kills any temptation to pronate or supinate.
11. Promotes—almost insures—a late hit.
12. Promotes a solid contact on the center of the club face.

The first three points are probably the most important. The others stem chiefly from the first three.

One of the hardest things for the average golfer to master is the proper hand and wrist position at the top. At least one reason this is difficult for him is that, with the orthodox late break, he is always trying to get into it after the swing is in full motion. The early break sets his hands in the proper po­sitions by the time they are hip high.

Another value is that this break divorces your mind from the club head. In the orthodox late break, with what has been called the one-piece takeaway, the player is thinking of moving hips, hands, and club head all at the same time. The fact that he is thinking of the club head at all is dan­gerous. With the early break completed, there comes a feeling of time to spare. Nothing else needs to be done, ex­cept to swing the club to the top and bring it down. The hands will be right, the wrists will be right, the face of the club will be right—all you have to do is swing.

This feeling of what might almost be called serenity, plus points 4, 5, and 6, all contribute to getting you to the top of the swing in an excellent position. And the right position at the top goes a long, long way toward insuring a good downswing.

All Quiet at the Top

One reason that the early break seems almost to keep us from hitting too soon is that with it we reach the top with a controlled, "quiet" club head. With the ordinary wrist break, which is late, the club head moves quite fast in the late stages of the backswing. It moves fast enough, in fact, to exert a strong pull on the hands and wrists as it reaches its backward limit. Its momentum, actually, is checked only by the resistance of the hands and wrists to this pull. As a result, in answer to this resistance of the hands and wrists, there is a quick rebounding of the club back toward the ball. Try it and you'll see what we mean. Since the average player usually lets the backward pull loosen his grip, he quickly regrips on the rebound, producing, almost, a "bouncing" club head. This starts the head of the club back toward the ball much faster than it should be moving at this point. This is one reason, and a strictly mechanical reason, why so many of us hit from the top.

Now, with the early backward break you do not get this bouncing effect at the top. From the time the hands are hip high only the arms, actuated by the shoulders, are moving the club. The club itself is not moving fast as it reaches the limit of the backswing, and there is a noticeable but not violent pull on the hands and wrists when it gets there. Hence there is no rebound. The club starts down solely in response to the shoulder and hip action—and we are off to a late hit (point No. 11) instead of an early one.

Since the late hit is the true manifestation of good timing, you have, right there, one reason the early backward break promotes good timing. The fact that there is no rebounding from the top, and no hurried effort then to get the club head to the ball, is also why this system makes it easier to establish a good, even rhythm.

Fig. 52. The quiet club at the top of the swing (top) depends on the early backward wrist break. The bouncing club (bottom) originates in the conventional late break.

But, you will say, the pros have no trouble with the late break and this rebounding of the club head. No, they don't, because they subconsciously time their movements with it and also because they "tame" the club head by keeping a tight grip at the top. This grip is tight enough so that the club never gets away from them. But for the average player the  timing is  much  more  difficult.

Point 8, the feeling that you have to move the body to get the club down to the ball, has its origin in the fact that for the last half of the backswing you are moving the club largely with your body and shoulders. You are not moving it by breaking your wrists. So, since you have brought the club back with your body and shoulders, the natural thing to do is simply to leave them in command and start the down­swing with them. This is exactly what should be done—the hips sliding laterally, and turning and rocking the shoulders to bring the club down.

Points 9 and 10—the wrists leading at impact with no temptation to pronate or supinate—are accounted for largely by the position the early break puts the hands and wrists into, aided by the fact that the body is swinging the club during a large segment of the downswing. With the perfect late hit, when the club catches up with the hands at the last possible moment, the hands will always be slightly in front at impact. The club has caught up enough to strike a straight, solid blow, but it doesn't get exactly even with the hands until slightly after the ball is hit. This will vary among the top pros, but pictures of many of them, taken at im­pact, show the left arm and the club in a curving line, not a straight line. Bill Casper and Wes Ellis are two examples.

The fact that a solid contact is produced on the center of the club face is, really, the cumulative effect of many of the movements which have preceded it. Whenever the hit is late and from the inside the contact is much more likely to be accurate than if we hit too soon and/or from the outside.

There is another minor phenomenon associated with the early-break system. Practically everyone to whom it has been taught will say, usually during his second or third lesson, what a business executive at the Rockaway River Country Club in New Jersey said: "I have a strong feeling that the club head is going through the ball faster and that I am swinging harder than I ever did before, but I am not trying to."

This, besides being a compliment to the teacher, is an indication that the system is working. The executive felt the club was going faster because it was going faster. The speed was greater because he was hitting later. And he felt he was swinging harder because of the speed he was getting in the club head.
Many also get the feeling that, as one of them put it, "All of me is going into the shot now." They get this because they are moving the club with their bodies as they bring it down and are not trying, with their hands, to make the club head move.

As a result of all this, the first pleasant surprise a pupil gets as he learns the system is greater distance. This will come with the pitching clubs first, because they are the shortest and easiest to handle. And it will come with all players, re­gardless of age, sex, strength, or physical build.

Which, of course, is perfectly natural and logical. When you hit the ball late and from the inside it will go farther than from any other kind of a hit. And if you hold the wrist position at the top and then move so that you come down behind the ball while your hips are out in front of it, you will hit from the inside and you will hit late. There is nothing else you can do. That is the crowning virtue of the system.

As a Rockaway River member who has been playing golf for forty-five years put it: "This I can feel as well as under­stand; all other instruction I have understood but not neces­sarily felt."

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