Introduction - This is a different kind of golf book. If it were not, there would be no excuse for our writing it, the publisher's printing it, or your reading it.
To say that it is different is a mild understatement. It is radical, heretical, iconoclastic. We expect that it will stir violent controversy.

The book is different for several reasons. First, we do not go along with those whose thought—though unspoken— is that most golfers are hopeless. We do not believe that a player who scores habitually around 94 or 98 or 110 should be left to freeze at whatever altitude he is struggling.

01. You Can Do - Yes, you can play better golf. Anyone can, once he gives himself a chance by learning what to do and how to do it. You who score over 100 can break 100. The 90 player can get into the 80's. The high 80's can drop to the low 80's. And the low-80 man can break the barrier into the 70's.

And don't tell us this is a gross exaggeration, already dis­proved by the frustrated millions who play this most fascinat­ing of games. We assure you it is not an exaggeration. It has not been disproved. It is true.

02. The Rubbish - The fallacies of golf are many and of various kinds. Some deal with the mental approach, some with a specific action, others with the mechanical principles which underlie the swing.

We will not attempt here to make a complete list. We will cover the two dozen or more that are most prevalent and have caused and still cause the most damage, and particu­larly those which must be exploded thoroughly if you are to assimilate the new thoughts, principles, and actions we will give you in this book.

03. Grip + Stance - There can be no doubt whatever that the first mis­takes a golfer can make are to hold the club with a defective grip and to stand up to the ball the wrong way. Either puts a heavy impost on a player before he makes a move to swing the club. Together they make a good shot almost im­possible.

Any shot, of course, is measured by two standards.

04. Backswing - Now you are ready to start the swing, to uncover the first fatal flaws that appear, with the horrible shots they produce, and to learn the first of the magic moves that will cut strokes from your score.

Ironically, these first flaws that creep into the average player's swing produce an effect that is the exact opposite of what he wants. Just as you have, he has read and heard all his golfing life that certain things are essential.

05. At the Top - At the end of the last chapter we had taken you through the first movement of the backswing, the early back­ward wrist break with the thumb press. That set the hands and wrists and the face of the club in the proper positions, locked them in, as it were. It also brought the hands waist high.

06. Starting Down - We have now reached the most important and critical area of golf—the first movement of the downswing. With it we uncover the most common and at the same time most devastating flaws.

The golf swing itself is probably the most difficult and certainly the most elusive action in all athletics. Beyond question it is the most frustrating, and nowhere more so than at this very point, where the club and the body make their first moves down toward the ball.

07. Through the Ball - Once the swing gets down to the so-called hitting area correctly, the chance of its going wrong is very slight. That is because, as we have mentioned, the swing through the ball is only a continuation of the first movement of the downswing, the movement that brings us to the hitting area. By the same token a swing which reaches this area in the wrong position has no chance to get straightened out.

08. Short Game - From thirty yards in to the cup is the decisive area of any golf hole. It is here, most of the time, that the score on the hole is determined. In this area, at point-blank range so to speak, the hole is finished off smartly or it is ruined. Often a bad start from the tee or a poor second shot is atoned for by a brilliant approach and/or a fine putt. More often, unfor­tunately, the advantages of a good start and adequate play through the fairway go up in smoke because of the approach­ing or putting, or both.

09. Trouble - On a golf course, as a rule, trouble comes at us swiftly and unexpectedly. There are times when we do not quite expect to carry a brook or a cross trap, or when we know we can easily miss a green with a wood or a long iron. Then we are not surprised when we find ourselves in difficulties. But much more often we stand on a tee, with a wide fair­way beckoning, swing—and find ourselves in the woods or heavy rough.

10. Early Break - 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.

11. Thinking - So far, everything in this book has dealt with the physical actions of golf, the positions and movements of our hands, our feet, our bodies, our arms, and of the club itself. There is another side of golf, though, that is all too fre­quently overlooked in our sometimes frantic efforts to master the swing. This is the mental or thinking side of the game. Happily, this is not nearly so difficult to master as the rest.

12. Acknowledgments - Many people have helped us in assembling material for this book or have helped in other aspects of its production. To all of them we are happy to express our gratitude.

Foremost on our list is Dr. Ira M. Freeman, professor of physics at Rutgers University. It was to him we went to learn the mechanical principle governing the action of the club in the last quarter of the downswing. His answer, the Con­servation of Angular Momentum, cleared up one of the most puzzling aspects of the swing and became part of the founda­tion of this book.

THE END

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