Secrets of Good Golf

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23037, 14 May 1938, Page 13 (Supplement)

Secrets of Good Golf

Average Players Can Overcome Common Faults In Iron Play

By ABE MITCHELL

(Copyright)

a-i HE commonest fault in iron play is overswinging. Perhaps - it will help the player if I ■tell him that the back swing is ,ioo big if he is conscious that the wrists have lost some of their conitrol. If the club is taken back, beyond this point, power will be lost jinstead of gained. Many of the leading professionals have from time to time come to me -for advice on iron play and to ask [where their own swing has gone wrong.

NEXT WEEK WALTER HAGEN "The Art of Good Approaching"

ITo the ordinary onlooker the uhot appears to be all right, but the player himself knows it isn't, and he is uneasy. Invariably, I find that the swing Is too full, and the advice to shorten it never fails to effect a cure. Don't overswing then, and don t burry the shot. Everyone naturally feels that if the back-swing is shortened he must put some extra pep into the down swing, and accordingly proceeds to do so. And if you ask him what he has done he will tell you that he has concentrated on additional wrist work. That, of course, is a very natural reaction to the attempt to curtail the tack swing, but it leads to poor play because the mental picture is wrong. The swing must 011 no account be hurried. The player should remember that the iron shot is largely a wrist shot, and that the action of the wrists must be delayed. Most of their work is dono after impact, and the feet have to be Placed to take the strain until the ball has left the club face. , Hero are a few other points in which players frequently go wrong with their iron shots. In iron club play there is a tendency *°r all of us to creep forward in the stance and address the ball more centrally, but I strongly disapprove of this address. In the first place, it is not ® a sy to follow through, for a divot will taken, and it leads further to undue I'se of the right hand. In fact, if you Played the shot with the ball opposite ' I, /'fM f°°t it would be a rightflanded shot entirely. Very likely a stab

would result —especially if the shot were a short one —and usually such an address leads to a circular swing of the body.

It always gives me the shivers to see a man playing an iron in this way. I know that the ball will run, and I have great doubts about its being straight. Spin will be imparted in all probability if the player can manage to curtail his back swing, but usually the ball is hit out away from the feet and control is lost. Everyone has a tendency to hook with the No. 3 and No. 4, and even with the No. 2. Hooked rnashie nhots are, of course, very common. The remedy here is to lav the club face back and address the ball nearer the left foot. It helps to Btand slightly more open. In all iron shots the wrist and arm actions should carry the heel of the club

through the ball and up the line as quickly as its toe. This not only stops pulling, but it is the correct way to put stop on the ball. In this action the hands must not check at the ball or a slice will result.

Practice along these lines with short shots round a green and study the behaviour of the ball. Then lengthen out. From time to time wo all loso control of directness—a most disconcerting phase in the windy season. The remedy here is to stand more open and curtail the back swing; in fact, the open stance will tend to do that. It is this tendency to overswing—to go too much round the corner —that is at the root of tho trouble. Short Chip Shots Jf there is a resulting lack of length, tighten up the resistance of the knees. In fact, i have worked many cures among my pupils by advising them to keep l)oth heels glued to tho ground right through the swing.

All iron and mashie shots are ultimately wrist shots —one thinks largely in terms of wrist action —but if the arms swing too much round the body in the back swing, the wrist effort is sure to be mistimed.

Last of all, a word about thoso short chip shots from, say, 20 yards, mrtde so often by a sort of stab.

Tho error here is in making tho backswing too upright. Try not to lift the club head in tho baokswing, but take back the hands instead. At impact take the elubhead through by a deferred application of the wrists. Get the feeling that you arc going to sling tho ball rather than hit it.

It may be, of course, that the ball must bo got up, but if the mashie niblick be used the ball will rise, while the method of play is a sling just tho same. llemembcr that the aim is to cut out backspin. It is specially useful to remember this whenever the green lies at the summit of a slope, for nero a running shot is essential —played with slack wrists. Any back spin here may leave you woefully short.