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I. Setup

The single most important maneuver in golf is your setup. It consists of the golfer aligning himself properly to the target, then positioning his/her body in such a way the he/she can move freely during the swing while in balance. Setting up properly will help accomplish the goal of creating power with the big muscles and then transferring it to the clubhead. The setup is where your adjustments are made. The best players have an unvarying setup routine that they execute before addressing the ball, and then run through a series of “setup feels” as they address the ball.

“It is essential to standardize the approach to every shot, beginning even before taking the address position.” Bobby Jones.

“The difference between the good and the ordinary golfer is that the good one feels his shots through his address.” Percy Boomer.

“The only way in which we can repeat correct shots time after time (and this is the greatest of golfing assets) is to be able to repeat the correct feel of how they are produced.” Percy Boomer.

“I feel that hitting specific shots—playing the ball to a certain place in a certain way—is 50 percent mental picture, 40 percent setup, and 10 percent swing. That is why setting up takes me so long, why I have to be so deliberate.” Jack Nicklaus.

“I never hit a shot, even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie. First I ‘see’ the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I see the ball going there; its path, its trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there’s a sort of fade out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality. Only at the end of this short, private, Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.” Jack Nicklaus.

Watching the Ball

“If you can’t see it, you can’t hit it. You have to keep your eye on the ball through the whole swing. If you do that everything pretty much falls into place naturally.” Jimmy Dameret

“My old man was a greart believer that only the inside half of the ball belonged to you, that you didn’t have any part of the outside half of it, so you always worked the club from the inside—not inside out, but to the inside part of the ball. So you sort of side-swiped it. That creates the inside plane.” Jackie Burke, Jr.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. . .you can’t hit what you can’t see.” Muhammed Ali

Grip

There are three types of grips employed by golfers today:

Vardon Overlap—popularized by the great British champion, Harry Vardon, this device has the little finger of his right hand in the gap created by the forefinger & middle finger of his left hand, as a result of which the grip came to be know as the Vardon Overlap. One of the most widely used among great players and the one most commoningly taught on the nation’s lesson tees. We will use this grip as a basis of instruction.

Interlocking—popularized by the greatest player in the game, Jack Nicklaus, this device has the little finger of his right hand intertwined with the forefinger of his left hand. Tiger Woods, Tom Kite, Michelle Wie, Rory McElroy, Jordan Speith, to name but a few, also use the interlocking grip.

10 Finger or Baseball Grip—Some teachers like to advocate that junior players use the 10-finger grip, with the goal of switching to overlap or interlock later. This is feasible, as kids usually adapt swing and set up changes fairly easily as compared to adults. People with weaker hands and forearms may also benefit from the 10-finger grip. Golfers who use larger arthritic grips may experience that the overlap or interlock is difficult to incorporate with such grips, finding the 10-finger grip offers a greater use of ease. Explained in greater detail on page 197

Whatever grip you choose know that:

A good grip helps shapes your swing correctly and influences the overall tone of the swing—its rhythm and smoothness.

“In a good grip both hands act as one unit. The grip is the heartbeat of the action of the golf swing.” Ben Hogan

Left Hand

“With the back of your left hand facing the target (and the club in the general position it would be at address) place the club in the left hand so that (1) the shaft is pressed up under the muscular pad at the inside heel of the palm and (2) the shaft also lies directly across the top joint of the forefinger.

Crook the forefinger around the shaft and you will discover that you can lift the club and maintain a fairly firm grip on it by supporting it just with the muscles of that finger and the muscles of the pad of the palm.

Now just close the left hand—close the finger before you close the thumb—and the club will be just where it should be.” Ben Hogan

“In teaching golf you come to know how much counter clockwise motion with their left hand and arm each individual produces in the downswing. That tells you where the left hand belongs on the club—quite a statement, huh? Everybody can do it, but they’ve got to find out why and how much, which is why there is not set left hand grip. I will say that openly to anyone, everyone can turn their left hand cournterclockwise just so much and they to know their limit and adjust to it. You grip the club in such a way to make it work.” Henry Picard

Right Hand

“The right hand grip is almost entirely a finger grip. Encircle the club shaft with your right hand and slide it snugly up next to your left hand, letting your thumb ride comfortably across the top of the handle and making sure the V-shaped crease formed by the thumb and forefinger of this hand also points to your right shoulder. Your right little finger over-laps (or interlocks with) the forefinger of the left hand on the underside of the club handle. In a kind of “pinch,” and as a result there will be a slight gap or separatioin between the forefingers and the other fingers. The security and control in the right hand grip comes from the “pinch” and from the marriage of the right little finger of the left forefinger through the overlap or interlock.” Sam Snead

“The muscles of the right forefinger and thumb connect with the very powerful set of muscles that run along the outside of the right arm and elbow to the right shoulder. If you work the tips of the thumb and forefinger together and apply any considerable amount of pressure, you automatically activate those muscles of the right arm and shoulder—and those are not the muscles you want to use in the golf swing.” Ben Hogan

“A word further about the thumb area of the right hand: school yourself when you are taking your grip so that the thumb extension of the forefinger—press up against each other tightly. Keep them pressed together as you begin to affix your grip and maintain this airtight pressure between them when you fold the right hand over the left thumb. In this connection, I like to feel that the knuckle on the back of my right hand above the forefinger is pressing to the left, toward the target. Furthermore, when you fold the right hand over the left thumb—and there is a lot to fold over—the left thumb will fit perfectly in the cup formed in the palm of your folded right hand. They fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.” Ben Hogan

“The pressure points in the grip are the last three fingers of the left hand and the forefinger and thumbs and the little finger of the right hand.” Walter Hagen.

“The only way I know of achieving a relaxed grip which will at the same time retain adequate control of the club is to actuate the club and hold it mainly by the three small fingers of the left hand.” Bobby Jones.

“Whatever you do, make sure your left hand dominates your right—or vice versa if you’re a lefthander—from the time you take hold of the club until you finish the swing. If you hold the club with the same pressure in each hand, your naturally stronger right hand will over power your left hand and take control of the swing, with disastrous results.” Byron Nelson.

“I don’t ever remember losing the club in my left hand once in my entire life.” Byron Nelson.

“In a way, the last two fingers of my left hand are a focal point for my sense of rhythm—a kind of band leaders baton—holding up the drums while the violin finishes.” Sam Snead.

“He showed me the classic overlap, or Vardon, grip—the proper grip for a good golf swing—and told me to go hit the golf ball . . . I worked hard to learn the grip Pap showed me. It probably helped that my hands were larger than the average kid’s . . . that was pretty much all the swing instruction he gave me for many years. ‘Get the right grip, hit the ball hard. Go find the ball, boy, and hit it hard again,’” Arnold Palmer.

“The standard grip is the overlapping grip or the Vardon grip. Harry Vardon popularized it both in Great Britian and America. In a good grip both hands act as one unit. The grip is the heartbeat of the action of the golf swing.” Ben Hogan

“I’ve felt my swing would not fail if I held the club a certain way, that would repeat every time.” Dave Eichelberger said. “To me, that’s what Hogan’s secret was.”

“But is there is one thing I would tell all golfers about technique, it would be that the grip has a tendency to change even during the course of a round and you have to keep checking it day in and day out. The grip is the foundation of the swing. Well, there’s one other thing—you must constantly work on timing and tempo.” Patty Berg

Arms—Setting up the Triangle

“Keeping the arms together and pinching the knees together in unison.” Walter Hagen.

“Ben Hogan used to practice the swing with his arms bound together by a belt around his forearms. He wasn’t trying to stress the differing positions of the left arm and the right arm that ideally occupy throughout the swing, but rather to encourage them to work in a balanced and thus harmonious fashion. I think of keeping my elbows together a lot, for the same reason. I also press my knees toward each other when I stand up to the ball, as though I’m slightly knock-kneed—again, in part, to help create a good working relationship between opposite sides.” Sam Snead.

“The arms work absolutely subjectively to the shoulders, that is why they are controlled. The triangle formed by our arms and a line between the shoulders never loses its shape . . . it should be possible to push a wooden snooker triangle in between the arms and to leave it there without impeding the swing back or through.” Percy Boomer.

“Most people think they lift their arms to get them to the top of the backswing. With a modern controlled swing they do not lift them . . . the arms work absolutely subjective to the shoulders, that is why they are controlled.” Percy Boomer.

“It is by the management of the arms that championships are won or lost.” Percy Boomer.

“Keep your left arm connected against your chest, the same as a baseball batter or forehand down the line in tennis or anything else—the lead arm always stays on the body. It all came from baseball and Babe Ruth, teaching Sam Byrd how to bat. A drill—a handkerchief under the lead arm and keeping it under throughout the swing. Ruth taught it in baseball, and Sam Byrd brought it into golf, explained it to Hogan and some of the other guys. Sam Byrd found that in golf all the great players did it. Whether they knew did it or not, they did it, just like the great hitters all do it.” Jimmy Ballard.

While living in San Diego, this author took a golf lesson from John Schlee, the third round leader and eventual runner up to Johnny Miller when he posted his final round 63 in the 1973 US Open. Imagine how that impacted Schlee’s life. Schlee, who was one of the chosen few to spend time on the lesson tee with Hogan in Fort Worth. His message to me . . . “imagine holding an orange between your elbows.”

“A word of emphasis about the elbows. You want to press them as closely together as you can. When you do this (and the elbows point directly to the hip bones) you will notice that the pocket of each elbow—the small depression on the inside of the joint—will lie in the center of the arm, at the midway point. The pockets will be facing toward the sky, as they should, not toward each other. In this position of address, though the left arm hangs relatively straight, the right arm should be broken a little at the elbow as the elbow points in. The right elbow, as it folds close to the body, should always be pointing toward the ground. If the upper part of the right arm adheres as closely as possible to the side of the chest.” Ben Hogan.

“As your arms become schooled, you will get the feeling that the arms and the club form one firm unit—sort of as if the two arms were equal sides of a triangle, with the club emerging like the spire of a steeple at the peak point where the arms join.” Ben Hogan.

Lower Body: Stance, Posture, Ball Position

“The value of perfect posture and body rhythm.” Walter Hagen.

“Never reach for the ball. Your weight as you address the ball should be distributed evenly between the ball and the heel of each foot, with special emphasis on the left foot. This gives you the best possible foundation for your swing. If you start reaching perceptibly for the ball, the arc of your swing will become to flat. The predominant fault is standing too far from the ball, rather than too close to it. It is next to impossible to stand too close to the ball.” Byron Nelson.

“Many a golfer make the sizable error of thinking of the stance as that preparatory part of the swing in which the player merely lines himself up on the target he or she is shooting at. While one of the purposes of the stance certainly is to set up the direction of the shot, it also has quite a number of other functions that are much more important. Power and control must be combined in a good golf swing, and the stance is that step in which a golfer sets himself up so that (1) his body will be in balance throughout the swing, (2) his/her muscles are ready to perform fluidly, and (3) as a logical result, all the energy he pours into his swing will be channeled to produce maximum control and power. When you see a fine player making little individual movements of his feet or his knees or his shoulders as he settles into his stance, do not mistake these for empty gestures of nervousness. And they’re not movements, either, that precede his arriving at a static, fixed position. What he’s actually trying to do is to feel that everything he will be calling on in his swing is in balance and poised for action.” Ben Hogan.

“The feet should be set apart the width of the shoulders when you are playing the standard five iron shot. They are somewhat closer together when you play the more lofted clubs, somewhat wider than the width of the shoulders when you play the long irons and the woods.” Ben Hogan

“You should bend your knees from the thighs down. As your knees bend, the upper part of the trunk remains erect, just as it does when you sit down in a chair. In golf, the sit down motion is more like lowering yourself onto a spectator-sports-stick. Think of the seat of the seat as being about two inches or so below your buttocks. In this semi-sitting position, your body should feel in balance both laterally and back to front. You should feel a sense of heaviness in your buttocks. There should be more tension in your legs from the knees down—the lower part of your legs should feel very springy and strong, loaded with elastic energy. Your weight should be a bit more on the heels than on the balls of your feet, so that, if you wanted to, you would be able to lift your toes inside of your shoes. The back remains as naturally erect as it is when you’re walking down a fairway. Do not crouch the shoulders over the ball. You bend your head down only by bending your neck, not your back or shoulders.” Ben Hogan.

“You know why I’m so goddam good? I never move my right knee.” Ben Hogan to his caddy

Ball Position

“The basic objective in positioning the ball is to where the path of the descending clubhead momentarily coincides with the target line. Although down through the years many good players have used one ball position for all basic shots—I believe Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan both did—others have preferred to move the ball about in relations to the feet depending on the club being used. However, the trend among modern tournaments players is to position the ball identically for every standard shot. I play every standard shot with the ball in the same position relative to my feet. The position should be opposite my left heel.” Jack Nicklaus

Alignment

If you watch any footage of Jack Nicklaus hitting a golf shot, he always picked out an intermediary target as he began his setup. “I would find a leaf or some sort of mark on the grass on the target line a few feet ahead of the ball and in my mind’s eye ‘see’ a line connecting the ball and my mark line up the clubface while looking from behind the ball through my mark to the target; then, holding the clubface in position, walk around it and align myself in an address position square to the face.” Jack Nicklaus.

Shoulder Alignment Governs Path of Clubhead

“Whatever alignment you seek at address—open, square, or closed—don’t make the mistake thinking that by aligning your feet one way your body will automatically follow. The critical alignment factor is the shoulders. Remember that, unless you make a deliberate effort not to, you instinctively swing the club through the ball parallel to your shoulders, no matter where your feet may be aligned.” Jack Nicklaus.

All golfers have a dominant eye. Generally speaking, it’s the right eye. If you elect not to pick out an intermediary target in the initial phase of the setup, you run the risk of opening your shoulders—ever so slightly—every time you look at your target. This is one aspect of the setup that all students of the game should incorporate into their routines. Picking out an intermediary target and aligning your shoulders (not your feet) parallel to that target. If you hit a slice, there is a high probability that you have your shoulders open in the alignment phase of the set up.

As Jack Nicklaus said, “Shoulder alignment governs path of the clubhead. You will instinctively swing the club through the ball parallel to your shoulders, no matter where your feet may be aligned.” With an intermediary target, you eliminate the dominant eye, nudging the shoulders ever so open every time you peer at the target.

------------------------------- line of flight TARGET

------------------------------- shoulders, hips, knees, feet

Waggling

“As ye waggle so shall ye swing.” old Scottish adage.

“Waggle spontaneously.” Walter Hagen.

“At the moment you stand ready to hit the ball there is a natural tendency to tighten up in your hands, wrists, arms, and shoulders. I have found the most effective means of overcoming this tension is the waggle—abbreviated, easy, loose, back and forth movement with the clubhead. To derive maximum benefit, make these preliminary loosening-up motions in the line-of-flight in which you intend to hit the shot. The manner which you waggle you have a definite bearing on the way you start the clubhead back for the swing. Avoid waggling too much. This defeats the purpose of the waggle.” Byron Nelson.

“The essence of rhythmic swing is to be smooth, for only the smooth swing can be rhythmic. But if you get undue clubhead agitation into your preparatory movement (which is what the waggle is) you will get all the feel in your hands, arms, and shoulders, not in your legs, hips, and back, which is where you should feel that you swing from.” Byron Nelson.

“Then the waggle. About the waggle a whole book could be written. Every movement we make when we waggle is a miniature of the swing we intend to make, The clubhead moves in response to the body and the body opposes the clubhead. It is a flow and counter flow of forces with no static period, no check. There is no check anywhere in a good swing. There is no such thing as the “dead top” of a swing . . . the waggle—which is the bottom of an imaginary swing! Because unless you feel the whole of the swing in your waggle, your waggle is failing in its purpose. The whole meaning and purpose of the waggle is that you shall first feel your swing rightly so that you may then make it rightly. I remember watching Sand Herd make his first Cine pictures. In order not to waste film he tried to do without his customary fourteen waggles (shades of Sergio Garcia) and in consequence he could not hit the ball. He could not make the shot because he had not felt it.” Percy Boomer

“Unless you feel the whole of the swing in your waggle, your waggle is failing in its purpose.” Percy Boomer.

“The main thing to remember is that the waggle is just a little bitty swing that follows along the same path—for maybe a foot or so—that your full swing will travel. The waggle sets the tempo for the whole swing, so that if you’re ever fidgety and jerky with this movement, it’s going to be difficult for you to make a smooth swing.” Byron Nelson.

“If you do waggle, let the action help you preview the shot you’re going to play by waggling along the desired swing path thus, out-to-in waggles for a fade and in-to-out waggles for a draw.” Jack Nicklaus.

“Hogan,” wrote Cary Middlecoff, “placed more emphasis on the waggle than any swing theorist before.” He pointed out that Hogan himself had first become aware in 1932 of how crucial the waggle was when he observed the advantage Johnny Revolta gained by using it for short shots around the green. Hogan elaborated on this idea and applied it to his complete game.

“The bridge between the setup and the actual start of the backswing is the waggle. As a golfer looks at his objective and figures out the kind of shot he is going to play, his instincts take over: he waggles the club back and forth. Many golfers have the mistaken idea that it doesn’t really matter how you waggle the club. They think the only purpose in waggling the club is to loosen yourself up so that you won’t be tense or rigid. The waggle is an extremely important part of shot making. Far from being just a lot of minute details, it is sort of miniature practice swing and abbreviated “dry run” for the shot coming up. As the golfer takes the club back on the waggle, he accustoms himself to the path of the club he will be taking on his actual backswing.” Ben Hogan

“The rhythm of the waggle varies with each shot you play. Don’t groove your waggle. It takes instinct to plan and play a golf shot, and your preparations for each shot must be done instinctively. Let’s say, for example, that you’re 130 yards out from a semi plateau green. You’ve decided that you want to get the ball well up in the air in a steep trajectory, and that you’ll be playing a seven-iron. You want to strike the shot firmly, but you want to hit a soft, feathery kind of shot that will float down onto the green. The waggle will be somewhat slowly, somewhat softly. This is the tempo you will also be using on the stroke, of course. Say, on the other hand, that you’ve got to bang a drive low into the wind on a hole where it’s important to be out a good distance from the tee to get home in two. For this shot, you’ll move the club back and forth with much more briskness, more conviction, more speed, and you’ll swing that way. The waggle, in other words, fit’s the shot.” Ben Hogan

The common denominator among better golfers is that they waggle consistently, instinctively, and they do it on every shot.