The golf swing itself has always mattered less than the results of the swing, or as the adage proclaims, “It ain’t how, it’s how many.” Beauty is on the scorecard. If Jim Furyk’s flying elbow makes critics wince, his numerous victories should make them envious.

He would say the key to his swing was he hit a ball the way his father hit a nail with a hammer — a short, wristy blow.

Therefore it is the paradox of history — the history of golf — that each generation is taught by the champion or guru who explains the game in the simplest terms. Golfers are told to make the clubhead meet the ball in a certain manner and keep the eye on the ball. But if, at the same time, your mind is focused intently upon some bunker just beyond or some water hazard lurking in the vicinity, you happen to be up against some of the steel-shod laws of evolution. As the mind happens to control the movements of the eye, it will immediately shift the eye from the ball to the bunker or hazard. Mind is the controlling factor in golf. Not muscle.

Putting is quite half the game of golf. It is the most important part of the game.

Visualize the path the ball has to take, and shut out all the confusion and any conceivable ways in which the putt could be missed.

Concentrate on the line and not on the hole.

Let the muscles act upon the information so conveyed without further ado. The subconscious mind is a better putter than the conscious.

How to putt with the proper strength is more an instinct than anything else.

It is easier to swing a club forward on a straight line with the right wrist than with the left. The movement of the left wrist is backward and it is infinitely easier to make the club travel on a straight line by means of the right wrist. For this reason, therefore, I strongly favor the employment of the right wrist only in the actual striking of the ball. In taking the club back the initial movement is made by the left wrist. After that the functions of the left hand cease entirely except for the purpose of steadying the club.

The subtle thing which we call “touch” is the faculty of feeling the resistance of the clubhead as it is swinging towards the ball. Having this feel, it is possible to correctly estimate the length of the backswing required for the distance which the ball is to travel.

Putting is largely a matter of confidence. When the player goes up to his ball believing that he can and will hole this putt, he has a much better chance of doing it than if he doubts and is given to anxiety as to what will happen to his ball when it passes over a certain part of the green.

Let the “error” of missing a short die on the spot, and forget about it before reaching the next tee. Walter Hagen accepts that: “We all miss those at times but we always make up for it by holing one that we didn’t deserve any more than we deserved to fumble a short one. I don’t worry about that putt because if I did, it might get into my head and then I’d lose my putting touch.”

More putts seem to go in when the balls “die” at the hole than by banging at the back of the hole.

Go for every putt, especially long ones.

If you have the patience to carry out proper instructions and to practice, putting is surely the easiest thing in golf to learn. The secret of good putting is practice, and practice, and practice.

In no other branch of the game are all men born so “nearly free and equal.”

My final word of advice would be this: No matter what your putting style may be; no matter whose style you may try to copy; no matter whose advice you may take about putting — practice assiduously.

The line may look different when one takes up the stance. It takes a lot of willpower not to be influenced by the new impression.

It is easier to putt back to the hole than to continue on the same line with a putt that was previously short. When a golfer has to putt back from the far side of the hole, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he gave the hole a chance.

In the long game, distance and a fair measure of accuracy are the cardinal requirements. The approach calls for regulated strength, plus accuracy of direction for all kinds of distances and from a variety of lies, while the putt is a modified approach combine strength and accuracy in the highest degree, joined to delicacy of touch. Ability in any one of the 3 departments does not necessarily carry with it skill in the other 2. It is the coordination of all 3 at once and the same time that spells success.

Thinking is good. To think when the swing starts is not.

Don’t allow your mind to run ahead of what your hands are doing. Once the clubhead is in motion the sole remaining idea should be to hit the ball.

When your grip is as it should be — mainly with the fingers — you almost can think with your fingers. You can subconsciously manipulate the club as your sense of touch and your muscular sense signal that the clubface position must be adjusted.

Do not be afraid to go through with a long, free follow-through. Swing at the ball. Do not jab at it.

Hagen was always able to “sense at every instant in the swing exactly where the clubhead is.”

You don’t have to kill it and you don’t have to do something with the club to make it get up — only hit the ball. The club is made to get the ball up and put some backspin on it.

Where other men strove for consistent perfection, it was part of Hagen’s philosophy to expect his quota of downright bad shots in every round. So they did not upset him.

You should not be using your hands merely to grip the club. You should feel you use your hands to swing the clubhead.

You must get the mental picture of hitting with the clubhead, just as you have the same mental picture of hitting a nail with the head of a hammer.

It is in the 2-3ft immediately before and after impact where the real business takes place.

In 26 years of competitive golf, he played well over 2.5K course worldwide. He played 3 different courses in one day. His answer to defeat was also remarkably simple yet incredibly impressive: they will never find him sore or sulking. And if he started out behind they will never find him quitting, for he has pulled too many forlorn hopes out of the blaze.

  • To insist too much on keeping the eye on the ball will cramp the follow-through.
  • Look at the ball naturally and look at the point you are actually going to hit.
  • The head will then take care of itself.
  • Any violent body movement will do no other good but spoil the shot.

Swing the arms freely with no interference from the body. In golf anything which sets up tension, anything that is unnatural, is quite harmful.

Golfers gain power by knowing the fundamental principles of the golf swing: Control, Balance, and Timing. You must be able to feel how you are swinging the club itself, and your hands — being the point of contact with the club — are the only means of feeling what you are doing with the club itself. That is Control.

The action you are consciously trying to execute is wielding the golf club. All movement to maintain the condition of balance should be purely responsive to this purpose. All balance rests on letting your body give to the action of the club in the easiest manner.

Timing is the art of starting the hit at the right time. It means producing the maximum speed with the clubhead at the instant of impact against the ball. It might be defined as the proper coordination of body, arms, and hands to produce this maximum speed at the designated time. This can only be done and felt by the pupil himself through practice.

Rhythm is a quality of swinging the clubhead. At its best it has taken the form of relaxation and smoothness and confidence, a smooth and gradual application of power that enables one to gradually accelerate the speed of the clubhead from the top of the swing down and through the ball, and to drive that ball properly, a freedom that avoids jerky and controlled movements, and produces rhythm no matter how sensitive our innate sense of touch may be.

Feel you are swinging the clubhead off the end of the shaft.

The player must learn to picture the swing as a whole. The successful swing is one, full, smooth, flowing motion without mental or physical interruption. He should be able to swing with little or no effort.

Golf is a game that is played in the air these days and long low shots are not so desirable unless against the wind. I prefer to play all my shots high as I find no traps up in the air as I often find along the fairway.

Harry Vardon was a hell of a player. For more than 20 years, he dominated competitive golf, not only in his own country but throughout the world — he never threw a tantrum, he never gave an alibi. He just came to play.

When I was quite young, I asked my brother Roger how to play a certain shot. “Oh, it’s no use telling you anything. You will never be any good until you find out for yourself.”

  • You must drive straight and far.
  • Unless you drive into the fairway, you will certainly meet with awkward stances. The ball will be lying away from you or gazing at you from an elevation.
  • Distance is secondary to accuracy.
  • The pitch is the most valuable stroke in golf.
  • It must be executed with authority. Power is not at stake; it is to be played purely for accuracy’s sake.
  • When you come to a fast, well-guarded green, you can pitch boldly over a trap right up to the cup without fear of running over into another trap.

Creativity is favored by an intellect that has been enriched with diverse experiences and perspectives.

  • Sensibility is in fact work.
  • The creative golfer is built on discipline and focus.

The match-winning quality is a combination of 2 things: the ability to pitch, and to hole the short putt. The object of the chip is to put the ball dead, or so near the pin that the putt would be holed 3 times out of 4.

When you are between 50-100y from the pin, you should consider which side of the green will allow for an easier putt. If you are in doubt, it is simply a choice of the stronger club. Between 2 different irons, use the one you do not have to force.

And, after all, we must miss occasionally for no definite reason except that we are human. When we are playing well and confidently, we accept an occasional miss as proceeding from that cause and think no more of it.

Our opponent has nothing to do with our game. It is thus a game against the par.

I pushed everything out of my mind, except the flag on the green and the hitting of the ball. The shot came off all right. But it might have ended disastrously had I not made up my mind that I would not allow anything to disturb me mentally. In hitting the ball it does not pay to allow the little white sphere to annoy you. What I mean is one must not look too rigidly at the ball, as this too is apt to affect one’s nerves.

In playing over a pond, ditch, or bunker, you must think only of hitting the ball. The stroke should be a sharply decisive one.

The sum and substance for lowering your handicap and improving your game is to play safe.

It is highly important to know what is ahead before you shoot.

If you’ve made a decision respecting the club to use and shot to play, you must then hit cleanly and decisively through the ball.

Golf is really a mental problem with a physical solution.

Nobody wins an Open Championship unless the ball rolls for him. The tennis player can make his own luck via forcing shots, but the golfer is playing a kind of outdoor solitaire against an invisible foe. He is battling nature as well as flesh and blood rivals. I’ve won some tournaments when I was half missing my shots and lost others when I was hitting the ball cleanly.

Imagination is insidiously self-destructive.

  • The power of imagination could enlarge small obstacles so as to fill our minds with a fantastic estimate.
  • Don’t allow difficulties to assume unreasonable proportions.
  • Try not to get paralyzed by indecision. If you turn toward your caddie seeking advice, you have weakened your own independence of thought.
  • Proceed serenely in your way.

The key to turning imagination into golf is acting as if the visualized shot was already accomplished.

Don’t give another thought to any other club, or any change in power. Right or wrong, close your mind to any thought of change or the possibility of a mistake.

I believe I never played a short chip from just off the green that I did not feel that I would hole it in. It was not just hope but actual expectation.

It is one thing to be able to slice a golf ball and another to control the slice. The average beginner, failing to keep the elbows close to the body, is prone to cut across the ball, which invariably produces a slice.

To correct a slice:

  • Hit to the right purposely. Swing the clubhead along an inside-out line toward the right of the intended line of play.
  • See that the hands are not ahead of the clubhead, thus causing the club to draw across the ball.
  • If at the moment of impact, the club is held equally tight with both hands there will be little likelihood of a pull or a slice.
  • Don’t turn your shoulders too soon or pull themselves up as you hit the ball. Both faults are born from the desire to hit.
  • Throw the weight well forward on the left leg in taking the stance, and keep it there practically throughout the entire stroke.
  • Concentrate upon holding the swing behind the line of flight passing through the ball.
  • Hold the left side firm, not only to forbid the left hip to relax and fall away, but to compel it to point in the direction of the hole at the finish of the swing.

It takes more than one poor shot to ruin a game or spoil a score. He took it for granted that a poor shot at the tee might result in a lucky putt.

What is called “the golf temperament” is not so much what is born in a man as what a man can school himself to be. It is merely another way of saying that one is a good-natured sportsman who cheerfully takes the rough luck with the good things that come his way. There is never anything on a golf links about which it is worthwhile to be seriously angry. It is very stupid to lose control of one’s temper, for the only result is that one helps the opposition.

  • Failure to keep the head down and hold it still.
  • Failure to keep eyes on the ball.
  • Failure to carry clubhead back straight and near the ground for at least first 12 inches of the backswing.
  • Failure to keep the left arms straight.
  • Failure to hit square and to follow through.
  • Failure to “time” the shot properly.
  • Failure to take sufficient time, especially in the backswing.
  • Failure to keep all muscles lax, easy, and free.
  • Failure to keep the body balanced throughout the shot.
  • Failure to putt for the back of the cup.

One of the best ways to correct a fault is to learn how to make a fault. Indeed, it is only after you’ve learned how to play a slice or a hook that a cure for both will begin to emerge.

Take more club, grip it shorter, and hit within your power.

To have a feeling of perfect confidence in every shot, with a foreknowledge that what has been done well once can be well repeated.

You will find that a man who has a faulty grip is always trying to correct errors in his game. He never really gets to the root of his real fault — which is in his hands.

Another important feature of this stroke is the mental attitude. If you believe you won’t get out, you very likely won’t. If you approach the test without any confidence or with a feeling of dread, you are not going to have very much luck.

Once a player sets off on a wild train of thought, he might as well give up.

In an Open Championship one’s imagination runs riot. A cheer from a distant part of the course is always interpreted as a blow from some close pursuer, when it may mean no more than that some obscure competitor had holed a chip shot while another player’s waiting gallery happened to be watching. It may not mean a thing, and even if it does, it can’t be helped.

Think only of the next shot to be played — not on the missed shot or whether (or not) you have drawn bad luck to yourself.

Creativity requires self-assurance and the ability to take risks.

  • Don’t try heroic measures except in desperate situations.
  • Remember that the worse the lie, the more carefully and quietly should the stroke be played.
  • Don’t come to a lie on the rough blind with rage.
  • Never use from the rough the same club you would use from the fairway.
  • You see the ball and the place you want the shot to finish.
  • Next, you make a mental note of the many variables that go into shot planning.
  • Then you imagine the best route your ball should take to finish on target, and the flight pattern it should assume.
  • Finally, you should imagine or sense how your swing should feel to produce this type of shot.
  • “Do or die”: the shot that must be dead to halve or win a hole in a tight match competition.
  • “Average” shot: designed to get dead, but cutting down on the element of risk to an appreciable extent by eliminating much of the hazard that must accompany the “Do or die” effort.
  • “Safety first” shot.

It is much better to be within 20ft of the cup than still in a trap, or off the green, thinking of a shot that went wrong and debating the chances of getting within inches of the flag on our next try.

Chances favor only the prepared mind.

Each golfer loses hundreds of strokes in a season by trying to save the situation with a miraculous shot. Miraculous shots rarely come off, especially from the average player who is never too sure of how to play a simple pitch. I’ve seen average golfers trying to play strokes that the best of us could not get away with. That is what I call Kidding Yourself.

The secret of match play: It is simply to play your steadiest and best, and not to care about the opponent’s game until it is absolutely necessary to do so.

Covet every hole: Play for all you are worth at the start, and establish a lead. Even when you have got it and are nearing home, never for a moment slacken in the idea that you can afford to take it easily.

The majority of good match players are inclined to be very silent men, and in consequence it is safe to assume that the lack of conversation is a virtue in the playing of the game of golf.

Well, I know that, in those times, whenever I was within reach of the green with any club, I saw only the flag and thought only of the flag. Having weighed up the situation, I simply focused my attention on the flag and then on the ball, and forgot everything else. I could put the ball within a yard or two of any place that I wished.

The man with an obstructive imagination cannot help seeing the dangers and disasters which await him if he strays from the path. To that extent he is intent upon avoiding them and his concentration is destroyed. And this concentration which is so necessary is not concentration upon the swing but upon the results of the swing.

The majority of the mistakes in golf are made well before the clubhead ever gets to the ball. When the head is lifted too soon, as a rule it starts up before the clubhead is within 6 inches of the ball, thereby throwing the swing out of line and killing most of the power of the punch. The common fault of hitting too soon usually begins with a backswing that is too fast or too jerky and this destroys any chance for rhythm later on. Or it may lead to the mistake of applying power too quickly on the downswing where all acceleration is choked off before the clubhead ever gets the chance to speed up on its way through and beyond the ball.

Very often you will make the surprising discovery that you will gain more distance with less effort. It is proof that the stroke was correctly timed.

Don’t try to hit very hard. The ideal drive is not a blow to the ball but a long, even, rapid swing. Bring the club back quietly without hurry, keeping the arms out from the body. If there is hurry in starting the downswing the result will be a jerk.

The gift of extreme concentration in the playing of every shot.

Have a feeling of perfect confidence in every shot, with a foreknowledge that what has been done well once can be well repeated.

I am supposed to have nothing but ice in my veins when at play. On the contrary, I am often highly nervous and have made some of my best shots when my nerves seemed to be jumping sideways. You are not nervous, you are concentrated. Being nervous, I am a competitive golfer.

It’s not concentration if you look at the ball and think about the bunker ahead.

At least 80% of the golf strokes badly played are the results of breaking this concentration effort at the vital part of the swing, which is the speed area that starts from 1-2ft before the ball is hit. At this point, instead of thinking on through, the golfer suddenly shifts his attention to something else ahead.

2 enemies of correct hitting:

One, to have the hands slightly apart in gripping the club and, two, holding it deeply in the palms of the 2 hands with the knuckles well under the shaft.

It happens frequently that a poor player comes out on top in match play because he often possesses more bull dog courage than his opponent with a better game. I know better way of developing courage than to play in stiff competition whenever the chance offers. Try to get in a game where your opponents are better players, even if you must accept odds that look humiliating. You will learn the fine points of the game much more quickly this way than you will by engaging in golf with weaker opponents.

There is one thing that has helped me more in match play than any other factor, and that is to play each shot by itself. This faculty didn’t come naturally or easily. It came only through hard practice and concentration.

Once you’ve decided, then you have but one job left: to put your entire mind on hitting that golf ball with the best swing you have to use.

Don’t trouble yourself with keeping your eye on the ball. If you are thinking about the ball all the way through your swing, you are most certainly going to look at it. Just keep your mind there and your eye will be there too.

Better conquer a hole than always fear it.

Bad players excuse their faults; good ones quit them.