The Natural Golf Swing (10 page)

The right hand opposes the left, as is evident in the illustrations. Put your arms in front of you with the fingers extended outward. Now put them palm to palm. This, in essence, is the grip. The hands and palms oppose one another. They are in balance with respect to the target and each other. Drop your arms down as if you have a club in your hands and the same relationship holds.

The club, of course, intervenes between the hands. We now want to find the most straightforward means of holding the club while maintaining the relationship to the target. The hands and palms still oppose one another, as in prayer.

Fit the club diagonally across the palm of your left hand. It’s positioned so that when the last three fingers of the left hand wrap around the butt end of the club, the meaty part of the hand applies pressure as well as the fingers. This is a balanced, trim condition in which you can actually control the club with the last three fingers of your left hand. The fingers apply pressure from the bottom and the right side of the club, while the meaty part of the hand applies pressure from the top and the left side of the club. This symmetrical arrangement generates a sensation of control and power in the left hand. The grip pressure happens naturally when you assume the correct form. I don’t want you to
actually
apply
any pressure. Applied pressure is extra pressure. You’ll find you have all the pressure you require simply by adopting the form. The form
gives
you the pressure. You need not do anything to create it.

Left hand placement.

The left thumb, meanwhile, fits nicely on top of the shaft. The inward pressure that you have organized through the placement of your hand on the club will ensure that the top of your left forefinger will push against your thumb. You’ll know you have it when you feel some pressure from the base of your thumb against the upper part of your forefinger where they meet. This promotes unity in the hand. It’s another measure of control. It helps you feel solid and energetic.

The left hand placement also does something else that comes in handy, given the objectives of the swing motion. We are trying to allow the mass of our club and hands and arms to move on a pure path. We want to develop a motion in which we don’t consciously do a thing with our hands. They just go along for the ride. And therefore we want to design a starting form so that we can let them do just that. That’s why we place the left hand on the club as we do and that’s why I suggest a natural grip pressure. It all helps in avoiding slippage during the motion.

You will feel that your left-hand grip is primarily a palm grip. This is as it should be. Pressure is bearing in from both sides of the club to keep the club in the palm of your left hand. It fits there because it belongs there and gives you your best chance of swinging in balance while retaining clubhead control.

Cultivate the sensation of the left-hand grip. It’s one you will want to monitor every time you take your starting position. And it’s one that will make you feel like a golfer from the instant you assume the grip.

The right hand fits over the left. The little finger fits in and overlaps the space between the index finger and forefinger of the left hand. This has proven to be the most effective means of promoting unity between the hands.

As with the left hand, when you assume the proper form you will find that the upper part of the right thumb lightly presses against the upper extending part of the forefinger. Keep the grip compact and balanced and you’ll find that the right hand simply folds over the left, enabling the left thumb to fit into the pocket that is thereby formed. The right-hand grip, then, is mostly in the fingers. The middle three fingers have the most contact with the club.

The right hand acts as a counterbalancing force on the club. It presses toward the left hand as the left presses toward the right.

Setting the right hand on the club.

Setting the right hand on the club.

The connection thus formed sets the tone for the starting form: hands united in strength and purpose. We have arranged the grip so that we need not consciously use our hands during the swing. The relationship of the hands and arms to the club will not change throughout the swing. We’ve put them on the club so that we can forget about them. This is the heart of clubhead control. If the hands are passive, the clubhead will also be passive.

The completed grip.

Pressure points.

We’ve identified our target and gripped the club properly as part of assuming a balanced starting form. Now we want to get our feet right so that we’ll be ready to make the motion.

We are considering a standard five-iron shot in which we visualize the ball flying straight and at normal trajectory and distance. We’re doing this for the sake of convenience. It really doesn’t matter what club we have in our hands, since the swing motion is the same for every club.

Given that we are planning a straight shot, there’s no reason for us to align ourselves other than parallel left to the line of flight, give or take a few degrees. We set the right foot and clubface, then, at right angles to the target.

The left foot is in a slightly different position relative to the target. We set it at an angle of at least twenty-five degrees open to the target. I say “at least” because the degree of openness will vary for each golfer depending on his flexibility.

Why do we set the left foot open? For balance. We want to finish in balance, and so we must find a position for the left foot so that we will be standing on it at the finish. We practise positioning the left foot so that it sets up a resistance in the left knee and hip in order that our bodies are stopped directly on the target, facing it. The key is finding that location. I’ll show you a drill later on that will help you find it. For now, stand with your left foot square, or at right angles to a target, and then open to the target. It’s easy to see that you can move to your target more easily with the left foot open. This left foot placement will give you direction.

This might seem like an adjustment away from a natural starting position. It’s not. If we’re to make a motion toward the target, we must do so in balance. We won’t be able to make the free motion if the left foot is square. We’ll set up restrictions in the left hip and knee.

There’s another factor to consider regarding left foot placement. This is the position of the foot relative to the left shoulder. You must place the left foot
outside
the left shoulder so that you will be able to finish with your weight on your left foot. Balance is the reason I advocate a wide stance; it allows you to finish flat on the left foot.

Most golfers roll toward the outside of the left foot. You’re moving forward, though, and the best place for you to finish is solidly on the left foot, with one hundred per cent of your weight there, evenly distributed across the foot. This idea made so much sense to me after I saw Ben Hogan that I worked and worked to achieve the position. Still, the habit of rolling over to the outside of my left foot was so ingrained that it took me a year and a half of practice until I could finish solidly on my left foot every time.

Ideally, we want to set up square to the target. But we’re not ideally built creatures, and so we must accept one important factor: every person has his own alignment that hits the ball straight,
for him
. It won’t vary much from standard, but it will probably deviate just enough from geometric perfection to cause some concern among a person’s friends. They’d rather he simulated a machine. But machines don’t make golf swings. Human beings do, and we’re all built differently.

I’m a good example. My right leg is five-eighths of an inch shorter than my left leg. That’s why I set up slightly closed relative to my target. I’ve got to do this in order to stand level during the starting position and to give myself a chance to remain in balance during the motion. I want my weight
distributed fifty-fifty between both my feet at address. If I set up square, too much of my weight would be on my right side because my right leg is shorter than my left. I therefore also have to keep my left leg flexed to maintain my balance. The adjustment I make to get in a balanced position is the same I make for playing from an uphill lie. I want to be level, to feel free. I’d do the same if I were ice-skating or skiing. I refuse to give in to a physical imbalance I was born with. That’s why I adjust. It helps me arrive at a position from which I hit the ball straight. Sure, I’d like to stand square with my feet level, but I can’t. I tried a lift in my right foot in the early 1960s, and it worked for a while. I could really make a move. It felt wonderful. But I had to give up the lift because it stressed my back muscles. So I made the adjustment.

You may not need to make as big an adjustment. I point mine out to you in the interests of the natural swing. It might also remind us of the primary factor in the natural swing: we don’t do anything at the expense of balance.

The practice range is the place where we determine our personal alignment that allows us to hit the ball straight. This can change every day depending on how a person feels. I never get out of bed feeling the same from day to day. There’s a physical variation in the human structure from day to day. Before we go to the course, then, we work on the range to establish the position from which we can hit the ball dead straight. That’s square for that day. That’s natural. We don’t want to impose rules on the human frame. We adjust for the physical.