Bobby Jones explains the simple secret to his smooth swing

Golf instruction is always evolving, but the best tips stand the test of time. In Lifetime Tips, we’re highlighting some of the greatest tips that teachers and players have shared in the pages of GOLF Magazine. Today we have an article originally published in the September 1980 issue featuring the teachings of Bobby Jones.

It’s impossible to build a golf Mount Rushmore without including Bobby Jones. During his playing career, Jones amassed the most impressive resume assembled up to that point, with four US Open wins and three Open Championship wins, five US Amateur titles and one British Amateur title as well. Even in the nearly 100 years since then, few have managed to match his CV.

Simply put: when Bobby Jones talks about the golf swing, you’d be wise to listen.

Back to the September 1980 issue of GOLF magazineour readers got a chance to do just that when an excerpt of Jones’ “Bobby Jones on Golf” was published in its pages, which you can read below.

Bobby Jones’ best pacing tips

Two of golf’s most prominent instructors, Macdonald Smith and Ernest Jones, built their entire teaching around the single concept, “Swing the Club Head.” There are other details to consider, of course, in developing anything like a sonic swing, but in the end this will be found to be the primary necessity. Those who are able to feel what it means to “swing the club head” will find that they can cover a multitude of sins by doing so, and those who cannot will find that no amount of effort at perfection in positioning will take its place.

To make it easier to detect this swing feeling, the club should be moved back far enough so that there is no need to rush or make quick efforts to come down. This is the one point I have tried to emphasize more than anything else – the necessity for ample backswing if one really wants to swing the club head. The man who allows himself only a short backward movement can never be a floater, because his shortened height does not allow room for a smooth rush to lift him. speed by the time the club hits the ball.

The rhythm and timing that we all should have, but no one knows how to learn either. The closest approach to an estimate of what they are is in this concept of oscillation. The man who hits the ball, instead, has no sense of rhythm; Similarly, the man who, after a short backward movement, tries to make up for lost space with a convulsive effort that begins the downward stroke, has no sense of rhythm.

The only one who has a chance of achieving a rhythmic and well-timed shot is the man who, despite everything else, swings his club head, and the crucial area is where the swing changes direction at the tip. If the backstroke can be made to flow back smoothly, and at a sufficient length, from where the start can be made down without the feeling that there may not be enough time left, there is a good chance of success. But a hasty reversal causes a hasty downward departure, and a short reversal necessitates some sort of rescue. A good golfer will not want to be guilty of either.

Two of the important points in the swing machine are the ankles and the hips; if the wrists do not bend easily, or if the trunk does not rotate easily, a true swing cannot be made. Stiff or wooden knuckles shorten backswing and otherwise destroy clubhead feel. Without the flexible connection of relaxed, active wrist joints and a delicate, sensitive grip, the golf club might as well be a broom handle with nothing on the end. The club head cannot swing unless it feels at the bottom of the shaft.

So swing, swing, swing, if you want to play better golf; fight every austerity wherever it appears; Strive for relaxed muscles throughout and encourage a sense of laziness in the back movement and the downward movement. Step back far enough, trust your swing, and then – drive past the clubhead.