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.
II. Swing
Takeaway
There are a couple of schools of thought regarding the takeaway. John Geertsen Sr. advocated “setting the angle early” as opposed to what Lucious Bateman taught, the one-piece takeaway (more about that in Lessons from the Six Under Par Club). In a one-piece takeaway, when your hands are at hip level, the club shaft is parallel to the ground. In “setting the angle early” takeaway, when your hands are at hip level, the club shaft is perpendicular to the ground. Johnny Miller’s (“find an angle and keep it”) record speaks for itself as what can be accomplished with an early set. For the average player—an early set has a tendency to activate the hands too soon in the golf swing. At the time of Johnny’s success, this methodology became very controversial. Hogan, Snead, Lord Byron, Palmer, Nicklaus (to name but a few) all employed a “one-piece takeaway.”
Many golf instructors advocate early angle setting somewhere between the takeaway and when the hands reach hip level. For those, if there isn't a shoulder turn along with the angle set, it activates the hands. Instead of keeping the hands passive, they become active. Once the hands are “activated,” the triangle (both hands on the grip of the club connected to your shoulders) “separates,” and the hands get ahead of the body. Once this happens, power is displaced, and the ball can go anywhere—usually a relatively short distance. By turning the triangle (billiard rack) with the big muscles (shoulders) and getting your left arm and hand extended out and in control, you’re able to capture the feeling of a true pivot. This is not to say that an early angle set is wrong. The student who adheres to the “early set” methodology needs to realize it is imperative to keep the angle behind the body while initiating the downswing.
“There is no action in golf less understood than the use of the wrists, for curiously enough we do not have to work them, but we have to let them work themselves—like hinges on a door.” Percy Boomer.
In support of a one piece takeaway.
“The triangle formed by our arms and a line between the shoulders should never lose 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.
“The wrists cock themselves. If you hold your wrists free to respond to the movement of the swing and to the momentum of the clubhead which sets up that movement, the weight of the clubhead itself will be sufficient to cock the wrists for you.” Percy Boomer.
“At no time make a conscious effort to cock the wrists. By this I am not saying there is no cocking of the wrists. It is the deliberate attempt to do so that causes looseness in your swing—and this is a severe detriment to accuracy and consistency.” Byron Nelson.
“When you swing back to waist high—the shaft parallel to the ground—the toe of the club must be pointed straight up to the sky.” Harvey Penick.
“The wrist cock is an integral part of the backswing, and should not be cultivated as an independent action.” Sam Snead.
“I believe that you cannot start the club back too slowly, provided you swing it back rather than take it away from the ball. I said in a previous book that the ideal swing start is a terribly forced, ridiculously slow movement of the club away from the ball. I still feel that way. The harder I want to swing, the slower I try to start the club back. But on every shot, I endeavor to swing the club in motion very deliberately, very positively, only just fast enough to avoid jerkiness. Obviously, the motion speeds up as my backswing develops, but the slower I can keep those first few feet of the takeaway, the better I’ll play. Reasons? Primarily three: (1) The slower you start back, the better chance of moving the clubhead on a particular line, and thus the better your chance of establishing the particular arc and plane you desire. (2) The slower you start back, the easier it is to coordinate or unify the movements of the feet, legs, hips, hands, arms, and shoulders, the better your chance of starting back in one piece. (3) The slower you start back—while still swinging the club, mind you—the smoother the over-all tempo you’ll establish.” Jack Nicklaus.
“I once heard Arnold Palmer say that if he got started right away during the first 14 inches of his swing he never had to think about anything else during the rest of it. That may be a slight exaggeration, particularly for a player who has less ability than Arnold, but it illustrates the importance good players place on the takeaway. I believe that your takeaway should be one piece. You should feel that you are starting the club back with your whole left side moving together with your left hand and arm. When I was playing my best, I definitely began my takeaway with my left side. The left hand is firmly in control. The left shoulder and left arm push the club away from the ball on a straight line for a few inches, then swing it into the air. The relaxed right side is just pushed out of the way.” Byron Nelson.
“The clubhead is placed at the back of the ball, and the swing commences so slowly in as to suggest that it is indolent.” Bobby Jones.
“The two danger points are at the start of the backswing and the start of the down stroke. To start back smoothly avoids haste later on; to start down in a leisurely fashion helps to maintain the perfect balance, and provides for well-timed, accurate striking.” Bobby Jones.
“The initial movement of the club away from the ball should result from forces originating in the left side. The real takeoff is from the left foot, starting movement of the body. The hands and arms very soon pick it up, but the proper order at the beginning is body, arms, and lastly clubhead. It is always easier to continue a motion than to begin it: this order has the virtue of originating the hip-turn; it goes a long way toward assuring a proper windup of the hips during the backswing.” Bobby Jones.
“I just try to do it the most simplest way I know how. I don’t bother thinking about it; what I do is just take the club back nice and lazy and then try to whop it right down on the barrelhead.” Sam Snead.
“When I’m trying for an extra-long drive, I actually feel I am taking the club back more deliberately, not with more strength.” Sam Snead.
“Footwork, balance, is everything to me because of my life long theory (and Ben Hogan agreed) that the more you minimize hand, wrist and arm action, the better. I believe the body pivot launched by the feet is the big factor.” Sam Snead.
“If your feet transfer all your weight to the right side easily, your hips turn, and your shoulders will follow. Don’t ever separate the action of your hands, arms, and shoulders. It’s easy to do without realizing
