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Golf Digest the Swing
The secrets of the game's greatest golfers
By Matthew Rudy
Carlton Books, 2001
ISBN: 1-84222-264-3 $30.00
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The swings are certainly worthy of study even if the individually sequenced photos make them robotic. It's an ancient technique dating back at least to Jim Barnes, the 'human one-iron' and his Picture Analysis of Golf Strokes, (1919), an outstanding book that shows the inaugural PGA Champion playing his way through the bag. (Harvey Penick once told me to go home and look at the beginning of the book. There's a photo of Barnes's clubs, all 10 of them laid out and an accompanying chart listing their specs. His driver was 42 ¾" - and he was a tall man, 6' 3", as his nickname suggests. Harvey had once cleaned them.)
The problem with this book, disappointing to say the least given Golf Digest does the same deal to great effect every month, is the size of the photos. They're tiny. It's nearly impossible to glean anything from them when forced to squint.
Forty-two pros are clinically detailed. Moe Norman, John Daly, Grace Park, ViJay Singh, a few surprises but everyone you'd expect. (Olazabel's turn is to die for.) It is unfortunate that the old guys (Hogan, Jones, Hagen, for example) are given short shrift. And, how,
how could they choose to analyze Jack's present-day swing? Surely, somewhere in Trumbull there are negatives of Jack Nicklaus in his prime. Anyway, those looking for the secrets may find them, often, in shot four which details that magic moment frozen in time - that fractional pause - when the backswing stops and the downswing begins. Each profile begins with a commendable précis. Aside from the postage stamp-sized stills, it's an attractive package. One can't help putting this book back on the shelf, however, without pining for the days of flicker books that so ingeniously and simply conveyed the movement of the finished product.
Schoolboy humor I guess it's called: flatulence jokes, what's under the kilt jokes, and so on, cheap, crude, whack on the back laughs. References to "pendulous dangling wobblers," "turd burglars" not to be outdone by "turbaned turd punchers," or "chocolate starfish fighters" and so on, - ribald, it's meant to be, if not especially funny.
Peel these away and we get entertaining farce provided by characters full of…beans, led into battle by the television commentator who gives a good account of enjoying himself. There is the hero, a virtuous caddie, "on a mission again, he was wearing pants again, and he was starting to enjoy himself." There's the exclusive rural club where guests are allowed once a decade and members stuffed and mounted in their place at the bar, and two equally eccentric golf courses. In contrast to the usual ham-fisted spiritual gibberish, there is a quite useful light touch, even in the minor characters. An officious train conductor quotes chapter and verse to a menacing villain bringing his pet sheep on board. "Read it and bleat," he says. For the most part it's all good, as they say.
With Feherty a wry perspective is a given, as it is generally with the Irish. One could easily see his phrases turning up pinched like quips from Caddy Shack - "the grass of great shortness," for instance, one hopes, rather than the bathroom stuff.
The attention to detail regarding several unique golf clubs (schematically illustrated) is also commendable, exploding drivers and others representative of a fertile imagination. "In the early days of the last century," he writes in his description of the Higgs' Deliverer Rake Iron, "the average golfer was apparently less gullible than the infomerical-watching addict of today, and consequently these clubs are now highly collectible." No doubt.
His fans will have no trouble staying with a comic novel that, despite the puerile aspects, doesn't overexert itself. These days that's saying something.
Frank Baum, the creator of The Wizard of Oz, said
he realized it was best to just let his characters do what they wanted. Surely, the boys of the Wood, and even the brutish Hamish, have more than one adventure in them.
Phil Mickelson isn't the only prodigy who would
benefit curling up with this tender account of
Jones's wonder years, just the latest.
One episode leaps off the page. Keeler, who knew Bobby better than any hack will ever again know a premier player, repeatedly refers to Jones as a golfing D'Artagnan - this early on when he struggled somewhat; gifted and volatile, a golfing Gascon.
The impetuous musketeer seems an appealing description of another young cavalier, no? Senor Sergio may one day retain that playful skip in his step as he dodges the lessons of major championship golf on his way to the top. Or he may not.
Anyway, it was a late night confession from Jones, during the so-called "seven lean years," when he was winning but not fully realizing his potential in the big championships, that he confided his strategy to O.B.
"I can play this game only one way," he said. "I must play every shot for all there is in it."
Now doesn't that sound familiar? I MUST PLAY EVERY SHOT FOR ALL THERE IS IN IT. Hello Lefty!
Here he was, Keeler warms up, "the fiery young cavalier ignoring his guard to drive home the finishing thrust. He was beating many a worthy foeman brilliantly. But he was not winning any championships."
No, we read on, he didn't start rolling until Jones took to heart "the wisdom of an old cavalier (likely Francis Ouimet, though I'm guessing) who once said to him: The best shot, Bobby, is not always the one to play."
The best shot is not always the one to play. Think that would fit on a bag tag?
This book is a splendid discovery, even for those who have Down the Fairway and Bobby Jones on Golf (and hopefully Golf is my Game.) Keeler doesn't lay it on as thick as his contemporaries. Yes, there is a tinge of Horatio Alger; the book is clearly meant to inspire, part of a youth series that included biographies of Edison, Teddie Roosevelt and P.T. Barnum. The modern detachment and edge on the New Journalism is absent. But what's not inspiring about Jones?
Keeler's sensitivity (and love) for his subject may wear thin on the skeptic but the trade-off is being spared the ego-laden warts that make so many modern-day sport bios unbearable.
The humanizing glimpses of Jones are, frankly, exciting; not many had heart-to-heart talks with their subject in his PJs, as Keeler did over the thousands of miles they traveled together.
There's Jones struggling through Cicero's Orations Against Cataline on the train.
"This bird Cicero," he tells O.B. "was a long way from hating himself. I wish I could think as much of my golf as he did of his statesmanship." Maybe, point of order, deep down, ego is part of the championship mix too, a humility that Jones had to quell, at least on the inside.
"He was always a modest boy," Keeler reflects. "He still is a modest boy." But he listened and learned his lesson, and the rest is glorious history.
Forget the treadmill summer blockbusters. Look no further for tales of mystery, suspense, woe - and ultimate justice.
Gripping drama? You can't imagine. Spine-tingling? Hold on to your headcovers. Good Lord, man! It's golf's literary version of Cops! The best collection of golf short stories since, well, since the last time the USGA and the R&A sat down to make sense of the white space between the rules.
The Decisions book is a hoot.
Dang that Player A gets himself into the wackiest situations. But I'm still chuffed over 1-4/3 Flagstick Stuck into Green Some Distance from Hole by Practical Joker. That's right, ole Charlie's been at it again, still trying to work his magic with the trick ball. But this time he's found a new wrinkle. That yuckster. He put the flagstick into the ground away from the hole. Ole Charlie, don't you just want to…kill him?
No doubt those who were "unaware of the situation" and who played to the flag and not the hole really enjoyed the joke, their appeal denied. "In equity (Rule 1-4), the players must accept the resultant advantage or disadvantage." I dunno about you, but down here in Texas Ole Charlie had best keep an eye on his brake fluid level.
Every page drips with human emotion. You've got pinecones falling into a bunker behind a player's ball. Remove it? Not so fast. "In this case, the lie was altered through natural causes." Wow! We're talking act of God stuff.
Q. Does a player have any redress if he requests his opponent or a fellow-competitor to attend the flagstick for him and the opponent or fellow-competitor declines?
A. No.
That's it! Just No. Come on! Let your imagination mull this one over. Oh, the possibilities…Can't you just see it? I'll be that match was SOME fun. There's no telling. "Hey, man, get the flag?" "No." Hello, USGA.
But my favorite, if I have to pick one - so tough - would've have to be 23/3, one of the only rules I can quote chapter and verse. It's the Case of the Half Eaten Pear. You got a pear in a bunker directly in front of a ball. BUT, there's no pear tree nearby. So, Watson, "is the pear an obstruction rather than a loose impediment, in which case the player could remove it without penalty?"
Certainly not, dear chap. "A pear is a natural object. When detached from a tree it is a loose impediment. The fact that a pear has been half-eaten and there is no pear tree in the vicinity does not alter the status of a pear." Aha! The McGuffin.
Dead land crabs, ant hills, fruit skins, snakes, embedded acorns, the loose impediment section alone will make those rain delays pass by so much faster.
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The Golf Book for Kids
A Great Learning Tool for Young Golfers
Or New Golfers of Any Age
By Jim Corbett and Chris Aoki
Hara Publishing, 2000
ISBN: 1-883697-87-5
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Oh dear. Page 12 and already there's trouble. We're being introduced to the difference between water and
lateral water hazards. That might be a record. We've covered birdies, eagles and greens in regulation
- all in the first chapter. I know we've got 17-year olds on the PGA Tour, well one, but Lordy! Could
it…might this…just possibly be a little, teensy weensy bit advanced for the average young golfer,
or new golfer of any age?
Worse, a book, at least (remotely) meant for kids, soon marches off to advanced subjects like club position, weight shift and target lines. A sample:
"Take the clubhead back to a point where the shaft of the club is a little past parallel to the ground. Now swing the club forward to a place where the shaft is a little past parallel to the ground in front of you. Now do that several times at a slow, even pace, and have the clubhead trace a circle around you (not a straight line back and forth)." And so it goes. This, again, is for kids.
Believe me, I'm sympathetic. Instruction writing taxed Bob Jones himself who recognized the difficulty of describing the complexity of the swing rather than demonstrating it. And should anyone be surprised that the best way to learn golf remains tagging along behind a golfer while the mind is still impressionable? The footage of Bobby Jones's swing as a tyke - on display at the Atlanta History Center exhibit - is remarkable. It's the same swing, essentially, that he grew into - Stewart Maiden's Carnoustie swing.
Perhaps there are kiddo prodigies who can wade through this and come out with a clear head. God help them. "When you change direction at the top of the backswing, count to four again, with the finish being at four."
No wonder we're so neurotic. We're starting in on them earlier and earlier.
Light Reading - Edition I
Light Reading - Edition II
Light Reading - Edition III
Light Reading - Edition IV
Light Reading - Edition V
Light Reading - Edition VI
Light Reading - Edition VII
Light Reading - Edition VIII
Light Reading - Edition IX
Light Reading - Edition X
Light Reading - Edition XI
Light Reading - Edition XII
Light Reading - Edition XIII
Light Reading - Edition XIV
Light Reading - Edition XV
Light Reading - Edition XVI
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