The Washington times., 1927-09-08

EOI SSdEB HOW nave DSSu MOIds
bly, a poor iron player and good.
ness knows have tried not to be.
/ have watched all the best pro-
fessionals and tried to give myself
the appearance which they had
when making good shot. Some
days when everything was exactly
In tune / have thought that had
found the secret but / could never
determine what 1t was wanted to
do. Cropping In the dark, trying to
feel my way into sound method.
nothing lasting could result.
So after returning from st. An.
drews / acquired q large sackful
of old balls and selected a quiet
spot on one of East Lakes fair.
ways for a daily session of an hour
or so with a mashie niblic, a num-
Der two iron, and negro caddie.
With my inherent dislike of prac-
tice, these were desperate measures
indeed; but / am now more than
thankful for them. For out there
in two days ! think learned more
about an iron club than / had
been able to digest In five years
Of hard play and watching.
/ think now that I know
what it has been that has made
the style Of Armour and Of Won
Elm so fascinating and so eff
fectiVe. ] think j have at last
been able to put my finger on
the exact difference between
their play and mine--a thing
which / had found impossible
even after years Of watching
and initiating.
And yet the thing Is SO small that
1t is extremely difficult to describe,
but do wonder could not see it
before. asked Stewart Maiden If
ne had known it and if so why he
had not told me. Characteristically
he replied that he thought / had
been doing well enough.
Now this little change which
helped me to play my irons at
Minikahda more satisfactorily than
ever before, as I have worked il
out, involves simply al change in
the position of the right shoulder
and arm at the moment when the
club is being brought against the
ball.
1 shall attempt to explain by
showing that the shoulder
action which I have always ad.
vOcated and employed is funda-
mentally wrong, and / think
can do it without losing myself
in a daze Of meaningless tech
nicalities. -
am sure that we have ALL
heard-I certainly had it drummed
into me in my younger days-that
to strike ball with underspin, the
hands must go through the ball
without turning over; that is. with
the back of the left hand and the
palm Of the right upward. To &C.
complish this without an uncon.
scionable break of the wrists, the
right shoulder must go consider.
ably underneath the left. And /
have always maintained, mis-.
takenly ] now believe, that the
shoulders should not operate even
nearly in the same horizontal plane.
but that in the hitting stroke the
left shoulder should be uppermost
and the right shoulder below.
Working on this theory I have
had great difficulty in bringing the
cluhbead up to the bah in a true
position, the tendency always being
to open the face of the club at
impact because the right hand
wanted to lag or lay off. Possibly
that may account for lifelong
habit of turning the toe OF the
club slightly toward the ball at
the address. But that is unim.
portant.
What I now believe to be
proper in hitting an iron shot
consists largely in keeping the
right shoulder up and in hitting
crisp blow against the left
hand. The effect Is this; il the