Evening star., 1939-08-20
5traight-Line Swing
Brings Accuracy
And Distance
Camera Reveals Jones'
Form in His Heydoy
To Be Faulty
By WALTER McCALLUM.

q far different manner than the lads
OF Is or 20 years ago. And they play
better golf, or so couple of the top
pros around town hold.
Witty Cox wasn't the first man to
bring what they call "straight-line
swinging" to Washington. 1t had
come long before Witty brought,
back in 1895, the game that has won
him two District open champion
ships in a row. But Witty was one
Of the first of the big-time pros to
put it into practice. Today many of
the top golfers of the land use it..
Stripped down to bare essentials
"straight-line swinging" simply
means that much of the old-time
pivot is eradicated. The club is taken
back with the arms and hands on
as near straight line as the human
frame permits. with a minimum of
body action and maximum of hand
and arm action.
I'm cutting my pivot down as far
as possible" says Ralph Guldahl,
one of the top exponents of the
"straight-line swing"
Il only pivot as much as neces-
sary to get my weight behind the
ball" says Witty Cox. II think arm
and hand action has more to do with
accuracy and distance than the mere
turning Of the body
Sounds TnvoIyed ond lent
1t all sounds very involved to the
gent to whom good golf is and prob
ably ever will remain mystery. He
isn't interested in any particular
style of swing or any period of
thought on the swing. What he is
interested In is knocking that ball
100 yards, fairly straight, all the
time.
HE can do it." says Cox, "if he
3orgets that elaborate body turn he
was taught 20 years ago. And if he
concentrates on taking his arms and
hands back in straight line, or as
straight line as the natural body
turn will allow Understand, of
course, to get your hands up where
they belong, around shoulder level
at the top of the backswing, you
must turn your body.
But what I mean is that the body
turn alone won't do it. And you
must get your hands away from your
body. To turn them around the
body is bad You must get them
away. The hands and the arms are
the main factors and not the body
The body turn is incidental to the
hand and arm action"
That's where the "straight-line
swing" used by so many of the top
notchers of today differs from the
swing the old-timers used. Twenty
five years ago, before fast cameras
showed the swing to be a simple
thing, pro golfers held the theory
that the body must lead all the ac-
ton; that is, that the first move
ment was body turn to the right,
and that the hands and arms fol-
lowed.
Fast cameras proved that faulty
Today Guldahl Metz, Cox, Nelson,
and flock of best pro golfers in
the world, practically all the men
whose names you see in headlines
every day, lead with the hands Sure
they turn the body, but it comes as
q corollary to getting that club back
with the hands and arms.
Short Man Must Pivot More.
ut gets little tougher with
short man, with short arms, says
Witty. With a fellow like that you
must have more body turn. A fellow
with short arms can't get the lever
age necessary for much distance
without getting in good deal of
body pivot. But even at that he
can use his arms plenty. George
Diffenbaugh is the kind of fellow
mean. George has big pivot. He
has to have to get the distance he
gets. But you'll notice he uses those
arms a lot, and he brings the club
straight up. He doesn't get his arms
away behind his neck. He brings
them straight up"
Unconsciously, or by design,
couple of the top amateurs around
town-both products of the last four
or five years-have become straight
line swingers, without much body
turn. Billy Shea, District and mid
Atlantic champ of 1887, and Bobby
Brownell, District champ of 1896,
have extremely restricted body turn,
I mean neither has the exaggerated
pivot of Lawson Little or even of
Bobby Jones, about which the critics
raved back in the golden 2Os. But
there was only one Jones. He was a
law unto himself.
Deadly Scorers Today.
The Guldahls and Nelson's of today
are more deadly scorers-more Ger
tain with wood and iron-than was
the Jones of 1890 Maybe it's be-
cause of better equipment. faster
ball, and more complete and detailed
study of the stroke. But the pros
will tell you it's because they have
cast out the pivot as far as it Is
possible to do so, and have concen-
trated on "straight-line swinging"
There's no doubt the old style of
. big pivot, and big slash at the
ball was more spectacular and pref
tier to watch. Nor that when that
ball was hit right with a big pivot
II went away from there faster ana
farther than it went without the
same pivot. But there's also no
doubt that the top men of the pro
game today are more lethal in the
scoring range, more deadly with all
clubs, than the men who were win
ming two decades and less ago.
And most of 1t. according to Cox,
l.
to its simplest fundamentals by con-
centrating on swinging the club in
q straight line, and eliminating the
pivot.
If 1t doesn't work, sue us. 1t does
work for the top men of the game
today. And If Cox believes in 1t, it
must be good. Witty has his feet
on bedrock all the time and his
ears to the ground for anything new.