For golfers of all degrees of skill

In any game in which a person strikes a ball, a player is bound to experience hot stretches where his timing is so right he just can't miss, and to experience other stretches where nothing he does is right, no matter how intensively he concentrates. Part of the skill of being a consistently good golfer is a player's ability to do something definite and constructive when he or she falls into a slump instead of simply persevering gamely but to no true purpose.

To my way of thinking, the best of all remedies for recovering your timing (and your swing) is this: go out and practice with your feet set only two or three inches apart. This exaggerated narrow stance has the effect of making you use the correct elements for shotmaking: simplified correct footwork, simplified correct movements of the hands, arms and shoulders. You have to swing the club, you cannot substitute raw force for coordinated movement. As a result, a player stops straining with the improper elements and begins to recover almost immediately a proper sense of the golf swing and a proper sense of timing. I know of no other means of getting back into the swing of things that is comparably effective.

from BETTY JAMESON, San Antonio C.C., Texas

TWO PHOTOS

ILLUSTRATION

ILLUSTRATION

normal stance

ILLUSTRATION

corrective stance

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