Pulling down and through

Golfers who can play the game every day and who start off by having exceptional control of their body action—which the average golfer doesn't—can inaugurate the downswing with their hips. For the average player, though, the best way to launch the downswing is to pull down with your left arm. What sort of a pulldown is it? Well, as you have heard before, it is something like pulling the rope of a bell. Do you pull straight down? Not exactly. You should pull the butt of the club toward the ball.

Remember, this pulling down is done by the left arm. It's the controlling agent, and if you let it be you will escape the many troubles that result from trying to push the club down from the top with the right hand and the right shoulder. By pulling down with the left arm and keeping that arm straight you automatically bring the right arm into the proper hitting position: the elbow is leading and the upper arm comes in close to the body. The right hand then will be just where it should be when it uncocks into the ball.

Let me emphasize that, as far as conscious moves are concerned at the beginning of the downswing, limit this to the left arm and hand. They not only pull the club into position but they must keep pulling all the way through the swing until the left hand is hip-high on the follow-through. When you pull all the way through, you will finish high. It is the natural, inevitable result of the correct, strong swing.

HERMAN PEERY, Cascades Golf Club, Hot Springs, Va.

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