GOLF.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17471, 3 June 1922, Page 7

GOLF.

A CURE FOR SLICING. WHEW AND HOW THE LEFT FOOT SHOULD MOVE. (special to "the frsss.") (Bt Abb Mitchell.) There has been a great argument as to the functions of the left foot in golf: What they are and when they operate during the period occupied by the swing of the club. Some say that the left foot rises before the clubhead moves away from the ball, and others that it only begins to move at the same moment as the clubhead starts. Photography seems to prove this latter view to be correct, especially in the case of famous golfers, both amateur and professional, who have a distinct similarity of body movement. It is important that whatever the left foot does it must work in unison with the pace of the ciuohead. If the left foot be a shade late in beginning to turn, or, as the ease may be, to rise on the toe of the shoe, there is nothing surer than that it will be engaged in a desperate struggle to catch up with the speed of the clubhead. This will tend to make the stroke a hurried one and the club will not bo under control all the way both up and down. Though it may not be perceived by the eye or recorded by the camera, it is possible that the action of the left foot really begins a fraction of a second sooner than the initial movement of the club away from the ball, for the pace of the club is faster tfian the body can conveniently work, and in order that both should be together it is better to start the foot action slightly before the club. That, too, will ensure the left foot being set firmly on the tee ready to withstand the shock of the blow. No one can drive really well if one or other of the feet is in the air. The blow must bo delivered with both feet on the ground and with most of the weight of the body carried by the left foot. If the player is not so balanced in this manner, the swish of the club going through and over the shoulder will probably throw the weight back on to the right foot, and the result is a slice, for the club is bound to be drawn across the ball sooner than if the weight were forward on the left foot.

Watch the Left Knee. All the great golfers appear to set the weight of the body very slightly forward at the moment of impact with the ball, and it is just here that the average golfer fails through a mistiming of the hody with the cluhhead. Watch a really good golfer on the tee and take particular note of his left knee as the clubhead is about halfway down. This knee really bends out towards the ball and also to the line of flight, but this cannot be carried out if the foot is not set down quite firmly on the turf. The action ot this knee means that the forward movement of the club is not in any way curtailed, nor is there any tendency on the part of the' player to fall back, an action which takes away from the blow a good deal of. the punch. It is not necessary, however, in trying to make this action, to force the body to lunge forward. The turn of the shoulders and the hips will suffice to produce the correct result, the only point to watch being the getting down of the left foot. The vast majority of players, I am sorry to say, lunge at the ball, whereas the golfer with a good command of the body movement stands almost steady when the blow is struck. Immediately, however, he follows after the club with the body, and by so doing assists the forward travel of the club. This is a true follow-through, entirely unlike that of the player who seems to run after the ball with his body, forgetting that it is the club which does the work, not the body and arms.

Lots of golfers lift the right foot off the ground as- they strike the ball, but they are seldom accurate in their play, especially in the long game where a correct balance of the body means eo much. It is not given to many to have a good natural balance, but it ia one of the secrets of success both in regard to accuracy and length. If players would practice to control the action of the left foot arid to see that it went up and down fast enough to be the initial movement m the swing, I am Bure that their driving would become vastly longer and better.

Firm Stance for Hard Hitting. The professional hits hard, but he is only able to •do so because he has his two feet firmly fixed, n'rom this 6olid base he can exert all the power at his command and it is strong enough to -withstand any disturbing shock which the hitting of the ball may set up. Make no mistake about this. If you are told that you are lunging at the ball, which means that you are hitting with your body rather than with the club, try starting the movement of the left foot before the clubhead. The body movement is slower than the pace of the club. This being so, it should not be a difficult matter for the golfer, without altering any detail ot his own particular swing, to make the foot work just a shade faster. Thit" will apply particularly to those who are addicted to. slicing. Indeed it may, perchance, be the one thing which will cure this fault, which is roi only the commonest but the most worrying of those the golfer is heir to. Nothing h more dreadful than persistent slicing, and I have applied the remedy suggested quite successfully in many cases. It is not, however, a certain cure for all slicera, but it will go far to preventing it, especially if nothing in radically wrong elsewhere. I have written on this subject before, but make no excuse for returning to it. Wherever I go I see handicap players whose game is spoilt because they do hot allow the left foot to play its proper part. Some do not either turn on it or lift it, and the result is a pronounced sway that would otherwise be avoided. Others go to tho other extreme and lift themselves on to the tip of the toes. In those circumstances the player is almost certain to lose his balance. At the most, the i heel should not be raised more than a j couple of inches.