| Rhythm and tempo can be considered together, | | | | iron from a perfect lie to an open green. He hit it |
| because in golf they mean very nearly the same | | | | with his own established rhythm, and he reached the |
| thing. | | | | green with a perfect shot. |
| The rhythm in the swing of a good player is noticed | | | | The poor or average player has no such established |
| because of the measured cadence in the upward and | | | | rhythm. Not only does he often have a different |
| downward movement of the club. In his swing there | | | | rhythm for each club but for different shots with the |
| appears to be and there is a definite relationship in | | | | same club. He is prone to use a 7 and swing faster, |
| time between his backswing and his downswing. | | | | when he should be using a 6 with a normal swing. He |
| It is measured in two parts, from the time the club | | | | changes again to dig a ball out of the rough or a bad |
| leaves the ball until it stops at the top of the | | | | lie on the fairway. He slows down when he tries to |
| backswing, and from the time it starts to move again | | | | steer the ball. He always speeds up when the |
| until it hits the ball. The club does have to stop at the | | | | situation of the round or match has increased his |
| top, of course, for the instant required to reverse its | | | | tension. Most of these changes are noticeable in his |
| direction, whether we feel it or realize it or we don't. | | | | backswing, which becomes faster, sometimes almost |
| No object, not even a golf club, can be traveling in | | | | as fast as his downswing. |
| opposite directions at once. | | | | This is why his swing looks so bad and the pro's |
| These two segments of the swing can be accurately | | | | looks so good. |
| timed by a motion-picture camera, by the simple | | | | Why, you may ask, should anyone bother to develop |
| process of counting the number of pictures the | | | | a rhythmic swing? Aside from how it looks, of what |
| camera takes during each segment. Such a count | | | | value is it? |
| shows that the backswing of a good player takes | | | | It has two very definite values. One is that it |
| almost exactly twice as long as the downswing. | | | | promotes better timing. It doesn't assure or |
| This two-to-one ratio is the rhythm of the swing. | | | | guarantee that we will time a shot better, but it |
| The total time or tempo of the swing will vary with | | | | helps. It makes good timing easier to achieve. |
| different good players, but the ratio or rhythm will | | | | The second reason is that a rhythmic swing helps a |
| not. Nor will it spot, and many more which are very | | | | great deal toward the goal of every swing, which is |
| close to it. This is one of the reasons they hit the ball | | | | to strike the ball in the exact center of the club |
| as far as they do. And one of the reasons they find | | | | face-"on the screws," as the pros say. There is a |
| the sweet spot and get close to it so often, is | | | | very small area on the face, known to all golfers as |
| because their swings are grooved in a constant, | | | | the "sweet spot," which transmits the maximum |
| unhurried rhythm. | | | | propelling force. When contact is made on this spot, |
| This is why the good player looks so good when he | | | | the ball will go much farther than if the contact is |
| swings at the ball. There seems to be a definite, | | | | toward the club's heel or toe. |
| unhurried, relationship between the two parts of his | | | | Pertinent here are tests made for the United States |
| swing. We sense it if we see him hit the ball only | | | | Golf Association by the Arthur D. Little Co., a |
| once, and it becomes more and more marked the | | | | research organization, during the United States |
| oftener we see him swing. He has established a | | | | Amateur Championship at Brookline in 1957. Pictures |
| definite rhythm and he sticks to it. In fact, one of | | | | were taken of the contact between club and ball. |
| the things he does when he goes to the practice tee | | | | These were compared with the distance attained |
| before a round is re-establish his rhythm, so that he | | | | and with the velocity of the club head at impact. |
| hits a 5 iron, for instance, at exactly the same speed, | | | | Among the conclusions drawn by the USGA was that |
| with exactly the same effort, with exactly the same | | | | accuracy of contact was highly important in gaining |
| tempo, each time he swings it, whether the shot is | | | | distance. By accuracy was meant contact with the |
| simple or difficult. | | | | exact center of the club face. Distance dropped, |
| We will always remember Jimmy Demaret playing the | | | | even with a faster swing, if contact was not made |
| twelfth hole at Inverness in the National Open of | | | | precisely at the center. |
| 1957. Demaret was in contention and his drive on this | | | | The average golfer rarely gets this perfect, flush |
| hole wound up near the right edge of the fairway. It | | | | contact, although most of the time he isn't conscious |
| is a par 5 hole with the first half downhill, the second | | | | of not getting it. He thinks of it only when he hits the |
| half uphill. Jimmy's drive had caught a slight | | | | ball well out toward the toe or in toward the heel, or |
| downslope, so that he had a downhill lie. He was | | | | toward the top or the sole. The pros, on the other |
| standing slightly above his ball. It was a most difficult | | | | hand, hit many shots on the sweetvary from club to |
| shot to be made with a wooden club. To reach the | | | | club. The ratio will be the same for the 8 iron as it is |
| green, Jimmy had to use the wood. His swing was as | | | | for the driver. The tempo of the swing will not |
| smooth and unhurried as if he had been hitting an 8 | | | | change, either, for the individual player. |