Bobby Jones on Golf
by Robert Tyre Jones
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert Tyre JonesIllustrator: Anthony Ravielli
Foreword: Charles Price
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-05-01
ISBN: 0385424191
Number of pages: 246
Publisher: Main Street Books
Book Reviews of Bobby Jones on Golf
Book Review: One of the Best Golf Books Ever Written
Summary: 5 Stars
Where to start? Maybe its Jones' Harvard-educated background combined with his Southern gentleman quality that melds into a style of writing that is unmatched in over 100 years of writings in golf instruction. His conveyance of somewhat technical aspects of the game in an economy of words is astounding, and after reading the book probably 4 times now, I see new instances of incredible use of language with each reading. Here is an example of Jones' use of language - this from the first chapter: "The great fault in the average golfer's conception of his stroke is that he considers the shaft of the club a means of transmitting actual physical force to the ball, whereas it is in reality merely the means of imparting velocity to the clubhead... I like to think of a golf club as a weight attached to my hands by an imponderable medium, to which a string is a close approximation, and I like to feel that I am throwing it at the ball with much the same motion I should use in cracking a whip." Economy of words and language that it so beautiful to read.
Jones' teaching methods are quite unlike most used today. He does not focus on positional teaching; rather, he focuses his efforts on more feel and movement - he conceives the golf swing as a movement. His beliefs include: 1) a totally relaxed grip and setup - this is paramount as any tension destroys the golf swing; 2) use of the lower body (much like Percy Boomer) to start and generate the swing; 3) use of the left hip and foot to start the downswing - Jones calls this the most important move in golf; 4) the golf swing should be conceived as one motion - not an upswing and a downswing; 5) swing the clubhead, as in the Ernest Jones' book of the same name.
Jones still does not get the recognition he deserves. Many consider him one of golf's greatest, but his Grand Slam completed in 1930 still goes down, in most knowledgeable sportswriters, as the greatest accomplishment in the history of sport. Were Jones to play today, there is no question that he would be as dominant a player today, as he was in his era. Computer analysis of his swing showed a hickory-shafted 42 inch driver, travelling at 119 MPH of clubhead speed at impact, faster than 70% of todays' touring pros. Mickelson, Toms, et al have won majors while Tiger was around, yet even the great Walter Hagen never won when Bob Jones played in the same major championship.
Buy this book, put it on your shelf, read it once every few years and marvel at it simple ability to convey the golf swing, while taking you back to the days of great language in sport.
Summary of Bobby Jones on Golf
By the best amateur golfer ever to play the game, this is essential instructional reading for the millions who have taken up golf during the 20 years this marvelous, timeless book has been out of print and unavailable.B & W line drawings.
Here's the bad news: "Golf," suggests the great Bobby Jones, the largest shadow ever cast on a fairway, "is the one game which becomes more and more difficult the longer one plays it." Here's the good news: If his classic instructional can't change the diagnosis, it may at least ease the pain. Written by the master himself--no ghost ever stepped between Jones and his ball--as a series of twice-weekly newspaper columns between 1927 and 1935, the collection of tips and ideas moves from the simple ("Nobody ever swung a golf club too slowly") to the complex ("The art of appraising slope and speed--that is, of reading a green, can be derived only from experience"), the physical to the mental, the obvious to the arcane, and is penned with an elegance as smooth and fluid as Jones' liquid swing. Some of it, especially to golf's newcomers, will seem out of date--the game has changed much through the years--but that's OK; this is a book to savor as much as learn from. It's biggest drawback is its lack of illustrations, but the recent uncovering of a cache of unpublished photographs and tips--available in Jones' Classic Instruction--repairs that divot. Indeed, taken together, Jones' On Golf and Classic Instruction should cure several Royal and Ancient disorders. --Jeff Silverman
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