Bobby Jones explains the simple secret to his smooth swing

Golf instruction is ever-evolving, but the best advice stands the test of time. In Timeless Tips, we’re highlighting some of the greatest advice teachers and players have dispensed in the pages of GOLF Magazine. Today we have an article originally published in the September 1980 issue featuring the teachings of Bobby Jones.

It’s impossible to build a Mount Rushmore of golf without including Bobby Jones. During his playing career, Jones amassed the most impressive resume assembled to that point, with four U.S. Open wins and three Open Championship wins, five U.S. Amateur titles and a British Amateur title as well. Even in the near 100 years since, few have come close to matching his CV.

Simply put: when Bobby Jones talks about the golf swing, you’d be wise to listen.

Back in the September 1980 issue of GOLF Magazine, our readers got a chance to do just that when an excerpt of Jones’ “Bobby Jones on Golf” was published in its pages, which you can read below.

Bobby Jones’ bests swing advice

Two of golf’s most eminent instructors, Macdonald Smith and Ernest Jones, built all their teaching around the one conception, “Swing the clubhead.” There are other details to be thought of, of course, in developing anything like a sound swing, but in the end it will be found that this is the prime necessity. Those who are able to sense what it means to “swing the clubhead” will find that they can thus cover up a multitude of sins, and those who sense it not will find that no amount of striving for perfection in positioning will take its place.

In order to make easier the discovery of this sense of swinging, the club must be swung back far enough so that there will be no need for hurry or quickened effort coming down. This is the one point I have tried to stress more than anything else — the necessity for an ample backswing if one is truly to swing the clubhead. The man who allows himself only a short backswing can never be a swinger, because his abbreviated length does not allow space for a smooth acceleration to get him up to speed by the time the club reaches the ball.

Rhythm and timing we all must have, yet no one knows how to teach either. The nearest approach to an appreciation of what they are is in this conception of swinging. The man who hits at the ball, rather than through it, has no sense of rhythm; similarly, the man who, after a short backswing, attempts to make up for lost space by a convulsive effort initiating the downstroke has no sense of rhythm.

The only one who has a chance to achieve a rhythmic, well-timed stroke is the man who, in spite of all else, swings his clubhead, and the crucial area is where the swing changes direction at the top. If the backswing can be made to flow back leisurely, and to an ample length, from where the start downward can be made without the feeling that there may not be enough time left, there is good chance of success. But a hurried backswing induces a hurried start downward, and a short backswing makes some sort of rescue measures imperative. A good golfer will not like to be guilty of either.

Two of the important points in the swinging machinery are the wrists and hips; if the wrists do not flex easily, or if the trunk does not turn readily, a true swing cannot be accomplished. Stiff or wooden wrists shorten the backswing and otherwise destroy the feel of the clubhead. Without the supple connection of relaxed and active wrist joints, and a delicate, sensitive grip, the golf club might just as well be a broom handle with nothing on the end. The clubhead cannot be swung unless it can be felt on the end of the shaft.

So swing, swing, swing, if you want to play better golf; fight down any tautness wherever it may make its appearance; strive for relaxed muscles throughout, and encourage a feeling of laziness in the backswing and the start downward. Go back far enough, trust your swing, and then — swing the clubhead through.