Swing
Although he played the game three quarters of a century ago, Bobby Jones'
golf swing remains the ultimate standard even today. While players are often
known for a particular aspect of their game, a player who excels at every
shot, with every club, is a rarity indeed. Jones was that type of player,
dominating the game with a graceful combination of power, accuracy and touch
that can only be looked upon with absolute admiration.
One of the most admired traits of Jones' swing was his uncanny ability to
vary the distance on his shots with relative ease. "Bob had an absolutely
beautiful golf swing," golfing peer Charlie Seaver once said. "He was confident
that he could do what he was trying to do with a golf ball and would extend
the distance if he tried to." Jones was known to add distance to his drives
by merely lengthening his backswing. But, no matter how far the club went
back, it always came through with the same fluid motion. Jones was able to
maintain his balance throughout the swing despite a stance that Ben Crenshaw
has stated was narrower than any champion's before him. It was this stance
that allowed for a free hip rotation, producing tremendous power from a swing
that was characterized by complete relaxation.
Jones played the ball far up in his stance, feeling that he could stay behind
the ball throughout his swing if he played it off his left instep. He also
used an overlapping grip that he learned at age eleven watching the great
British champion Harry Vardon play an exhibition match at East Lake. Jones
later refined the grip when he was paired with Vardon in the 1920 U.S. Open
at Inverness.
Putting Stroke
Jones was able to translate the characteristics of his full swing into a putting
stroke that was unmatched. "Bob Jones' putting stroke was a miniature of his
full swing," Ben Crenshaw once said. The entire stroke was a smooth, sweeping
motion made with a delicate grip that was so light he felt he could kick the
putter out of his hands merely by tapping it with his shoe. Early in his career,
Jones putted with his feet close together and bent far over the ball. Later,
only his heels touched, producing a body position that removed any strain
from the putt.
Jones had tremendous touch on the greens, relying on his ability to judge
the distance and slope of a putt. He also adopted his own philosophy of putting
that ran contrary to the accepted wisdom of the day. Most players lived by
the adage, "never up, never in" when attempting to judge the pace of a putt,
believing that only a putt hit hard enough to roll past the hole had any chance
of going in. Jones, however, played his putts to "die" at the hole, saying,
"we never know but that the ball which is on line and stops short would have
holed out…but we do know that the ball that ran past did not hole out." As
a result of his putting philosophy, Jones' putts always had a chance of falling
in the hole and, when they didn't, rarely came to rest far from it.
