Ever since the Scotts invented the game, golfers have been looking for the secret to unlock
the mysteries of the swing. Young Tom Morris showed how to keep the head in proper position.
Harry Varden developed the modern hand action. Bobby Jones demonstrated that the left arm
controls the radius of the swing. Tommy Armour taught the necessity of the right side in pouring
on the power. In essence, these men created the modern golf swing. For over 60 years,
it was Harvey Penex's task to pass on this wisdom to beginner and expert alike. Now it's
your turn to take a lesson from the master teacher. Welcome to Harvey Penex's Little Green Video.
Hi, I'm Dave Marr at the Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas, and I want to welcome you to
Harvey Penex's private lessons. Now in the next few minutes with some able assistance from two
of Harvey's most famous pupils, the 1984 Masters Champion Ben Crenshaw and the 1992 US Open
Champion and all-time leading money-winner Tom Kite, we're going to walk you through the basics
of the grip, stance, and swing. We'll show you how a yardstick, a weed cutter, a water bucket,
and a can of talcum powder can help you improve your game in a hurry. If you're having trouble
with a hook or a slice, if you're hitting it fat, or heaven forbid, if you're shanking a ball,
sit back and relax because Harvey's got the cure. Are you determined to break 90 this year? Harvey's
got 10 tips to help get you into the 80s fast. To help illustrate Harvey's swing thoughts,
we've shot some special high-speed film that will allow us to break the swing down to its
critical elements. You'll even see what happens to the ball in that blink of an eye known as impact.
And as a special bonus, you'll get some advanced instruction as we present the golfing equivalent
of a jam session. Harvey on the tee talking technique with Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite. Now,
if you're looking for a lot of technical jargon about swing planes and physics and centrifugal
force, you'd best change the channel right now. Harvey's lessons are simple and direct. He teaches
in images and stories. But if you take his message to heart, you will get results. We guarantee it.
You see, Harvey Penick just might be the finest golf instructor the game has ever known.
Harvey Penick likes to call himself a grown caddy, and in many ways that's exactly what he is.
He began caddying at age eight. By 18, he was the head professional at the Austin Country Club.
And though he was a fine player, early on he decided to concentrate on teaching.
I probably have seen more golf shots hit than anybody that ever lived. Too many of them all.
For over 60 years, his home was the practice tee where he taught golfers of all levels of skill
how to swing the bucket and how to clip the tee. He reduced the game to its essentials
and took the mystery out of the swing. To be able to take something that's as complicated
as the game of golf and strip it down into its simplest form and be able to express it in the
mannerism that he did, oh, you've got to be a genius. You have to know the golf swing
and the game of golf better than anybody to be able to put it in that form. He did not teach a
certain golf swing. He would teach golfers not golf swings. And if you were to take a golf lesson,
you were to grip the club cross-handed, you did every fundamental that you could possibly do
in golf wrong, but you were hitting the ball wonderfully well, he would say, just keep doing
what you're doing. He would never try to change your golf swing. Harvey taught some of the greatest
champions the game has ever known. He counts among his students, LPGA Hall of Famers, Mickey Wright,
Kathy Whitworth, and Betsy Ross, a trio who recorded an astonishing total of 225 wins.
He also worked with a couple of fellows named Kydin Crenshaw, who between them have won 37
tournaments and over $14 million in prize money. But regardless of ability, Harvey's pupils came
away from their lessons feeling good about the experience. Let us simply say that that Harvey
represents the very best that life and golf can offer. It really boils down to if we didn't have
examples like Harvey and Byron Nelson and the Bobby Joneses, then the people who really, you know,
they lead by example, and they promote the game in a gentlemanly way, you know, that would be nowhere.
It would be nowhere in golf. In fact, Tom Kite's respect for Harvey is so great that when he won
the U.S. Open, he had his wife Christy take the trophy straight to Harvey. Christy Kite came up
and with that big trophy, USJ, and sat it in my lap and said, this is for you. Tommy had to go to
give an exhibition, but he said it and said, this is for you. If anybody couldn't get a thrill out of that,
I don't know, that's pretty hard to get a thrill from. For years, Harvey kept a dog-eared scribbled
text notebook in which he recorded his thoughts about golf and life. One day, he showed it to
acclaimed Austin writer Bud Schrake and asked Bud if perhaps he could find a publisher. Schrake quickly
put together a deal, but initial expectations were somewhat modest. I thought the first day was
the best. I thought the members of the country club would buy it because they would feel compelled
to buy it and I thought maybe a thousand would be sold. Well, the number now is almost one million
and counting. Harvey's simple lessons, stories, and images touched the court among golfers
throughout the world. I think it's Harvey's spirit, his soul, that shines through that book. I think
that's why everybody, why the whole world fell in love with it, because of the purity of the man's
words. In November of 93, a second volume, The Little Green Book was released and is already
approaching sales of 600,000 copies. Clearly, there is much about golf in these books, but there
is also much about life. A deeply religious man, Harvey also has a keen understanding of human
nature, which he incorporates in his teaching. Consider these maxims from The Little Green Book.
Try and talk plain. Try and be simple in living as well as teaching and playing. The long odds
are against us if we shoot the hard way. Life consists of a lot of minor annoyances and few
matters of real consequence. Speak no ill of anyone and all the good you know of everyone.
Don't judge a person too soon. God waits until he ends. He said, I don't care about what you've
been. I care about what you are today. And that's what, you know, makes him so special.
He always tries to bring out those things in you. Harvey is now the golf pro emeritus at the Austin
Country Club, but he is far from retired. He loves to visit with students at the Harvey Pinnick Golf
Academy. The man that can ship and pass the match for anyone, Tommy Kite gets out there
and he'll, he might practice putting for an hour and a half, two hours. But
his back's made out of something different from mine, I think. Harvey also enjoys watching golf
on television. He's manned constantly at work looking for new insights. To his great astonishment,
Harvey Pinnick is a phenomenon, a celebrity. Fan letters have poured in from across the country,
but all the fame hasn't changed him one little bit. He's still a teacher looking for new ways to teach.
One of Harvey Pinnick's key beliefs is that the swing should fit the pupil, not vice versa.
He wants you to do whatever works for you, but still to play your best golf,
you do have to master certain fundamentals. We begin our lessons with some instruction on the grip.
If you don't have a good grip, nothing that you hear or any pros tell, or if you read anything
at the magazines, it won't do you any good. If you have a poor grip, you're going to have to make some
other mistake. So many talk about a swing being so important, but they forget the angle of the face
when it meets the ball is just as important or more important. And the grip is going to be the main
thing that gets to come back to the ball square. But when it comes to the grip, it's important to
remember that one size does not fit all. The interlocking grip with the forefinger of the top
hand laced between the little finger and the ring finger of the bottom hand is for people who have
short fingers. Gene Saracen, Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Kite use it. The overlapping grip with the
little finger of the bottom hand wrapped into the hollow between the forefinger and middle finger of
the top hand are on top of the left forefinger, the most widely used among ordinary players as
well as experts, though with many individual variations. Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson,
and Ben Crenshaw are just a few of the overlappers. The two-hand or ten-finger grip with all the
fingers on the handle, sometimes called the baseball grip, although the baseball bat is held
more in the palms than a golf club more in the fingers, is especially good for women and older
players who may lack strength, although some top professionals like Beth Daniel, Art Wall, and Bob
Rosberg have done quite well with it. Once you determine which type grip suits your game, if you
want to hit the ball straight, it is important that you place your hands on the club in a proper
position. In the days of Harry Varden, the V's of the thumbs and forefingers pointed at the
right shoulder. This was known as a strong grip and promoted a swing featuring the hands and arms.
In the 50s and 60s, many golf teachers taught the neutral grip, in which the V's of the thumbs and
forefingers point more or less toward the nose or right eye. This was Ben Hogan's grip and it was
the right thing for him because he was always fighting a hook. This neutral grip works for
good players. For players who are not so good, the neutral grip encourages a slice. Nowadays,
with players like Freddie Couples, Davis Love III, John Daly, and others, the V's have once again
moved toward the right shoulder. Whether you use a wide grip or interlock in the forefinger,
the real important thing is for the V's to point to your right shoulder.
Without a doubt, the strong grip is better for the average player. It promotes power and distance.
But like any golf teaching, the strong grip can be overdone. You don't ever want your V's pointing
to the right of your right shoulder. You can check the position of your V's by simply looking in the
mirror. But as Tom Kite explains, unless your V's are tight, you won't get an accurate reading.
Mr. Penick was always concerned with the grip and wanted the V's to be in the right position.
He wanted to make sure that everybody had a proper grip. One of his big concerns was when he saw a
person that had a big gap between their thumb and their left hand. What this meant was that their
thumb was probably in a pretty good position, but their hand was in a very weak position,
turned far to the left. You wanted the thumb slightly to the right side of the shaft,
but you want no gap between your thumb and your left hand. If I were to take a T and stick it in
that V, I want to be able to maintain that throughout the entire swing and not let it fall out.
If I have too much of a gap in between the thumb and the hand, the T just falls to the ground.
Make sure there's no gap between your thumb and your left hand.
If you're still not sure about your grip, here's one of Harvey's celebrated training
aids that will help you find the grip that's just right for you. Just pick up a yardstick
and let your hands fit it naturally and swing it. Then put the same grip on a golf club.
It's just as simple as that.
Whatever grip you choose, don't put the left thumb straight down on the top of the handle.
Harvey wants the thumb a little bit to the right. It sounds like a little thing,
but Byron Nelson says the left thumb position is one of the most important things Harvey teaches.
The reason is at the top of the backswing, that thumb wants to be underneath the club.
This gives you control. Another key element of the grip is that the hands must be touching each
other. They should be joined as one unit. They should feel like they are melted together.
God made what is called a lifeline in the right palm of a human being for one simple reason.
It fits just perfectly against the left thumb and a good golf grip.
When you grip the club, Harvey wants you to place your hands. You don't grab, twist, or wrap your
hands. Place your hands and leave them alone. If you insist on moving your hands and fingers
after you've taken your grip, you accomplish two things. You camouflage a poor grip and
you get calluses. One of the ways that Mr. Penick used to make sure that when you placed your hands
on the club you did not twist it was to have you just stand in a nice relaxed position with your
arms hanging naturally at your side. And then just place the club over to your left hand side
and just wrap your hands around the club. Don't twist it or screw your hands on top of the club.
Just place your hands on there and that would give you a nice relaxed grip. Bring the club
in front of you and place your right hand on in the same relaxed manner. There's no twisting.
You're just placing your hands on there. If you were to take your hand and twist it a little bit,
you could see that this would put you in a position where, as Mr. Penick would say, you'd
create a lot of grip pressure and you would also create a lot of calluses and then it would be very
difficult to get a grip. Again, relax with it at your side, bring the club over to your left side,
and then just place your hands on the club. No twisting involved. Bring your hands on the club.
Just bring it in front, place your right hand on, and you're ready to go.
Hold the club like it is a fine musical instrument, firmly, not tightly, with your
elbows and shoulders slightly relaxed. If you feel a golf club and you feel its head being heavy,
then you have the correct grip pressure and so it's apt to swing back, you know, in a nice,
in a nice easy manner. It's not lurched back. Keep your grip pressure light. Sam Snead says he holds
the club as if it is a live bird in his hands, with just enough pressure that the bird can't
fly away, but not so tightly that the bird can't breathe. This is good advice for all of us.
When you stand to the ball, be comfortable and at ease, not straining anything. Your feet should be
about shoulder width. The average golfer might want the right foot toed out slightly to allow for more
turn. I think Harvey worked on people's posture more than the actual, you know, planting of the
feet. You know, if you stand fairly erect and you have a little bend at the knees, those are the
two little ideas that he put in pupils. Minds, he always said in his book, I think it's a very,
very nice comment, it's just stand up erect and then you get the feeling like you're just going to
sit in this chair. It's just the feeling that you're just about to sit down and you know,
you're really not at a strain, but you're just flexing your knees just that little bit to enable
you to lower yourself into a chair. That's the feeling. Position of the ball is second in
importance only to the grip. Many instructors teach that the ball should be played off the left
heel for all shots. Harvey disagrees. If you play the ball off your left heel, let's say with a
net iron, you're going to have to have a terribly fast hip shift to meet the ball with the club on
the downswing. The driver and a T-dub 3-wood are the only clubs you want to play off your left heel.
This is because you want to hit the ball slightly on the upswing or at the lowest point of the swing
with these clubs. With the rest of the clubs, you move back a fraction of an inch at a time
until you reach dead center. This is correct position for a 3-iron. The 6-iron is back still farther.
And finally, when you get to the 9-iron, the ball is in the center of your stance.
If there's any doubt as to where to play an iron shot in your stance, as in terms of ball position,
take out an iron and make a few brushes or divots and find out where the bottom of that
arc reaches the ground. And then as any correct iron shot, the ball ought to start here, the divot
here. So right around in there should be the correct start of about a 5- or 6-iron in this case.
So another way is to also square the face off at your intended line of flight
and build your stance around that square face.
And that should be very close to where you want that ball in your stance.
Here's a quick tip. Shorter people will usually do better if they address the ball on the toe of
the club. This promotes a slightly larger swing arc, generating more power and distance. Harvey
believes that the golf swing should be a natural fluid motion. So to start your golf swing, you
need a forward press of some sort to set off the action. Harvey wants you to imagine that you're
in your stance holding a bucket of water. If you're going to swing this bucket back like a golf swing,
you just naturally won't do it from a dead stop. Your hands and hips and shoulders and legs will
rock forward a tiny bit to provide the reaction that gives momentum to the backswing.
This starts the turn and the shift of the weight to the right foot that you need to swing a bucket
of water. Your hands will follow your turn to the backswing as the bucket goes up. To bring the
bucket down, you wouldn't throw it with your hands. You would shift your weight onto your left foot
and you would naturally stay down behind the bucket as you swing down and through. Now let's
take this imagery and transfer it to the golf swing. As you can see, the same movement is
quite smooth and works quite well for a golf club. Here's another quick tip. Watching the club head
go back as you start your swing will probably ruin any chance you have of hitting a good shot.
Anything you do wrong taking the club head back is not as bad as watching it. It's amazing how many
golfers get into this habit. So much has been written and spoken about the wrist cock that it
has developed a literature of its own. As always, Harvey says keep it simple. Take your stance.
Swing the club back to waist-high. If the toe of the club is pointing straight up, the wrist
cock is built into your swing. Think no more about it. To see the wrist cock in your living room
without a golf club, just take your stance. Let your left arm hang down and put your right arm
behind your back to get it out of the way. Make your left hand like a blade, the back of the hand
facing your imaginary target down the line. Swing your left arm back to the top of your back swing
and stop. Clench your left hand into a fist. Your wrist is cocked. Now you know how it feels.
Another way to get the feeling of a cocked wrist is to swing your left fist all the way through
as if you were holding a golf club. Swing your left arm back to the top of your back swing and
as if you were holding a golf club. That's all you need. Harvey would prefer that you delve no
further into the literature of the wrist cock. Many experts recommend that you keep your head
still and rotate your body around an axis line running from your head to the ground. Harvey has
a much better idea. Many years ago, Harvey was playing an exhibition with the great Walter Hagen.
Harvey had half topped a couple of shots and Hagen said, Harvey, you want a word of advice? You're
trying too hard to keep your head down. Don't fall for this turn in a barrel nonsense with your head
fixed solidly in the center of your turn. You've got to move a little bit sideways along with your
turn. This gets your weight onto your right foot and your head well behind the ball so that you
can put power into your down swing. It's like throwing a punch. There isn't a top player in
golf who doesn't move his head during his golf swing. It's really a natural motion. As your club
goes back, so does your head. But be careful. You don't want to build a sway into your swing.
The modern players you watch on TV, they rear back and their head moves two or three inches.
And man, I can put some power in that stroke, but turn it like this, I wouldn't have the power.
However, even though your head moves during the swing, you must stay behind the ball through
impact. Watch Ben Crenshaw. His head is well back when he makes contact with the ball.
The same is true of Tom Kite. But before you can stay behind the ball, you must get behind it.
Set up with your head behind the ball and keep your head behind the ball through impact.
This is one of the keys to power in distance. If there is such a thing as a magic move in golf,
it's Harvey's left foot, right elbow action. To start your down swing, let your weight shift to
the left foot while bringing your right elbow back down to your body. Your right elbow goes in and
your left heel goes down. This is one move, not two. The sensation is a smooth flowing motion,
not an awkward jerk. The first move back, the elbow, right elbow gets back to your side
and the left heel gets back to the ground. That's my idea of a perfect sway.
When you get to the top, return your left heel to the ground and bring your right elbow back down.
And bring your right elbow down simultaneously and make that one move, not two. Make it together.
This is not something that Harvey wants you to consciously think about
when you swing, but it's when you practice and when you're, say, in front of a mirror at home.
But make that move right from there, right from the top. Return the left heel down,
bring that right elbow in. You'll be in great position to hit that ball.
Now if you've played golf for any length of time, you've undoubtedly heard someone say that you have
to have a straight left arm to have a good swing. There's a kernel of truth here, but Harvey's seen
a lot of average golfers restrict the flow of the swing with a rigid left arm. Keeping the left arm
straight at the top is not a requirement for a good swing. But the left arm must be absolutely
straight at impact. The left side controls the arc in your swing and the right is in a position to
pour in the power.
There are four things that make up a good golf shot. Path of the club, angle of the club face,
club head speed at impact, and hitting the ball in the center of the club face. Unfortunately,
the club head is moving so fast that it is difficult to break these elements down and analyze them.
For an average touring pro, the club is moving at between 100 and 110 miles per hour at the impact.
The ball explodes off the club face at anywhere from between 150 to 170 miles per hour.
A drive produces spin at the rate of 3,000 revolutions per minute and 8-iron spins at around 9,000 rpms.
Clearly, these speeds are beyond the range of the human eye.
So to get a good look at the key components of the swing, we brought in a specialized camera.
Now most film is shot at 24 frames per second. We shot at speeds ranging from 500 all the way up
to 10,000 frames per second. Shooting film at these speeds poses some unique challenges.
To get an exposure at 10,000 frames per second, you need an extraordinary amount of light.
We pumped 25,000 watts into this scene, producing enough heat to make a tea smoke and a golf ball melt.
Can you believe that? Think those lights are hot?
How good would that be in a tanning sauna?
And there are also some timing problems. At 10,000 frames per second, the film literally roars through
the camera at speeds approaching 150 miles per hour. A standard 400 foot roll of film needs less
than two and a half seconds to make its way through the magazine. Nonetheless, our intrepid
crew solved all of these technical problems and captured some fascinating images.
Let's take a look at one of Tom Kite's drives. You can have a beautiful swing like Tom's, but if
your club head is not square at impact, the shot will not go where you intended.
If you hit your drive 250 yards, an error of just two or three degrees will put your ball in the rough.
This film was shot at 10,000 frames a second. Now let's watch it again and stop the action.
Look how square the club is coming into the ball. As you can see, when Tom makes contact,
the ball flattens against the club face. The ball stays on the club face for all of 500 microseconds.
That's.0005 seconds, or expressed another way, one half of one one thousandth of a second.
Too fast to even think about, and Harvey suggests that you don't. And then in the blink of an eye,
the ball is gone. A good solid hit. Now let's take a look at what happens to an off-center hit.
Once again, the ball compresses against the club, but this ball was hit in the heel. Watch how the
club head turns over after it impacts the ball. As you can see, even a slight error can produce
even a slight error can produce poor results. Many golfers are not sure which part of their
club face is striking the ball. It's very simple to find out. Take a can of talcum powder with you
to the range. Powder the ball. Hit it. Look at the club face and you'll know immediately.
You can also use this technique to check out your putting. Here's a tip to help you make sure that
your club is traveling straight through in a squared impact. When you hit your tee shots,
don't think about hitting the ball. Think about clipping the tee. That's right. Just ignore the
ball and clip the tee. If I clip that tee off just right at the ground, the club head is traveling
about straight through. This image is also transferable to your irons. When you've got an
iron in your hand, don't think about hitting the ball. Just clip the grass. You'll be amazed at how
this simple idea will help you make good solid contact. Club head speed comes from timing.
Timing is getting your muscles together to produce the maximum speed of the club head at impact while
keeping the angle of the face square on the line to the target. Don't worry too much about distance.
Distance comes from good fundamentals. Byron Nelson used to say, don't try to hit the ball
far. Instead, develop a feeling that the ball is going to go a long way without you really trying.
And sure enough, it will. One of the hardest concepts for the beginning golfer to grasp is
that you have to hit down to make the ball come up. Jack Berg Sr. always said, let the ball get in
the way of the swing and hit the ball first, then the ground. Let's take a look at one of Tom Kite's
irons in super slow motion. As you can see, this is exactly what Tom does. He hits the ball before
he hits the turf. Notice too that before the ball has traveled six inches, it is already starting
to spin. Harvey is not a believer in digging big divots. He is convinced it is better to pick the
ball off the grass than to hoe it. He likes to see a shallow divot in the shape of a dollar bill,
the sort of divot Byron Nelson always produced. A real subtle thing with the irons is that I
know he wants you to make sure that you contact the ball and then catch a little bit of turf.
He feels like that by hitting the ground with the irons, that actually stabilizes the club
a little bit and actually squares up the club place. Most golfers will spend a great deal of
time working on their long games, but the higher your score, the faster you can lower it by improving
your short game. If you can get it up and down around the green, you're going to be tough to beat.
When you chip the ball, you want to use the straightest face club that will land the ball
on the green quickly and let it roll to the hole. Watch as Tom Kite tosses the ball underhanded to
the hole. Notice he doesn't throw it up high, instead he tosses it low and lets it run up to
the cover. So when you're off the green, ask yourself what club would produce the same flight
as your underhanded toss. That's the club you choose. This might be a pitching wedge or a
seven iron, but the technique is the same. For a chip shot, use your regular grip, but place your
hands toward the bottom of the handle. Play the ball in the center of your stance. Lean slightly
more weight on your left foot. Make a backswing and forward swing of the same length as if you
were tossing the ball underhanded. And of course, keep your hands ahead of or even with the clubhead
all the way through the shot, including the follow through. If your ball is a few feet off the green
and you want to use your putter, what we call the Texas wedge, then by all means do. High handicappers
should use their putters from off the green whenever feasible. They'll generally get closer
to the hole this way. One good practice drill for chipping is to put a bench down two to three feet
in front of you and practice chipping the ball under the bench. This will teach you to keep the
ball low. Do it over and over until it becomes automatic, until you don't even know the bench is
there. And if you're as good as Tom Kite, you'll probably hole a few while you're at it, which
brings up a key point. Top players aren't satisfied with just getting the ball close, putting it inside
some imaginary three foot circle. Tom Kite explains. It's very important to work on your technique,
and when you're working on your chipping, be sure to practice your technique and make sure that is
really sound. But always hit your last few chip shots trying to get into the playing mentality.
Now one of the techniques that's worked really well for me through the years is the last couple
of chip shots that I hit when I'm practicing, I actually try to make the ball go in the hole.
I'm not just trying to get it close. You know, you don't see basketball players just shooting
up there toward the backboard or toward the rim. They're shooting at the net trying to hit it right
in the hole every time. And that's the same thing that you need to do here. You need to really get
yourself into trying to make the chip shot. Now one of the ways that has helped me through the
years is that I really take the last couple of practice swings, looking at the hole, getting
focused in on the target, trying to think of nothing else but chipping this ball in the hole.
And then when I set up, I just try to duplicate that practice swing and hit as good a chip shot
as possible. You know, the neat thing about it is that even if it doesn't go in, you're rarely left
with a very long putt for your par. When you work on your chipping, don't stand and chip at the same
hole over and over. Aim for holes of different distances. You've got to have a good touch if
you're going to be a good chipper. Perhaps the most common mistake among average players is trying to
chip with too much loft. It requires the touch of an artist to hit a chip shot with a wedge.
The average player should get the ball on the ground and rolling as soon as possible.
Chip with the least lofted club that will do the job. But of course, there are occasions on a golf
course where you need to hit a high soft pitch shot. Tom Kite explains how to do it.
When you're faced with a situation where you have a pitch shot up over a mound or over a bunker,
where you need to get the ball to go very high and land soft, there are a couple of things you need
to remember. Now Mr. Penick always told us to picture the shot like an underhanded pitch shot
where we're trying to get the ball to go very high and land very softly.
Like that. Now you can see that that was a full swing. You know, a lot of arm swing there with
not a whole lot of acceleration. And that's the same type of action that we want when we're
playing the pitch shot. Now because we're trying to hit the ball high, we're going to open up the
club face. We're going to actually add loft to the club. We'll start off with a square club face and
then we'll actually turn it this way and open it up. Now that adds loft to the club, but unfortunately
it points the club face to the right of the target. So we need to move around the ball to where now
the club face is pointed at the target and our body is actually pointed to the left. We'll be able to
swing the club along our body line, which is to the left of the target and allow us to pop the
ball up in the air and land very soft. Now again, notice that the ball is going to go very high.
Now again, notice this was a long flowing swing. It's not a little short, jabby accelerating swing
at all. It's a long flowing swing. So one thing that we want to do to help promote that is to
grip the club out on the end. We don't want to grip down because that gets us in a position to
play a little short chip shot. We'll grip out on the end of the club and that helps us to get that
nice long flowing swing that we want on this nice soft pitch shot.
Work on your bunker game to become more aggressive with it. If you learn a few fundamentals and spend
some time practicing, playing a ball out of a greenside bunker is not a difficult shot,
even for the average golfer. As you walk up to the ball, you open the blade of the club.
You'll be sure that you take your grip after you've opened the blade or you haven't done anything.
Open it up a good deal. So that shoots it out to the right. So I'm going to compensate that aim
by moving around the ball and you just make a good firm swing and hold on tight
with your little finger and ring finger of your left hand to keep that blade from turning over.
Let's take a look at a bunker shot in super slow motion. This film was shot at 7,000 frames per
second. As you can see, the club slices through the sand. The flange gives the sand wedge its bounce
and keeps it from digging in too deeply. The club never touches the ball. Instead, the momentum
creates a wave of sand that literally throws the ball out of the bunker. As you can see, the ball
is already spinning rapidly as it pops out of the sand. Practice this shot for a few hours and you
will see what Harvey means about becoming aggressive with it. Golfers have spent millions upon millions
of dollars trying to find the perfect putter, but as Harvey likes to say, it's not the fiddle but the
fiddler. Ben Crenshaw is one of the finest putters the game has ever known and Tom Kite is an
excellent putter as well. The techniques that Harvey taught them can work for you. Play the ball
off your left heel. Place your feet square to the line or slightly open like Ben. Putting it very
individual, whatever works best for you. To take your grip, put your left hand on the putter the
way the manufacturer designed the grip to be held. Most great putters have their right hand under a
little and keep the blade square because they offset it by weakening the left hand. The stroke
starts with a small forward press. The stroke is approximately the same length back and through.
You just take the club straight back and straight through. Nothing to it. They're good putters with
short backswing, Casper, medium backswing, Horton Smith, long backswing, Ben Crenshaw and Bobby Jones,
but the backswing and follow through are always the same. Harvey likes a stroke that uses the arms
and wrists but on a very long putt you will need to use your shoulders and take a longer backswing
and follow through. The left side controls the stroke, the right supplies the power. Try to keep
the putter low to the ground but don't give up a good stroke to do it artificially and most important
keep the hands even with or ahead of the putter on the follow through. Now that you understand the
fundamentals Harvey's got a simple system that you can take out onto the course.
Read your line from behind the ball. Walk up to the ball and take your stance with your hands
slightly ahead of the ball or straight up. Glance at the hole and glance at your putter blade to
make sure it is square to the line. Now take a couple of practice strokes. Come up to the
putt. Concentrating on each one as if you're trying to make the putt, judging the distance.
Then put your blade down behind the ball, keep your head still and your eyes still
and imitate your last practice stroke. One great value to this system is that it puts your mind
on the stroke and not on the importance of the putt. Concentrate on imitating your final practice
stroke not on what will happen if you either miss it or make it. Harvey says forget about
never up never in. He likes to see putts die at the hole. The cup is only one inch wide for a putt
that is struck too hard. The cup is four and a quarter inches wide for a ball that dies at the hole.
Give luck and chance. Get that ball down to the hole where you're not worried on the next one.
Distance is all important. If you get that ball within one or two feet of the hole or
all putts it sure relieves you a lot of pressure. And if you're having trouble with those little
knee knockers here's a simple system that will help you. This putt is a dreaded four-footer.
I think most putts in this range are missed because of indecision than anything else.
Approach this putt just like you would a normal putt. Determine your line and never look back.
Get up like any normal putt. Take a couple of practice strokes and shut out everything in the
world at this particular moment. Concentrate on that line and hitting it solid.
And stroke it right in the cup. Only pros and top amateurs practice the short ones
and that's why they make so many. If you want to become a good player forget about
gimmies and learn to putt them all. The idea of golf is to get the ball in the hole. It's not
enough just to get it close. Asking for a gimme is like thinking the banker will stamp your note
paid in full if you're only a few dollars short. If you're having trouble with your putting don't
be afraid to try cross-handed. Putting cross-handed keeps the left wrist from breaking down.
Tom Kite goes back and forth between cross-handed and regular putting but he's won an awful lot
of money with that cross-handed grip. And here's one final thought that Harvey learned from Ben
Hogan. All other things being equal greens break to the west.
All golfers regardless of ability get out of sync. If you're having a problem with a slice or a hook
or if you're hitting from the top or if you're hitting it fat don't worry. The clinic is open
and Dr. Penick is in. But when Harvey asks you to take an aspirin please don't take the whole bottle.
In the golf swing a tiny change can make a huge difference. The natural inclination is to begin to
overdo the small adjustment that has brought success. So you exaggerate in an effort to improve
even more and soon you are lost and confused again. Lessons are not to take the place of practice
but to make practice worthwhile. If you're hitting a slice you're not going to get any better as a
player. The more you swing the bigger your slice becomes. Harvey's got a three-point plan to help
you cure your slice. First make sure you have as strong a grip as looks reasonable. The V's should
point to the right shoulder. Harvey likes a three-knuckle grip but he doesn't like to see his pupils
always looking down and trying to count knuckles. Just aim the V's generally toward the right
shoulder which will give you a three-knuckle grip. Second, square your feet hips and shoulders to the
line of flight. Make certain that you are not subconsciously allowing for a slice. Allow for a
slice and you will hit one. Third, play baseball. That's right baseball. Stand at home plate and align
yourself squarely to the pitcher's mound and second base. Then roll the left forearm, not the wrist,
and hit the ball over the shortstop. This produces the correct inside to square to inside swing pan.
Use a seven iron first and then a three wood. These three steps will cure your slice but if you
overdo it you'll develop a big hook instead. Remember when you take golf medicine just take a
little not the whole bottle. Hooks don't hurt the average golfer. It's the pulled hook that does the
damage. If you're hitting a shot that flies straight and hooks toward the end don't worry about it.
But if your ball starts immediately to the left and then hooks you need help.
The first thing to check is your grip. Take the privilege of making the V's of one or both of
your hands point at your chin. But be careful. When one cures a hook by putting the left hand
too much on top of the club it's only a matter of time before the swing gets out and over the ball.
You might also open your face a little bit at address. This is practically the same thing as
weakening your grip. In your swing concentrate on clipping the tee or brushing the grass.
This will take the club straight through. The shank is so ugly that Harvey hates to even say the word.
Let's call it a lateral shot instead. Usually the shot is caused by blocking off a pull
or what you think is going to be a pull. Here are the cures for the lateral shot.
Try to hit every iron shot on the toe of the club until you stop shanking.
Never aim to the left. You would do well to think you aim to the right.
Feel like the toe of the club is rolling over.
Place a tee about one inch outside of the ball lined up at the target. Hit the ball without hitting the tee.
It is almost impossible to hit a lateral shot if the blade is closed. Try it sometime.
Close the blade and make your best swing and follow through. Keep it closed until you hit the
tee. Keep it closed throughout the swing. The ball may go to the left but it probably won't go laterally.
If you're hitting the ball fat, Harvey's got a simple cure that he learned from Jack Burke senior.
Hitting behind the ball is caused by weight being on the back foot. If the weight is forward it is
almost impossible to hit behind the ball. So make sure you get a good weight shift and you'll
eliminate the fat shots from your game. Hitting from the top is what happens when you reach the
top of your backswing and start back down to the ball by throwing your hands at it.
Hard practice on sound fundamentals is a great help of course, but that is not the answer a one
visit student wants to hear from an instructor. Here are the cures that have proven successful
for Harvey. The first and simplest is to try to hit the ball on the toe of the club for a while.
This is often a one aspirin remedy for the sickness. Another simple fix is to place two
balls on the ground about two inches apart. Hit the inside ball without touching the other.
A third method, the strongest and most basic, is to learn to hook the ball. Strengthen the grip,
rolling both hands to the right in an exaggerated fashion. Go ahead and hook the ball clear off the
practice range. Once you learn to create hooks at will, in all likelihood you have started
hitting from the top. The problem now becomes curing the hook, and Harvey's already shown you
how to do that. The last cure is Harvey's magic move. Once you master the right elbow left heel
action, you'll stop hitting from the top. Harvey guarantees it.
With an uphill lie, you're going to pull the ball. Go ahead and make allowance for it. Shorten your
uphill leg and straighten the other so that your hips are level. This will naturally play the ball
back in your stance, but don't let your weight shift back with it.
On a downhill lie straighten your downhill leg and flex the uphill leg again to level the hips.
Play the ball.
Play the ball back in your stance, but don't let your weight shift back with it.
On a downhill line, straighten your downhill leg and flex the uphill leg.
Again, to level the hips.
Play the ball back toward your right foot.
Hold your club on the ground and the manufacturer will tell you where it belongs when the face
is square.
You may hit the ball a little to the right, but do not play for a slice off a downhill
line.
If you do, you are in danger of shanking it.
Harvey Pinnock was not trained as a psychologist, but early on in his teaching career, he instinctively
grasped the importance of the mind in the game of golf.
Here are some tips from Harvey that will help you.
First, don't relax.
Harvey prefers for you to be at ease, but ready to go.
As Jack Berg Jr. says, the secret is a feeling of control violence.
Number two, have confidence.
Harvey wants you to believe with all your heart that the shot you're about to hit will
be a good one.
Confidence comes when you've hit a particular shot many times in the past with success and
know you're capable of doing it again.
Number three, indecision is a killer.
When you pull that five iron out of the bag and register the target in your mind and address
the ball, you must totally believe this is the right club.
If it turns out the five was a club too much or too little, but you hit it well, you won't
be more than 10 yards off.
Think positively, and as Harvey's older brother Tom used to say, just rear back and hit it.
Number four, it's not easy to stop the bleeding when things go bad.
If you start worrying about your score or if you're thinking ahead to the future holes,
you're in trouble.
Golf is played in the present.
You reach a reward stroke by stroke.
If you wash your mind clean each time while walking to your next shot, you have the makings
of a champion.
Golf is not a game that offers easy solutions.
Believe me, I know.
The only way to really improve your game is to get out there and practice, practice, practice.
But if you're serious about breaking nanny this year, Harvey's got 10 tips that will
help you achieve your goal.
Number one, check your grip.
To play your best, you need a good grip.
If you're not yet an accomplished player, you might want a stronger grip.
This will reduce any tendencies you might have to slice the ball.
Plus it will allow you to hit the ball with more power.
Number two, work on the slow motion drill.
The slow motion drill is the best drill Harvey knows to help you perfect your swing.
Swing the club back very slowly to the top of the swing.
Always keep your eye on the blade of grass or pattern in the carpet that represents the
golf ball.
As you reach the top of the backswing, replace your left heel solidly on the ground and at
the same time bring your right elbow in close to your body.
Then stop a moment and hold it and feel it.
Now start again from your holding position, swing slowly to the top, plant the left heel,
bring the right elbow close to the body and stop about one third of the way to the ball.
Do this four times.
When Harvey says slow, he means really, really slow.
If you think you're doing it in slow motion, do it even slower.
After four repetitions, go ahead and make the full swing, still in very slow motion,
into a high finish with elbows out in front and your head coming up as if to watch a good
shot.
Hold the pose and feel it.
Do this drill again and again.
Number three, swing the weed cutter.
Of all the thousands of training aids, the best one you can buy is the common weed cutter.
The motion you make lobbing off dandelions with the weed cutter is the perfect action
of swinging a golf club through the hitting area.
You instinctively square the weed cutter at the bottom of the arc and a square club face
is critical to hitting good shots.
Furthermore, the weed cutter is heavy and builds golf muscles.
While you're swinging the weed cutter, pretend you're being paid by the hour, not by the
job.
In other words, take your time.
Once you've mastered the motion of the weed cutter, just transfer it to the golf swing
and you're in business.
Number four, build your game around one club.
Harvey recommends that the average golfer select one club, perhaps a seven iron, and
learn to love it like a sweetheart.
Learn how far it goes, learn how to hit it high or low, to hook it or slice it.
An average golfer can build a decent game around one club.
Number five, develop your short game.
The key to scoring is a good short game.
Getting the ball up and down from around the green.
If you want to knock five strokes off your score in a hurry, leave your long clubs in
your bag and head for the practice green.
The large percentage of the people should spend more time on their short game than they
do.
They need to start at the hole and work their way back instead of starting at the tee and
working their way to the hole.
The best way to sharpen your chipping and putting is to use just one ball as if you
were playing out on the course.
This forces you to concentrate on the work at hand and make sure that you hole all your
putts, no gimmicks.
One reason why many players have trouble with short putts is they never practiced them.
All right, let's come over here.
Just a little downhill chip shot here, just a little slow roller.
And be sure and add some competition to your practice.
As young boys, Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw spent hours upon hours competing on the practice
green, a foundation that has stood them in good stead on the PGA Tour.
Hey, hey.
Oh, it went in.
Hey, hey, what is the deal here?
I don't know.
I caught it on the right jerk.
Man, alive, I tell you.
That's not something.
Number six, warm up properly.
How many times have you raced the first tee, topped your drive into the woods, and before
you know it, made four double bogeys in a row?
After a while, you start to warm up and play your game.
But by then, the damage is done.
If you're going to score your best, you've got to warm up correctly before you play.
Some people need a long time to warm up, and other people can just step up there and swing
the club a couple of times and feel like they're loose.
But the trick is to find out exactly what you need and then not cut that short.
If you have to warm up in a hurry, use the time you have to stroke a few careful chip
shots.
This will help arouse your sense of feel and touch, as well as put your mind on the business
at hand, which is to play golf.
And here's another quick tip.
Before you go out to play, take a few moments and practice clipping the tee without a ball.
Do this three times before you play, and your golf muscles will be ready to go when you
step up on the first tee.
Number seven, keep a diary.
In golf, your strengths and weaknesses will always be there.
If you can improve your weaknesses, you would improve your game.
The irony is that most people prefer to practice their strengths.
Keep a record of your rounds, and patterns will emerge.
Isolate your problems and plan your practice accordingly.
And be sure to practice some trouble shots.
You should never play a shot on the course that you haven't practiced on the range.
Number eight, use your three-wood.
Put away your driver and hit your three-wood.
Hitting the ball straight and being in the right place is much more important than being
impressively long.
When I was a little boy, I used to watch the University of Texas golf team.
They had some wonderful players, along with some very powerful players, too.
And I was watching them go out on the first tee one day at the Austin Country Club, and
one of the long hitters dispatched the ball into the woods off the tee.
It was a long shot, but it was off line.
And Harvey looked at me and he said, look, just remember something, Ben.
He said, the woods are full of long hitters.
So I think it's a nice thing to take a three-wood out and make a nice smooth pass with that
three-wood and keep that ball in play.
Number nine, hit it hard.
While Harvey wants you to hit enough club, he is convinced that it's self-defeating to
hit too much club and swing easy.
If I were hitting a drive and my normal distance would be 250 yards with the driver, wouldn't
the hardest shot to be to take a driver and hit it 225 or 200.
I think the average player would do better if he always used a full swing, not try to
hit easy five-eyed when it's a six-eyed shot.
If you want to hit the stronger club anyway, grip down an inch on the handle and go ahead
and hit it hard.
Hit it hard even with your shorter irons, but don't swing so hard that you lose your
balance.
Always play within yourself.
Number 10, take dead aim.
This is perhaps Harvey's single most important piece of advice.
Once you address the golf ball, hitting it has got to be the most important thing in
your life at that moment.
Shut out all thoughts other than picking out a target and taking dead aim at it.
This is also a good way to calm a case of nerves.
Forget how your swing may look and concentrate instead on where you want the ball to go.
Take dead aim.
This is a wonderful thought to keep in mind all the way around the course, not just on
the first tee.
Take dead aim at a spot on the fairway or the green.
Refuse to allow any negative thought to enter your head and swing away.
Every time that I leave for a tournament, he holds out his hands.
He says, take a dead aim.
And when I don't think about endless theories about how I'm going to try to do it, when
I wind up and hit it and be myself, I hit the best shots.
Wish I could bottle it.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to get inside the ropes and watch a top professional
work on his game with his teacher?
Well, it's time now for a little post-graduate instruction.
Harvey Penick talking golf with Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw.
Now this is between you and me.
I think the main reason that these boys are hitting that ball so far is that I've been
a teacher of the small muscles.
And I thought those big mass muscles were getting in the way.
And I think that these boys, like Freddy Couples and two or three of this Norman, have a way
of learning to hit that ball with the small muscles and also the big back muscles.
They do.
They're right.
I don't want y'all to say to do it.
Harvey, you said earlier that if you had a pupil who wanted to, let's say, lengthen their
backswing, you would change their feet.
OK.
Let me show you in a practice swing, Tommy.
Get there and get your stance.
All right.
Now if I want to lengthen his backswing, I might take this right foot and open it up
a little.
Now watch, see, he can lengthen that backswing a good foot.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've got so many tricks like that.
If I want to follow his, get his follow through, close your stance, your left a little bit.
Now then follow through.
Now point your foot out.
Watch, see how much easier it is for him to get through.
Yeah.
So you just almost have to blend the two a little bit, don't you?
Yeah.
You know, we're awful lucky to grow up in Texas because we've had to learn to play golf
in a lot of different kind of conditions.
That's right.
Now these West Texas boys all used to have a bad grip until Billy Maxwell came along
and had a good grip.
But they can play those West Texas courses, the ball roll and the Donald Tree out there.
They can take that bad grip and hook it and get a big roll and beat most anybody in West
Texas, but they couldn't shoot an idea on Colonial.
It's too tight, wasn't it?
Well I know every time I'm chipping well, I really feel like the left hand stays firm
but this elbow breaks a little bit.
I was watching Ben earlier, he was hitting some chip shots up there and he just, boom,
it looks like he just kind of sits and holds it.
Oh, that's a beautiful shot there.
That's a bad ball.
Look at that balance.
Now do you notice that Tommy doesn't get his left heel off the ground quite as much as
Ben, but that's individual.
He has in his effort to get his swing a little bit more compact.
He doesn't lift his heel as much as he was.
That's beautiful.
If you look at that follow through, his weight's all on his left foot and his weight has shifted
to the left.
Yes, sir.
You know, Mr. Penick, early in my career I kind of finished a lot like this with a big
arch in my back and I find that by keeping that heel down it helps me get to my left
side and get rid of some of that reverse C.
That's the first time I'd heard that from it.
Sure gets rid of some of the strain on my back.
I still think that when I quit trying to learn I'm going to quit trying to teach.
Now if you watch Ben, this is an easy way to learn where the positions are at the top
of the backswing and the follow through.
Now if you'll bring it straight up over your arms, a little more stretch there.
Come on up.
Now make a turn.
Now it makes a weight move back to your left foot and the right elbow gets back to the
side.
Now come right on through.
Now that's it.
Now then it gets your perfect follow through.
Make it right up over you and then follow through.
Okay.
Bring it like this.
Straight up over there.
Over your left shoulder.
Now follow through.
That would be the ideal follow through.
That does.
That feels great.
It feels so relaxed when you bring it straight up like that doesn't it?
It really does.
Exactly.
You're not thinking about your wrists or arms or anything.
No it just teaches the natural perfect hinging of the wrist.
They just naturally break when you bring it straight up don't they?
Your wrists.
It's about that left arm, it's extended but not rigid.
Right.
Yes.
Now when you pick it straight up that way it does that.
This would be interesting to y'all.
At schools and they always say Harvey you don't tell people to relax.
And I said that's for sure.
I sure don't if you watch Bobby Jones with a freeze ray and impact his left side is grittless
teeth.
Oh absolutely.
He is and those tapes he's.
Getting down the head air and everything you're certainly not relaxed.
Absolutely.
He's giving that ball the business isn't he?
I tell you that's the biggest thing in my teaching.
I don't like that word relax like a dish rag.
Mr. Penick could you walk Ben and I through the mythical perfect golf swing please sir?
Please I'd like to talk about it.
Now if you'll watch these boys they'll both walk up to the ball look where they're going
and scry the club off to it and have a little waggle that gets them in the mood and loosen
it up.
Now as this club gets parallel to the ground that's going to come and be straight up and
the weight started moving to the right foot and gradually coming on up to the top but
most of the weight moved back to the right leg and now the first move down the right
elbow gets back to the side and the weight gets back to the left side and that club gets
on there the crossover starts that puts the snap into the club and as it gets right there
the head starts moving up and the weight to the left foot gets the weight back on it and
as the club stops there it's about parallel to where they want the ball to go.
That shaft is running in the opposite direction that the ball wanted to be going if you're
right there all the weight and all that right foot does is hold their mouths.
Let's take a moment and review Harvey's key thoughts about the grip stance and swing.
This is sort of a refresher course that you can take each week before you head out to
play.
The foundation of a good swing is a good grip.
Your hands should touch each other and work together as a unit.
For the average golfer Harvey likes the V's to point towards the right shoulder.
When you take your grip the left thumb should be a little bit to the right of center.
This promotes control.
Stand over the ball and be comfortable.
Your feet are about shoulder width.
Stand up fairly straight with a slight flex in your knees as if you're making the first
move towards sitting down.
Make sure the ball is played correctly in your stance.
Play it off the left heel for the driver and tee it up three wood.
The rest of your clubs move back a fraction of an inch until you reach dead center which
is where you play the niner.
Start your golf swing with a smooth forward press just like you're swinging a bucket of
water.
As the club head goes back let the left heel come up if it wants to.
When your club reaches waist high the toes should be pointed straight up.
This means that your wrist cock is now built into your swing.
Make a good full turn.
It's okay for your head to move and in fact this promotes distance.
Just make sure your head is still behind the ball at impact.
As you start down execute the magic move.
Let your weight shift to your left foot while bringing your right elbow back down to your
body.
Swing through to a nice high finish.
Harvey doesn't want you to clutter your mind but don't forget to take dead aim and don't
forget to clip the tee.
This brings us to the end of our lessons.
We hope you've enjoyed watching this tape as much as we've enjoyed making it.
And remember that every time you hit one right on the screws, every time that you shoot a
career round, and every time you hold that tough four footer to win your match, there's
a gentleman down in Austin, Texas who's as proud of you as you are of yourself.
I'm Dave Marr.
Thanks for being with us.
Excuse me, do you want me to show you how to do that?
Yes.
Let me show you how to do this.
Now shoot this because it's going in.
Oh they're rolling.
Oh, shank.
I kept it on the green.
I've made it once.
Once?
We've filmed it about ten different times.
There it is.
No.
All right, here we go.
Did I mess up everything?
No, they know they're going to have to stay with me all day.
All right, here we go.