Everything helping the development of good control must be encouraged, everything hindering it avoided. Their building up is largely unconscious and unnoticed, in-deed even a successful pupil will often feel that little progress is being madeuntil perhaps quite suddenly he will be surprised to find himself playing effective, confident golf.
I remember with special pleasure how that happened to a young pupil of mine.
She had been in my hands since her childhood and her first experience of a major tournament was when she went over to England for the Ladies’ Open. She actually led the field in the qualifying rounds and was only put out on the last green in the semi-final..
On her return she said to me, “I did not know I could play like that! No one was more surprised than I was. I just playedand everything went right.”
I was delighted, but not so surprised. I knew she had the golf in her and that sooner or later the controls we were building would enable her to play it. But I was delighted, because you would not normally expect a young pupil to play a bit above her best on such a nerve-testing occasion.
So when a golfer says to...