I was going through some old boxes this weekend and came up with these photos. They were taken in 1983 at a golf school I conducted at Sawgrass. At least I think it was Sawgrass. May have been at Raintree C.C. in Charlotte. Before I "went away a spell," I was already stirring the TGM pot pretty good. That's Dr. Gary Wiren, then Director of Instruction, PGA of America, at the far left in the PGA-crested blazer. He and two of his associates flew in from PGA Headquarters -- a Men in Black sort of thing -- and spent a full day at the school. Gary walked away with a yellow pad full of notes and his incubator humming.
By the way, notice that in this little set-up -- you can't see it but the Clubshaft is resting on a straight stick suspended between two chairs -- if you Trace a Straight Plane Line, the Clubhead automatically moves in the most perfect curve. In other words, Tracing the true Geometric Plane Line automatically produces the Arc of Approach.
This Arc of Approach is now the New Big Thing in conventional instruction. They don't call it the Arc of Approach (or anything else for that matter), but the big deal is all about visualizing curves on the ground and 'going left' with the Hands and Clubhead through Impact and Follow-Through. All being done, of course, with absolutely nothing to guide the Clubhead in its curving path.
The solution to all this confusion is to do what Homer Kelley taught me 24 years ago and what I have taught countless others since: Trace a Straight Plane Line with the Right Forearm and #3 Pressure Point.
I remember watching some of the Sawgrass video last spring. It's weird - yet encouraging - that the info is exactly the same now as it was almost 25 years ago. While the clothes and hairstyles have been updated, the information remains consistent. Same easel and 'geometry of the circle' illustration as well.
How about that brochure too Lynn? I remember you saying, "How many other instructors today could use their pamphlet from 25 years ago and not have to change a word on it?"
Didn't Dr. Gary Wiren base his concept "Laws, Principles, and Preferences" on Homer's work, only to get them mixed up?
That's right, Drew. And it always rankled Homer that the only acknowledgement of that fact came in the book's Foreward, something to the effect: "This book is based on the work of others. They know who they are."
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