Instruction
The Golfing Machine: Homer Kelley’s quotes explained
As I’ve maturate through this game for life, I, like most golfers, have worked hard to improve my golf game.
Just like many of you, I’ve taken lessons and or listened to someone who I believed could help me better my ball striking. But like most golfers, I have sometimes tried accomplish more than I actually needed to at times. And I’ve been guilty of doing the same in my teaching as well.
I know very early in my teaching career, I tried to force most people into a model swing. It was one that was way too complex for some levels of players to understand, yet alone achieve, without hitting balls for several months.
I have maturated in my teaching style over the years, and now espouse the fundamentals below as quoted from Homer Kelley’s great work “The Golfing Machine,” which allows instructors to teach over 446 quad-trillion swinging motions — one of which will work for someone.
The book does anything but force people into a model swing. Rather, it allows the student and instructor to work together in producing a stroke pattern that is simplest for the student to achieve without too much work. This is the reason why Corey Pavin’s swing and Tiger Woods’ swings both work, yet look totally different. There is no one way to swing a club, but each person has THEIR own best way to move their body and club throughout the swing.
There is little excuse for forcing the average weekend golfer, who has some strong tendency or other, to adopt any procedure or stroke pattern that calls for the elimination of that tendency. It is far easier to develop a stroke pattern that properly compensates for it. Change the factors that are easily controlled to fit those that are difficult to change. There is no effort to classify any stroke pattern as best or worst, but there is undoubtedly a best “central” stroke pattern for each individual.
What does this say to me? Obviously, each of us have some type of idiosyncratic motion in our swings — Tiger’s hips, Nicklaus’ flying right elbow and Trevino’s loop — but the truth remains that there is no one way to swing. But there are certain fundamentals must apply to everyone.
We only need to compensate for major swing flaws that just can’t be overcome through normal practice. Ray Floyd will never work the club on plane to the top — sure he can move more in that direction, but he will never be there naturally, so what does he do? He just makes sure he re-routes the club with the proper plane-angle shift from the top. The major flaw is the off-plane backstroke, because it can’t be fixed without changing the player’s natural swing. Thus the solution is to compensate with the correct plane angle shift, which is easily corrected.
The students need to know only the factors and components of their particular stroke patterns as recommended and assembled by the instructor. The student who can play and practice only occasionally should not be induced to proceed on the lines of detail and precision that a prospective champion would need.
If golfers only play and practice once a week, there is no reason from them to try and overhaul their golf swing. Yes, there are certain things that they must do from day 1 to be more fundamentally correct, but golfers who don’t play or practice often limit an instructor’s plan of action. This is the reason why I ask all my students up front how much time the can realistically play and practice — it gives me a direction to go in instructionally.
I also tell my students that their scores and consistency will be totally correlated to the amount of play and practice they do. I can’t move mountains, and there are only a few non-practicing good players. Don’t try and beat the odds — take baby steps.
The student must approach instruction as a step-by-step process. The only real short cuts are more and more know-how. A careless beginning can be disastrous. It’s premature to expect the complete results of instruction before the last factor is fitted in, understood, and mastered.
The golf swing is like a ladder or plywood; everything preceding the position a golfer is in directly affects what is going on currently. If a golfer is out of position at address, then his or her takeaway will be faulty unless a compensation is made at the start (which leads to another compensation if a golfer is not careful).
For that reason, the people who come to me for lessons and have tried to “do it themselves off the start” are usually so fouled up that it will take three lessons for me just to put them into a position in which they can actually affect their consistency in the positive.
And finally, the Type-A personalities that come through the door who are interested in “instant gratification” must forget this concept or forever be frustrated with teaching and instructors. I know many students who have walked into my door coming from other teachers complaining about not getting any better and it takes me about three minutes to understand why — it is not the former instructor’s fault, but the attitude of the student himself.
Don’t be this type of lesson taker — all you’re doing is wasting your money, your time and ruining the instructor’s reputation because of your desire for instant results. Nothing in life works that way. Why should golf?
The instructor can only inform and explain — the student must absorb and apply.
I cannot do anything more than help my students understand in simple terms why their swing is not producing the shots they currently want. There are some flaws that require constant touch ups to overcome for good, and it is these times that students must be patient and understand that we as teachers are doing all we can to help them improve as quickly as possible.
Teachers are hindered by student’s attitudes, physiology, practice time and desire — it is up to the student to listen, absorb and apply the information given in the classroom (the lesson tee) in the best way for them personally. Sometimes this take two seconds, two minutes or two weeks, but if students review the lesson tape they are given they will see what the instructor is trying to do over the long haul. And if they have questions, they need to ask! That is what teachers are there for in the first place!
No one, especially beginners, should ever trust Feel alone.
How can someone who has no physiological understanding of the game stand on the practice tee and actually try to feel what they are doing biomechanically? I don’t know the first thing about throwing a shot-put physically, so why would I try to go to the practice shot-putting field and try to trust what I “feel?” Give your “feel” to a competent instructor and then you can trust what feels right versus wrong.
Eons of man-hours are lost trying to substitute effort for technique and trying to eliminate effect instead of cause.
Enough said — the golf swing is cause and effect. Ninety-nine percent of the time when an untrained teacher or one of your playing partners tells you to work on something in your swing it is to correct the effect of a prior cause.
How many times has someone told you how not to come over the top during the transition by dropping your right elbow, looping the club, etc., when in fact the root of the problem is a faulty backstroke plane and/or a faulty pivot motion to the top causing the over-the-top motion. This is why these Band-Aids never work, because they are trying to fix the effect and not working on the fundamental cause.
Think of the overswing and how hard it is to get out of — why? It’s because just stopping at the top is not the answer. It lies in fixing the disconnection that causes the arms to overswing. Take the time to understand why you do the things you do and why they happen before you try and alter something.
I hope this article has shed some light on what you do and how you go about changing your swing. Take your time and listen intently, for these are the keys to improving your ball striking as soon as possible.
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” on RG.org each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more Tips!
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Billy
Jun 22, 2016 at 9:52 pm
Because you are over swinging and it’s collapsing your elbow. Next question please. It’s like I’m the new homer kelley
Freddy
Aug 16, 2013 at 9:32 am
Excellent article. It’s not just applicable to TGM, but coaching as a whole
Stevenw
Aug 15, 2013 at 4:20 pm
Mr. Stickneky. I think I improperly applied most of the 446 quad-trillion swing motions last Sunday. But I’m still in love with this silly game. Seriously, I have not read but have heard that TGM is a complex golf book. Would it be a smart investment for a weekend warrior with a low teens handicap to read TGM? Or should I just study you series, The Swing in Pictures along with the dozens of other golf books on my shelf. Thank you for your posts. I’m a fan of your writings here at golfwrx.
Tom Stickney
Aug 16, 2013 at 3:07 am
Start with the swings in photos. Find a good teacher in your area next. Thx for the note sir.
Stevenw
Aug 16, 2013 at 5:24 pm
Thank you for the reply. I’ll digest and attempt to implement the Swing in Photos, the mountain of golf books I have at home, and then tackle TGM. I am working with my local PGA pro, who is fantastic and a much better instructor than I am a student. He’s leading me on a fun journey to upper half of my foursome. P.S. Sorry for misspelling your name. Typing yips maybe?
Tom Stickney
Aug 14, 2013 at 5:43 pm
TGM is a catalog of motion…the reason why there are so many swings is bc there are many variations of the basic 24 motions we all go through in the golf swing. The number only states the fact that there are many ways to get it done and there is a swing motion out there for you if you need something unique…due to an old injury etc. Most teachers can teach a few different swing models- 90% of the time students fit into them without issue…but the others are there if I need them.
Von Boss
Aug 14, 2013 at 2:08 pm
you lost my trust at 446 quad-trillion swing motions?? how long did it take to distinguish all 446 quad-trillion swing motions well enough to be able to teach another?
Tom Stickney
Aug 14, 2013 at 5:41 pm
TGM is a catalog of motion…the reason why there are so many swings is bc there are many variations of the basic 24 motions we all go through in the golf swing. The number only states the fact that there are many ways to get it done and their is a swing motion out there for you if you need something unique…due to an old injury etc. Most teachers can teach a few different swing models- 90% of the time students fit into them without issue…but the others are there if I need them.
Jack
Aug 14, 2013 at 10:42 am
I’m not sure what I, as a student, am supposed to agree with in reading this article. I suppose the ideal student, from the teacher’s perspective, would commit fully to the teacher’s program without evaluation, but not everyone with PGA on his or her card is Harvey Penick. A teacher and student must work together, and if a good fit isn’t achieved it’s not always the student’s attitude that is the cause.
Tom Stickney
Aug 14, 2013 at 5:50 pm
It never has been nor will it ever be a dictatorship on my end…it’s your swing and your goals. I just facilitate.
Jack
Aug 21, 2013 at 3:50 pm
I think of the parable of the blind men examining an elephant. One of them feels the tail and says, “An elephant is like a rope.” Another feels a leg and says, “An elephant is like a tree.” Another feels the trunk and says, “An elephant is a type of snake.” Or the saying, that when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. That’s how I’ve felt trying to find a teacher among the local pros. I don’t think teachers who are really able to get inside a student’s swing with him and find THE PROBLEM are all that common. Many are bound by their prejudice of what “the” golf swing should look like, or stuck in the routine of dispensing the same advice over and over.
Scott Shields
Aug 13, 2013 at 3:32 pm
Over swing and collapse your elbow? Loss of extensor action.
I’m a huge fan of the TGM, been getting lessons from a certified instructor here in SE Michigan for 3 years now. His ability to communicate the information, and educate have enabled me to constantly improve. TGM is complicated, and needs to be applied with diligence, and trust. But through hard work, the curtain can be pulled back and the golf swing does become understandable, not just guessing and applying the latest tips from Golf Digest.
paul
Aug 12, 2013 at 7:36 pm
So why do i over swing and collapse my elbow?