To illustrate the point of the spring back or rebound of the ball: if you were to throw the ball against a blanket hung on a line, the blanket would yield and the ball would drop straight down. If you were to stand a board up and throw the ball against it, the ball would rebound from it because the ball would be compressed and would rebound from the board with as much speed as was used in compressing it less the amount of energy which the board took up.

If you throw the ball against a stone wall it will spring back with great speed because the wall holds its position so firmly that practically all the energy which is used in making the ball col-lapse is returned in the ball upon the rebound.

It is this principle which is lost sight of by most golfers. In order to get this rebound of the ball from the club head the power must be kept up and the club head pressed steadily against the ball until the latter has regained its shape; it is the firmness with which the pressure is maintained rather than any heave or jerk to the swing which gives the distance.

I consider that this elementary principle should be thoroughly understood, as it is this part of the game which is spoken of as "mental." A correct understanding of these basic principles has much to do with the way the player swings at his ball, and the fact that beginners do not "follow through" is proof that they do not understand this fact or their common sense would make them observe it. If they grasp the idea correctly as I have shown, their own intelligence will insist on their maintaining a firm, steady pressure on the ball after the first impact.

It is the player's mental conception of his stroke that is responsible for his way of playing, and that is something which he alone knows and which dictates his style. I have always hesitated to say anything a player does is wrong until I find out what his idea is in doing it. He may be making a very intelligent effort to play his stroke according to his understanding. If he is violating some basic principle the cure will not be found in making him swing differently, but in changing his mental picture of the stroke. If he can explain his purpose in swinging so and so, then I can grasp his idea, and if he is wrong show him why.

In my own case I have found that my improvement has come more from correcting wrong theories of the stroke than from practicing on false premises. The theories of golf are not so difficult that any man of average sense cannot under-stand them. One does not need to be an engineer to grasp the idea of the rebound of a rubber ball, or that his head must be still to see a ball clearly.