The Golf Swing (illustrated): The Ernest Jones Method. This item is unavailable.The Golf Swing (illustrated): The Ernest Jones Method

The view of the golf swing expressed in this book forms the subject of a series of articles contributed by Mr. Daryn Hammond to Golf Illustrated of America. "What is wrong with the teaching of golf?" asks a writer in the Daily Express. "That there is something wrong with it," he goes on, "is realized by all people who attempt to play golf, and by all those who watch them doing it. "Undoubtedly golf is a difficult game, and undoubtedly it attracts a large proportion of devotees whose only qualification for playing it is their devotion. But it is not on these grounds alone that one can explain the pathetic failure of the average golfer's life, or the tragicomedy that is always being enacted by golfing contortionists over the links of the world. One must seek other causes. One must consider, not only the subject and the pupil, but the teacher. "Broadly speaking, the teachers of golf are either professional golfers or enthusiastic amateurs. In the main, the professional golfer knows how to play golf, but not how to teach it; and in the main the enthusiastic amateur knows neither how to teach it nor how to play it." "Surely," says the writer in the Daily Express, "among the thousands of golfers in the two hemispheres there is some one person who can make this plague of a game intelligible?" There is. He is Ernest Jones. And if there is anything unintelligible in the following pages, it is the writer, and not Ernest Jones, who is at fault. In this book one lesson only is taught, and that one lesson is taught all the time. Each chapter is but a re-statement - from a different angle - of the principle enunciated in every other chapter. The risk of wearying the reader by reiteration has been preferred to the risk of leaving him in doubt. Welcome to the Ernest Jones Method of golf instruction.

Ernest Jones (1887–1965) was an English professional golfer. He is renowned for his accomplishments in teaching many famous professional golfers as well as amateurs. Jones was born near Manchester, England. He began playing golf as a young boy and by the age of 18 secured employment at Chislehurst Golf Club as an assistant professional. In 1913 at the age of 25 he was made head professional at that club. As a soldier in the First World War, he was in France. There in March 1915 he was serving in the Sportsman's Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, near Loos. As the result of an exploding grenade, he suffered the loss of his right leg just below the knee. He was sent back to England where he recuperated for four months. Able to walk using crutches, he proceeded to attempt his first round of golf at Royal Norwich in 1916 where he carded an 83 (38/45) on that first outing. He followed shortly thereafter with a 72 on a long and challenging course. In 1936, at the invitation of Marion Hollins, Jones accepted the position of Head Golf Professional at the Women's National Golf and Tennis Club in Long Island, New York. This was the beginning of a life long career of teaching in the U.S. Jones began to ask himself how it could be that he could yet score so effectively, with such a radical change needing to be made to how his body swung the club having only one leg. Thus it was the case that Jones began his now-famous quest to discover, document, and disseminate a description of "how" the club swung and how to most easily teach the club's movements to others. Jones' simple concept is summarized in this classic "The Golf Swing" instruction. Ironically, it is the drastic simplicity of his approach to golf instruction that met with rancor and objection when he was invited by the PGA (Professional Golfers' Association of America) to present his work. Horton Smith, then the incoming president of the association, told Jones his system was "too simple. We wouldn't sell enough lessons." His career included playing competitively on the European tour, head golf professional at several of America's most esteemed golf clubs, and a career of teaching both tour professional and amateur golfers. He was inducted into the World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame in 1977.