Author: Percy Boomer

Publisher: Knopf

Pub. in: June, 1946

ISBN: 0394410084

Pages: 272

Measurements: 7.6 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches

Origin of product: USA

Order code: BA00388

Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0394410081

A golf classic for 60 years.

Teaching and golf were in Percy Boomer's blood. His father was the village schoolteacher in Grouville, on the isle of Jersey, off England's Southern coast. Among those the senior Boomer taught to read and write were golf legends Harry Vardon and Ted Ray.

Percy also taught school for a while, giving it up to become a professional golfer in 1896. But as a player he was overshadowed by his brother Aubrey, who was much better in competition.

Percy did win the Swiss, Dutch, and Belgian Opens during the 1920s, but soon turned his attention to teaching. Among those who sought his advice were his childhood friends Vardon and Ray. Based at the exclusive golf club at St. Cloud, on the outskirts of Paris, Boomer built a reputation as a fine teacher.

He advocated learning by "muscle memory" - the feel of a correct action. "I try to teach by the pupil's sense of feeling," explained Boomer, "rather than his understanding of mechanics."

Boomer was one of the first instructors to eliminate negatives from his teaching. He never told the student what he or she was doing wrong, instead focusing on what the student should feel during the motion. In the 1930s he was one of the first to employ stop-action photography to dissect what was really happening during the swings of both the average golfer and the game's champions.

He is the least published among the four inductees. Besides a three-article series in the British magazine Golf Monthly in 1941 and his book On Learning Golf, published in 1942 (in England), Boomer wrote little. But On Learning Golf received much attention even during the war and quickly sold out its first printing. It remains a ground-breaking text and is widely considered among the best books ever written on playing the game.

Boomer endeared himself to his followers when he wrote, "Everything I have ever done in golf, I have had to learn to do" - a statement most average golfers can readily relate to.

Boomer believed that learning to control the swing by feel, rather than by thought, is the only route to a sound golf game. In On Learning Golf he said, "I do not believe in trying to impart the swing in stages or by sections; from the first lesson I teach the swing complete." He insisted that as many shots as possible be played with the same fundamental movements.

Boomer listed his six essentials of the swing:

1. It is essential to turn the body round to the right and then back and round to the left, without moving either way. In other words, this turning movement must be from a fixed pivot.
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2. It is essential to keep the arms at full stretch throughout the swing-through the backswing, the downswing, and the follow-through.
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3. It is essential to allow the wrists to break fully back at the top of the swing.
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4. It is essential to delay the actual hitting of the ball until as late in the swing as possible.
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5. It is essential not to tighten any muscle concerned in the reactive part of the swing (movement above the waist).
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6. It is essential to feel and control the swing as a whole and not to concentrate upon any part of it.

"This controlling feel is built up through the constant repetition of the correct movements," Boomer explained. "It is highly desirable that the memory should not be confused by the frequent or even occasional introduction of other and different movements - as happens when the swing is fundamentally changed for certain shots."

Target readers: All golf players and learners.

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