The Perfect Putter for the Perfect Golfer

Bobby Jones’ Putting Secrets

By Randy Jensen

Of course, Robert T. Jones, Jr., commonly referred to as "Bobby Jones," was the greatest hickory shaft golfer of the hickory golf era (with Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, and Tommy Armour spurring him on).  Bobby Jones culminated his career with his four 1930 "Grand Slam" victories: US & British Opens, US & British Amateurs.  Jones was only 28 years old when he retired after this amazing feat; he opened Augusta National with the first Masters golf tournament in 1934.

Bobby Jones described himself as being very nervous before tournaments and yet, his contemporaries described Jones' putting, and especially his putting under pressure, as simply unmatched in his era.

Many people attribute Jones' amazing putting to a putting lesson with Walter Travis who told Jones to putt with his feet close together.  Putting with your feet close together generally tightens the margin of error for a number of variables including: eye position, ball position, and positioning of body weight.  However, there is more to Bobby Jones' putting success than just that.

The rest of the story is actually two-fold, with one part being equipment and the second part being technique.

Bobby Jones' "Calamity Jane" putter was originally from the forge of St. Andrews clubmaker Robert Condie---a light (about 275-gram head) blade putter with a Willie Park-style offset.  

When Jones wore this club out he had Spalding clubmaker, J. Victor East meticulously recreate this putter right down to the three strands of whipping that supported the cracked hickory shaft of his original putter.  (You can see the historic recreated Bobby Jones putter used in 1930 at the USGA Museum in Far Hills NJ; the original Calamity Jane resides at Augusta National in Georgia.)

It was the cracked hickory shaft that was one of the keys to Jones' putting success.  

What was that key?

The cracked hickory shaft in Jones' Calamity Jane was VERY flexible.  

Isaac Newton’s third law of motion states that when one object applies a force on a second object, the second one simultaneously applies a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first object.  

Or to paraphrase this phenomenon, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

The application of Newton's law to Bobby Jones' putting stroke is that with such a whippy shaft, Jones' putter would spring back perfectly on plane during the transition between backswing and forward swing.  This will not happen with a stiffer shaft. 

So, with the Jones' stroke, the forward swing starts exactly the opposite direction as the backswing due to the extremely flexible shaft reversing direction as the hands stop.  With a normal putter, the player must move his hands exactly on plane to start the forward motion---Jones could let the shaft rebound on perfect plane; a huge advantage.

Just the flexible shaft won't get you the Jones' putting stroke, unfortunately.

Bobby Jones had a very idiosyncratic move in his full golf swing where he loosened his left hand at the top of his backswing before squeezing his left hand little fingers to start the downswing.  Today, this is considered an error in swing technique.  There are no Tour players who currently do this.  

Jones' habit of squeezing the little finger of his left hand to start the downswing carried over to his putting stroke.  Today, any tendency on the part of Tour players to "squeeze" the hands during the putting stroke is generally considered to be the "yips" and reason to consider the claw grip or the long putter.

But this was not the case for Bobby Jones who could get away with this move because he applied no pressure with any of his other fingers, especially any pressure from his right hand.  

This created a simple swinging hinge at the left hand little finger.  Bobby Jones could squeeze his left hand pinkie hard or easy, too soon or too late and all his putts would go straight with this brilliant technique.  Totally foolproof.

Watch Jones describe his putting stroke on video, mentioning that he starts the club away with his LEFT hand and has "a nice light grip on the club."  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJBz56EH5DA&ab_channel=RollYourRock

Jones combined this hand action with his narrow, shoulders-open stance and whippy putter shaft to win 13 major golf championships by age 28 and become one of sports’ greatest legends!

An amazing theory by Golf Club Designer, Maker, and hickory enthusiast, Tad Moore

”The USGA has the original shaft that Jones cracked. My belief is J Victor East put the original shaft into the new head before every tourney or every major and Jones played with the new shaft made to look like the old one in between majors.

Every hickory shaft is unique and this is my opinion.

I saw and held the shaft in the basement of the museum.

Jones would have wanted the feel of the original for big time golf.”

-Tad Moore

Bring Back the Bisque!

By Stephen Proctor

Every so often, while studying the history of golf, a researcher stumbles across a concept that is simply too delicious to leave in the past.

Exhibit A is the bisque.

A bisque is a stroke awarded in a handicapped match -- with one stunningly brilliant distinction. Bisques aren’t assigned to particular holes, as handicap strokes are. Instead, they can be used at any point during a match to change the outcome of a hole.

If, for instance, both golfers have made par on the toughest par 4 on the links, the player in possession of bisques could simply apply one of them and walk off the green with a win, instead of a halve.

It’s easy to see how bisques add an ingenious element of strategy to a handicapped match. Strokes assigned to holes often turn out to be irrelevant, but every bisque used makes a dramatic impact.

The concept of the bisque arose in the years before and between the World Wars, mostly in matches played between men and women, which were far more popular then than they are now.

One raging question of the age was how many strokes a top-flight woman player would need from a first-rate man to account for the difference in strength and driving distance if they competed from the same tees, as they usually did in those days.

The consensus was that, in most cases, women required what was then known as a half -- or 9 strokes per round. But if bisques were used instead, it was discovered, a woman could be far more competitive, even though she would get fewer bisques than strokes.

By the early 1920s, it was typical for a first-class woman to receive six or seven bisques from a man, rather than the nine strokes previously assigned, and with that element of strategy added to the contest women prevailed more and more often.

And, of course, it goes without saying that no man alive could give that many bisques to Joyce Wethered or Glenna Collett and have a prayer of prevailing in the match.

I, for one, am prepared to give up handicap strokes forever, and play only with bisques. In fact, my heart’s desire is now to play a home-and-home match against the inimitable Connor T. Lewis with bisques and stymies.

Bring back the bisque!

Auction Spotlight: Tom Stewart RTJ Irons

Auction House: Golden Age Golf Auctions, February 2024 Auction

One of the greatest golf sets of all-time hit the auction block a couple of weeks ago. Golden Age Golf Auctions’ item #8 consisted of an extremely rare complete set of Tom Stewart RTJ irons.

So what’s the big deal? In 1929 Bobby Jones was at the height of his golf powers, he was the best player on the planet and arguably the greatest player who had ever lived at that point. But in that pivotal year (see the story of the greatest shot he ever hit story) his clubs were stolen (or lost).

Jones in a bit of a panic, wired Tom Stewart of St Andrews, who was arguably the greatest ironmaker in the world and perhaps the greatest ironmaker of all-time up, to make him an exact set to replace his stolen clubs.

From that wire and perhaps the golf club specs recorded by Tom Stewart back in 1926 when Jones visited St Andrews for the Walker Cup, Stewart built Jones a full set of irons and a copy of his Calamity Jane putter. The set consisted of:

Driving Mashie (alternate club), 1 iron, 2 iron, Mashie Iron (alternate club), 3 iron, 4 iron, Mashie, Spade Mashie, Mashie Niblick, Niblick, Cleek (alternate club which I believe was meant to be cut down as a chipping club) and Putter.

Fortunately for Jones his original set was recovered and returned to him. So as far as we know, Stewart’s replica set was never put into play. BUT our story is just beginning.

Tom Stewart had Jones specs and this mishap presented Stewart with an opportunity- we believe soon after the clubs were made, Stewart started making clubs from Jones’ spec iron moldings and stamping them “RTJ” (Robert Tyre Jones). Now the common golfer could buy and play “Bobby Jones’ Golf Clubs!”

Unchecked the Tom Stewart RTJ Irons likely would have become the greatest selling golf set of all-time, BUT Bobby Jones received word of Stewart’s enterprising idea and as the story goes Jones asked Stewart to cease production (not necessarily sales). As a result there are very few RTJ irons in the world today, even fewer sets and an insanely low number of sets that cover all 12 clubs (I think I have seen maybe 2-3 sets in the last 20 years and as of writing one of them resides in the Golffice Museum). The golf collector can find single RTJ irons as it is believed that Stewart lived up to his word and rather than selling off Bobby Jones sets, broke up individual irons and sold them off.

The Golf Auction’s Feb 2024 auction set a new record for the sale of a Tom Stewart RTJ, 12 Club Set at $10,486. In this author’s opinion that investment will pay off in the long run.

Golf Heritage Society Announcement:

Mark your calendar for March 23, 2024.

The Golf Heritage Society will be hosting the first ever Trade Fair at Merion Golf Club!!!

All GHS and Merion Golf Club members are invited.

Details:

Date:  March 23, 2024

Location:  Merion Golf Club, 450 Ardmore Avenue, Ardmore, PA,  19003

Set up: 9AM to 10AM

Trade Fair: 10AM to 2PM

Table arrangements: TBD 

Box lunches will be available for those who order in advance.

All non-exhibitors are invited to join the camaraderie of the day and order their box lunch in advance.

A golf history trade show hosted by Merion Golf Club? Sign-up to acquire some golf history where golf history has made made for over 100 years!