To commence a good backswing in golf, start the club straight back from the ball for twelve to eighteen inches using only the hands and the arms keeping the club-face and the hands SQUARE to the line with no rolling of the forearms or turning of the wrists. It is just one single movement.

By keeping the club-face and hands square to the line I mean the square club-face is maintained by retaining the position of the club-face of ap1 712 Irons in relation to the shoulders as the shoulders turn in the backswing.

The club-face and hands are square to the intended line of flight at the address and the shoulders are parallel with the intended line of flight. This set-up should be exactly the same when the club-head of titleist ap1 712 is returned to the ball.

The initial movement away from the ball has an important bearing on this matter of returning the club head of 712 mb irons to the ball with the hands and club-face square and the shoulders back in line. The set-up must not be altered as the backswing gets under way. This clearly implies that the club-face is neither rolled open by a clockwise motion of the hands and wrists nor closed by an anti-clockwise motion of the hands and wrists.

Let us start the movement as we would for the short shots.

The movement must start with the hands for they are the unit in direct contact with the club. From the hands the sense of activation travels up the left forearm and into the upper arm just below the shoulder. At this point, with the club head twelve to eighteen inches back from the ball, the shoulders commence their turn. So does the chest which turns over the retracted stomach. The turn carried through in this way brings the left shoulder close up underneath the chin at the top of the swing with titleist mb 712.

The stomach must be kept in. It CAN be done even by portly players.

Now I come to the all-important matter of upper-arm-leverage. The upper arm carries the club back and up on a passive, extended left arm.