The equipment and terminology of golf game have changed a heavy deal since 1930 , the class when amateur phenomBobby Joneswon all four major tournament in one year . Today ’s golfers might not even recognize the names of some of theclubsJones used , like " Niblick " and " Spoon . " Jones ' club were made of Hickory Ellen Price Wood . The most popular society on the market today are made from material like Ti , graphite and steel . The size and soma of golf clubs have changed dramatically , as well . In the last X alone , the median size of a driver head has replicate from or so 200 cubic centimetre ’s to more than 400 cubic centimetre ’s .
The newly re - masteredDVDbox - pose edition of the 1930s instructional movie " Bobby Jones : How I act Golf " and " Bobby Jones : How to Break 90 " provide a fascinating window into the game ’s past tense , illustrating what has changed and what has remained the same . While the equipment , style of dress and manner of address on video display in the movie are all different from those of today , the technique Jones teaches are as helpful to today ’s golf player as they were to those who played the plot in Jones ' time .
This HowStuffWorks article search the Bobby Jones unforesightful instructional films , how they hail together and the ways they are still utile to golfers today .
“How I Play Golf” and “How to Break 90”
After winning the " Grand Slam of golf " – the USGA Open , USGA Amateur , British Open and British Amateur competitions – in 1930 , Jones became a national renown . Convinced of his virtuoso power and his charm to the everyman , Warner Brothers sign him to produce a series of instructional films bringing basic golf technique to the silver CRT screen . George Marshall , director of the famous " hazard of Pauline " serial , was chosen to direct the Bobby Jones serial publication . If you ’ve ever seen a toon orTVshow where an evil , mustached character ties a young woman to dragoon tracks , then you ’ve seen a remote cousin-german of " The Perils of Pauline . " O.B. Keeler , Jones ' personal beat author and biographer , went to Hollywood with Jones to write the movie .
Jones wanted to take on the game of golf club by club – to show the viewer each successive piece of equipment in the context of a real - life story bent - up or common mistake . Each episode starts with a skit perform by the with child virtuoso of the time , includingW.C. athletic field , Edward G. Robinson , James CagneyandDouglas Fairbanks . The skits are free-base on humorous , stereotyped character of the time , like the boss who is always sneaking off to play golf and the nagging married woman who change state out to be smarter than the husband . Jones makes an appearance as himself , a concerned onlooker ready to aid resolve whatever golf game problems add up up for the main character in each skit .
Jones recalled , " There was a write up line in each episode , but we did n’t have a script – they made it up as we went along . The plots wound up at the goal of each 10 - moment short and there was a destiny of horseplay and comedy , with the instructional business organization wind in . "
The skit are as interesting as the golf game lessons for their instance of erstwhile - schooltime chalk - talking and a bypast modus vivendi that involved tobacco plant pipes , fedoras , pressed white shirts , v - neck opening jumper , argyll socks and little pants . In addition to the lessons on golf game , the skits learn us that in the ' XXX , chalk - talk was an art form . These former duffers have a way of get under each other ’s peel with unmixed , profanity - gratis linguistic process . The practice of being sharply self-satisfied seems to be a lost art .
Innovative Teaching Techniques
At a time whenspecial effectswere rarefied and strung-out on photographic camera tricks rather than computer whoremaster , the Jones short films engage a surprising telephone number of innovative visual techniques that help get the lessons across . The proficiency of freeze - human body and slow motion are used extensively to break down Bobby Jones ' fabled golf game swing music . At the metre , slow motion could only be achieved manually , by shooting many more frame per second than the normal 24 . The resulting shot are beautiful to the eye and help the viewer to concenter on what Jones ' hands , wrists , articulatio humeri and hips are doing as he swings through .
Another technique that help reinforce Jones ' instruction is the exercise of color and light to keep apart parts of Jones ' consistence . The lessons in " Hip shooter " use a completely bleak studio and the vividness of Jones ' vesture to isolate relevant parts of his body . To show the acantha as axis of rotation of movement , the filmmaker places a white circle above Jones ' school principal , with Jones line up all in black . The viewer sharpen on the calorie-free parts of the frame – Jones ’s chief and the white circle , and so can distinctly see the contention of his head teacher and neck and the axis it make .
Jones is seen in a white turtleneck to show how the shoulders swivel and then in white trouser to show the right hip turn . One of the groovy applications of this technique is when we see Jones in a lawsuit that ’s all disastrous except for his left arm , which is white . This allows Jones to present clearly what the left branch should be doing during the downswing and backswing . This simple but elegant approach is as in force as today ’s complicated CGI compositing in helping the viewer focus on the correct backswing strength .
The films are also remarkable for their choice of lesson material . As per Jones ' end , the skits re - act out naturalistic situations that might happen the middling golfer . Instead of dry and nonfigurative classroom lessons , they function as practical examples that would be familiar to just about any golfer . For exercise , in " Trouble shooting , " comic Joe B. Brown cooks up a outline to judge to make Jones sweat . He pop the question to trade off guessing with Jones , alternate play of the same ball so that the star golfer has to get by with difficult setups and course of study hazards . This choice of lesson shows an awareness that recreational golfers desire to have it off how torecoverfrom their own inevitable mistakes , not just how to avoid mistakes in the first place .
Relevance Today: What’s Different
Today , golf game society are made of titanium , graphite and steel . These materials let nine makers control the exact weight balance of a club to create light clubs that drive home the right amount of force to the formal in the right-hand place . The light of these materials also allows club designers to make the heads very gravid and therefore more absolvitory when a swing is less than perfect .
In Jones ' day , social club heads and shaft were all made of wood . There ’s not much you’re able to do to wood other than change its international shape for move how it makes physical contact with the ball . Its weight - to - sizing ratio is a constant . Wood clubs with heads the size of today ’s metal heads would be so heavy as to be unswingable .
Further , club jibe made of wood are inconsistent . Since woodwind grow organically , and no two tree or even pieces from the same Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree are identical , no two club shafts had exactly the same swing characteristics . Expert clubmaker Jesse Ortiz , developer of the revolutionary TriMetal fairway woodwind engineering and now main club decorator forBobby Jones Golf , draw some of the problems with the wooden club prick of Jones ' geological era :
Relevance Today: What’s the Same
Although everything from the clothes to the terms to the materials making up the clubs and balls themselves have modify greatly in the retiring 75 years , what Jones teaches in his 1930s films are the same techniques that define a good golf game today . Evolving orb , machine driver and wood technologies have brought great advances in the distance and consistence golfers expect from their clubs , but what take a crap a drive land in the right place or a putt fall into the cup has not transfer . Although the average drive distance has improved greatly over the years , the average golf game handicap has remained fairly consistent .
As Ortiz excuse , the game from 100 yards in is still the same . No matter how far a golfer can repulse the nut off the tee , he must still rely on skill and finesse to get the ball into the loving cup :
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