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HIT IT WITH THE RIGHT
In the nineteen forties Tommy Armour wrote a best selling golf instructional book with the caption reading, “Hit the hell of it with your right hand.” Frustrated golfers gobbled up this book. This is what they have been looking for. The hell with all of that left hand stuff that pro had been feeding them. Once you got into the book you found out that without the left setting it up, the right hand was useless.
In 1946 I was Assistant Pro at the Mill River C. C. in Stratford, CT.
Tommy Armour was the best friend of the Pro, Lou Galby, and he hung around our club that summer and the book was widely discussed.
That summer we held a Pro-Pro tournament at the club, and I drew a partner named Jimmy Nichols. I had been in the service for four years and did not know him. He was pointed out to me and I went up and introduced myself to him, and to my dismay, I found out that he had only one arm. His right arm was off at the elbow. You can imagine what I was thinking, “They are really handicapping me.” He then proceeded to out drive me and shot a 71.
That winter I was teaching at a club in Florida when Jimmy came through doing exhibition work for Spalding. I played with him in that exhibition. We got along great, and he asked me if I would go and play some other exhibitions with him along the Gulf coast. I learned a great deal about golf, and the golf swing from him.
Jimmy was a professional fighter before he lost his arm. Being a fighter made it necessary to develop his arms and he had an extremely strong left arm. To develop a consistent golf swing it is important (assuming that you are right handed) it is important that our left arm will stat on the same track on the back swing and down swing. Many of the major problems for the average golfer is that the left arm gets overpowered on the downswing and we go over the top. Because of his strength, Jimmy took the club back in the same manner as if he had two hands. As he started his down swing he would start his arm movement by pushing his left arm with the stub of his right arm. This allowed him to get the arm started on the same path as it went up without the problem of lifting his right elbow, or pushing from the top that we have a tendency to do.
The position of his club in all phases of his swing was the same as a good two-handed player with the same swing speed. He controlled the flight of the ball by the position of h is left hand on the club. His thumb acted as his right hand. If he wanted to fade the ball, he weakened the grip by putting his thumb more to the top of the grip, and the opposite if he wanted to hook.. I never saw him shoot over par, and he had a 440 yard hole in one to his credit. Some years later I brought him to Maxwell Field, Alabama, where I was Pro-Mgr. and we played an exhibition there, and he shot 65.
Jimmy was a tough nut and he could probably beat you to a pulp with that one arm, and he told me a story about himself that was typical Jimmy. He was scheduled to play an exhibition at a club in Tennessee, through the courtesy of Spalding. The pro there had been a ”Song and Dance” man on Broadway, and apparently got too old, so his brother, the Mayor, got him the job as pro at this golf course. Jimmy took an immediate dislike for the man.
They were going to play in a foursome with two against two. The pro jumped on Jimmy for a bet. Jimmy told him that he was on a goodwill tour and couldn’t gamble. The pro told Jimmy that Spalding had sent Jimmy a gross of balls that he was supposed to give away for promotional purposes. The pro said, ”Let’s play for some of the golf balls.” Jimmy figured if he lost some of the golf balls he could go a little light in handing them out, so they started out playing a two dozen Nassau. If he lost both sides and the eighteen, all he would lose was 6 dozen.
At the end of 6 holes Jimmy had the pro 2 down. As Jimmy started to putt the pro walked right across his line. Jimmy started all over again, and again the pro walked across his line. Jimmy stopped, and said, “When you get through walking around let me know, and I will putt.” The pro made some smart remark, and Jimmy lost his cool and took off after him with his putter. Jimmy said, “I could run the 100 in 10 flat, but after 100 yards I am all through, and hadn’t gained a step on him.” The gallery thought this was great, and just in fun, and eventually everything got back together. On the back nine the same thing happened again, with the same result.
When they got through Jimmy had won six dozen balls. The Pro came out with the balls and when Jimmy reached out to get them the pro dropped them on the ground. Jimmy said, “Now he is real close and I go for him. The pro took off and started running around a tree with Jimmy chasing him, and finally the pro made it to the clubhouse and slammed the door in Jimmy’s face, and Jimmy broke his nose against the door. Jimmy said I went out in the parking lot and picked up rocks and broke out all of the windows in his pro shop.” “Spalding doesn’t let me go there any more.”
He was a delight and we had some great times together. He, like so many of that era, are no longer with us.