I believe Dave Pelz's company started the Featherlites in the early 80's. A few tour players used them. I think D.A. Weibring may have won a tournament with them.

I did hear from a former tour player that most of the guys using them had lead tape all over them... so they must have lacked something... MASS. They were OK out of good lies, but did not have enough MASS to be good out of heavy rough.

Now... concerning the MASS of the player. There is a theory that if TENSION is introduced into the player during the swing, especially IN THE ARMS during the downswing, the player will be taken out of his CORE, and strike the ball ONLY utilizing the weight of his arms, rather than the MASS of his entire body. Do you think there is something to this? It seems to me it may have some merit, especially with Rope Handle Techniques.

i think that if you have lots of tension in the muscles of your arms, then you can use them very well to swing (ie accelerate the clubhead)...try this, bring you arm to elbow 90° angle and do a body builder bicep flex so that your whole arm has tension...now try and straighten you elbow...i can't...if my tricep is already tense, it can't contract any more to do what i want...i think the player above is using only/mostly the pivot to accelerate the arms, not nearly as good as using pivot and arms...it oughta keep those wedges intact though!:-)

hcw said..." I think that if you have lots of tension in the muscles of the arms, then you can use them very well to swing"

I think what you are saying could work, but probably better for a Hitter.
6-B-1-D-- Extensor Action-- "This stretches but does not move the Left Arm"

I heard Extensor Action once described as... "extension without tension"

There are probably also different TYPES of tension. A feeling of being athletic, confident, and ready to produce a dynamic stroke, is different than tension that is induced through anxiety, apprehension, nervousness, or poor technique or concepts.

When you get that confident, athletic, FEELING, and are producing quality shots, then you are on to something. This probably feels a little different for everyone.

lagster,
i have not totally figured out what is meant by "Extensor Action" and i don't have the book handy, so i'll leave that for the more knowledgable....the second thing you are describing i think is what is called muscle "tone"...your muscles can run a spectrum from totally relaxed/flaccid to totally tense/contracted...to be useful they need to be somewhere in between and indeed there needs to be some baseline "tone", a little contraction that can be increased or decreased depending on the task at hand...in fact decreased tone can be sign of a problem (ie disease state) as can increased...the condition you descibed where:

"TENSION is introduced into the player during the swing, especially IN THE ARMS during the downswing, the player will be taken out of his CORE, and strike the ball ONLY utilizing the weight of his arms, rather than the MASS of his entire body."

...doesn't make sense to me, as i don't think the body's mass hits the ball...the analogy doesn't work for me, so i rethink it as describing too much tension/contraction in the arms which doesn't allow them to be "athletic, confident, and ready to produce a dynamic stroke"...but if the image works for you (meaning anybody) that's great...i totally agree that all of "This probably feels a little different for everyone.'" and that's why Bobby Jones responded to the question of "Can you show me how to swing?" on one of those instructional films saying that "I can show you the basics, but you'll have to work out the details for yourself"

-hcw

"I can show you the basics, but you'll have to work out the details for yourself"

That's exactly what Hogan meant when he said you have to dig it out of the dirt. You can tell a 16 yr old how to slip the clutch on a manual transmission car, but he'll never really know until he's stalled it a few times.

hcw... Extensor Action-- Feel this by slipping a rope or string around your left shoulder. Get your golf posture and let the rope hang down. Now, gently stretch the rope by the action of the bent and on plane right arm. The stretch direction should feel below plane. To do this with your left arm... feel the stretch through the #1 pressure point(right lifeline) on the aft positioned left thumb, or the #3 PressurePoint(first joint of right index finger), or both. This is a VERY IMPORTANT aspect of TGM. Keep this FEEL throughout the stroke.

lagster, et al.,
if i underrstand the above correctly you mean for the Extensor Action to feel as if it is keeping the left/lead arm straight as the right/trail forearm moves it in the BS...does that sound right?

-hcw

hcw,

Yes, the action of the right arm, is what keeps the left arm stretched and extended, or "straight." In SWINGING, the left arm is like a rope. In HITTING, the left arm is more like an ax handle, but ideally there should still be Extensor Action present.

This is correct in the context of Homer's recommendations, but limits the player to a large pulley stroke. Small pulley players such as Howell, Couples, and Mickelson do not use extensor action, but have relaxed trail sides to allow the narrow downswing.

mj,
up eary too i see...i have seen the terms large/small pulley stroke, but am unclear exactly what it means...could you explain?..thanks!

-hcw