Horton Smith is much more than the answer to the trivia question “Who was the first Masters champion?” “The Joplin Ghost” was Tiger before Tiger. That’s no exaggeration: The Missouri native won more professional titles (28) than anyone before the age of 30 until Woods appeared on the scene seven decades later.
Smith had eight wins in 1928 alone, and in 1930 was the only player, pro or amateur, to defeat Bobby Jones during his Grand Slam year, at the stroke-play Savannah Open. The PGA Tour launched in 1934, and in 1936 Smith topped the money list, propelled by his second Masters triumph. He eventually accumulated 30 Tour titles and later served as PGA of America president. In 1939, however, Smith was just a player struggling with his swing following his first winless season. At the Masters that April, he tied for 26th, 21 shots behind the champion, Ralph Guldahl. Later that month, Smith did something downright revolutionary. He sat down at his typewriter and drafted a letter/contract to Alex J. Morrison.
Morrison was a former exhibition golfer on the vaudeville circuit turned publicity-happy instructor who taught Babe Ruth and Douglas Fairbanks. At the time, he’d written a well-regarded book, A New Way to Better Golf, but likely more important to Smith was the fact that Morrison coached Henry Picard, the 1938 Masters and soon-to-be 1939 PGA champion. So it wasn’t that pros didn’t have coaches (although many didn’t), it’s just that they worked informally on handshake agreements and were meant to stay deep in the background.
As any golfer who’s been in the midst of a slump (i.e., any golfer) can attest, it’s not the time to stand on ceremony. Like a nervous suitor trying to find just the right words for his mash note, Smith typed up at least two versions of his proposed deal to Morrison, whom he knew (like himself) to be a stickler for details as well as passionate about swing theory and the specific moves of the game’s best players.
“Dear Mr. Morrison: I should like you to supervise my golf game and help me to change my technique,” one draft began. “I feel that this supervision and the changes you can help me make will improve my game enough to benefit me financially and otherwise.”
“Dear Alex,” began another, less formal attempt. “I would like to follow your system of playing golf. I believe that the following arrangement should work to our mutual advantage. If this arrangement and its terms meets with your approval, your signature on this copy will make it a working agreement between us.”
We have access to these words and subsequent Smith-Morrison dialogue because of two dedicated collectors from Smith’s native Missouri: banking executive Monte McNew and his friend, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Emeritus Rick Grayson. The duo has collected a treasure trove of Smithiana and Morrisonalia. What follows is a sampling of the two-decade-long Smith-Morrison correspondence — the letters comprising the bulk of their work together, given the peripatetic nature of their jobs and Morrison’s home bases in New York and California. It demonstrates many things, among them that their arrangement — the first known such contracted agreement between pro golfer and teacher — became the template for the modern player-coach partnership. Also, that much good teaching is timeless — as a trio of Top 100 Teachers will tell you.
Weighty matters
Moving past thinking to simply doing has always been the goal and the difficulty for any student in the midst of swing changes, a process that begins by paring down swing thoughts to their essentials.
June 17, 1939, from Morrison to Smith
“To be conscious of whether your weight is on the left or the right side is handling the matter of body balance the hard way. All you should be conscious of is the even distribution of weight between the heel and ball of the foot supporting most of the weight. This, coupled with the looseness of your midsection and head position, will insure the proper weight handling from side to side. — The consciousness of side-to-side handling of your weight could easily upset your whole swing and cause your midsection to lock— this in turn causing your arms to raise too high in the backswing in an effort to compensate to the lack of body action.”
Business is personal
Smith and Morrison clearly developed a relationship that transcended swing instruction.
January 11, 1946, from Morrison to Smith
“Mighty glad to get your letter despite some of its items. The turn of your marital status is unfortunate but, at the risk of being trite, it may all be for the best. We are sure you did all you could, have nothing to be ashamed of and therefore should not allow the difference to make you find fault with yourself or have anything but an optimistic, if wiser, outlook toward your future….”
Top 100 Teacher Jamie Mulligan, coach of Patrick Cantlay
Sometimes the perspective of the public is that a swing coach flies in, fixes the problem and away they go. There’s more to it than that. We like to use the phrase “Life is golf, and golf is life.” Even when there are things going on in players’ personal lives, they learn how to balance everything in order to still play well. This has to be key
Confidence game
Morrison didn’t lack for self-assurance, as his thoughts on catching the dominant Byron Nelson, coming off his 18-win (including 11 in a row) 1945 season, make plain.
January 11, 1946, from Morrison to Smith
“Nelson is a product of the times. The same position could have been filled as well by you, Pic [Henry Picard] or Ben Hogan. And either of you could, with proper work, catch him within a year. Toward that end I have tried to tell Ben about the things in his swing that are keeping him from better and more consistent performances…. I doubt if he will follow my suggestions…. So you remain the best possibility for a swing improved enough to compete successfully with Nelson.”
Top 100 Teacher Brian Manzella
Nobody’s going to believe in anything you say if you don’t 100 percent believe in it yourself. If you ask the top players on Tour, they’ll tell you that when it comes to the biggest and best-known teachers, it’s more about their belief in their ability to create improvement than it is what exactly they’re saying.
