While the saga of Tiger Woods’ latest swing change plays out on the PGA Tour, Golf Digest’s Jaime Diaz interviews the oracle of golf swing instruction, England’s John Jacobs.

“The golf swing has only one purpose: to deliver the head of the club to the ball correctly, and to achieve such impact repeatedly.” With that statement, the 86 year-old Jacobs really hatched the profession of teaching the golf swing during the 1950’s and 60’s, and then served as a mentor to many of the best golf instructors of the past generation, including Houston’s Jim Hardy.  The entire interview is essential reading for anyone interested in the golf swing, in particular, or teaching, in general. The following are just a few of Jacobs’ pearls of wisdom:

“Ben Hogan’s The Modern Fundamentals of Golf kept me in business.  .  .  .  The book should have been called How I Play Golf, and it would have been a great anti-hook book. But the title suggested it was good for everyone.”

“The feeling of wanting to take the club straight back, rather than on an arc, is intuitively human, but it’s the core of many faults. We think the longer we can make a straight line, the straighter the ball will go. But golf is a side-on game with the ball on the ground, so it’s the opposite.”

“The hardest thing about golf is that the natural correction is wrong. Slicers see the ball go to the right and aim farther left. It only makes their slices bigger.”

“Although it worked wonderfully for them, I think the team of Nick Faldo and David Leadbetter set a bad precedent for players becoming too dependent on instructors. I preferred that players work alone and ring me when they had a problem.  .   .   . I would say Jack Nicklaus had the right formula with Jack Grout: Meet once a year, with occasional visits for emergencies.”

“When Tiger’s mind was clear, he was probably as good as Jack, but I wouldn’t say better. Jack was not as well equipped in his short game, so he had to be better internally, and that’s where Tiger is being tested now. Tiger hits more bad shots than Jack did, but he has saved them with his putter and short game. Going forward, he should be focused on hitting fewer bad shots and needing his putter less.”

Which, interestingly, appears to be what Woods is currently attempting to do.