Ted Jorgensen’s first attempt at golf was a disaster.
“My brother and I set up a course on some open land where we grew up in northwest S.D.,” he said.
“We got to playing on our ‘course,’ that was spread over a prairie dog town. We soon lost all our golf balls and I didn’t get interested again until 1964, when my wife, Dorothy, was playing.”
In between, his first experiment in South Dakota in about 1915, and his next venture onto the golf course almost 50 years later, Jorgensen had already been through a lifetime of teaching and exploring.
The 98-year-old former physics professor at Nebraska spent four years working on the Manhattan Project during World War II. Jorgensen’s group worked on measuring the neutron properties of materials that went into the making of the first atomic bomb.
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He returned to Nebraska as a full professor in 1946 and has been in Lincoln ever since. He started the impressive atomic collisions program at NU, became an expert cook, learned masonry, touted the federal distribution of ascorbic acid for all people “since we all have that genetic defect that doesn’t let us store ascorbic acid,” and become somewhat of a golf guru.
Late in his teaching career, he decided to apply physics to golf, and after 25 years of study, wrote the best-selling “The Physics of Golf.”
An avid weekend golfer at Holmes Park, Jorgensen was disappointed to find that nobody had published a golf instruction/information book that mattered to him.
“And before I got published, nobody had ever written about the physics of golf,” he said. “Now, I wish I could have played all those years with the knowledge I have of the swing and the other parts of golf.”
Before you run away screaming about “dynamic parameters,” “lorythmic scale of matching,” “torques,” “Newtonian Mechanics,” and a lot of math that has letters in italics, listen to what others have said about Jorgensen’s book.
“Golf teachers and students of the game have an American hero, Theodore P. Jorgensen, Ph.D. The Physics of Golf gives new insights and precise views into the forces and torques developed in the downswing.” — American Golf Pro.
“Jorgensen’s book may be the last word on the golf swing … for anyone who has swung a club, the book is fun to read.” — Physics Today.
“Jorgensen tells golfers what they ought to be doing and why, the correct technique, according to the principles of physics.” — Golf Weekly.
Jorgensen is modest about the success of the book that has been through two editions and “made a pretty penny,” he said.
“I would have written the book anyway and I got lucky when the American Institute of Physics said they would publish the book.”
Now in Japanese and Korean as well as English, Jorgensen’s book provides plenty of tips, but unlike other golf books, it contains explanations of why the tips will work.
Even though Jorgensen said he has not touched a club in years, because as he said, “I’m getting old,”, he still reaches out to golfers everywhere with his knowledge of golf and physics.
He still has the moves, too.
“Just remember to start that downswing with the horizontal pull of the left shoulder in the direction you want the ball to go. That should start the acceleration of the left arm and everything else,” Jorgensen said, imitating the start motion of the downswing in his living room.
Jorgensen reminded that while clubs have changed for the better with perimeter weighting, balls are more consistent and shaft flex and club fitting is important, “The Newtonian Mechanics of golf will always be the same.”
Jorgensen laughed and added, “Newtonian Mechanics works on slow moving bodies and doesn’t hold for bodies approaching the speed of light — and no, not even your backswing is that fast.”
The humor keeps rolling.
“Some of that stuff on the Golf Channel, is hokum and a large percentage of that stuff is so entertaining and presented only to make a buck for somebody,” he said.
“The fundamental ideas of the golf swing, the introduction to the theory of probability and the introduction to the technically correct style of swinging have made my book a fixture of sorts in golf.
“At least it still sells some and I’m told that every spring the local libraries have trouble keeping it on the shelves.”
All that because Jorgensen is the first to describe and publish what forces lead to the most satisfying 0.0005-second collision between clubface and golf ball.
As he wrote in his book:
“The reader should realize that I have not presumed to tell him exactly how he should swing a golf club. My intention, rather has been to outline, as suggested by application of physical principles, the various characteristics of a good swing and indicate the variance of style which may be considered to fall within acceptable limits. Mastery comes only as the feeling of the swing is crystallized through much practice.
“Practice brings dividends, according to Bobby Jones, only when the golfers, ‘start out with an accurate conception of what they want to do.’ I hope my readers have been helped along the way toward acquiring such a conception.”
Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or at khambleton@journalstar.com.
