How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 9: 'the Driver' (1931) User Reviews

J. Farrell MacDonald Learns to Drive

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 29 September 2010]

This is "No. 9" in the Vitaphone series of "How I Play Golf" shorts featuring professional advice from Bobby Jones.

"The Driver" finds grouchy J. Farrell MacDonald on the golf course, bragging to his golfing buddies about his supposed good drive, which turns out to be very bad. After some ribbing, "Mac" walks off to take a nap. While reading a magazine article about Mr. Jones, Mr. MacDonald's dreamily receives some golfing advice from his imaginary pal "Bob". Upon awakening, MacDonald's game improves. Accomplished actors Lucien Littlefield ("Play it off of your right foot, like I do."), Conway Tearle ("Have you ever tried standing on the ball?"), and David Torrence (Ernest's older brother), join MacDonald in appearing as themselves.

***** The Driver (1931) George Marshall ~ Bobby Jones, J. Farrell MacDonald, Conway Tearle, Lucien Littlefield

They Still Call It A Driver

[boblipton · 6/10 · 10 September 2022]

Well, that's a blessing, after entries in this series about the mashie niblick, the spoon and the spiny anteater. With its origins in the Netherlands and Scotland, the game of gold had a lot of peculiar terms which it only began to shed about the time this series was made.

J. Farrell MacDonald blows his tee-off shot, stalks off in anger, and takes a nap. Bobby Jones steps from the pages of a magazine to instruct him on how to tee off. Jones illustrates his advice with slow-motion, lines drawn upon the film, and a calm voice. It's probably god advice for duffers and people who might care about the game.

Bobby Jones, the greatest ever, shows us how to hit a driver.

[TxMike · 9 January 2005]

I have to give credit, compared to the golf instruction today, this film short from 1931 is superb. No dry instruction here. Bobby Jones, the little guy from Georgia, was a natural actor, as well as being perhaps the best ever to play the game of golf.

This film starts with a foursome about to tee off and one of the men is being harassed by his buddies. He apparently cannot hit his drives well, and they are kidding him about it. One of them tells him, "You need to play the ball off your right foot." Which of course is the worst advice you can give. So the frustrated golfer walks off and goes to his hammock to take a mid day nap.

Along comes a miniature Bobby Jones, as if in a dream. He taps the man on the nose with his golf club, and proceeds to take him to a practice area where Jones demonstrates how to hit a proper drive. Showing him how to position the ball off the left toe, so that you can sweep it for maximum distance and minimum spin, so the ball will roll after it hits the fairway. Good instruction to this day.

And, of course, the film ends with the golfer awaking and re-joining his friends, and promptly hitting the best drives of his life. A classic series, shown occasionally on the Golf Channel.

Decent Short

[Michael_Elliott · 17 October 2009]

How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 9: 'The Driver' (1931)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another entry in the rather long running series from Warner where golf legend Bobby Jones teaches the ordinary man how to play golf. This time out the legend teaches the viewer how to drive the ball to get the best results out of your limited ability. This is the fourth or fifth film I've seen in this series and it's pretty much the same quality and entertainment value as the others. Once again we get the incredibly dry Jones simply showing up, teaching us and then apparently moving on to the next subject. Jones doesn't add any charm or wit to the subject, which makes one feel he was the very aggressive type in that he had a job and did it without making any jokes or trying to get a laugh. His one goal was to teach and that's what he does here. I'm sure he gives some great advice that golf fans would love to learn so it's nice to have this series around since there are too many examples of legends from this era that we can learn from. I'm not a golf player but if I were, this would be a nice little series.