The Five-Bar Stroke and The Golfing Machine

1. The Golfing Machine (TGM) in brief

Homer Kelley’s The Golfing Machine organizes the golf swing as a system of geometry, mechanics, and alignments. Instead of prescribing one swing, TGM describes options, variations, and their mechanical consequences. It is a catalog of component parts and how they can be assembled.

2. The five-bar as a structural model

The five-bar stroke interprets the arms as a closed kinematic chain. The five links are the shoulder girdle, the two humeri, and the two forearms. The club is not counted as a separate bar—it is an extension of the couplers formed by the forearms and hands.

Because the chain is closed, the geometry governs the motion. Compensation is unnecessary—balance and alignment emerge naturally from structure.

3. Mapping TGM to the five-bar stroke

• TGM Geometry: Laws of the triangle and alignments. → In the five-bar model, geometry is defined by link lengths and joint connections.
• TGM Mechanics: Forces, torques, and pressures (e.g., lag pressure, power package). → The five-bar model expresses these as constraint-driven forces transmitted across bars.
• TGM Alignments: Precision of impact conditions. → In the five-bar model, alignment is a product of balance and constraint, not a compensation.

4. Why the five-bar matters for TGM students

The five-bar stroke can be viewed as a unifying diagram of Kelley’s ideas. Where TGM catalogs many valid component variations, the five-bar clarifies what remains invariant: the closed-chain structure, the laws of balance, and the necessity of alignment.

This helps students distinguish between universal constraints and individual variations.

Read Next

• The Five-Bar Concept

  Understand the closed-chain model of arms and club in golf mechanics.

• The Five-Bar Model vs Hogan’s Compensation Chain

  Compare a universal model with Hogan’s sequence of fixes.