Although Homer's concepts evolved, has Homer ever told you or anyone which one of his many "Concepts" came first? Was there a First?
Homer Kelley and I never discussed a particular order in which the Stroke Components "came to him". That said, I did enjoy him saying (paraphrased):
"You begin by gripping the club [Component #1]. You end by releasing the club [Component #24]."
However, there was a definite 'first' in how he would catalog the tremendous diversity of material he had accumulated and organize it into what would become the Stroke Pattern concept.
He had been searching without success for a solution to the 'problem' of Golf: a complete solution for all time for all players using all strokes. Then, one day as he was walking through his kitchen on the way to his G.O.L.F. Lab, aka his garage, in a blinding flash -- -- it hit him:
There were only four sources of Power (Stroke Types) and these four could be combined in only fifteen different ways (Variations).
Eureka!
The solution at last!
He would apply that same logic (and technical structure) to each of the 24 Components he ultimately isolated.
If memory serves Release Triggers were his last discovery. He said he "collected them" by asking good golfers about it. As such he left room for as yet unidentified ones or X classification procedures.
I cant imagine golf without them now, they are such a large part of every procedure, every shot for me. Even if Im having an auto cf kind of day.....its still there conceptually. What a discovery to leave 'till the very end.