HUMAN NATURE AND GOLF.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 16, 16 July 1910, Page 14

HUMAN NATURE AND GOLF.

In a genial article on "Human Nature and Golf," which appeared recently in the "■Windsor Magazine," that enthusiast of the game, Sir Henry Seton-J&arr, CJiI.G., Says: — "i was once playing in a Parliamentary four-ball match at Sandwich against two tough, opponents. They stood one up at the fourteenth, I had halved the hole in an inferior six, against a strong ■wind. My partner lay on the far edge of the green in four, at least fifty feet from the liole. We assumed he would be content with the hall". But not a bit of it. 'Show mc the hole, , he cried, then forthwith putted straight over the whole width of a ihog's back green, and, marvellous to relate, in went the ball. I apologised profusely to our opponents, and was privately rebuked by my partner for so apologising. "That putt is going to win us the match, , quoth he; and, as a matter of fact, I believe it did. It was, in soc-th, a ]iea,rt~breaking fluke from out opponents , point of view, and they seemed to recognise accordingly that Fate that day was against them. We won the match. Personally, I have always been rather superstitious about putting. It is really rather an uncanny business. Some days long putts go in, other days they resolutely decline to do so, while the player is not conscious of ,any difference in his mental or physical condition, or in his style of play, to warrant such different results. On the face of it, to knock a little white ball accurately along a few yaTds or feet of smooth green turf is a simple matter enough. And yet more golf matches, from championships downwards, are lost and won on the putting gTeen than in any other department of the game. Anybody can hole long putts in practice, or when they are not required. The real art consists in holing them when they are really wanted, and when a hole or a match depends on it. A candid old golfer was once heard to remark tliat when he had one for the hole, he often took two, but when he had two for it, lie generally took one. A good deal of 'human nature plus some luck, and the confidence) that is born of lu-ck and skill combined, mu*t ie ftt tie iack of, it $11."