GOLF.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17609, 11 November 1922, Page 9

GOLF.

TWO GOLFING NATIONS. AMERICAN SUPERIORITY AT PUTTING. (SPECIALLY WRTTTKK TOR "THB PR«S3."> (By Harry Yardon.) A great many people have asked me why it is that American golfers putt so-well. It seemed to be generally agreed that the set-backs suffered this year by British players at the hands of their United States rivals are the results, in a large measure, of the con* sistent deadliness of the Americans when the ball is within holing distance. Nor is it surprising that this particular form of superiority should have manifested itself. For a number of years persons with an intimate knowledge of the game in both oountries have appreciated the fact that the Americans take fewer strokes on the putting greens than we do. They very, very seldom miss from a distance of a yard, or less, and the frequency with which they hole out from two or three yards is disturbing to - the Briton, who somehow has fallen out of the way of expecting to get down these neither short nor long putts except as a kind of dispensation of Providence. Writing after the United States amateur championship, Mr Bernard Darwin said that if any British player over means to win that event again, "he must be quick about it, and he must learn to putt like the devil unchained." Mr John G. Anderson, commenting on the failure of Duncan and Mitchell to win the American open championship, wrote: —''This year demonstrated more than ever before that the time, care, and practice put in by American professionals on the putting end of the game are what makes them far better putters than the British, and we will continue to give them the chief laurels of international golf. "Duncan, Mitchell, Kirkwood, and others who essay to win American championships will have to go back to the despised practice of continual effort for an hour or two on the putting greens if they would perfect their scoring powers. Otherwise we can see no hope of their ever winning our title." Preparation. Whether it is practice alone that makes the Americans perfect is a pretty question. Unquestionably it means a very great deal. All our best putters—Mr John L. Low, Willie Park, and the Ball, for exampl(s— been assiduous at it. Ball, who looked < more like holing a putt than almost anybody else I have seen—andi irho generally did hole it—would seize every odd half-hour during his day's duties to put down some balls on the nearest putting green and practice not only laying them dead from every cor:.cr of the green, but holing out each one with due care, even though it might be no more than six inches from the pin. But some players who have devoted incalculable time to the practice of putting have not been saved from finding it a desperately uncertain business. It appears that Duncan might well have won this year's United States open championship if he had not taken three putts on green after green. And yet Duncan used to practise putting for hours or even more every day when he was at Timperley. Tb be sure, that was a long while ago. Whether he has been so diligent during recent years I do-not know, but if application to the task could have produced, the right methods .and touch, they ought to haves been produced in his case. He was aj one time the envy of us all, because of the certainty with which he holed the missable putts, but in recent times he seems to have fallen a victim to the epidemic—peculiar to Britain-H)f misgiving on the putting greens. ■ t It is urged in some quarters that the Americans putt so well because they have evolved a standard method, stuck to it, and triumphed over ita temporary failures, whereas we are always experimenting and altering our methods. It is said that they have a national trait of standing almost upright, with the heels close together, and depending upon a purely pendulum swing. It is true that, some years ago, this was something of a stereotyped principle among prominent players in the Western States, but I am not sure that it is so now. During my.travels in America, I have seen quite as many styles of putting as in Britain, and the putting there has always. been good. It is idle to pretend that we possess anything like the same standard, of consistency. Uniformity v. Variety. Writing of" putting greens in this country, Mr G. O. Hanford, the Scottish international player,., said the other day :-r-" Every green on every course is different, and going even further, every square yard of these greens is different in face. How possibly, therefore, can our putting be consistent or natural! It is not entirely fair, to blame the players. They cannot all be off their putting, and if our men had learnt their game on the same greens from the beginning as onr American friends, then there might have been a different story, to tell." There is a lot of truth in'this deduction, as I have insisted more than once /in the past. America, having climatic difficulties to combat which ordinarily are not encountered in Britain, has made the /upkeep of putting greens a fine art. In a larger area you will find all the greens on all the courses of the same texture, pace and grip. Naturally, if you go far afield, you will find different conditions. In one district in the far west, Bay and I encountered deceiving turf of Bermuda grass, which looks as soft as velvet, but the blades of which are so stiff that your ball wobbles over them as if it were making its way over an array of pinpoints. I have played on the sand putting "greens" of Florida—they are beautifully true. In each large district there is consistency of pace and general conditions of putting, so that a little practice goes a very long way. Once you have lighted on the correct touch, you can go for the back of the hole with supreme confidence; for the greens are seldom so slippery as in our country. I putted badly at the start of my last American tour, but during the last two months or so of that visit, I missed very little on the greens. Here the putting varies so much that the person who could be consistently good at it in all parts of the country, would be a marvel. Sometimes you will even find one green cut in two different directions, so that, for the first half of the putt the blades of the grass axe lying one way, and for the second half they are lying the other way. To learn to putt successfully, amid so many distractions is no easy matter.