GOLF.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17749, 28 April 1923, Page 11

GOLF.

DIFFICULTIES OF THE GAME. LIES UPHILL, HANGING, AND CUPPY. (Specially written for "The Press" by Harry Vardon.) The question of the lie of the ball is an interesting one for golfers. There is no other game in which it arises. Tl cannot present itself in pastimes which involve the striking of a moving ball, and in billiards and croquet— whiuh are the only games I remember at the moment, other than golf, that necessitate the playing of a stationary ball—the surface of the table or ground does not usually call for special considera tion, at any rate, so far as concerns that part 1 of it on which the ball rests. The golfer lives a life of much greater variety. His ball may be on an uphill slope or a downhill slope; in a small irregularity in the turf that forms a cup, in long grass, or in a good many other circumstances that offer difficulties. A great many golfers do not give sufficient thought to the subject of uphill and hanging lies. They try to play the shots just as they would do if the ball were on level ground. That is not often satisfactory, for a shot from a slope generally calls for some slight adjustment of the stance.

Deal, where the British • Amateur Championship is to be played in May is a course that' calls particularly for the ability to regulate the stance in accordance with the lie of the ball. The ground is so crowded with small hum mocks that you never know whether you will have to play your next stroke from the rising side or the falling side of a "wave" in this rolling country, or from a level tract between the hummocks. For this reason alone, Deal is a very fine test, although the question of the lie of the ball arises at times on every course.

Standing for the Slopes. When it is uphill, I believe in standing a trifle more than usual behind the ball. The trouble, about an uphill lie is that you are very liable to dig the club-head into the turf as you hit, because the rising ground naturally promotes such a contact. It comes up, so to speak, and meets the clubhead at the bottom of the' arc of the swing and the effect of this slight check is often to spell ruination tc the shot.

A good many people have a fancy for standing rather more forward than usual for an uphill lie. What they feel is, I suppose, that, with the right foot on the lower part of the slope, they are likely to fall back as they hit, and that they can reduce this risk by standing an inch or so farther forward ho as to have the weight forward at the impact. lam afraid- that «tha theory is more plausible than profitable, because unless they possess an unusual measure of golfing skill and resource, they are calculated in most cases to catch the club-head in the ground and bungle the shot. When the ball is hanging —that is, lying on a downhill slope —my own method, at any rate when it is desir-' able to achieve anything like a lengthv shot with an iron, is to stand slightly more forward than usual. This is simply the principle of the uphill lie reversed. Now that you have a downhill lie, the danger is that, the instant before the impact, you may strike the turf behind the ball—for there the ground is rising. If you stand the veriest trifle forward, you are in a better position to avoid this elevation behind the ball, and to nip in immediately on the back of the ball. There are good golfers who consider that when you have a hanging lie, you should stand distinctly behind the ball, with the bulk of the weight on the right leg, and the body turned well to wards the hole, so as to produce the effect of a very open stance—in. short, the stance for a cut shot. -In this way, of course, you bring the clubface across the slope rather than in line with it, and therefore reduce to a minimum the risk of .catching the clubhead in higher ground just behind the ball But you cannot hope tc obtain much length in that manner. It may be very well for a half-mashie shot, but when you want to get distance with an iron from a hanging lie m? advice is: "Stand a little forward, and then play the shot just as you would if it were on a level surface." Tie "Stab" Shot. Even on the best-kept of courses it happens sometimes that the bail lies low in a little indentation in the turf, commonly called a cup. When it is only a very shallow cup there is no particular need to take special precautions in playing the shot.' It is not even essential in all cases to take an iron club, so as to be sure of raising the ball; a brassie is often quite suitable for the work in such circumr stances. If you fix your eye on that little streak you see—it is peAaps half an inch or so wide —between the clubface and the ball as you ground the former in preparing for the shot, and you aim at that streak, the club will cut through the top-soil behind the ball, and hawing thus removed the back of the cup, will strike the ball as though nothing had been in the way. In a cup sunrciently deep to enable the ball to nestle tightly, it is naturally essential to select an iron club. Tiiere are then two ways of playing the shot. You can" aim an inch or so behind the ball, so as to cut through the turf, and follow through with the club-head, or your can try and "stab" the- ball out of its hole. If you prefer the stab, which consists virtually of hitting between the ball and the back of the cup, so as to make the former rise, it is best to hold the club with a fairly light grip, or, at any raw, to relax the grip slightly at the impact. You have to make the ball jump up strongly, and if you hold the club tightly you will not produce that effect. You will only deaden the shot. There is no follow-through about it; von stop the club as you stab at the ball, and if you were not to ease the grip at that instant, your hands would get a bad jar; the shaft of the dub might be broken, and the result of the shot would be about as unsatisfactorv as either or both of these hanrjenmgs.

One further po m t: If you have a £unpy he uphill, you simply mu& stab. Frying to cut through the cnw into rising ground will certainly end "in failure