GOLF'S EFFECT ON NERVES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17985, 31 January 1924, Page 14

GOLF'S EFFECT ON NERVES.

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While every golfer will admit that a topped drive of a • smothered mashie shot may have certain' consequences to his moral tone, there will bo profound ' joy among the long handicap men to know, on medical authority, that the wilder the game they play the greater the , physical. benefit 'they derive from the exercise (says a London paper). Dr. Harold Dearden has tried to curdle the blood of every golfer fromplus to 24 by declaring ,thiit of all games for the tired brain the Boyal and Ancient is the worst. He says it involves the performance in sequence of-a number of highly co-ordinated actions. ... Here is the other side of the story, as explained by a medical authority on muscles and games:— "AH tommy-rot. The answejr is that practical experience is worth all the theory in the world. The-amount of good done by golf is obvious to everybody. "Golf, has no bad .effect on the nervous system, but a very good effect as a rule. . The inexpert player, curious as' it may appear, gets more benefit from the game than the short handicap man. The good player becomes so mechanical that playing the strokes, does not give him as much exereis» -as tho- duffer extracts from the game, and the amount of exertion is important. "From this point of view it is much better to duff your drive, or play your irons too heavily, or get into a bunker (taking three or four to get out) than to get off the tee with a clean hit and; an effortless swing. "I should say Dr. Dearden will get no medical support for his views."