QUICK KILLS AT GOLF.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18912, 29 January 1927, Page 13

QUICK KILLS AT GOLF.

+ THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEADING. jSI'EUALLT WKITTtK FOB Tits TRS") (Hy Harry Yardou.l l'lio toi- may well lie roiouunei.Ji- ' to train him.-oli to inH umo a j; >od killer. That is to say. lie should novo relax his oli'orts whon ho is witnnr,. a nuuh easily until ho has tramped his rival thoroughly, and u:ori".io»-N. underfoot. Apart trom the danger oi homj: at - tually beaten as the ro>ult o: a slackening oi endeavour, it i* tho fact ilu: such a tendency does mure than ului.srt any other intlueiue 1 know ;o weaken a player's ;;ame. One of tho reasonthat Hraiil. Taylor, and 1 maintains.»: our lorut lor so long a porku: was t i:a' wo sustained our spirit of keen nui'i; at top [Uc.-stiio, ami never spared m.o anoihei. no matter how our inatohowore shaping. it was part oi our • ifin I.l' koqi.ii;; tip to i'oucoi t-piu h alt tiio Mliiic. Among amateurs parthniariy, tiuto is too piououiiocd a ilw-po;,:-lioii to take tiling easily) when tho game looks as good as won. The psychology ot leading at golf is an interesting subject. it is. perhaps, human nature to timl contentment m tho possession ot a big advantage, and then to develop slackness. Many a match has been lost because the player thought ho oould not help winning it. On the other hand, there aro golfers to whom a lead oi one hole in about tiio midillo of the round is a source oi real anxiety. The first thought of this type ol player is that he must use suih a position as a stepping-stone to security. He must increase his lead to mo, and then three, so as to hare a reserve on which to draw. The halving of several holes at this juncture fills him with a certain sense of frustration and misgiving. He is being pressed just when he ought to be forging ahead. He has only to lose the next hole and it will he the deuce's own job to struggle home a winner, because the fates have % way of rallying to the side of an adversary wher starts to make up leeway. I suppose "the truth is that such an individual earns their favours.

Adversity's Spur.' The person who travels to many places in quest of golf anil hear* many stories of matches can set down one conclusion ; that in close games (thole that go, say, to tho ■ seventeenth or eighteenth green), the winner as ott?«» as not has been a hole or-two doa'n at tho turn. Ho would not willuißlr consent to give his opponent * Start of una or two holes in tlio last nine, b*.aiisc he has no justification for believing that he has the ability to do suc|i a thing. That ho" does it so frequently is simply a manifestation of the'psychology of golf- 4 ' ' ■ . . To most, people, there 1a a gmter spur in attacking a email low! »«»«» "' tryina to hold one. This may not I* the case in games—auoh as football or •nieket—which are contested by team*. It is a verv real advantage, mow as well us physical, to be a try up or •» goal up in a football match, or u» lead by thirty runs at the end of the ilret innings of a crichot maieb. And yet you will hear many golfers say: "I don't mind Wing a bole down early in the round; it makes me play better." And they do, indeed, play better for it, and very often win. That is quo everyday aspect of Rolf. To another, reference has been made. It is tho often unhai>[>.v fate '< of tho plover who thinks that s substantial lead—let ns call four .hole* substantial—is the sure foundation «>t success, and that all he need do for the remainder of the round ii to execute careful shots with tho object »f secur-ing-halves. Tliis policy of tryirort" sit comfortably oil a big advantage has had many a set-back. ' One that comes to my mind concerns fa. match between Jock Hutchison, or Chicago, and Abo Mitchell in the CJlen : eagles tournament of 195J1. Hntchaon • was at the very top of his form at that time (he. won the Hriti&h Opett championship at St. Andrews a few weeks later), and »n *"'* particular game, he stood 'five up on Ifitcliell ftt the eighth hole. • Then—as he said afterwards—he "thought it was safe to poke tfje ball along for halves.'* Mitchell s*w tlje change of tactic?, went all out for every shot, and won.

On Being Aggressive. James Braid, who came late into professional .golf (he was an amateur. , until after tne age of twenty-one) one* said he developed the form which built up his fame and fortune T«ry * largely by adopting the principle of never Blackening in a round. No matp how easily he might be winning he went on dealing out his strongest shots, until the en<T came. The surest way, he said, to advance at the game was k to maintain the power of concentration at concert pitch till the lut stroke had been played. Verr gooo advice, I am sure, for anybody who has to tread a way in any walk of life. It is one of the trials of golf that. once a player contracts a feeling ofaativ faction with his position, he finds it almost impossible to reintroduce into his game that touch of inspiration which has secured the long lead. His mental attitude towards the game hae altered, he cannot revive the aggressiveness that had stimulated htm to play the shots accurately earlier in the round. And at this stage it cenerallr happens that his rival rises from the doldrums to exceeding briskness. To this day, there is sometime ibscussed, among those who know it. the •story of an old-time professional tournament final in which a player, cfter standing about eight up at the en>\ of the morning round, lost at the thirtysixth hole. What happened was that, during the luncheon interval, the officials of the tournament—staunch amateurs and good fellows—went with a suggestion to the man who stood eight, up. "Look here," they said, "we wan* to keep the crowd together. Lord_— is going to present the prizes, ami if you go and win by about 12 and H. tlie people will catch the early train bad. and lie will have nobody to address. So try nitti keep the spectators here." Being an obliging fellow, he took things easily at the start of the afternoon round—for the first and last time in his life, so far as concerns hip occasions. When, his lend having bee" leduced to five, he decided to finish fiff his opponent he found that he cotiM not for the life of him do it. He had become slack: he could not suddenly summon the old determination; and, to his everlasting chairrin. he was beaten.