EXPERIENCE TAKES A LOT OF BEA TING

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 14

EXPERIENCE TAKES A LOT OF BEA TING

(By M S. WOLVERtDGE > Trailing around in the sunshine on Saturday afternoon, following the final match of the amateur golf championship, I gained the impression that no matter how well our champion played, his opponent, S. G. Jones, had resources that he had not tapped. Jones is good—in fact there are only a handful playing amateur golf around the globe who play as well. With Nicklaus long gone from the amateur scene, perhaps only D. Beman. of America, or R. Cole, of South Africa, ‘stand above this select group. At one time or another I suppose I have played with most of them—what sort of people are they? To me they are rather special people. Look at Jones, and you see them all: resourceful men who find the means to allow themselves to devote their Hives to tournament golf.

Obviously, money comes into it. You cannot possibly compete at the top level without being able to travel comfortably, use the very best equipment, dress properly and enjoy a modicum of independence. Jones is as fine a sportsman as I know, for he combines toughness and determination in a game of golf without becoming unfriendly and losing the essence of the game. Put these qualities into a package and give it a method of swinging a golf club based on sound fundamentals, and you have a champion. The swing need not be pretty, it needs only to be repetitive. Jones is so much like K. D. G. Nagle when he plays that it is no wonder that he looks to the “old master” to put him back on the rails every year. The only difference between the top amateurs and the top professionals, apart ifrom the natural observation ithat the professionals play more competitive golf and consequently work harder, is ithat the professionals are I able to correct their faults whilst they are playing. Almost without exception

the amateurs are unable to do this. Possibly it is due to the touring professional's greater exposure to good players and consequently a closer understanding of the mechanics of the golf swing. In a 72-hole medal event this knowledge could be worth many strokes. The pressures on an individual playing in a final of the amateur championship are relative to that individual’s experience. To E. H. Richards, it was his first final and probably the largest audience he has ever played before, and he was faced with a five-time winner of the event as an opponent. He can be forgiven if he was unable to allow himself to play his normal game which might have been good enough. On the other hand, Jones found himself in another final before a moderate crowd hav ing beaten the only threat to his title the day before—no wonder he was confident! It is rather like a question ■posed by three gentlemen or ■Saturday: would the great A |D. Palmer do better than Jones in a match between 'them. The answer must be ■ that Jones would be annhflat 'ed. Until Jones had become used to playing with such a figure as Palmer, become used to having 5000-10,000 people witness his every movement and had become content to be outdriven by 50 yards, he i would be unable to allow him I self to play his normal game —which might be good enough. It’s the old story, ex perience. This year, the New Zealand selectors are sending to Mex ico three of the best amateur* in the world. There is verj little to choose between then and when they return, thej will be even more experienc ed and consequently the mon difficult to dethrone. How can you buy a ticke to these places? Well, who an you? If you are B. A. Steven: you knew you were going t< Mexico long before you wen told, because you were deter mined, tough, had a goo< method and were eonfiden that you were the next best Anyone else? D. R. Hop* is off to Australia in a fev weeks to play in all the event he can enter. Then he wil follow the New Zealand ci: cult until Christmas. He i the type of fellow who wil take Jones's place in a fe\ years because he has th nerve and he will have hai the experience. ' People like Jones, Murra . and Durry take a lot of topj ling!