IMPROVE YOUR GOLF

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 265, 5 August 1929, Page 15

IMPROVE YOUR GOLF

HINTS BY GEORGE GADD HOW TO PLAY THE BRASSIE [No. 10.] How is it that golfers who can hit the ball successfully from the tee are not nearly as proficient in playing almost the same stroke with a brassie through the green? There is little or no difference between the clubs—if anything, the brassie is the easier, owing to the fact that it has a slight degree of loft —and the lie of the ball varies only a trifling extent. But it is the lie which is the crux of the question. With regard to the drive, the player is conscious that the ball is perched a little above the ground, and he feels that there is no trouble in making it fly properly. There is no necessity to go down to it. Under these conditions he

swings easily and allows the club w do its own work. The ball is resting on the top of th« grass with respect to the brassie shots, but—l assume the lie is reasonably good —this should not make it much more difficult, and it will not do so, provided the correct method of hitting is adopted. But as far as a great many golfers are concerned, as soon as they take a brassie in their hands, they seem to make up their minds that a special effort must be made to get the ball to rise. They must get down to it; they must get to the bottom of the ball, and this in nine cases out of ten is the great fault. It is forgotten that there is loft on the club to help to make the ball rise. Harmful Rigidity. The shot with the brassie should be identical with one with the driver, so far as the swing is concerned. There is no need, as so many players do think, to tighten the grip, because that is sure to produce a stiffness of the arms and a harmful rigidity throughout the body. When that happens the club will be forced or jerked fiercely at the ball. Of course, in that fashion you get down to it and squeeze it out as with an iron from a bad lie, but it is hopeless to attempt to use a wooden club in that fashion. If there is real need to force a brassie shot, it is to me probable that the wrong club is being employed. It implies that the lie is not good enough, and under these conditons one should not hesitate to take an iron club. The length of the shot will be reduced, but this will be better than a stroke that sends the ball into trouble off the fairway. The Spoon. I often think it would be better if players put away their brassie until they had learnt to use it correctly. But, it may be asked, how can they master the club if they do not play with it? Well, I would substitute the spoon, a club which has still more loft and which should inspire more confidence. The spoon should get the player out of . the habit of “going down” to the ball in playing through the green, and having reached this happier state he would return to his brassie and be on much better terms with it The Bad Patch. It often seems to me that the handicap golfer has the best of a game nowadays. There is more enjoyment in golf for him than for those in more exalted stations if he will only realise that he is expected to make mistakes. That is why he has a handicap, and I am afraid,-how-ever, that players, when they are taking part in a competition, forget this. They have a bad hole or two and become disgruntled. But to these players my advice is, “Stick it,” and in all probability the game will turn in their favour just as suddenly as it went against them. How many at the end of a round have had reason for saying: “I wish I had not torn my card up. I should have been all right if I had played it out.” The handicap golfer is in the happy position of having a margin for error. The scratch player, on the other hdnd, must make every stroke correctly and he cannot hope to improve much more. I can well rpmember when I broke 80 for the first time. That round, I know, gave me more pleasure than many of 70 to-day. When Everything Goes Wrong. Golf offers so much scope for improvement for most players because it is such an engrossing game. But it has the peculiarity that bounds along merrily for a time, and then everything goes wrong

and one feels that; he is playing worse than ever. Ido not think there is a golfer who escapes this tantalising experience. Striking this bad patch—and I assure you that professionals get it just as much as amateurs —is a very peculiar thing, and I have never heard a reason given good enough to account for it. But among handicap players I have noted that their progress came in waves and that, as they advance in point of skill, their bad times occur less frequently. On these occasions it is probably the little things which are causing the trouble. The head is going up a fraction too soon, and we all should know what a difference in the result of a shot this makes!. Undoubtedly you should try looking a little more intently and longer at the ball, picking out some spot on the ball and magnifying it, mentally making up your mind that that is just where you are going to strike. Watch Your Grip. Again look at your grip. You may find the approach shots going away to the right. If that happens it is likely that you are slackening the grip with the left hand as the club is coming down. You may, too, develop a slice from the tee. In that event remember that you have not completed the stroke when you

have struck the ball, and, therefore, that the club head goes right through, checking any tendency to pull the hands in and across the ball. Whatever the failing, though, one can be fairly sure that it is only temporary, and that the less one worries about it the sooner it is likely to pass away.