FIRST PRINCIPLES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 257, 26 July 1930, Page 5

FIRST PRINCIPLES

Why Americans Excel at Golf THE PERFECT SWING Despite the brilliant victory of Miss Fishwick in the women’s championship, there most certainly is something wrong with British golf. And it is becoming worse, if we may judge by the rout of the British amateurs in their recent match with the United States at Sandwich for the Walker Cup. In the above terms A. Endersby Howard prefaces an article in the "‘Daily Mail,” in which he strongly advises British players to get back to the Vardon swing. It is time that they had never won, he writes, but it is equally true that they had never suffered so overwhelming a defeat in this country as on the latest occasion. A good many reasons have been put forward for the debacle; lack of practice, perfunctory training, a prejudice against meeting professionals, and other influences. All these may count for something. They are points to which the Americans attach a good deal of importance. You do not find them slacking or biased in any such details. But it seems to me that what is fundamentally wrong with British golf is the way of swinging the club, and that application to all the other factors cannot help very much until our players, with few exceptions, learn to swing differently. Respect for Ancient Institutions. The Americans have done a very simple and successful thing, innate to their nature. They have always possessed a certain respect for ancient British institutions, and, ever since they began to make golf their national pastime they have moulded their manner of swinging the club on that -of the British champions who rilled the golfing world a generation ago. And they have found it quite good enough, so good, indeed, as to be all-conquering save in the case of the gallant little Miss Diana Fishwick. For years our players have been concentrating on new methods, and it has to be confessed that they have failed ingloriously. In the train from Plymouth the other day Leo Diegel came into the compartment in which I was sitting and began to talk about British golfers. He related how he and all the other American professionals who were at Muirfield last year for the open championship had followed Harry Vardon in a practice round. ‘‘We went out with him just to learn the right way to swing the elub.” said Diegel. “and you can’t get away from it, he would beat any of us now if he were younger. It’s the perfect way of swinging a golf club."

And yet how different it is from the method of the modern British players! Vardon set a standard in the United States during three long visits, but he was not the only apostle of the oldfashioned British swing. Mr. Bobby Jones has declared that he" learnt how to wield the golf club by watching Stewart Maiden, a Scottish Professional who settled in America. When Mr. Jones was last in Britain ho made a special journey to Carnoustie, iu Forfarshire, foe

the reason that he wanted to play « round on the course which produced the golfer who had taught, him his swing. And he played it with a brilliance inspired by the sentiment of the occasion. Worshipping False Gods; In what way have British players changed? The evolution begins with the back swing. In this country the dominating principle nowadays is a straightening of the left arm in addressing the ball and a quick back swing. In such circumstances it must be quick; it is nothing less than a jerk. You see it markedly in Mr. Roger Wethered. When Mr. Wethered was one of the finest players in the world, as, for instance, when he tied with Jock Hutchison, of Chicago, for the open championship of 1921, he stood in a relaxed position with his head well over the ball and took the club back slowly and easily. He has since developed the faith that the left arm should be “as stiff as a poker." to use his own words, with the result that the whole body becomes similarly taut, the head is set back rigidly, and there is none of that facility of muscle movement which controls direction. Fetish of “Straight Left.”

Nothing is more noticeable among the Americans than the slow, easy rhythm of the up swing. It has been described as “drowsy” in the ease of Mr. Jones, but it; is no more so than in Vardon or Edward Ray—the last British player to win the United States open championship—or any of the old British players of renown. It is the keynote of American golf. By not hurrying unduly in the uptake of the club there is a very fair chance of getting to the top of the swing properly, and that is the foundation of the shot. It is the reason why the Americans make fewer destructive shots than our players through all the grades of golfing ability. It applies as much to tho lmi£handicap legions as to the elect. Tn*’ fetish of the “straight left” accounts for much. Neither Mr. Jones nor A »™oi nor any other great golfer ever kept arm stiff in the ur swing, however Jr. flexible it had to become for the instnnt of hitting. . - , fo do new and Our players have tried to oo is how they bring it down.