GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 18

GOLF

IBV 'BAFFf'I INTER-CLUB MATCHES

SOME POINTS ON TIMING

GREAT PLAY IN N.S.VV. FINAL

COMING EVEXTB.

June 22—Hutt v. Manawatu, at Balmerston Xorth. June £{i— British Open, Hoylake. June 28—Wellington v. itiratnar, at Jliramar. June 2S—Silver Uutton (medal), at Hutt. July 2—Wellington v. Hutt (ladies), at Hutt. beptember I—American Women s Cnumpionsliius. September a — Sew Zealand Open and Amateur. at Jliddlemore.

Last Saturday's match between Ranui and Hutt did not produce anything special, largely because of the weather conditions. In this respect the players at the Hutt were better off than those who tried conclusions at Ranui, for the conditions left little ground for complaint, except that the recent weather had left the links in anything but good order, and the sheep have put the soft links into anything but good playing condition. At Ranui the full effect of the southerly gale was felt, and the players had the greatest difficulty in maintaining a position on the hill holes. The Rjinui members had never experienced such a day. Hutt managed to scrape home with one game to spare, but the^ result, of course, was no indication of "the strength of the clubs, the Hutt A team being hardly more than the ordinary B team. Ranui put up the best team they could, and the Hutt matched them on handicap. All the players enjoyed the afternoon, and the first meeting between the clubs. By the time these notes appear Hutt will be finishing up a series of matches against the Otaki Club at Otaki. The team from .Wellington will be one of the strongest numerically ■ that has ever visited the holiday resort, and the Otaki Uub may find difficulty in matching the number. The Hutt team, with a number --if changes, then proceeds to Palmerstbn Worth to play a fixture with the Manawatu Club. The visiting team will be a very strong one—nearly.as strong as the club can muster. It. was at first thought that the Manawaiu Club would have to arrange the matches on handicap, but the Hutt Club has now deeded to ask that the northern dub put its best team in the field.

Captain Conway has succeeded in winDing the captain's trophy at Miramar for the second time. His opponent in tne final was Mr. A. E. Russell, who tast year won the junior championship ol the dub, and who is one of the club's most enthusiastic golfers. The final was decided on handicap over thirty-six I holes, and the conditions were anytliing but ideal, and included a hailstorm Conway won 3 and 2. The mornin" i round finished all sjjuare. . ° TIMING THE SHOT. "Proper timing means swinging the club-head against the ball with minimum cut and maximum impact," remarks Thomas H. Ussell in a particularly good article in the "American Golfer." " 'Pressing,' 'letting the club-head do the work,' 'throwing the club-head at the ball,' 'snapping the wrists,' 'letting the hands get ahead of the club,' 'cultivating rhythm,' and 'keeping the head still,' all these time-honoured sibboleths of the game merely suggest phases of the general problem of correct timing. Driving well without correct timing cannot be done. The problem of timing the shot is created largely by two facts about human beings, one physical, the other mental: (1) the body is stronger than the arms, and the arms are stronger than the wrists, and (2) the greater the stress of excitement one is under the more action tends to be unrefiective, impulsive, uncontrolled." At this stage the writer includes in his article a couple of diagrams. These are drawn from immediately above the figure produced. "A" shows the club-head behind the ball at the moment of the impact, the line of shoulders, and the line from the ball through the figure's head making a right-angle intersection. "B" shows the figure with the right shoulder already coming through, and the hands in front of the ball which the club-head has just reached. The arms lag behind the body, and the club lags behind the arms. The writer goes on to say: "This is an exaggerated form of bad timing: A glance at figure 'B' shows bow those popular faults of topping and slicing result from bad timing. The angle formed at the grip by the hands going ahead and the dub lagging behind shortens the reach of the club, pulling it higher than it was in the address, and so resulting in a, 'top.' Since the<hands are ahead of tho club-head the latter is pulled across the ball while it is being hit and a side spin is imparted, swerving the ball off to the right. The importance of correct timing as a remedy for the major errors of golf is made clear enough if we see what happens when other remedies ar c applied. To prevent topping we lean over a bit. If we lean over just enough to hit squarely a slice results; if we lean over too much the shot is dubbed or sclaffed. To keep the club up with the speed of the arms we grip the club tighter. With all the muscles tense the position of the body is altered and the shot toe-ed or heeled The worst things that result from the too-tight grip, however, are that thp force of the arms are expended too soon, resulting in a loss of distance, and tho arms are jerked sharply towards cr away from the body at the impact, reSiting in a slice or hook. Seeing the ball sail into a slice, the beginner naturally faces more to the left. Tho effect of this is often to bring the club into contact sooner than before, while it is still on the downward swing, thus increasing the cut, and slicing is even worse than ever." The writer goes on to recommend a study of results in practice, using only a three-quarter swing and swinging (not hitting a ball) with a club the head of which is heavily weighted. He continues:

"By way of summary let me offer ten practical hints which may help you master, the timing of every shot in your bag:

. "1. The essence of the timid shot is the swing, not the blow. A bqy strolling

along a meadow sweeping a club a* the daisy heads before him has the fundamentally correct rhythm. Try swinging your club easily in the same manner, i

_ "2. Loosen your grip, especially dun. mg the follow-through after a full shot. Ihis loosened grip you will probably find unsuitable for use with your irons, and indeed you may not ba able to manage _it with your wooden clubs; even so, it will pay you to experiment wita it m practice.

"3. Give up the idea entirely of ever swiping blindly at the ball. The tee .shots of some of the champions such as Sarazen seems at times to be just such swipes as this, but their ways are not for the average player. "4. Try a weighted club until you get the feel of the dub-head and teach yourself to think of it rather than of the ball.

"5. Practise driving with your left hand only. .The overstrong right side and arm are much to blame for bad timing. Strengthen the left - side. ■ Flick the ball off the tee with a sharp turn of the wrist at the bottom of this one-armed swing. "6. Don't force the follow-througfc; j Let your body be pulled around by the ; club-head rather than vice versa. \ : ! "7. At the beginning make a feTjr experiments of hitting the ball while preventing the body from following through at all. Your club will seem to have grown suddenly longer and j the ball will rise much more sharply into the air. Then gradually let_youi body follow after the shot. - ,;' j "8. In practising with your iron clubs you will find that added confidence is gained and rhythmic swinging made easier by at first teeing up the balL When the correct swing becomes habitual, the tee cau be lowered gradually until the ball rests on the turf. "9. Don't force your clubs. Rather than straggle with the temptation to> | force a mashie, for instance, take a _ ! mashie iron or a spoon. The longer- • club's will get them high enough if you hit them, clean, and clean hitting is the main objective of a. " correctlytimed shot. . "10. Remember Columbus: the wisest thing he did was to get started, and the next wisest thing he did was to\ keep goiug until he got "there !" ,r N.S.W. CHAMPIONSHIP. ( H. \V. M'Bellaiid defeated H. R. Sin-, clair in the amateur golf championship of New South Wales, played at Kensington a few days ago. The game was a surprise, in so far as both men had foe some time,, been showing form that would hardly indicate as possible their putting up a sensational exhibition. Bub they did. ' The golf was superb. It was one of the most spectacular dis-r plays yet seen in Sydney, and M'Lelland: overhauled Sinclair in much the same manner"~as Apperly did M'Lelland in a former championship. The excitement was intense. His own missed putt at the 16th, and M'Lelland's marvellous putts in the last and deciding greens' cost H. R. Sinclair the championship^ M'Lelland's putts would have been dif^ ficnlt enough in ordinary circumstances j but with a championship at stake they, were uncanny. The utmost credit is due to him for seizing such a elender chance as he had. In the match the first nine holes were halved, the players going out in 36 each, and finishing Sinclair 72 (1 up), M'Lelland 74.. In the afternoon, before a very good gallery,,the play continued brilliant and even. Sympathies were about equally divided, as both had been runners-up in the Australian and State amateur championships— M'Lelland in 1922 in both, and Sinclair in 1923. The golf, under the prevailing conditions, was perfect. There was a strong north-west wind blowing across the course which made length extremely difficult to obtain in the second halt M'Lelland was getting tremendous power into his tee shots, and out-driving Sinclair, at times, by a very large margin; almost unbelievable. Where he gets his power from is a mystery, and yet I doubt if anyone in Australia could have much more than held him in the drives. Sinclair was 2 up at the 13th in the afternoon. M'Lelland played the fifteenth, in a sensational manner. He pulled the ball amongst the spectators, but, though! it was lying badly, he made a long shot, which was also in the rough, just short of the left-hand pot. A perfect pitch gave him a 5 and a-half, Sinclair being short with his 6econd and third.

Then the excitement started, and a more thrilling finish it would be difficult to imagine. Sinclair had the best of the tee shots at the sixteenth, but took three putts, and was only one up. M'Lelland made one of the most perfect approaches of the day at the seventeenth ; it just trickled past the pin, but he failed to hole the 3, and the hole was halved in 4. One down and one, he made a mighty drive far past Sinclair's, and a tremendous second against the win I—and1 —and reached the bunker. Sinclair was well down with his second, but just short with his third. M'Lelland chipped out 'beautifully, and was eventually left wjth a curly putt and a half stymie. After judging it carefully, he hit the ball with absolute, confidence, and it disappeared amidst cheers. He played the 37th beautifully in 4. He was left with what even the referee thought to be an impossible putt, as he appeared to be absolutely stymied. Using tie ground and slightly hooking the ball, he holed and became chan£ pion for 1924. He thoroughly deserved the win, as tne end was the pluckiest thing imaginable Lord Forster, in congratulating M'Lelland, said only one word Characteristic"—and that admirably sums up the position. Nine times out of ten Sinclair would win with one up and two to go with the wind against with a finish of 4 and 5, but this was the tenth time

According (o an officiil ti;™ i ricd in the four days of the Easter hoK. days by the London underground railmw and associated undertakings. Easter M^ day's total waa 5,500,0007 UaJi aTaiU^ more, than Jest jea»'» raoori