GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 126, 1 June 1927, Page 15

GOLF

THE CLUB HEAD

LETTING IT WORK

Half: the good playing is duo to simply following those terse and traditional bits of advice, "Keep I'aur Head j Down," "Hit It," "Slow Back," "Don't Press,'^ and, "Keep Your Eyp on the Ball." Efclf. the bad playing, too, you might say, is due to the same rules followed; slavishly and without understanding juit what they mean. Of course, there is - not much doubt about the meaning of some of them. There is nothing abstruse or recondite about keeping.one's eye on the ball, and" yet even thiß simple precaution may be made by means of a Gorgon-like stare combined with a rigid stance and a cramped grip, and it often does a lot of harm. But, as Kipling says, that is another Btory. Let us take one of the loss obvious .maxims. "Let the clubhead do the work!" ' How often have wo heard that • cry and how gladly would we have taken-the tip and resigned in favour of the club-head, if we only knew how to do it. The phrases has a meaning only to the export: He knows how to let the club-head do the work. Not only that, but he knows the "feel" when the club-head is doing the work, and what happens when the club-head is not doing the work. All i of which, if ho is a real teacher, he will impart to the pupil and so make a real! golfer, if not a real shot maker, of him. im great many older fellows who are > stlJl struggling to break the century know a whole lot more about golf theory than the youngsters who can I givous six oy sevon strokes in a round 1 of eighteen holes. We are good golf thinkers, but poor shot makeis. Our trouble is not mental, but of tho body mind, the nerve-muscle apparatus which I learns its lesson, if ever, in youth and never forgets it. Having become set and inflexible in our "sub-conscious," as the Freudians say, we huvo to do all our learning with our head and give each matter a lot of thought instead of Oust doing it, as tho caddies do in the manner «t Stevenson's "sedulous ape." rom/i w r <><mdabout remarks, let us come back to the first tee and first printt,?". 4 consider just what "letting the club-head do tho work" means. rnataJw,, 1?™ whnt acceleration moans? What makes that small piece of the LtTnt™ a pile de°P down int° the mud? Of comsc, you know, but you don't lot it work half tho'time when y OU aro footing golf, although it is the essence df the golf swine If halZ- f \ } a- calryinß distance, of balls is tested m a machine with a falling club-head as the only motive power. Acceleration, nothing more Now, note that they do not say ihT^ e'i bUJ "l0t>" *h« e^b-hcad do TrL w i A Very ■i«n»flcant trifle! rranslated into action-it means that, when properly started, tho club-head has a natural tendency, and every intention of doing tho work, if we only do not interfere and do something a<Sthe work? At tho top of the backswing the club-head starts from a position of *est and what tho physicist calls lugli potential energy; that is, ready for a big drop. It starts slowly and gathers impetus steadily, each foot of drop adding speed and power to what wont before. This is what happens when a golf club is alldwed swing down merely by its own weight. The result -m driving power is incredible to one who has never seen it in action. But this is not "all thoro is"; therecertainly is somo more! Tor tho good 'golfer not-onlydowsotrcheck this freefall m any way. Ho adds to it at the proper time. Ho backs it up, but not. until it i 3 going full speed, by wristsnap and arm-swing and shoulder turn, and hist of all lots his hip go into it! But, I am qulto sure, tho last of those only goes into action after''the clublicad has icachcd the bottom of its flight and by momentum is Using against giaviry and swinging out toward tho hole. So thoro are two things for us to think of. First, and most essential, not to check tho drop of tho club. Wo generally check it when we think we aro helping it. Wo try to, get it going and start it down quick-with a pull. The same thing follows a quick up-swing whon \fg aro eagor,, too eager, to get a good shot and want to help out in tlio wrong way. With tMs'thero goes a tight clutch of tho club shaft which is not at all conducive to easy swinging or "letting the club-head have its way." Wo see now that "Slow back" and "don't press" have a lot to do with "let tho club-head do the work." Play Sloppy" also comes in horo, for its: reminds us that wo wont to start easy, just as tho club-head starts easy, and put inoro and moro into it as wovgo on. Generally wo do it just,tho other way round, wo "snatch" and "plug" at tho Start, and ih'o inevitable result is that there is a distinct and disastrous chock as the ball is hit. Just then and tliero wo say goodbye to all follow-through. IV this, too, is largely a beautiful reward for letting the club-hend . accelerate without chock .and backing it up as wo see it come in to tho ball, and not before, with "everything we have." Notes. A romarkablc incident associated with tho Home liolo at Woking golf course is recalled by an Bnglißh writer. I f, was horo, he bays, that Hugh Allison, in an inter-Varsity match, played a ball on to tho roof of the Clubhouse, climbed on to it' With a ladder, played his shdt off the roof on to the green, and halved the hole! Thos6 who saw Lord Jcllicoc playing a strong niblick shot out of sand, sciub, and a nest of six photographers at Mhamar, will bo inteiehted in the following bit of English golfing news:— "Admiral of tho Fleet Earl Jellicoo (handicap 14) reuchdd fho final of the junior section of the Royal Navy and Koyal Marines spring championship golf meeting at Suunfngdale, but was then boaten by 8 and 6 by Sub.-Lioutenant Wilson Young (13). The latter had defeated Surgeon Commander Turner (12) by 4 and 3 in the semi-final, while Earl Jellicoo overcame Pay-Commander J. L. Syson (17) by the wide margain of 9 and 7. Tho main troublo with bunker play is that f avorago golfer descends into a trap feeling as if he w on tho verge of assaulting a cobra. There is a uiixed emotion of fury and feat, which tightens.up 'tho enriro system. Ho is about as pliablo and as clastic as an iron pipe.. One of the first foundation of bunker play is a lighter grip and a normal state of mind. Get the feet firmly planted and don't rush the stroke. Don't attack tho sand and ball as if they Woic a pair of wild animals. Swing the club head through and let Nature take its course. Many make the mistake of dipping tho right shoulder in digging for the ball, thereby causing a largo' displacement of sand and with lit* effect on the ball.' Others Jungo at the ball. But with a lighter grip and> no thought of extra, effoit in mind, bunker play is not as intricate as it might seem .