GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 35, 10 August 1927, Page 16

GOLF

THE MIDIRON STANCE

SOME FAULTS EXPLAINED

Tho favourite club in most every golfer's bag is the midiron, because it is the easiest to control and the results most gratifying, says Johnny Farrell. In tho fundamentals there .is little difference between the methods of playing the wooden clubs and the midiron. One of the differences is the back swing In taking the club back there should be an utter absence of wrist work and the left arm should be stiff with right hugging the body even more so than in the drive for compactness. Eemember that the left hand in the grip must be kept well over the shaft, the grip is a little more firm. The midiron shot never should be_overplayed.. Being more of a direct hit than the wooden club there is a tendency to press. If the player would feel as though he still had twenty or thirty yards left in his iron shots he would be playing them ideally. I m^ 175 yards is all th*t anyone should try to attain with the iron. The swing therefore should never be more than three-quarters full. Being shorter than the wooden ciubs the midiron compels the player to stand nearer the ball and to bend over it more. The^ball is .played less off the lett foot and nearer to the centre than in the drive.

The stance is a little more open which means that the right foot is slightly advanced. Stand firm, both feet planted solidly on the ground.. Eemember to keep the weight well back on the heels and evenly distributed. Correctly manipulated the midiron quickly becomes the most useful club in a golfer's kit. It is a dependable instrument especially in those moments when the player' feels his confidence a little undermined by a bad lie. For getting out of those little chippy depressions in the turf that defy a wooden headed stick or even a cleek, there is no implement so Tellable as the midiron. •* I iS i.Who' pla^ the midiron as it should be played are few. TWELVE USEFUL HINTS. Never hurry a golf shot, particularly from ( the tee (says P. H. Fridenburg m the "Golfer's Magazine"). I say from the tee because this is the place where you are most likly to hurry one. Players waiting behind you, and an anxiety to be done.with the first shot and be on your, way, out of close vision of onlookers—these and other factors frequently cause one to hurry his play with the see shot. One of the surest rules m golf is that the hurried shot is almost sure to be a poor shot. Take 2. Make a low tee. Your second shot, if you drive straight down the fairway, issure to be from a he close to the ground, or perhaps in a slight depression in the ground. The player who uses a low tee is in better shape for .his second shot, whether it is made with the brassie or an iron. 3. Don't practice on the tee. It is annoying to other players when you delay your game, and theirs, by using the tee for an unduly prolonged siege of practice swings. Two or three practice swings are permissible, though I long ago learned that practice swings really do more harm than good. You naturally swing loosely, and hurriedly m practice swings, so that you are almoost certain to do the same thins when you swing at the ball. The practice swing thus encourages you to do exactly what you wish to avoid The practice swing is practically nil as a means of "loosening the muscles." 4. Bo sure to have your clubhead at direct angles to the lino of direction to the hole. The first movement is to place your clubhead in that position. 1 hen hold your .elbows to your sidenot tightly—until you adjust your stance accordingly. Do not allow the taking of the stance to draw your' elbows away from your side. Keep the left arm close to your body as the club goes up, and do not on any account permit your right elbow to raise from the body. Keeping your elbows in particularly the right one as your club goes up, and the left one as the club comes down, and goes through the ball, will enable you automatically to avoid many of the wrong things in the stroke. Keep your head still, fasten your eye on the ball and keep it there until after the club-head has passed through, and use a bent follow-through. Do not straighten up as the club comes down. 5. Plan your second shot after you see it. That is: Do not choose the club for your second shot until after you have stepped up to the ball and measured the distance ahead with your eye. ■ You choose the club after you know what the distance is. Then you "take a chance" on forcing a short club to try-for a longer club's distance. Learn the range.of your clubs and approximate distance by clubs, not by yards. ■ i 6. Play all clubs alike, except the putter,; as far as the grip and swing are concerned. The iron clubs below the mid-iron-are not taken back quite as far■• as the driver, but otherwise . the shot is precisely the.same as the drive from the tee with the. driver. Hit down at the ball,-snap the club-head through the ball, biting a bit of turf,, then up with the blade. Hit down on the ball as if your intention were to drive it into the ground, though be careful to hit away from its lie instead of actually hitting it into the ground. .- 7. Open up the stance gradually as the distance to be negotiated becomes shorter. Do not try to make short chip shots or run-ups with a square stance. If you do you mil fail at attaining accuracy. The open stance- cheeks the back swing of the club. 8. Maintain the finger grip. This is one of. the most important injunctions in golf. The finger grip acquaints the player with the touch sense of the -game. Golf is not a game of strength, but of touelu The longest drivers, the hardest of hitters, like.George Duncan, seem to apply a terrific power to their swings, but if you could observe closely enough you would observe that their clubs were gripped with the fingers only. Some players learn to use the finger grip at the tee" only to lose it on the fairway. They, think the iron club, being heavier, must bo swung harder and, therefore, held tighter. Its own weight, when swung with tho fingers, impart the distance to the ball. It is,held somewhat tighter, but tighter with the fingers. If you stiffen your arms you will almost certainly stiffen your whole body, which will make the stroke result disastrous. 9. Play for the hole. In chipping up to the green, aim for the top of the pin. In approaching do not bo satisfied with the common error of play "a good approach." A good approach should, mentally, always be just a little short of satisfactory. There is no other way to look at it. 10. The putt from the edge of the green can be sunk if you hit it right. Try Vb sink it. It is'an error merely to try for a good approach putt. Usually the good approach putt falls to the man who makes a sincere effort to

hole the ball. The player who tries for a good approach putt, not for the hole, is likely to fall short, too often, of the good approach. The right mental attitude m this department of the game represents the net difference between two putts to the green and three. That difference wins championships, Harry Tardon once said to me: "I* have the greatest difficulty avoiding my usual three putts on about every third green because I.persistently permit myself to fall into the habit of trying for a g°?d instead of going for the

11. Be up to the hole. The well directed putt always goes a little distance beyond the hole if it fails to go in. Any other kmd of putt is-a poor putt. If it stops six or eight inches on the near side of the hole it is still a poor putt, because, having missed, the ball should have come to rest on the far side of the hole. This rule holds, because first, it is impossible for the ball to-get into the hole if you fail to send it the whole distance up there; and, secondly, the second putt is always easier, for some reason, regardless of its distance, when you make it back over the ground the ball has traversed.

12. Make your putter swing like a pendulum. There is no other method of putting that will prove satisfactory. If your ball persistently shoots to the right of the hole, or the left, it is because you have failed to gauge the line correctly. -If the ball breaks to.right or left just before reaching the hole, you are imparting a bit of slice or pull spin to the ball by • not following through with a true pendulum stroke. The blade must strike the ball, then go clear through after it on a dead straight pendulum swing.