GOLF NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 53, 6 March 1929, Page 16

GOLF NOTES

RETAINING PROGRESS

Easter tournaments are beginning to occupy the attention of golfers. Many will, no doubt, go to Nelson, 'always a popular trip at Easter, but Manawatu is doing its best to get a good muster also. Hokowhitu links have been altered as suggested by Mr. 0. W. Redliead. In a letter to the club, Mr. Redhead appreciates the way in which his plans have been carried out. Of the altered course he says:—"lt provides a test of play that is interesting rather than severe, though some of the holes aue difficult enough to satisfy even the best of players.','

Don't be too Greedy. When we first begin to play, or rather to. learn the game, our first ambition is to swing the club without overbalancing ourselves. It is a strange thing that that same danger is still with us right through our golfing career, in moments of excitement. Sometimes we press a shot from fear that we shall not be able to carry an obstacle; sometimes from pure greed of distance; and sometimes ■vye may be guilty of a desire for the thrill of that ripple of applause from the onlookers. ■ Whatever stage of the game we have reached, or whatever the reason for the temptation to press, it, must be sternly put down. If your opponent's long shot lies dead to the pin, and you need all you have and a little more to reach the green, then you have no option but to put all you can into the shot, if you are to have a chance to save the. hole;

In a golf swing, except hi the ease of niblick 3hots, or shots out of long grass, speed is always more successful than force. Flick the ball away. Don't hammer it with the clubhead.

One day, to shis great joy, the beginner plays a really long shot. From that moment he is no longer content to hit the ball every time, he longs to send it a good distance . instead. Then conies the great danger of looking up too soon to see the result of the shot.

If we could only leave that fatal habit behind with some of the other mistakes a beginner makpSj but; we carry it right through to our old age. If we could only get rid of them once and for all, how free we should be, but we are always liable to go on doing ' the same foolish thing's every little while that we" did when we first began. ' Only constant watching and exercise of will power will help us crush them down when a bad attack comes on again. Experienced golfers. know, or. ought to know, how to fight a .tendency to slice when. it. first shows in a game. Yet one hears even good golfers complaining that they lost'certain matches because they had a bad attack of slicing At the very beginning of their golt these same people were probably told the various things that x might cause them to slice. Why didn't they apply their beginner's knowledge in those matches?. , .■

Then, comes a very, dangerous stage to our beginner," when clubs are often smashed, or whole sets of them given away, because the game is being abandoned in disgust. This is the Slough of Despond, and we have all wallowed in it so deeply that we-entirely fail to realisethat we were riot actually playing worse than before but that pur ambition had moved more quickly than our ability. Erst we:wished to swing; then we wished to hit the ball occasionally; then we hoped'to hit it every time; then, we hoped to send it a good distance once in a while. Then because wo could not : send it, a long :distance every time, we decided that we were utter, failures, and,waded so deep in the slough, that we carry a tendency to muddy shoes occasionally throughout our,golfing, career.' • ";.; „ •■.':': ■ -, '., ... -,-

; When a golfer'; goes down into the depths of woe about ihis game, and even the best of ..them are apt to do that occasionally, it is nearly always due to having attempted the impossible, and in consequence having slipped into bad habits again. Why do we< let our ambition run away with us? The only hope then is to do what the beginner has to do, and start again, slowly and often painfully, until we win back our former measure of skill.

Sometimes our beginner, excited by a little success, gets an enlarged cranium, and thinks himself a very fine golfer indeed, until someone puts him in his place. He may then take' to making excuses for being off his game, and it is really surprising how many people can be "off" (?) games that they never.possessed. What a sad commentary it is on the frailty of human nature, that this habit may increase, rather than decrease, as a golfer grows older.

■ If our beginner is a good sportsman and takes his beating with a smile, and has ho excuses to offer, we love him for it. Yet it is a wise precaution for even the finest of sportsmen and sportswomen, to occasionally take out their loser's smile and see that it is well lubricated. If it is not often used, it may not work as quickly and easily as it used to in the early days when it was in constant operation. Then there is the winner's manner." In this there lurks a special danger, which strangely enough may be due to too frequent use. Fight with all you have in you, to keep from' giving the impression when you have won, that you have done no more than you expected to, do. Never patronise the person you have just beaten. He may catch you off your game.some time.