THEORY AND PRACTICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 32, 6 August 1936, Page 23

THEORY AND PRACTICE

It is rather a gloomy fact, but we may as well face it cheerfully and pretend we don't mind. All you have to do is to examine any pictures of Miss Joyce Wethered or Bobby Jones executing a full shot. In six shots, they will show the starting back, finishing, coming on through, and finishing again, and they are very discouraging. Once you have had a long, studious look at the photographs, you understand better the utter hopelessness of your own case, your own game, because the chances are you are a natural hitter and not a swinger. The difference is that between gold and brass, writes Frank Condon in the "Golf Illustrated."

Miss Joyce is a swinger; probably the world's best. Mr. Jones says so, and he knows a deal abdut swinging a golf club. There is nothing so frightfully mysterious about being a swinger. You merely swing the clubhead, which passes in a graceful circle, gathering speed, from one point in the air to another,- incidentally striking a small ball in the process. The striking of the ball is a minor incident. :

Anyone can do it, but hardly any.one does, although the" way to become a peerless- golfer is to become a peerless swinger. We are mostly all of us hitters.. .

I, should say, offhand, that 6 per cent, of all the golfers in the world are swingers and 94 per cent, are hitters and. will go on being such until the last putt. I'm a 'natural hitter myself, although I have tried desperately to be a swinger, working on the practice range hour after hour. • You don't have to hit hard if you are a swinger, as the club-head does it for you, and the ball sails out there 235 yards, as neat as you please.

It doesn't matter which golf course you visit, north or south, the ratio remains the- same—94 per cent, hitters, 6 per cent, swingers, and the 6 per cent, lads are invariably the good players with low handicaps. Nature has so ordained it and nobody can do anything about it, even Alex Morrison. . . .To be sure, any number of our leading professionals are hitters, and often win tournaments. They would like to be swingers, too, but they are barred. ".■■•;

And any one of us lowly d.ubs is likely to sh/iot a good game occasionally. We often come in with a proud 85, just as a poor boxer sometimes wins a fight. If there is no ball in sight and you take a practice swing, you, as a hitter, can often come,close to a swing, and that is because there is no ball for you to hit. The minute the ball.is placed before a hitter, his, whole mental attitude changes; his nervous system starts to coil up, ; his muscles roll over, and he is no longer the man who just took a practice swing.. It is like a person chopping wood. The log is before him. He hits it with the axe. The axe stops,when it strikes the log, which is what the': person desires and intends. That's a hit.

It is furthermore impossible for us membersjof the 94 per centers ever to understand: or believe that the ball will go further and straighter after a swing /ttian after a hit. As we see it, the way to get the ball far out on the. :f airway is to, blast it off the tee with ■as powerful a smack .as our strength will permit. If we had to shatter' a rock with a sledge-hammer, obviously we would smash down as hard as we -•could, and that is the way we will ?aliways feel about a golf ball.

.^Nature designed Miss Wethered to be.a swinger, for which she should be duly grateful, and, I honestly believe she had little to do with it. She couldn't be a hitter ' if she foolishly wanted.to: We members of the 94 per cent., we can't be swingerSj either, no ■matter how many professionals;,>ftak« ,us in hand and show us how to doit;/ ;--;';: :^;;A SKEER ACCIDENT.f ' .'■-' r'can personally produce a very fair imitation of a swing, if there is-no golf ball around to .worry me,',but;it is'always a stunt, the same'asifll started walking on my hands, my natural inclination being to walk, on my feet. By the sheerest accident, ,1 occasionally do the same thing when driving off a tee, mayfcie once a month, and the ball rushes out an amazing distance, while I stand there, looking at it in astonishment and wonderirig what miracle did this. But I cannot repeat, four minutes' lateri and neither can any other hitter, and so I have-given up tryingto be a swinger, like Miss Wethered and Mr. Jones.

••. One famous professional teacher always stands before his pupil on, the tee, dangling a bit of lead at the end of a string, and swinging it back and forth while he instructs, the idea being to have his pupil imitate *! the.-motion' of the ball and string with his club. .Gentlemen, it cannot, be'done. Either the guy is a swinger, or he isn't/anfl if he is a rare sort, he joins the lucky 6 per cents., and thereafter bystanders admire him. Otherwise, he slides down with us 94 players and there"

The other side of the picture is that if' you can and do swing, everybody exoects you to. shoot sterling golf. With us sodden hitters, -nobody expects anything, beyond a pleasant afternoon in the spring air. some good exercise, a healthy tan. and cold beer after the game.' We have a heap of fun. dubbing .our way around, but I believe the magazines should not-nub-' l'sh pictures ;of persons like Miss .Tbyce Wethered'in the act of swinging. It only causes distress arid envy among us hitters.- •■ .