GOLF NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 60, 8 September 1938, Page 27

GOLF NOTES

LOCKE'S FUTURE

SLOWNESS OF PLAY

FOUR-BALL MATCH IMPRESSIONS

'"Of the four players taking part In the recent £500 challenge match, which evoked such widespread interest, two emerged with enhanced reputations. One was Henry Cotton and the other Bobby Locke, the youthful South African golfer, who may play in this year's New Zealand open at Dunedin.' Each was the pivotal player of his side, and for long periods of -the two days' match they were engaged in a personal duel with their respective partners playing a minor part in the main struggle. Though on the losing side, Locke emerged in a playing sense with even greater glory than Cotton, and, having watched him carefully both at Portmarnock in the Irish open, and then at Walton Heath, I am convinced that the South African will take his place among the world's most distinguished players, if, indeed, he has not already done so," comments a writer in the London "Observer." "His rise to fame is not dissimilar to that of R. .T. Jones, the famous American. At the age of fourteen, each won a junior championship, an achievement which set them on a career, of conquest in national events. Golf is in their blood, just as cricket is in the blood of Don Bradman, The similarity between Locke and- Jones ends there, for .they have nothing, in common either as regards style and method, or in'the approach to the game. Though not a George Duncan in the matter of speed, Jones was a sprinter compared with Locke, whose snail-like progress and extreme deliberation are not only a source of extreme exasperation both to opponents and spectators, but is a strange and unbefitting attitude for a youth of twenty to adopt. While admitting that the playing of first-class golf demands care and concentration, these can be overdone as to become ridiculous.

"Locke is approaching the stage where the opponent, as was the case in the Eden tournament at St. Andrews some years ago, takes out a camp chair and rests whilst the other fellow, goes thrpugh a host" of tedious and wholly unnecessary preliminaries. Ridi-r eule» the ■ deadliest of poisons, killed his antics. I wish that Locke had heard the conversation of a couple of i spectators at Walton Heath. Referring ,to a particular shot, one said to the ■ other, 'By jove, that's a peach/ 'So it should be; it had a long time to, ripen/ was the quick reply. ; "Having embraced golf as a profesIsion and consequently <*s a means of : livelihood, Locke must understand that the great golfing public are his customers, and as such they will call the tune. It will not, I assure him, be of the funereal kind. They will tolerate a good deal; but nothing in the-nature of a pose. Seeing that there has been so much adverse comment on his slow play it is only fair that Locke's views should be stated. He tells me tha.t, because of the lack of proper stewarding, the public crowded the teeing-grounds, gave him little room on the fairways, and got in the way of his approach shots. In these circumstances there was naturally some delay between the shots. 'For me, it was a desperately important event, and each shot had to be played with deliberation and thought/ says Locke. It may be conceded that much of the delay was due to the fact that the match was of the fourball kind —never a marathon at the best of, times—in' which the balls are constantly being picked up and then I replaced. I could not help sympathisiing with the great veteran, James, Braid, who, in his capacity as referee, iwas bobbing up and down for nearly eight hours each day, picking up balls. ■ For a man in his sixty -ninth, year this was no joke. "For the sake of all concerned it is fervently to be hoped, that, in the event. of: future challenge matches, a foursome—always jolly good fun —will be substituted for the tedious fourball affair in which balls are flying about and nobody is ever quite certain as to which is which. The ideal dhallerfge match was that in which Cotton played Densmore- Shute; but if ;four players are concerned, for heaven's sake let it be a contest in which one ball is played against the other. Because there is no doubt that ,at no distant date Locke will be a serious challenger to Cotton as the Empire's, if not the world's, greatest ' golfer, a comparison of styles may. not be uninteresting. The technique of each is totally different.' In the case of the swing—the foundation of style —Cotton's is of the "three-quarter type, and notably slow and measured, while Locke's is full, and, by comparison, quick. In each the common factors are smoothness and rhythm, without which there can be no lasting success in golf. "Some players swing slower than others; but, whatever the pace, it must be rhythmical* Of all the great golfers none swings slower than Cotton, and .precious few drive better or further. "In a long experience, I have seen many remarkable drives, but none more extraordinary than the one which Cotton hit at the twelfth hole at Walton Heath in the last round of the dramatic challenge match. He and his partner were 1 down, and having seen Whitcombe safely on the course, and with a certain 4 to come, Cotton decided to go for the green. It is a dog-legged hole of 370 yards, the shortcut to which is a carry of 300 yards over a veritable jungle of bracken and heather. Failure to carry the jungle means a lost ball. Without apparently making any extra effort, Cotton not only carried everything, but finished on the forward part of the approach to the green. That mighty shot proved the turning point, of the match, which up to that stage had been running in favour of the South Africans.

"While people maryel at the lowness of Cotton's scoring, it is his own belief that if he could swing slower he would be a better golfer. It is often asked: 'What is the secret of Cotton's length?* While a combination of several things—a beautiful pivot, a braced left side and arm at impact—he contrives to get into the shot a quick and decisive slap of the right hand as the clubhead meets the ball. Locke, on the other hand, gets his effects by perfect wrist action. He is what one would term a 'wristy' player, 'while Cotton makes greater use of his hands and fingers. Locke is leaving shortly for Australia, where he will take part in a playing tour, but had he remained permanently in England I feel that he would have constituted a danger to Cotton's position of eminence. 4I am coming back to have a go at him/ was Locke's parting shot."

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