THREE GOLF PROVERBS

Evening Star, Issue 18173, 13 January 1923, Page 13

THREE GOLF PROVERBS

A REVIEW OF FIRST PRIBCIHES.

[Written by Harr* Vaudon, for the ‘Evening Star.']

A golfer who cajiM to mo recently for Instruction expressed l himself forcibly, by wav of a prelude, on the subject of the well-worn aphorisms of the gamp. ■_ “I don’t want anyjsf the old-fashioned advice about ‘Keen your eye on the ball,’ ‘Slow back,’ ‘Follow through,’ and that sort of thing, 1 ' ho said, “it must bo out of data by now, I want to know how to play the game with the modern ball and the modern 'clubs and on the modern courses. Thera must ho some now principles to suit the altered! conditions.” Pupils are like that sometimes. Years ago I had one whoso only serious fault was that ho would insist on swinging the club back like lightning. Nor could ho be induced! to modify his speed! of storting. I’ve been quick all my life at everything,” lie would declare whenever he was warned to take the chib up more easily, “ and I’m hanged if I’m going to 'be slow at this dashed game.’’ And that was as far as one could) get with him. What is the justification of the man who would have the tlireo cardinal principles of golf teaching /swept into the scrap heap of obsolete sayings? I had to agree with him that “Keep your eye on the ball" moans nothing in particular. It is a thing that nearly everybody who is trying to hit a ball docs naturally, Where would an ordinary mortal look but at the object which is to be struck? There have been ft few exceptions to the rule, even among good players. The late Hugh Kirkald'y, open champion in 1891, was one. His vision followed! tho head' of tho club hack for some distance, and retired) with it to the hall in the down swing. Thoro is no need to cmphasfeo the first—and what X Shall regard as the most important—detail I ever learnt aa a means of making progress at golf : the preservation of a still head throughout tho awing. If you keep your head still, you will keep your eye on the ball as long as is necessary, and maintain your poise into the bargain. IN THE MIND’S EYE.

Some well-known players—l believe Mr Harold Hilton is one—have confessed that they do not actually see the ball aa they hit. At least, they see it in the mind’s eye rather than with the organ of sight. Personally, I have tried driving with my eyes closed after taking up my stance and focussing the ball. The shots have succeeded every time so long as I have kept my head still Naturally one could not shut oat the vision from choice j it is simply an experiment which shows that keeping the eye on the ball is not no important as keeping the head steady. It is difficult to agree with the second article of my revolutionary friend’s creed—that “slow back" is out of date and useless. It is among the most curious phenomena of the game—a point which 1 have seen proved in dozens of instances among moderate golfers—that the player who takes the dub up qnlcldy invariably brings it down slowly. In fact, he does the right things in the wrong places. Nor is that surprising when one comes to think of it. Having started off in a rush he has to steady Mm self somewhere, or ho would rush himself finally off his feet. So he steadies himself in the down swing, and, instead of working the club head up to its greatest velocity at the instant of impact, ha is still steadying it, with the result that he docs not hit the ball very far. _ ‘ ' It is an unconvincing answer to this point that some very fine golfers—George Duncan and Abo Mitchell, for example—swing back quickly. Once _ a man. has reached a high stage of efficiency ha can do things that are bad for leas accomplished people. He is like an expert cyclist, who may find it quite easy to ride without holding the because the sense of balance has become ingrained in him so that it operates mechanically. But the inexpert cyclist who takes such a Liberty is likely to como a cropper. [For the ordinary golf it helps to preserve the balance and produce the spee.d at the right time if he takas the club back moderately slowly—which does not necessarily mean at snail’s pace. One man says that he lias discovered the right time by humming m Ms mind ono bar from the National Anthem: “God nave our gracious King.” It takes him just the duration of that bar to reach the top of the swing. It sounds about right.

THE PERIOD OF CONTACT. In regard to the importance of the adage ‘‘Follow through, thero seems to be a good deal of difference of opinion as to exactly what those two words mean.

Some people consider that lo “ follow through ” means to allow tho dub to come right round after the impact until it has reached the horizontal behind one's head—just as it was at the top of the back swing—and the hands ora level with the left ear. That has always been my own natural way of following through in playing a full wooden club shot But the people who do not regard thin as necessary are very inclined to declare that the follow through itself is unnecessary—as though there existed no abridged kind! of follow through. I venture to say that this is where a mistake is made, because it tends to induce a. player who cannot follow 'through fully to go to tho other extreme and stop tho dub soon or than he should.

The degree of the follow through may not be a matter of great importance, but that there musb be a follow through I am certain, If you like to stop it quickly and suddenly after tho impact, and your shots do nob suffer, wall and good. It does not alter tho fact that you have followed through. To peck at the baS and check the club with the operation produces very poor results. I have never yet been satisfied that the club-faco and the ball do not maintain contact for a brief space—an inch or two—at the impact when you are following through with a shot that fa intended to pinch the ball between the club-face and the turf so as to impart back-spin. Scientists say that the thing is Smpoaniblc—that the ball leaves the club instantly—bub to the golfor who knows this shot (which is tho finest shot in the game) the club-faco and the ball most certainly feel to be in contact for more than the first instant. Besides, experiments prove that the impact flattens tho ball whore it is struck to tho measure of about a shilling’s diameter; and, as the ball roBumea immediately its original roundness, it occurs to one that in returning to shape it swells sufficiently towards the club-faca to keep tho two together for a period a Httla longer than the scientists declare possible.

It is that condition, at any rate, of Trhicli a golfer playing a back-spin shot aeeras to bo conscious.