AMERICA'S AMATEUR GOLFERS

Evening Star, Issue 19298, 10 July 1926, Page 17

AMERICA'S AMATEUR GOLFERS

WHERE THEY DIFFER FRDQ OURS [Written by Hajuit Vakdon, for the ‘ Evening Star.’] It is conceivable that the victory of Mr Jesse Swcetecr, of New York, in the recent British amateur golf championship at Muirfield will mark the beginning of a new era of thought about the game among the amateurs of this countl'()ar people had become so accustomed to defeat by the United States in the match for the Walker Cup between teams of amateurs representing the two nations as to miss the point of its moral. It was pointed out repeatedly that the United States, with a population of nearly 120,000,000 and a tremeiuUus zest for the game, would naturally he stronger collectively than we could expect to bo with not much more than n. third of that number of inhabitints. Conquest in the tournament for individual supremacy, however, is a rather different for there is every reason why Britain should produce at least a few players as good as, if not better than, any in tbo new world. , Wo are stooped in the traditions and the art of the game, we have the examples of many push jn«sters~-au<l it will not bo denied that there have lieon some very great players in this country—to stimulate us, and wo have courses that are unimpeachable as training grounds. America has gained bins triumph because her young amateurs have given more practical thought to_ the pastime and approached it more in the spirit of securing efficiency even at the sacrifice of joyous swiping at the ball than ours are wont to do. It is only necessary to examine tbo American’s swings, as ’shown in photographs, in order to realise that they have schooled themselves always to control the dub. They do not ovurswing. It is seldom that they exceed what know as a three-quarter swing, bob which is to them a lull swing. Mr Sweetscr is a particularly good example of this control. Indeed, some people might say that ho does not swing back with his wooden clubs quite far enough to make the effect picturesque to the eye; but it is unquestionably very excellent from a practical point of view, for he is a strong man, who can put a lot or j tower into his blows without much flourishing of the club. And. when it comes to the playing of a long iron ■shot, at which ho is an accepted master, his swing is ideal. IMPORTANCE OP “SLOW BACK.” The trouble with many of our young golfers is that the club swings them instead of them swinging the club. Very often one sees it far past the horizontal behind the player s back, and, indeed, its hca.d almost leaching down to tiic level of his knees. Occasionally, when by sheer good fortune ho happens to be tinu.ig the shots perfectly, ho produces some wonderlul results’ in this way; but ho is bound to have many “off M days, for tbo simple reason that mortal is not capable consistcivtly of starting tbo club down properly when he lets it beyond control at the end of the'back swing. _ > Thero is nothing wondrously original or otherwise startling .about the nay in which the Americans piny golf. They are delightfully old-fasluoned m some of their principles, as. for instance, their observance of the slow back ” maxim. This us another detail iu which many of the younger British players are at limit, altunugh it is, indeed, no more than early contribution to the over-swinging tendency, since the latter usually encourages a fast back swing. . Nobody quick in the up swing has over boon a groat golfer. _ .None oi ibc players renowned lor driving a very long Kail, and at the same time kceping°it straight, has possessed this trait. Douglas Holland, perhaps the mightiest driver of them all, was smooth and decorous in the back, swing. Ho, too, with Air Edward Blackwell and James Braid- . Abo Mitchell, for all the pace which his club head develops at the impact, takes it back in a measured and easy way, and Edward Ray even more slowly. Of course, you do . not want to be funereal in tbo pace, because some freedom of movement is c-sosutial to good effect, but you do want to foci that you arc not hurrying tbo dub back as though the whole swing could bo accelerated iu that manner. Jn point of fact, it is an almost sure way of producing a down awing that is too slow, because the club bead is seldom recovered properly from-the top of the quick up movement. FIGURES. If there is one aspect in -which the American amateurs a-ro definitely original in their mental attitude towards the game it is in the persistency with which they try to “shoot” the pur figure for every hole in a match without regard for what the opponent may bo doing. In this country it is 'Something of a tradition that you regulate your policy by the way in which the rival plays iho hole. Golfers of the old school still ro-. gat'd it as sacrilege to lake serious notice of the scores made in a match. They claim that it is a. form of the ga.m'o entirely differei,-t from medal play, and that: (he figures for the round convoy nothing as to the quality ol their make as a match fighter. The Americans take an ontiroly dilforont view ot the matter. Alter the result the first thing they want to know about a match concerns the scores that it produced. In their newspaper reports they consider it absolutely vital to publish what they call the “ cards,” because these are what the golfing renders want to digest. The first-class American amateur finds no satisfaction in winning a hole iu a stroke or two above Rio par figure. Rather is he shocked about it. 1 b suggests to him that something is going wrong with his game. Truth to tell, this is the spirit that has animated professional golf for a long while, and that is why it is superior to British amateur golf. Capacity as a score player now moans also strength as a match player. CABLE LXTBAOBDINAKY. London, Juno 29, 1926: First four in British Championship and winner British Women’s Championship used English Spalding Mesh Ball throughout.—-Spalding.— [Advt.]