“HOW TO PLAY GOLF.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3711, 21 December 1912, Page 4

“HOW TO PLAY GOLF.”

HARRY VARDOX’S NEW BOOK

A very well-known Scottish sporting ■writer once said to me (writes Laurence Woodliouse, in the “Daily Mail”) —I have seen ‘young’ Tom and 'old’ Tom and James Braid pla\ mg thenvery best, but Harry Vardon ; s rJie most perfect golfer I have ever seeu. High praise this when one remembeis the speaker’s nationality. This statement being true, who : s so well equipped as the ex-open champion to teach us the game ? And sure enough he has just written an interesting and instructive book, “How to Play Golf.” The title well fits tho book, for most of the chapters are devoted to very careful explanations on the method of using each partumiv club.

With a certain mischievous interest I am bound to confess that I first turned to the chapter on putting, for I suppose no great player has suffered so severely from the missing of short putts as Harry Vardon. The opening sentences are delightful— Putting is a delicate matter, and I, of all people, ought to write about it in a delicate way. The reader of this book who has honored me by noticing my doings on the links during recent years,.and has observed my infinite capacity for missing little putts, may arrive at the conclusion that I lack nothing in .presumptuousness when I offer instruction as to the best way of getting the ball into the hole from a short distance. ... I can claim, however* to be in a position to explain how not to putt.

. This very confession of weakness leads Vardon to deal more tenderly and thoroughly with the difficult art of putting. He recommends practising in the dusk when only the ball and the hole, and not the intervening difficulties can be seen; then ho has found that he could putt quite well. Care, he says, is essential, but if the player looks diligently for complications .along the line he will find them all right, even though they have no existence outside the players’ mind. I sometimes think that with putts of a yard or four feet it would be best if without more than a cursory look at the line we were to walk up to the hall and unaffectedly knock it into the hole. That is a counsel of perfection; it is just the system of George Duncan and other wise appreciators of the difficulties of the

short putt. Vardon is*rather pessimistic as to the future of the game. Ho is convinced that while the scores are getting lower the standard of golf in general is deteriorating, and he attributes this falling-off to the influence of tlio

rubber-cored ball. With the gutty, he argues, - a bad stroke was always punished j with a rubber-cored a topped shot or mis-liit is often as good or better than the hit. To prove his statement that the standard of golf is not improving, Vardon is of tho opinion that in 1911, when lie won tho open championship and many ether contests, the actual quality of his god was four strokes a round worse than it was with the gutta-percha ball. The ex-open champion considers that the best stroke he over made in his lifo was with the niblick. It was on the occasion of a tournament at Northwcod, and at tho eighteenth hole his hall was within 4ft. of the club-house, which law between him and the hole. He decided to carry the building and reach the green. To do this he hit the hall so that it rose straight up 30ft oi* 40ft into the air, and he put enough spin on it to make it carry forward thirty yards after it had risen to the required height. The stroke was accomplished and the ball stopped a yard from the hole. Climax, he missed the putt! The book is altogether readable ami very "full of useful instruction, given in plain and simple language. Every golfer will profit by it, be lie long or short •handicap -man, for besides being a, naturally brilliant player. Harry Vardan is an extremely thoughtful one.