GOLF.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 24 April 1913, Page 3

GOLF.

Summer Cup finals are close at hand. The games played lately have all been very close and interesting. No less than four have gone to the nineteenth hole. The club committee are making a ■wise move by making early arrangements for outside matches. These hxtures do lots or good by creating good friendly feeling between the various clubs and stir up enthusiasm amongst members. On Saturday, May 3, Waverley will pay a visit to Hawera and on June 3 j the New Plymouth Club will play the Hawera Club, at Hawera. New Plymouth hope that a strong team will be able to go this year. In the course of a very interesting article in the "World of Golf," J. R. Remer gives some useful tips as to straight driving. According to him the left hand is the most important factor in straight driving. In holding the club the left wrist should be in a straight line with the shaft of the club. So many players, says Remer, even with low handicaps, use a grip for the left hand with the hand right under the club. These men will never be good drivers, and will almost always slice some drives in every round. This left hand, again, when we are swinging, should grip the club as hard as it is '■ possible. You must not relax on© single instant during the swing. It is your guide which keeps you. on the course, while your right hand is hitting the ball for all it is worth. Then as. to the swing itself. Try to cultivate a quiet round, easy swing. Do not jerk the club up and down with any violent movement. As you start your swing, push the club back quietly with your left hand, moving your left shoulder back as you swing. Then when you have reached the top of your swing, push your right hand with all the force in your possession at the ball, and, of course, keep your eye down at the ball through the whole movement. To sum up the keynotes of straight driving, they are—first, watch your stance; and second, watch your left hand. A writer with a sense of humor tells the following stories, true, he says, of the indifferent golf er : — (iThe length to which he is driven in his efforts to attain perfection are sometimes serio-comic. On a London course a little while ago a man was seen to take from his bag a driver and several pieces of wood of different dimensions. Of the latter he selected the longest. What was be going to do with it? The answer was soon forthcoming. The ball had been teed. Carefully he placed the stick of wood in the correct position. Then he put bis feet at either end of it and told the caddie to remove it. It was his stance-measure, and he was standing properly for the drive. "Another aspiring player who experienced difficulty in adapting himself to the approved stance conceived an even more impresrive scheme. He took round with him a series of diagrams showing the correct disposition of the feet for various shots, and a spare pair of shoes that could be quickly fitted. He had all the necessary measurements on the diagram, and a foot-rule in his pocket. Arrived at a spot when, for instance, a full shot with a driver was needed, he studied the plan referring to that stroke. He measured the ground in accordance with his sheet of instruction, and placed his spore shoes in the manner depicted in the illustration. Then he got into them and executed the shot."