NOTES ON AN ENGLISH CHAMPION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 23 June 1923, Page 3

NOTES ON AN ENGLISH CHAMPION.

Tolley is known as a tremendously . long driver, but when he won the chain- ■ [ pionship in 1920 he was playing a spoon \ | from the tee. "His putting rather ' than his driving it was," says A. M. Croome. "that won him the hifrli honour of champion." The writer continues: "If I live to be a hundred I \ shall never see a hotter stroke th:. .1 1 his four-yard putt, which was necessary to keep him one up at the 35tli hole after missing a fairly easy putt a,few i holes before, which would have made him four up and three. Curiously, his opponent had not been putting well, but aij this hole sank a putt from the extreme edge of the green and left him I with the twelve-foot putt to halve." ' In 1921 Tolley was playing at the top of his form, heating Evans, in the top singles of the international match. lv the championshin he met and defeated successively J. Gnildford and J. I L. G. Jenkins, both playing super golf. I In the final he met a player to whom i as a rule he could he confidently backed to sivo four strokes always. brt heapparently was not well, for his fine touch of the club seemed to desert him a 1 together, and he lost the championship. Some points 011 his style are reproduced as being well worth careful study by young players, for they emphasis points that have been stressed by amateur instructors to beginners. Referring to his grip, Mr. Croome says: "H^ grips with left hand well over, left thumb cJoxvn back of shaft, the fovr finpors of tbo riflit hand gripping the If^th^r." This plainly mesns that the left hand floes mo^t of the work and has the main cortrol of tb° club. "JTn makes no •extr--> effort at the top ot' s-.vin.et (this effort is a weal-mess that attnoks s^ many nnd is r^spous^ble for n.iuoh f-aultv nlav\ nnd is ont^tandinf' in bis capacity—learnt from his model and waster, th" crpat John Ball —to . asp'nv'lnte t^^ mrvvemouts of th". downward stroke to those of the back swing, to present the fnne of the club square +0 the bnll .at the moment of impact." Failure in t.b;s lnsf. resppct is responsible for rrmr-h. pei'haps all. of the slicing and prilling one sees on the links.