AMERICAN GOLF METHODS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 10 April 1928, Page 9

AMERICAN GOLF METHODS

A PHASE THAT IS WORTH j STUDYING 8 i HMHtY VAIU)ON. SIX TIMES OPEN CHAMPION (Specially Written for The Mail") It is sometimes said that the leading American golfers, especially the amateurs, possess a remarkable similarity of style; that in stance, foot-work, restrict inn of swing to something less than what we admire a- a full -wing, and manlier of striking the ball they are so nearly of uniform pa I tern as to suggest iliat they have discovered a standard way of succeeding al the game.

I do not agree wholly with this view. Mr Lobby Jones stands with his feet very close together, but the characteristic is not so marked in. the others. while their swings are of various lengths. There is, however, one detail in which they are noticeably alike, and which may provide a valuable lesson especially t.i the young players of Rritain. It is fhe smooth, measured, symmetrical way in which they take the club to the top of tin- swing. Their younger representatives, such as Mr Jones, Mr Watts Dunn. Mr Roland Mackenzie. Mr Jess Sweetser. Mr Jesse Guilford, and Mi George Vim Elm. possess this traitin no less a degree than the comparative veterans, as, fur instance. Mr |;,,h ert (.'ardner. Mr Francis Onimct. and Mr Chick Evans. .Among many players of the rising generation in this country, there is an impulse which produces a quick- back swing —loo quick, in the opinion of most people wdio have studied the art of golf.

Possibly it is a predisposition born of national temperament. It is the same among professionals (who are impelled to make a deep study of the methods that lead to success'by (he fact, that i hen- livelihood depends upon the game) as where amateurs are concerned.

The first point that struck the observer when watching Aubrey Roomer, of Rail's, during his rapid rise two year's ago. when he won several big tournaments in a few months, was that he had i educed tlie pace of his back swing very appreciably by comparison with ihe preceding season. lie was good enough to say afterwards that he introduced ibis change as the result of a little advice I had given him, and that he knew that he had obtained increased control over his shots. WAITING FOR THE BRAKE Roomer is only 30 years of age. so that he discovered the error of his ways in tolerably good time, although he had such natural qualities as a golfer five or six years ago that his success in a representative test would have been just as reasonable then as later.

Age brings, discretion, and also brings into existence its own inexorable brake against, the impetuosity of youth. Even is it eoneeivanle that herein lies the explanation of the fact that championships of this countrv have been won very seldom by young players, with their inborn tendency to swing back quickly, whereas the championships of the United Slates—particularly the amateur

event —have been secured very largely by golfers of ages ranging from 11 to

Whether it !.-- a cult or an instinct, it is certainly a fact that. American players have the characteristic of the slow. easy-How ing up swing. I: is equally true that no British champion,, with the possible exception of Air A. 0. Harry when he was nineteen, has been quick in the back swing. An authority in America who wrote to me after a recent United Stales amateur championship remarked that, watching the. sixteen men who qualified for the match-play as they drove off for the first round of that, stage, he was impressed by the fact that, nearly all of them stood square, w.th the ball about opposite the left heel. This suggests a practice of introducing "draw." and my informant remarks, indeed, that there was a great preponderance of drives which Hew at a low trajectory and raced forward on alighting in that way which comes of "draw."

Of Mr Joru-s it can hi- sai<l flinl he does not play the low trajectory drive. He hits the ball up. It has not that tniicli of starling with ;i velocity like a shot fired from a rifle which \vn sec. for example, when Abe Mitchell drives: but it maintains its momentum for an astonishingly long while, flying higher and higher without losing pace, as though it v.fi-o on wings, till it dies away rather suddenly. By the time it does that, il lias covered a wondrous distance, and the straightnes.s of its flight is almost invariable. CHANGES IN THE STANCR There are changing fashions in the stance. Thirty or forty years ago, it- was considered the correct thing to stand with the left foot slightly in front of the right. The Badminton book of golf, one of the early classics of the game, contains illustrations showing this as the proper method, and emphasising it with a completeness which, to modern eyes looks like ;i glaring mistake. And yet it was the accepted principle of those days. Laf'T came the players who popularised the open stance, with the right foot decidedly in.front of the left. They represented the first, ureal vintage of English golf; they dominated the championships for a long while : ami they all stood open. Now. judging by the American, the tendency is to adopt a "half-way house" in the square stance.

Anothei feature of the methods of the I'nited States amateurs is the restriction el' their foot-work There is none of that elasticity of the feet- and !'ue play of the ankles which have marked tin' st\les of certain prominent Hrdis.'i golfers. Stability of stance is evidently a system of belief in America. The left heel hns to rise :i Utile from the ground during the up swing, but its movement is slight. Flexibility of lb" ankles is nat.i-il .:i some people (myself, for example), out there ' certainly no need to ctiitha'e ii. It i; apt to he a handicap i -ilb-i----than a help; at any rate, when ir exists in a pronounced degree.