BRAINS AND GOLF

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 August 1931, Page 8

BRAINS AND GOLF

HOW MUCH OF SUCCESS IS MENTAL ?

(By Harry Vardon, Six Times Open Champion)

(Specially Writ(en for “The Mail”)

For as long as I can remember, cottain famous players have been accepted as the possessors of “(lie perfect temperament for golf.” At one time, Mr Joan Ball and James Braid were constantly being quoted as models of the mentality that goes to the making of success at. the game. In reeenl years, (lie leading American players have been held up as examples ol'The temperamental altributes which all aspiring players must cultivate if they would achieve satisfactory results. And if anybody doubts whether such cultivation is possible, lie is told how Bobby Jones had to transform himself from a wildly excitable youth into a man of iron control before he could win a championship. 1 sometimes wonder bow much justification there is for the belief that any particular temperament is an advantage. 1 I liink it was Hir Walter Simpson who coined the phrase that “golf is ninetenllis mental.” Whatever its truth, itappealed so strongly to the golfing mind as lo flourish through the generations and become a recognised aphorism. Indeed, 1 have heard one famous ex-cham-pion refer to golf as being ‘‘ninety-five per cent, mental,” which was five per cent, farther than Sir Walter Simpson felt prepared to go. These estimates are taken so seriously that it can only be supposed that they afford a certain degree of satisfaction. Yet, if they were true, obviously the wise thing for the average player to do would bo to attend a school of psychology instead of taking lessons from Lhc professional. Ho does not do it because he knows at the back of his mind that what he needs to learn are tlio physical, not tbs psychic, movements of the swing. AUTOMATIC ACTION It may be held that the two are inextricably involved; that the apportionment of liberal marks to the mental side of Iho game is vindicated for the reason that it directs tho swing. I have not much faith in the theory. Some peoplo are physically buijt' to play golf well, and in tho ordinary way ‘they think very little about their manner of swinging the club. Naturally, they have to judge tho length of shot and decide which club lo take, but once dial is done, the rest is virtually automatic.

Often it is when the young golfer possessed of perfectly natural attributes for the game begins to think a lot and experiment with his stylo that he works out- his own undoing. Friends of little experience advise him to do this and try that, and his inborn ability becomes submerged by the goaded workings of his brain.

I think we may reasonably arrive at the conclusion that no particular character of brain is specially adapted to success at this game. It would be impossible to imagine two players of greater dissimilarity in mental constitution than the aforesaid Mr John Ball and Bobby Jones, the greatest amateurs of their respective generations. N Competition may be more eager today than it \Yas in tile time when Mr Ball was winning his eight amateur championships and his open championship, but, as one who watched him a good many limes, I will declared with my hand on my heart that ho could hit a ball ns well ns anybody T ever saw.

TTe was never anything but the embodiment of mildness, like a shy man who felt all the while that he was in the way and wanted to get it, over with a minimum of fuss and bother.

Jones lias always given one the impression of being a human dynamo charged almost to bursting point. Quietly though he goes about the preparations for his shots, he seems to he exuding electricity all the time. That is the other side of the picture. _ If golf is nine-tenths mental, then his is a proportion that has to be controlled, where Mr Ball’s had to he excited.

In just tli6 right degree has Jones overcome a boyish disposition to throw away the club with which he had made a had shot, although I believe he confesses that sometimes he very nearly succumbs to it even noyv. That shows just how far golf can go as a disciplinarian. There is no other game quite so stern in its way of bringing the temperamental plavcr to hook. Sometimes it is humiliating as well as salutary. I heard recently of a man who, having missed a short putt, flung his putter wildly into the adjoining woods. Then, relenting, he- asked his caddie to go and get it. The caddie refused, politely and firmly, with the re mark that lie did not consider it part of his duties. So the player went and fetched it himself. The parallel of that situation could hardly he reproduced in any oilier pastime.

QUICK THINKING Tf il is hue that no definite type of brain is especially adapted to golf, it is certain that the quick thinkers are usually the least likely to advance at it. The only exception I know is Georgo Duncan, who certainly thinks like lightning whether ho is on the course or off it. He has done some wonderful rounds. I find that lie is the only man who holds the score-play records for three championship courses —68 at St. Andrews, 69 at Sandwich, and 70 at Westward Ho’ And yet what a world-beater he might have been if only he could have thought a little more about his putts!. Whatever the peculiar quality of temperament that Nature has conferred upon ladies, it truly seems to be peculiarly suited to golf. All the leading lady players have the same calm, purposeful attitude towards the game; all except Miss Diana Fishwick, whose lightheartedness has struck an entirely new note.

The happy-go-lucky way in which Miss Fishwick walks up to her shots and hits them is like some act of precocity on a stiigc which is filled with sedate players. It is a curious fall that, with this one exception, I cannot recollect any prominent lady golfer who litis shown any outstanding trait of temperament apart from calm purpose.