EASIER GOLF.

Northland Age, Volume II, Issue 33, 20 August 1930, Page 2

EASIER GOLF.

SERIES OF INSTRUCTIVE ARTICLES. BY H. STUART HOBSON. (Continued) Agoiferwas asking the other day whether modern champions compare with the great ones of the past. My own view is that they cannot be compared, because they are players of two different games. Golf with a gutty ball and a few clubs used for every purpose, and regulated by the player himself for pitch and distance, is not the same game as golf with the ball of to-day and clubs carefully . fashioned for varying loft. That is why I am surprised the modern golfers still keep to the heroics of their grandfathers. It is not necessary 1 Nowadays everything favours the consistent swinger, As long as he chooses the right club, he need bother about nothing else but his swing. Spared shots, the pride of an older generation, play small part in the game to-day. Leading golfers of the new school swing always not only with the same action, but with the same force. ■The spared shot—whether with a putter or niblick—is a full shot made with a shorter backswing. This is where many longhandicap golfers fail with spared shots. A spared shot, for them, is a shot hit with reduced force. In reducing the force they allow themselves to flop with the wrists and often they neglect to follow through. They change the style of the swing instead of its length—a fatal error. Even in sand traps, where swing is hardly at a premium, it ( is vital not to lose firmness when playing a spared shot. The shot

at which most players are weakest is in playing to the pin over a mound from a sand trap below. The golfer realises that if he gets the ball out good and true on to a fast green he is likely to be worse off than if he just manages to scuttle it to the top of the mound so that it rolls down the other side.

I have seen golfers hole out from bunker many times by scuttling the ball. It is much more rare to see the ball drop into the hole when a more stylish shot with loft is played. Consider this spared shot from a sand trap, when the danger is that you will overrun the green. Assume, first, that the bunker has an overhanging lip, so that you cannot putt the ball out, or run it up the face of the sand and over the mound with an iron. If this can be done, of course, there is no point in taking the risk of using a niblick, which requires considerably more judgment. Golfers are apt to overlook the fact that good judgment is half of niblick plav.

You are faced with problems of lifting the ball out of sand, and stopping it dead the other side of a mound.

That implies the need for cut on the ball. How is cut to be secured without altering the swing ? Quite simply, by changing the stance in relation to the ball. Get the right heel opposite the ball, and the left foot in an open positions. Your standard swing will then draw the face of the club across the ball, producing cut.

How is the loft to be secured without overrunning ? By hitting just as hard as it you wished to send the ball the maximum distance, but by taking more sand.

Many golfers endeavour to skim the ball off the surface of the sand. This can be done if you are trying to run up the face of the bunker; but not if you are playing a dropping shot. Examine the sand carefully and decide the texture. Then mark a spot behind the ball, and as tar away from it as you estimate is the amount of sand required to deaden the blow to the necessary extent. Then hit with all your accustomed verve. Make the sand your servant, and it will not master you.

Aim for a point to the left of the pin, relying on your cut to bring the ball round. This is the way to make the spared shot with a niblick. You use the conditions prevailing when the shot is played to save you the hazardous adventure of changing your swing. That is the judgment of the modern player contrasted with the heroic of his grandfather. He has all the loft he needs thoughtfully provided for him by the clubmaker. He has all the deadening effect that that the shot calls for in the amount of sand he takes behind the ball. He can secure stop by putting on cut and he can do this not by changing his swing, but by changing his stance.

The secret ot shots with the niblick, as well as with the mashie, is firmness. Always hit the ball a firm blow —a blow as hard as the amount of back-swing will allow.