EASIER GOLF.

Northland Age, Volume II, Issue 34, 27 August 1930, Page 7

EASIER GOLF.

SERIES OF INSTRUCTIVE 4 ARTICLES. BY H. STUART HOBSON. Where the first-class golfer shows his most marked superiority over the player of somewhat less skill is in the placing of his drives and long approaches. In recent years it has so often been said that accuracy in the short game is the match-winning quality in golf that many enthusiasts have been tempted to forget the fact that accuracy must begin from the tee. A well-placed first shot simplifies the second, and an accurate second makes the putt easier. Very often the placing ot the tee shot to within a vard or so determines whether a hole is •4played in three shots or four. A tee shot straight down the middle is good enough for most golfers, but—though it may be a fault in design —not all courses have every approach to the pin made to reward the straight driver. A tee shot a little to the left, though still on the fairway, may give opportunity to play an iron shot with a clear run up to the pin; a shot more nearly in the middle, or slightly to the right mav compel the golfer to play for safety in order to avoid a hazard guarding the green. To place a tee shot slightly to the right or to the left, or into the wind, or across the corner of a dog-leg hole is always a test of golfing skill.

Straight driving, after all, is a habit—albeit one tor which fortunes would be paid if it could be bought; the placing of the ball to within a yard or so of the marked spot calls for adjustment * of touch.

Most adjustments in golf are determined by the stance. It is a peculiar fact that few ''players are able to adjust the stance with success. They form a habit of, say, placing the club behind the ball, then placing the right foot in relation to it, and then bringing the left foot in place. That is a thoroughly good habit, for it is quite certain that a player who cannot depend on taking up the same stance and same grip for every shot will never be a consistent golfer. But sometimes a small adjustment is necessary —and this is where the golfer is apt to fail. For example, he finds a strong wind blowing over his left shoulder. He reckons, correctly that it he hits a straight ball it will be carried to the right; he decides, correctly, to hit the ball fair and true, but slightly into the wind to the left.

There is only one good way for most players to do this, and that is to adjust the stance. The golfer therefore turns slightly to the left —or imagines that he does. What he actually does is to move the left foot back a bit, with the result that he cuts the club-head across the face of the ball, and sends it spinning to

the right. When the wind takes it, the spin is exaggerated and the shot becomes a downright and usually costly, slice. Opening the stance, so far from helping to send the ball to the left, tends to deflect it to the right.

A point the golfer has to re-

member is that the more accurately the ball is strong, the less prill any wind that is blowing have on it. When a player laments the wind, and its playful habit of carrying his ball off the fairway, that is a good indication that he is cutting the ball in some

way, or hooking it. Aiming for the right side of the fairway is usually easier than aiming for the left. Deliberate slicing is so much more easy than deliberate hooking that a player who cannot depend on his ability to place the ball straight out to right can always hit straight down the middle with a certain cut to produce a curl at the end of the flight of the ball. A player who wishes to play the ball to the left-hand edge of the fairway, however, will nearly always be better advised to play straight for his objective. And in doing this, he must not over-shoot the mark. The majority of golf courses are made to trap the hooker, and to aim straight out on to the left and go too far is equivalent to a hook. Above the ranks ot golfers who do not do anything consistently at all, I classify three grades of players. First, there are those who hit a short ball Dut keep their shots down the middle ; secondly there are those who hit a long ball and still keep down the middle; thirdly there are the masters who hit a long ball and hit it exactly where they want to place it. There are the players who poach a corner at dog-leg holes, who give themselves repeated opportunities for twos at short holes, and who are handsomely repaid for thinking about the shots ahead, because when they do see a way to make it easier for themselves they are able to take advantage of their foresight.

Normally, the last thing a golfer is recommended to experiment with is his stance.

In aiming to the right or to the left, however, you do not change the stance; you change its angle. A player who can get a leftward angle on his stance without falling into the error of opening it is halfway towards mastery of the knack of placing the ball.