LENGTH IN GOLF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19419, 30 August 1926, Page 6

LENGTH IN GOLF.

WHERE /AMERICANS EXCEL. CONCENTRATION ON GAME. SELF-CONSCIOUS BRITISH. BY „NIBLICK. ' • • ■ It is necessary to be a long driver at the present time if you are to have any success in championships and similar big events. So says Harry Vardon in rn Edinburgh newspaper. Between the lines one can detect not a little regret as the writer recalls the days when lie was peerless as a driver, as well as in other departments of the game.

"This year's golf championships have been long drivers' championships," Vardon adds, "Only young and vigorous players, capable of hitting the ball great distances with both wooden and iron clubs could have succeeded at Muirfield, where the honours fell to Mr. Jesse Sweetser, and at Lytham and St. Amies, where the open title went to Mr. Bobby .Tones I am willing to do-

Clare that championship golf is mostly a young man's game, but it is possible that, even in classic events, this aspect of the test is being overdone. So far as concerns ordinary golf, it is almost certainly being carried to excess." The rest of ardon s article brings out the interest, and the value of control and accuracy in iron and mashie play. He finally mentions the fact that wellplanned one-shot holes are coming more and more into favour. "It is a sign of the times," he says, "that nearly everybody likes Short holes. They are things of joy and founts of hope to most golfers of the rank and file, weary of the competition with distance." The Young Men's Department. , The keenest competitive golf to-day is certainly an activity for young men. Stamina is wanted as much as the power to get distance off the tee. In Golf Monthly one reads: "The whole American Walker Cup team left no stone unturned in their endeavour, both by special training (a special trainer to give massage, etc., was engaged), and by careful scrutiny of and practice on the course beforehand, to give themselves full justice. . First and foremost comes ability or skill, built up by patient persevering practice in all manner of shots; then skill must be backed by stamina. ~ The lack of staying-power was positively our greatest drawback in a week's gruelling contest—physical condition tells mightily." Even the Spectator. London, finds that it cannot close its eves to golf. "Why do the Americans excel at Golf?" is the title of a timely article by Bernard Darwin. It is in keeping with our subject to quote from that article, as weli as to indicate some of the points emphasised by so acute a student, one might say, professor of the game, as Mr. Darwin.

To the question in the title he replies: "Because they take more trouble. And why do they* take more trouble ? To that I am inclined to answer, because they are not ashamed to do so. 'lhe Briton is as keen as need 'be to win, but he is afraid of seeming to try too hard to win. He thinks that he may be considered 'unsportsmanlike,' and so before lie goes out to wrestle with some recalcitrant club or learn some new stroke he looks anxiously round to see that there is no lurking and derisive observer in the gorse bushes. The American is entirely free from this kind of false shame. He never pretends not to be keen." The American Style. Mr. Darwin also deals with the charge that the Americans take the game too seriously. He says this charge is hardly fair, and anyone who has seen the best American golfers play cannot entertain such an idea, for they are certainly jollier and lighter, of heart when playing important matches than the general run of leading British golfers are. "Certainly the American has the gift of ferocious concentration when he is actually hitting tho ball," Mr. Darwin says, " but he seems to possess a natural gift, which he has cultivated .for all it is worth, of letting up' between the strokes. He will make a small joke to his friend who is looking on and then back to business again." Mr. Darwin's very clear picture of the typical American style makes one think of the typical East o'f Scotland (especially Carnoustie) style of 15 or 20 years ago. "It has been noticeable during +he past few years that a distinctively American style has arisen," Mr. Darwin observes. "A competent observer could generally tell an American golfer at several hundred yards range. The feet close together, the waggle ruthlessly shorn of all its ancient, florid beauty, the . leisurely back swing with the veiy free turn of the body—these are some of the component features of a characteristic and unmistakable whole. . .

The young Americans. practise 1 the good old-fashioned copybook golfing virtues. They go slow back, they follow through, and, above all, they make of the golfing shot a swing rather than a hit." , Fortitude in Competitive Golf.

Competitive golf brings out some of the most essential manly qualities. The never-say-die attitude especially comes to mind, "it is not life itself that matters sa much,", says a character in one of Hugh Walpole's novels, " but the fortitude that you bring to it," The same quality is called for in competitive golf, and this comes home most poignantly to the golfer who is representing his club or, perchance, his nation; also to the man who has a reputation ! There are times when things do not come off; when one feels somewhat badly treated, because putts just fail to : go in and iron shots go. inexplicably, a little bit off the line. One drops strokes here and there and discovers that one has a great deficit to make up. It is ricrht lmwi that the attitude of the player counts. He ought to have the never-say-die attitude and go out to recover the lost strokes. A measure of success in such an attempt is both interesting and exhilarating, and it shows that a man can fight for his figures. In the French open championship a couple of months ago George Duncan took 80 to the first round, and occupied twentysecortd place. Mitchell was ten strokes better. Did Duncan weaken ? On the contrary. He returned 73, 71 and 68 for the next three rounds, and-finished third with the fine aggregate of 291. Rising to the Occasion.

In the British, open championship Mitchell opened with two 78's. and occupied about the twentieth place. He went out determined to redeem the lost strokes and among British -competitors, and fifth in the championship. Hezlet. in the. Walker Cup match, was 4 down to' George vpn Elm at the end of the first, round. At the 36th hole Hezlet had b four-yard putt to win-. In the American open championship just over a month ago, Bobby took 79 to his second round. It put him on his mettle, and he handed in a 73 and a 71 after that to win the honour. To show that the same attitude in the ordinary, good player leads often to the same gratifying result, let me mention the case of a plus, one golfer, a week ago, playing to qualify for a club championship. Up to the ninth he dropped strokes and found himself 42 at the turn. Coming in, he knew that he had to make up for that 'outward half, and fought' hard for a fine 34, making his total of 76 quite presentableIt is this capacity to rise to an occasion and to fight for good figures that golfers, and especially young golfers, have to set before themselves and to achieve.