GOLF TOPICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19799, 21 November 1927, Page 14

GOLF TOPICS.

WESSONS FROM T. ARMOUR.; —__ HIS' STANCE AND METHODS. - 't ' WONDERFUL IRON-CLUB PLAYER. i BY FiJCEWAT. Tommy Armour, holder of the open championships of the United States and Canada, is a .wonderful iron-club player. As an amateur, in Edinburgh, he %vas always ready to experiment in, and discuss the methods of shot production. He used to say that the threequarter shot with the No. 2 iron was the prettiest and most effective, and perhaps the most difficult of ail the iron shots; he maintained, too, that it formed the basis of all other shots with the iron clubs. Armour practised this shot and other iron shots'two hours a day for a year, and it was during 'this period of intensive training that he discovered various things which now form part of his general style and methods. The most noticeable thing in the style of .Armour at iron shots is his use of the "closed" stance, one of the forms of which is better known, perhaps, as the "square" stance. This means that the right foot is kept well back, parallel with the left foot, as in the case of George Duncan usually (square), or even further back still (closed). This is the opposite of the "open" stance, in which the right foot is advanced, so as to afford a strong push of! to the stroke. The Two Stances. To my mind the " open" stance is almost a necessary accompaniment of the "hitting" style, whereas the "closed" stance can be employed comfortably with the "swinging" style. J. H, Taylor, for instance, with his open stance and his tight, controlled swing, very definitely hits the ball a blow with all his clubs; he uses his muscular power to put snap into the "hit." The ball is dealt with in a most drastic mariner by the exponents of the "hitting" style. Indeed Taylor himself definitely advocates a very aggressive attitude toward the ball. This is what ho sa y s; —" The golfer -must approach the game in a frame of mind almost brutal, and certainly domineering. The iron is a club that stands no nonsense, and thera must be no nonsense about the using of it. There must be no timidity; ther® must be a savage ruthlsssness if success is to be achieved." Taylor stresses the point that tha fingers, wrists, and forearms supply the motive power, and that power supplied by the shoulders is so much wasted energy. That is all in keeping with the "hitting" method. But the "swinging" method brings the shoulders and the trunk of tha body more into play, and therefore makes use of greater resources of power, with, to my mind, greater ease of execution, As fine examples of the easy swinging , method of playing golf, three outstanding New Zealand golfers come to my mind, namelv, Arthur Duncan, T. H. Horton, and Norrie Bell. None of these, if I remember rightly, employs the real "open" stance, but rather the "square" stance, , which seems to make the swinging style much more comfortable and effective. J. H. Taylor's Influence. Now, most famous golfers advocate the open stance, yet A rmour believes so firmly in the closed stance that his right foot is several inches behind the left, giving the impression, although quite illusory, that he is playing t away from the hole, far away to the nght. He advocates this kind >f stance, after much practice with it, because he finds that it allows of more freedom in body movement, and does not cramp the. arms and the hands in jthdir work of swinging and playing through the ball. From experience, I am sure that what Armour says is true. I would go further and say that the rather exaggerated practice of the open stance, coupled with the hitting,method of shot production, is due to the example of a few outstanding players, like J. H. .Taylor, who have dominated the minds of British golfers since about 1907. Vardon, who isa swinger rather than a hitter, has never, I think, had the same influence upon the practical methods of golfers, although his style has ever been acknowledged to be the finest possible. Personally, I began to play, golf as a boy with the closed stance and the swinging method, and that was the kind of style followed by many good golfers twenty years ago in Scotland. Now, after years of the open stance and the hitting method, I am returning, taught by experience, to something like the square stance and the swinging method of shot production. I find" it easier, more powerful, and mora accurate. Two factors have influenced my thinking in this direction; firstly, Abe. Mitchell's counsel about the sway of the body to the right, especially at the hips, ■ in making a drive—the practice of this is natural to some golfers, and results more easily from a square stance than from an open" stance; secondly, George Duncan's dictum. "Play with "your feet." This latter means that the whole body plays the shot, and that vou sense the shot in preparation, as well as in execution, from tha grip that your feet have upon Mother Earth, through your body down your arms and hands to the head of the club. This means a revelation of touch and of con-, trol; and, again, somehow, such a method accompanies more easily the square, or even the closed stance, than it' does tha open stanceWait lor the Club-head. Armour admits that there is the danger with the closed stance of the right elbow getting away too far from the. body, and so throwing the swing out of gear. H« insists that the right elbow must be kept close, firstly for firmness, then for accuracy, and lastly for precision and smooth" ness. With the iron clubs, especially, tho elbow must never be more than four or five inches from the body. This is im- ® portant, and equally important is the principle of waiting for the clflb-head. The explanation of this latter dictum is that having got to the top of the swing, there should be no hurry to bring the club down again. The player ought to imagine that the club-head is on the end of a piece of string, and that it must be waited for. This applies in every shot, but in none more insistently than in that unhurried three-quarter iron, which, according to Armour, is the basic shot for all iron play. The practice of waiting for the club-head gives time for the body movement to develop truly, and prevents •the disaster of allowing the body to get ahead of the club.. If the closed stance, or the more moderate square stance, helps golfers to swing smoothly and powerfully, and helps them to wait "for the club-head, as the champion golfer of 1927 says it does, surely it is worth our giving attention to the practice of this simple method.At tho same time, I would remind readers that styles differ, and that wo should uot copy any other man, but seek to make use of his experience and his knowledge in order to discover what is the best method for ourselves. A Rare Bird. We are familiar bv this time with ths vivid American piiraseologv which describes golf in terms of shooting. When you do a round in par you are said to have shot a round in par. * Now par is perfect golf, played by a master, making no mistakes. Par at a 440 yards hole is 4; par at a hole measuring 240 yards or under is 3. If you do a hole in one less than par, say you get a fine 3 at a 440 yard hole, then you have "shot a birdie." Your figure of one less than par is a "birdie." Take a par 5 hole, however. Say it measures 480 yards, If you put your brassie shot on the green and hole your putt for a three, you have taken two strokes less than tW par 5 for that hole. That is better than a birdie. It is an "eagle." In tho American amateur championship, Bobby Jones put his second shot at the 9th, measuring 612 yards long, a foot from the pin, ana holed a 3. That was a real eagle ! But in tho Western open championship a couple of months ago, a player played a great brassie to a hole measuring 500 yards, and found the ball in the hole, He had scored a 2 at a par 5 hole. Three less than par that was! Rarer than thfT eagle, that was called a "cuckoo.''