GOLF NEWS AND VIEWS

Southland Times, Issue 22999, 19 September 1936, Page 20

GOLF NEWS AND VIEWS

How Williams Defeated

Ferrier

(By

“Cleek.”)

Henry Picard, who is ranked as the best long iron player in the United States, is of the opinion that most players do not pay sufficient attention to the position of the ball in relation to the stance. He plays the ball almost in a line with the left heel with the number one and two irons. He then brings the ball back about an inch for each succeeding number of irons, until with the seven, eight and nine clubs the ball is played from near the right heel. With the long irons he keeps his feet parallel to the line of flight, with the toes pointing slightly outward. This square stance with the toes pointing out at about a 30deg. angle gives flexibility to ankle and foot action, which is so vital in playing shots correctly. The cocking action which takes place during the back swing is exactly that which would raise the club from the address position, vertically over the right shoulder, using the hands and wrists alone. By performing this movement you can get a very good picture of how your hands ought to look at the top of the swing. This is at least half the battle, but it is not all. After reaching a good position at the top, the problem is to retain the full angle of wrist cock during the early stages of the down swing. The temptation to spend it too soon is great, especially when the player is anxious to hit as hard as he can. Yet there is nothing more disastrous than any effort to throw the club with the hands from the top of the swing.

According to Gene Sarazen the right hand plays the most important role in the golf swing. Most leading players, including Hagen and Jones, contend that the left hand controls the swing, but Sarazen maintains that the left hand is important only because it enables the right hand to hit the ball properly. The grip of the left hand was most important, and four knuckles should be showing. “Take the club straight back from the ball following the line of intended flight. Do not take it back on the inside of that line,” he says. He also asserts that the club face should always be kept open—“looking at the ball”—on the upswing. He believes that most of the trouble with even good players comes from shutting the face of the club on the back swing. Williams Too Good For Ferrier. Rising magnificently to the occasion Harry Williams, star of Victorian amateurs, defeated Jim Ferrier, New South Wales crack player, by 4 and 3 in the third round of the Victorian State golf championship at Royal Melbourne recently. More than 1500 spectators saw the match, which caused the greatest interest for years. Williams, who play-

ed brilliant par golf, was 5 up after being out in 36. From the fourth hole he was in command, (writes Mr J. Dillon in The Melbourne Herald). Ferrier was weak in the short game, played well below his best form, and was constantly out-driven by the lefthander.

The New South Wales player did not win a hole until the 11th, and the only other W'as the 14th, where Williams, rather than cut his hand in rushes, picked up after two. The weather was dull, with a mild south-west breeze. Ferrier won the toss. Both are 6ft. 2in. Ferrier, who has lost weight, is 14st 51b and Williams list 91b.

Each seemed to start nervously. Ferrier opened with a hook to trees and rough, and Williams pulled to a bunker on the other side. Williams went to a grecnside trap. Ferrier chipped to fairway, and then tossed to 6ft. past. Williams came out to 4£ feet. Both holed, and par 4’s halved.

Williams had the better placed drive at the second, where Ferrier lost 70 yards by going out to the left. With a No. 3 wood he unluckily caught a left corner bunker. Williams then missed a chance by a smothered hook with a No. 4 wood, and was bunkered on the right, short.

Williams came out to 20ft. past, and Ferrier, taking the ball cleanly, went over the back. Going to the off-side lip of the hole to stymie Ferrier on a 16-footer, Williams won the hole in 5 to 6.

Ferrier’s drive to the third left him stymied by a tree, while Williams was perfectly placed. Taking the tips of the trees with a No. 5, Ferrier got to 15 yards of the flag, and Williams, with a similar club, 20ft. past. Fours halved the hole. Over a thousand surrounded the 4th hole to watch Williams put a No. 4 wood pin high and Ferrier punch a No. 3 iron to the right edge, 18 yards short. From 6ft. short, Ferrier stopped on the lip and with 3 to 4 Williams was 2 up.

Each lashed out from the sth tee with perfect hits. Williams was 8 yards ahead. Ferrier’; second was 13 yards past and Williams threw up a high niblick that was pin high, 4ft. to tbe left. Fours halved the hole. When Williams sent up a No. 4 to the 6th that covered the pin and went 20

ft. past, Ferrier pulled a No. 41 to a deep bunker and brilliantly came out to Sift. Three’s halved the hole.

Williams Goes Ahead.

Each drive at the long 7th was out to the left in the uncut grass, and again Williams was ahead of Ferrier, this time by 15 yards. High, but not perfect, niblick thirds saw Ferrier in a bunker past on the left, and Williams on, but short. Ferrier had a 5-yarder for a 5, missed, and Williams, sinking a 2-footer was 3 up. Williams outdrove Ferrier by 45 yards with a “screamer” at the Bth. From a divot mark Ferrier played a superlative spoon to the green, 17 yards from the flag. Williams followed with a No. 4 wood that covered the pin, and went 25 feet past. Ferrier came in 11 feet short, missed the put, and was 4 down. Ferrier, with a terrific drive from the 9th tee was well ahead for the first tjme, leading by 40 yards. He followed by a better second, being 20ft. short, while Williams was pin high in a right sidetrack. From there he came out dead, and Ferrier missed a 2-footer to be 5 down.

Williams, playing great golf, was out in 36 to Ferrier’s 41.

Williams was out 300 yards from the 10th tee, and Ferrier hit a No. 3 iron short to a bunker. Williams followed to the same huge pit with a No. 4 wood. Williams came out to 7ft and Ferrier to 15ft. Fives halved the hole. With a drive and pitch Ferrier was 10 feet from the 11th pin. Williams went through, and then came back to go 18 yards past. With a four Ferrier took his first hole, and was four down. Ferrier went in and out for a three.

A pushed-out drive at the 12th, with trees' ahead, caused Ferrier a lot of thought for his second. Eventually he used a chipper, and sent the ball to a bunker, wide on the left, and was well on in three. Two perfect woods put Williams on, and he narrowly missed a long one for three. A four made the Victorian 5 up again. At the short 13th Ferrier, after Williams was in sand, put his pitch pin high, Bft from the hole. Williams dynamited to SJft, and threes halving, Williams was dormy 5. After good drives, Williams, at the 14th, pulled into rough, while Ferrier was in on the edge in two. Finding the ball in rushes three feet high. Williams did not play, and gave up the hole. They were on the 15th evenly in two, and the hole was halved in fours. Williams won the match, 4 up and 3 to play. Why Ferrier Lost. There have been many theories put forward to explain Jim Ferrier’s over-

whelming defeat by Harry Williams, the crack Victorian left-hander, in the third round of the Victorian amateur championship. Williams simply ran away with the match, and from tee to green nearly always had the big Sydney man at a disadvantage, (says Hugh Anderson in The Australasian). After the match Ferrier briefly summed up by saying that on the first nine he took three putts on four occasions, while Williams needed only a single putt frequently. By this it must not be understood that Williams sank long putts. He did not. In fact, at the sth he missed a very short one. Nor must it be thought that putting was the deciding factor of the match. Williams required fewer putts for the very simple reason that his approach shots—long and short—finished consistently closer than Ferrier's, thus leaving him less work to do in this direction

I Ferrier’s failure can be attributed | mainly to faulty direction with both his I irons and woods. When Ferrier came I to Melbourne I was naturally interested | to obtain first-hand information of the | great amateur’s new playing methods. !He explained that he was standing | more upright—taking the club back on I a straight line with the intended line of flight, and was not swinging so full. In practice and during his earlier matches he rigidly observed these new restrictions, with the exception of a few occasions. when he unconsciously reverted to his old style. During his match with Williams I watched him closely, and frequently he played his shots in the identical manner of the Jim Ferrier we knew of old. It was a most important match for Ferrier, and for Williams also, for that matter, and in the heat of the moment Ferrier forgot his new methods. He crouched and forgot all about the line on which he took his club back. Far from taking it back on a straight line, he was taking it back well inside the line of flight, with the result that many of his shots were hooked. Changing one’s style is always a dangerous business temporarily, and even a golfer of Ferrier’s calibre must be always on guard to prevent a reversion to the old faults. In my humble opinion, the reason why Jim Ferrier failed so badly against Harry Williams was that “he foreot to remember.”