GOLF.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 June 1925, Page 4

GOLF.

BEST AGE FOR GOLF. , A YOUNG MAN’S GAME. (By Harry Vardon, Six Times Open Champion.) In a crowded train, there sat opposite to me the other day a sturdy little schoolboy, homeward-bound for his Easter holidays. His age was probably about 12, and he was armed with a very businesslike-looking little midirou. The desire to ask him what he thought was so strong that, just before reaching my journey’s end, 1 had to succumb. He said proudly that he was at a preparatory school at Goda lining, in Surrey, and that they had a course of their own, with holes varying from 85 yards to 140 yards. He remarked that the headmaster was "too old to play golf -it seemed a very refreshing criticism after having been brought up to hear golf described as "an old man’s game”—but that one of the assistant masters was keen on it and that about half the boys played in the intervals of other sports. Then we had to part. A small incident, perlrhaps, but it •brought to my mind the possibilities of the rising generation on the links if the girls and boys of to-day are permitted to engage in even this modified activity as golfers when there happens to be no cricket, football, rowing or hockey to command attention as games played for the team’s sake. It also promoted the question as to the time of life at which a golfer is at his best, assuming that he has had the advantage of cultivating his groundwork of the golfing art in his youth. And it is the groundwork that counts. I should say that such an individual is at his best in the period between the ages of 25 and 30. He may begin to do big things several years earlier, and he may last a great deal longer as a first-class player without disclosing any serious falling-off in form, but this appeals to me as being the golden era in which the person who is not only born to play golf well, but who determines to play it well, attains the zenith of his powers. AN EXTRA TEN YARDS. As the seasons roll by, he may gain much in valuable experience. He may become a mure scientific player than ever before but, without altogether realising the fact, he begins to lose that little extra bit of ■’punch” that counts for something on big occasions. One way in which he feels it, is that he cannot produce the extra ten yards in a drive that he needs in certain circumstances. From my early days as a professional, I have set my face resolutely against going all out for mighty hitting. 1 tried it solemnly and strongly and vaingloriously a-s a young man just turned twenty, and came to the conclusion that it was not the way in which to succeed. However regular one’s swing might be, the concentration on length as distinct from direction led to a lot of unhappy results; it just overcame. the gift of controlling the trajectory and direction of the shot. The power of, big biting should be used sparingly; it should be used only when it is likely to be valuable. Then —not being overdone—it comes up fresh and has a good chance of achieving its purpose. To ta “thinking” golfer, who knows how to use this spare power to advantage and to spare it when it is not likely to be an advantage, it is borne in upon the mind that golf is a young man’s game. He can get the extra ten" or fifteen or even twenty yards in his prime. It is desperately difficult to do later in life.

And so he has to depend upon his accumulation of knowledge; an asset when he is called upon to impart it to the rising generation, but not a particular help in the task of reaching a hole of 500 yards in two shots. This feat must be left to the superabundant energy of youth, trained on the right lines.

Two great players have won the (British open championship very early in life—namely, at the age of 23. They are Mr. Harold Hilton and J. H. Taylor.

Moreover, they have remained giants in the land. Only last year, Taylor was fighting hard for the expen championship until towards its end, and counting the scores made in the qualifying rounds as well as in the competition proper, he had a better aggregate than anybody else. Mr. Hilton was playing in the amateur championship last season, and playing wondruusly well. As a scientific striker of the golf ball—a man who disclosed by his stance and whole attitude what he proposed to do, and who usually did it—l doubt whether his equal has ever been seen among British amateurs.

Personally, I did not win my first open championship till I was 26, but the period up to the age of 30 was easily the best. The Americans have a way of producing youthful champions. The age of 21 is about normal for a firsttime champion in the United States. He is full-fledged then. I believe that

one amateur champion of that country, Mr. Louis N. James, was only 17 at the time of his victory. But the Americans undoubtedly mature earlier in golf—in most other affairs of life —than ws do in Britain.

The misfortune is that few of these young prodigies realise expectations in their early manhood. I fear that Mr. James did nothing at golf after he had gained his great success as a ’Varsity undergraduate. The youngest winners of the British amateur championship were, I believe, Mr. Peter Anderson and Mr. A. G. Barry, each aged 19 at the time of his victory. But they did not build on this splendid foundation.

The truth seems to be that we who start reasonably early need to mature until we reach the mid-twenties and then consolidate the position for all we know in the ensuing five years. But I fear we are not the masters of our fate.