GOLF

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1926, Page 4

GOLF

IMPROVING AT GOLF TACKLING A WIND. (By Harry Vardon. —Copyright). Loudon. Nov. 4. .To the average golfer, a strong wind is probably the most disconcerting factor in the whole game. The tendency is, I am certain, to exaggerate the difficulties which it presents. The player sets out with the conviction that it is going to be very troublesome. The knowledge that he was to cope with it may add a certain interest to his preparations for the shots, but underlying this is a profound feeling that the wind is a wretched nuisance. All tho while, he is wishing to goodness that it would drop. When it is blowing across the course, you will see him adapting his stance to what ha regards as the requirements of the occasion. If it is coming sturdily from the left, he turns his body a little more than usual in that direction so as to fight the wind by aiming the ball into it, believing that it will bring the shot round to the middle of the fairway at the end of the flight. Similarly, if the wind is blowing from the right, he stands so that his body is more or less half facing in that direction with the object of making a frontal attack on the element at the start and leaving it to carry the ball towards the line, when the initial velocity is spent. I am satisfied that these attempted refinements are not only unnecessary. They are sheer ways of inviting trouble. It takes an exceptionally powerful wind (almost a hurricane) to divert a trulystruck ball seriously from the line. Especially is this true of the modern small ball, which nearly everybody uses, and which will bore through turbulent air like a bullet. Assuming that the wind is no more than an ordinarily strong one, and that it is blowing across the course, the best way is to ignore it, and to stand tor the shot and play it just as one would do in a calm. The sum total of the results will be far better than if one attempts to do especially clever things. There is too much endeavouring to juggle with the -wind. It is a disposition born of a magnified idea of the possibilities of the wind. Forget it; give the ball a chance with a straightforward blow, and the shots will fly just about as straight as you can hit them.

DANGEROUS REMEDIES. To adopt special stances for playing into a cross-wind is often a means of helping the wind to spoil the stroke. Let me explain. Take, for example, the person who tries to tackle a wind from the left, by standing with his body turned more than usual in that direction so as to hit the shot into the corner of the wind, expecting the ball to be brought round at the finish by the strength of the current. He is standing for a deliberate slice. It is the method that champions adopt when they want to bring off an intentional slice, a stroke for exceptional circumstances. The average golfer standing for it without realising the fact, is apt to bring it oil'—with a big wind to accentuate it! What with the one influence and the other —the two -co-operating—-his ball swings completely across the course, almost like a boomerang, towards the end of its flight, and finishes in some sort of ugly place on the right. Similarly, if he turns his body towards the right to fight a wind from that direction, he is standing .for a deliberate pull and, with the help of the element is very likely to get it. Indeed, this is almost the most devastating principle imaginable, for with a little bit too much turn over of the right hand at the impact, and the wind to assist, there will be a hook worthy of a cricketer’s boundary hit to square leg. It is only rarely, and then usually at the seaside, that we have violent winds. So far as concerns the ordinary wind, such as is experienced on inland courses, my advice to the golfer is to cut it out of his calculations when it is blowing across the course. It can cause more disorganization of customary methods than it is worth. THE DIRECT ATTACK.

When the player has to hit his shot dead into the teeth of the wind, there is justification for a change in the ordinary procedure. It is necessary in these ! circumstances to keep the ball low if appreciable distance is to be obtained. A shot of the ordinary altitude, played into a strong head wind, will be arrested very quickly by the elements and brought to earth a woefully short way from the starting point. What is needed is the low-flying ball which skims beneath the full force of the wind, always a more powerful influence at a height than it is close to the ground. The requisite shot is well worth practising. It is one of the most fascinating strokes in the game and- it is excellent training for the much-dis-cussed “push-shot” which is one of the features of the iron-play of champions. To secure the effect with a driver is not desperately difficult, so the player may be well recommended to seize upon the incidence of a head-wind to try his hand at it. First of all, he should have a slightly lower tee than, usual. This helps in keeping the shot low. Then he should stand a little more forward than for the ordinary drive so that, during the address, th. hands are a trifle in front of the ball. His object is to hit the ball cleanly, and yet to beat it down. He assists the “beating down” process by assuming a position which places his hands a little in front of the ball in the address and therefore, at the impact. If he tops the ball he may meet with a sorry fate. It he hits it properly in the manner described, it will keep low without making early contact with the ground. If the player has a strong head-wind, as is described for this shot, he may be conscious that he is leaning against the wind during the address. Aim at the ball not beneath its centre, as in an ordinary drive, but at a spot half-way up—the obtruding part of its rotundity that stands out at the back. It wants practice to secure good remits, but it is worth a lot of trial. The chib-head continue its descent after the impact so as to graze tfi e ground just in front of where the ball (las lain. This is the system that leads to file higher realms of golf science in iron shots.