GOLF METHODS

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1929, Page 6

GOLF METHODS

AMERICAN AND BRITISH. (By Harry Vardon. —Special to News.) I .ondon, Aug. 15. It is sometimes remarked that the leading American golfers have a certain uniformity of style. It is claimed that this trait enables them to help one another instinctively when any member of the contingent' suffers from those golfing maladies —such as slicing, pulling, and socketing, which settle upon everybody sooner or later, and which are so difficult to cure without the help of a person who understands every phase in the swing. There may bo something in this idea of mutual help among the Americans, for, in a large degree, their swings do seem to be fashioned in the same mould, and therefore it is conceivable that a fault in one is more readily noticeable because of the more or less standardised style. The similarity of method is* not so complete as some people would, have us believe, but it exists in a good many respects, as, for instance, the square, stance with the two feet in line, or, at any rate, the right foot very little in front of the left; the club-head taken back straight behind the ball for an appreciable distance instead of round the right leg. and the up-swing slow, and seldom quite so full as to bring the club to the horizontal at the top of the swing. On the other hand, when you observe our players you cannot help noticing how utterly dissimilar are their methods. The stances are of all kinds, the swings of all lengths and paces. Each man has his own natural trait or pet theory, so that none is adapted ,to the purpose of helping another in distress. Moreover, they arc all disposed to alter their styles in the pursuit of some fugitive increase of efficiency which they think can be obtained by doing things differently instead of remaining true to the system. I sometimes wish the - Mr. R. H. Wethered would return to his methods of a few years ago. In his earlier days, Mr. .Wethered stood with his feet reasonably close together and his head well over the ball. His whole posture was relaxed; his up-swing was all case and rhythm. I cannot remember anybody who looked so much like developing into a world-beater as Mr. Wetliered did in that era. He confirmed this impression by a moral victory in the British open championship of 1921, at St. Andrews, for it was only the careless loss of a penalty stroke which landed him in the predicament of a tie for first place with Jock Hutchinson, of Chicago, by whom ho was beaten in the re-pla.y. j THE RIGID BODY. Since that, Mr. Wethered has widened his stance; stiffened his body, and put his head back so far that it is not over the ball; and cultivated the straight left arm with such assiduity that he has lost the art of rhythm in driving. His whole physical constitution looks constricted and locked by the time he gets the club about half-way up, and is trying to get it a little bit farther for the purpose of a full drive. . The system is all right for half iron shots. But Mr. Wethered always had an; inborn genius in this department of the! game. At the time when he was begin-; ning to make a name for himself, I am! sure that he could be set down as the best iron-player among amateurs since the time of the late Mr. John Graham/ Nor has that prestige been blunted. j The worst of the introduction of the principle into driving is that nobody can ever be sure where the’ drives are going to finish. I daresay that Mr. Wethered would have won more titles if—like. Mr, ■ Jerome Travers, four times amateur I champion and once open champion of the I United States—he had given up his wooden clubs and played 'his long teeshots with a driving iron. It is not considered the correct thing to do in a conservative golfing country, and so he has not done it except on a few occasions as a compromise to the needs of a partner in foursome tournaments. And a reasonably good case can be made out for the expedient in that connection. The partner who is constantly landed in trouble by an erratic driver has a legitimate grievance if the player making the bad shots could have pursued a straight path by using an iron club on the teeing ground, TRUE TO TYPE. • The British amateur of long-standing i who, more than any other, has main- | tained a.certain style through thick and f thin is Mr. Cyril Tolley.- And a wqndrously .fine swing it is; perhaps the smoothest and most rhythmic that may be seen in amateur golf in this country, albeit there are times when it gets rather badly out of gear. Mr.. Tolley, may lack the frigid temperament which distinguishes most champions, and be pretty much at the mercy of his own imagination or of an opponents with idiosyncrasies, as, for example, one who plays with excessive deliberation. But lam told that he ie in precisely the mood to do well in his forthcoming effort to win the American amateur title. Directly it was known that Mr. Tolley bad entered for last year’s French open championship at Versailles —and he was an unexpected candidate—people who understood him said that he would win it; not because his form of the hour suggested that he might beat the big field of professionals, but because Versailles four years previously had been the scene of his triumph in a field which included Walter Hagen. Surely enough, he did win it, with a score of 283 for the four rounds—the lowest in the eleven French open championships that have been decided on- this course. It may be true that style is riot everything in golf; that some player, in seeking to cultivate a swing which they think, looks well, blur their own natural gifts at the game. But it is equally true that many golfers who promised to bo first-class have wrecked their form by altering their methods in favour of a style less attractive than their own.

THE SEASIDE GOLF LINKS. WEARING OF THE TURF. Seaside golf always has a peculiar fascination, and it is at this holiday season for the fear that it makes its widest appeal. But every year it seems to be -a little different, a little rarer. The sea, to be sure, is still there, though it is probably hidden by the giant sandhills; so, too, ie the bent grass which ensnares the mis-hit ball. The change is in the turf. It is not as soft ■ and springy as it used to be: it has lost a deal of its fineness. This ie the penalty which we are now having to pay for the increasing popularity of the game. The

old turf has failed to stand, up. to the constant and hard. usage which it receives. It, has ,had.. to be tended and nourished and it has become stronger and coarser. In these circumstances the seaside courses, as we knew them even before the war, are. passing. Soon, no more than ten years, hence it may be, they will .be no more than a happy memory. Even the turf of St. Andrew’s, it is said, will resemble that of the park course. The change, regrettable as it is, cannot be avoided. You are made to realise this at St. Andrew’s at this time of the year, when the old course is full from the time the blinds are pulled to let in the morning light until they are drawn again as the people of St. Andrew's —those who live in the old town—are holing out on the historic eighteenth green in the fast approaching darkness. All day a dozen or so men are following in the wake of the endless stream of golfers, trying to keep up with the damage they do. They are the repairers who fill in the divot marks with new turf. To them it is a hopeless task, and much of their work must be left until the visitor has departed, and the course is more or less at rest. Meanwhile,' the bare patches are. covered with fine silvery sand and the : green fairways from, a distance ' look like a badly-patched carpet. The wonder is not that St'. Andrew’s is changing but that it remains. Though not to anything like the same extent, other seaside links suffer grievously every year and artificial means have, to be taken to maintain them in a first-class state of fitness. It might be thought that the increase in the number of courses would reduce the wear, but the golfer has a high .'appreciation of the best, and so such places as St. Andrew’s, Sandwich, Rye and Deal are crowded at this time of the year and the o-reenkeeper has to stand meek-. ]y and disconsolately by and watch the damage go on. Every year more and more American golfers play here. They complete the round of the show places, and, with few exceptions, vote Sandwich the best of them all,...though St. Andrew’s, with its wonderful atmo- * sphere and ancient ritual, perhaps makes the deepest impression.