GOLF

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1930, Page 4

GOLF

STYLE IN GOLF. DOE'S IT MATTER? (By Harry Vardon. —'Special to News.) As one whose mission it is to teacn the true golfing swing,'! hqva to confess that unorthodoxy sometimes pays. The most .startling example of this truth is presented by Leo Diegel, the American professional who was runner-up to Mr. Bobby Jones for the British open championship in June, and . who will assuredly be one of the mainstays of the American team in the match against Britain next spring. It ought to 'be a source of boundless hope and inspiration for multitudes of golfers that Diegel won the professional match-play championship of the United States for two years in succession, beating Walter Hagen on each occasion and making even that immortal rock ,pn his pedestal as a personality who captures the crowds wherever he goes. For if there is one man more than any other of. whom it might be said: “With a style like his, he will n(wer do anything,” that man is Diegel. Thus may the heretics be encouraged to rise with the word “Diegel” inscribed upon their ■banner—with faith in their hearts and defiance in their souls. - -

Even may they resolve to use a tee, like that of their patron-saint, several inches high. If a player can do what Diegel has done with such a style as his, there is a chance even for the’ who stands on his head and swings the club with his feet. Not thit I suggest .that this should be attempted, but, after watching Diegel, I confess to a sense of curiosity as to what an acrobatic contortionist with a zest for golf could achieve upside down. He would, at any rate, have to keep his head still and his eye on the ball. Otherwise he would fall over. ONE THEN'G RIGHT. It is certain that Diegel’s style is magnificently incorrect. Any novice at the game can see that, and novices always know these things, because they have read the text-books. Nearly as striking as the considered opinion of the deathless army of foozlers is the -fact that the experts give up Diegel as an insoluble riddle. Everything he does is wrong except that he wins; which is

right. And that makes up for a lot. ' How he putts so conqueringly is past all understanding, for he stands like a man who had made up his mind to get into the most uncomfortable position that the human body could be forced to assume. One of his friends in America describes it ,as “the pose of the praying . mantis” — a zoological specimen which carries its large, thorny forelegs, in the attitude of prayer. Diegel looks to be all arms when he bends over the ball for a putt. His elbows jut 1 out like signposts at the cross-roads, and, with the hands held close in to the pit of the stomach; the club-head seems somehow to be dangling helplessly.. This impression is the more marked for the reason that he uses a Very long putter, and holds it almost at 'the top of the shaft. The fact remains, however, that Diegel has out-putted Hagen (an almost unheard of thing) in two American match-play championships, and that his putting was one of the best parts of his game during his visit to Britain this yehr. r It contributed more than -anything else to his victory over Abe Mitchell by. nine up and eight to play in the Ryder Cup match at Mooftown, Leeds, last year. That was Mitchell’s one bad reverse of the season, and it was really a little bit unlucky, for he had a score of sixty-nine strokes in the morning, and yet finished four holes down. It was certainly Diegel’s putting that enabled him to lead at the end of three rounds in the British open championship at IMuirfield that season. It failed him in the last round, but even the player whose style is as orthodox as a glass of milk cannot condemn that of the man who putts as Diegel does. He explodes the theory that there is a correct method. He advancees the proposition that the best way is the way that gets the 'ball into the hole. THE SUPREME HERETIC. And, in truth, I think this is wondroUsly true in regard to the modern hyper-sensitive rubber-cored ball.. It is largely true of all the shots in the game. The old orthodoxy by which humanity set itself to conquer the inert solid ball has its fragrant memories and elements of value, but truly do young players appear able to do all sorts of things nowadays by means that were unthought of when the creed of golfing methods was formulated. When first I met Diegel, which was before he had played in this country, I asked him, in regard to his very high tees: “Of course, you don’t use them at short holes?” “Oh, yes, I do,” he replied. “I often use them when it’s only a niblick shot or a mashie shot.” Once upon a time, we were sure that even for full drives we ought to have only a very low tee; and that if we wanted a tee in playing a short holewell, if we wanted it, we could have it, but that it was a. sign of . weakness. And now we have Diegel leading us into vice and himself into victory.