BRAINS AND GOLF

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1931, Page 4

BRAINS AND GOLF

TEE ADEQUATE MENTALITY.

‘•THE PERFECT.. TEMPERAMENT.”

.(By Harry Vardon. —Special to News.) For as" long as I can remember, certain famous players have been accepted as the possessors of “the perfect temperament for golf.” At one time John Bali and James Braid were constantly being quoted as models of the mentality that goes io- the making of success at the game. In recent years, the leading American players have been held up as examples of the temperamental attributes which all aspiring players must cultivate if they would achieve satisfactory results. And if anybody doubts whether such’ cultivation is possible, he is told how Bobby Jones had to transform himself from a wildly excitable youth into a man of iron control before lie could win a championship. . . I sometimes wonder how much justification there is for fhe belief that any particular temperament is an advantage. I think it was Sir Walter Simpson who coined the phrase that “golf ’ is ninctentlis mental.” Whatever its truth, it appealed so strongly to- the golfing mind as to flourish through the generations and become a recognised aphorism. Indeed, I have heard one famous exchampion refer to golf as being “95 per cent, mental,” winch was 5 per cent, farther than Sir Walter Simpson felt prepared to go. These estimates are taken- sb seriously that it .can only be supposed that they afford a certain degree of satisfaction. Yet, if they were true, obviously the wise thing for the average player to do would be to attend, a school of psychology instead of taking lessons from the professional. He does not do it because he knows at the back of his mind what he needs to learn are the physical, .not the psychic, movements of the swing. •AUTOMATIC ACTION.

It may be held that .the two are inextricably involved; that the apportionment of liberal marks to the mental side of . the game is vindicated for the reason that it directs the swing. I have not. much faith in the theory. •

Some 'people are physically built to play golf well, and in the ordinary way they think very little about their manner of swinging the club. Naturally, they have to .judge the length of shot and decide which, club to take, but ouce that is done, the rest is virtually automatic.

Often it is when the young golfer possessed of perfectly natural attributes for the game begins to think a lot .and experiment with his style that he works, out his own undoing. Friends of little experience advise him to do thia and try that, and his inborn ability becomes submerged by the goaded workings of. his brain. I think we may reasonably arrive at the conclusion that no particular character of brain is . specially adapted to success at this game. It would be impossible to imagine two players of greater dis-similarity in mental constitution than the aforesaid John Ball and Bobby Jones, the greatest amateurs of their respective generations. - Competition may be more eager to-day than it was in the time when Ball was winning his eight amateur championships and his open-championship, but, as one who watched him a good many times, I will declare with my hand on my heart that he could hit a ball as well as anybody I ever saw. He was never anything but the embodiment of mildness, like a shy man who felt all the while that he was in the way and wanted to get it over with a minimum of fuss ’and bot&er. • . Jones has always given one the impression; of being a human dynamo charged almost to bursting point. Quietly though he goes about the preparations for his shots, he seems to be exuding electricity all the time. That is the other side of the/picture. If golf is nine-tenths mental, then his is a proportion that has to.be controlled, when Ball’s had to be excited. In just right degree has Jones overcame a boyish disposition to throw away the club with which he had made a ; bad; shot,' although. I believe he confesses that, sometimes he very nearly succumbs to it even now. That shows just how far golf can go as a disciplinarian. There is ho other game quite so stern in its way of bringing the mental. player to book. Sometimes it is humiliating as well aS salutary. I heard recently of a man wh(>, having missed a short piitt,: flung’ his putter wildly into the adjoining woods. Then, relenting, he asked his caddie to go and get it. The caddie refused, politely and firmly, with the remark that he did not consider it part of his duties. So the player went and fetched.it himself. The parallel of that situation could hardly be reproduced in any other pastime. QUICK THINKING.

If it is true that no definite type of brain is especially adapted to golf, it is certain that the quick thinkers are usually the least likely to advance at it. The only exception I know is George Duncan, who certainly thinks like lightning whether he is on the course or oil it. He has done some wonderful rounds. I find that he is the only man who holds the score-play records for three championship courses —68 at St. Andrews, 69 at Sandwich, and 70 at Westward Ho! And yet what a world-beater he might have been if only he could' have thought a little more about his putts. Whatever the peculiar quality of temperament that Nature has conferred upon ladies, it truly seems to be peculiarly suited to golf. All the leading lady players have the same calm, purposeful attitude towards the game; all except Aliss Diana Fishwick, whose light-heart-edness has struck an entirely new note. The happy-go-lucky way in which Miss Fishwick walks up to her shots and hits them is like some act of precocity on a stage which is filled with sedate •players. It is a curious fact that, with this one exception, I cannot recollect any prominent lady golfer who has shown anv outstanding trait of temperament apart from calm ‘purpose.