GRACE ON GOLF.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13978, 13 August 1909, Page 3

GRACE ON GOLF.

Tim veteran cricketer, Dr W. ' G. Grace, ill his recent publication, entitled ••W. C.s Little Book," gives his i(h>:is on golf and cricket contrasted : " 1 am not at all sure (lie says) that golf is a good game, from an educative point of view, for youngsters, as it must lie admitted that in some respects golf is a sellish game, as each golfer plays for his personal advantage, and often glories in the mistakes of his opponents. "There are a great variety of cricket strokes, and generally they are very different from golf strokes. Some people who ought to know better say the drive is the same in cricket as in golf; the differences, in my opinion, are these. The cricket stroke is a hit, and the golf drive should he a sweep or swing.

"Again, in driving or hitting in cricket the bat should be taken quickly straight up or back, but in golf the club should be taken slowly back and swept down in a different plane to that of the cricket drive. The secret :if success in batting is that the batsman should get well over the ball, and play with a straight bat. In most golf strokes the reverse is best. The grip in cricket and golf is quite different, notwithstanding wiiat my friend George Beldam says about it. "Jn cricket you grip the bat-handle more or less tight witli both hands, if anything iinner with the right hand, and one's thumbs are round tJie handle. In golf you grip the club with your lingers, and your thumb should be down the handle, or nearly so. and not round it, as in cricket, while your left hand should grip the handle like a vice. Then in golf you should make your body work on a definite axis, in order to get the full body power into your drive, and at the same time keep your head still. There is no twisting the body in the same way for any ericket stroke. "•There is one thing about the game that is not a little curious. How is it •that first-class batsmen, really goodclass players who have gone on for years hitting a fast moving ball with accuracy, find it so difficult to hit a stationary golf ball? It cannot he only because of the small size of the latter. I am inclined to think that the difference in the striking implement

mid the plane of the respective swings is the. real trouble. A cricket bat should be swung perpendicularly tor most driving purposes, while a go It club never should be."