GOLF.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16815, 5 June 1926, Page 21 (Supplement)

GOLF.

v

AMBITIONS SELDOM ACHIEVED.

<By Edward Ray)

it is difficult to diagnose a rause of failure in a golfer’s ainliiiions, if is a comparatively easy mailer lo pul a promising golfer on Hie road lo liis goal, to point out. Ilie pitfalls, and lo guide him lo his initial steps along 1 lie difficult path, but thereafter lie must tread warily and alone. JL is impossible for the golf instructor to go along that road with him, more than a little way, and only when he returns to ask advice can it be offered.

But so frequently have I been asked why it is Mr So and So does not do better in the big events he takes part in that I am constrained to offer my opinion for what it may be worth. It is a matter worth considering. Here is a golfer whose powers arc practically unchallenged at his home club, perhaps in his own district. Few have the temerity to play him without an allowance of strokes, and, moreover, his performances at home arc such that he may have earned a national handicap of not more than three. The case I am taking as an example is, you sec, a good golfer, a player who is a master of most of the shots which a good player is supposed, to command.

Now, how many of such players docs one find making a prominent show when it comes to the big events of the year? We have for the most part the domination of field by a few —a little band of players who have proved themselves worthy of the position they hold in the gar/.e, and who are generally to he found at the head of the list.

Ask one of these great ones to meet one of the lesser lights on the latter's home course under the condilions he is familiar with, and I should be inclined to favour the chances of Die satellite! rather than the star. Put Ihc same golfer in a field amongst big guns, and unless there is a surprise, fie is lost in a great feast of golfing mediocrity.

There is a" reason, and that is the problem lam set. To begin with, I would say that in many cases the plus and scratch player has in another way, quite as much to learn as the comparatively long handicap golfer. He fails from a lack of confidence purely and simply. He has the power to play the shot, and he knows how il. should be played, but he cannot play it when it means death or glory in the golfing sense. Take a simple example which time and again .has puzzled me. This is the lack of confidence many players show in playing their approach shots. That shot I maintain, is the chief prop of the golfer who is about to embark upon imporlanl golf tournament play. If he can play that shot well, everything else will go all right with his game. And yet when he comes to play the shot, lie appears to be overawed by Ihe possibility of punishment, and he goes for the safe course. That is all very well in its way, but it is not the way to win championship or any other honours in golf. He must learn to take risks. lie must learn that what to some players might be a risk is nothing of the sort so far as lie is concerned, if lie only plays the stroke in his usual manner. There are some exceptions, of course. They are golfers who always go out for the lucky chance. It pays sometimes but very seldom. But this does not apply to much to the proficient golfer. lie can play the shot but does not do so. If there is a short pitch to make over a bunker or a stream, time and again the player who would have put his shot within a yard or two of the pin in less exciting circumstances will take the safe line just as the long handicap man will do. Let him take out a dozen balls and play shots over a terrifying bunker 20 or 30 yards from the pin, and what will be the result? Most of his shots will finish near enough to the pin to give him a chance of holing the putt. But in a desperate situation in a championship or other open tournament, lie will fail dismally. He will cither trundle it along into the bunker, or in clearing it carry the green as well. Ido not lay it down that all championship aspirants do these terrible things, but I maintain that bc- ! cause of these little failures, confidence in many cases is totally desIrovoil before Hie ball is struck. Writing of this important shot which begets or destroys, brings to my mind the fact that I have looked into many hags of golfers aspiring to fame, and invariable I have come to Ihc same conclusion —that they require clubs with a different loft lroni those they possess. Most of these bags have a niblick or maslnc niblick,' but the majority of these dubs show that they have not got the lo 11 ncccssary to stop a hall on the green such clubs are not only necessary for hunker shots, but they have other and even more important uses. , The approach shot well played with a mashle niblick is an extremely valuable one, because you know where the ball is going to pitch, but with the loft generally used, few can 101 l where the ball will finish rolling. Given more loft, instead of less, as some players seem to imagine is t ic ideal, you can inspire yourself y h confidence in the approach play by pitching vour ball at the fiag, an you know it Will Stop very near where YOU pitch. I maintain that foi the short pilch, say ten or naccn * over the corner of a bunkci, a <- cannot have too much loft. rimre is only one route that is safe, perlcotly safe, and that is the air route. Mv advice to the golfer is to use that route as much as possible, and the confidence it will inspire will make the game easier than it has c\cr been. training methods. The selection by the Royal and Ancient Club of 21 British amateur golfers to prepare themselves the Walker Gup match against Ihe United Slates at St. Andrews in June has resulted in several schemes of training being submitted to the authorities. g 0 far no definite policy has been evolved. The subject is new so far as concerns golf in Ibis country It is certain, however, that something will be done soon, since the chosen o I ruai waiting for a lead. *' It is felt that the first necessity is In organise the men into a party lor a week or so in order that they may c „inc under review, and particularly with the object of arranging £«"■« norlncrs. This, writes R. Linlu»"J Howard, the golf expert of Hie London Daily Mail, would cnal.ie r'PPoniled pairs to play together legulailj.

Systematic Massage. I believe that an important part or Hie preparation of Robert Harris for last year's amateur championship, which he won, was a systematic course of massage. A famous doctor who is also a good golfer, said that, such a process — while not necessary for young players -—would undoubtedly be valuable in Die Ihe case of older men. And several members of the British preparatory team, as, for instance, Harris, 11. 1). Gillies, Michael Scoll. and .1. Gordson Simpson, arc over 40, "bile several others are bordering on that age. There is nobody of more (ban 35 in the American team, and Hie average age of the whole side is under 20. In Ihis country professionals have probably prepared more diligently than amateurs for big golf events of the past. Harry Yardon expresses Hie view that, so far as concerns dieting and smoking, the player should lead a normal life.

In golf more than in most games, he says, it is essential to keep the mind perfectly tranquil and restrictions Unit worry the player do more harm than good. But he warns the golfer against silting in a room where many people arc smoking on the night before an important event. I have always found that il causes the eyesight to be blurred in the morning, lie told me. Indoor Practice. J. H. Taylor says that lie has found that the best form of preparation is for the player to finger and swing his clubs every day. Do it indoors after the morning bath, he advises. The player shoulc. take each of the important clubs m turn and swing it for a few minutes. In that way the muscles that we use in golf—and they are a different set of muscles from those employed m any other pursuit—are kept supple and in perfect trim. . . It is a good tip io take a nuislue and play chip shots with it 1,1,0 a bucket. ' ir you piny the shots rom a carpet, so much the better, lot carpet is a more difficult surface than turf from which to strike the ba . is the finest practice in Hie world short approaches. •