Spring Tonics for Golfers

A Few Good Remedies for the Duffer, Suggested by the Play of Certain Golfing Stars

GRANTLAND RICE

IF it should so happen that you have perfect control over every club in your golfing kit:— If it should so happen that you rarely miss a shot in the intervening spaces between the first tee and the final cup:— If it should so happen that you do not top, or slice, or press, or move your head:— If your game is properly geared and correctly focussed along all lines:— I strongly advise you to skip this article at once and turn on to the next page of Vanity Fair.

But it is very likely that out of the hundred thousand men who see this page, a few of them still have a certain amount of trouble with their brassie, their mid-iron, their mashie, or their putter! And perhaps these few would like to think over a few golfing suggestions that might be of aid to them. There are still a few men among the millions, who either play or soon will play the game, who look upon certain clubs with repugnance, if not with a down-right malevolent hatred. For golf is peculiar.

A player might easily go stale on a certain sound system of play and, by switching to another, possibly not so sound, find the desired relief. For no one system can ever suit the entire multitude. The tall man and the short man, the fat man and the thin man, the strong man with the mighty grip and the weak man with the gentler fingers can hardly travel the same road to par. And it is only by tests and experiments that one can discover the style best suited to one's more purely personal needs. It must not be forgotten that golf is a highly personal game.

A few days ago I cornered one of the leading professionals in America, a man widely known as a keen instructor, who has handled as many golfers of all varieties and has given as many lessons in the last ten years as any other in the land. "What one fault," I asked him, "do you find is the prevailing one? Failure to keep an eye on the ball —lifting the head—or swaying the body?" The answer was a trifle surprising. "It is none of these," he replied.

"The main fault among most golfers—the one fault that produces more missed shots than any other is the failure to keep a firm and fairly straight left arm with a swing that is not broken at the elbow nor marred by an overflexible wrist."

"In both the long and the short game the left arm is the guide. If the left elbow is bent and the left wrist is flabby, this guiding force is destroyed. It is almost exactly as if the steering gear of an automobile was broken. Especially in iron play is a firm, straight left arm needed at all times. Firmness doesn't mean an iron-bound rigidity. But there must be no break at either wrist or elbow if the stroke is to go through properly. If either is broken, almost any fault may develop from a wide slice to a bad hook. This firm, straight left arm is the foundation of good play. If it is missing, nothing else will take its place.

"Next to this fault I believe that lifting the head is the most serious offense," the professional continued. "The golfer who has the correct use of the left arm and who doesn't lift his head has crossed four-fifths of the journey through trouble. The first is a physical fault—the second a mental one. They must be handled in different ways, but both are essential to anything approaching good golf. They are far more important than stance, or grip, or other details that too often take up most of a golfer's attention upon rebuilding his game."

Curiously enough a leading amateur, known for his consistency, had brought out the same points only a short while before.

(Continued on page 82)

(Continued, from page 65)

The next time you go out, see how that left arm, especially the two hinges at elbow and wrist, are working. That may be the exact spot where you are losing those ten or twelve strokes you believe in moody depression should never have been thrown away. And if you are still in doubt, watch Walter Hagen or Jock Hutchinson or Francis Ouimet or Chick Evans at your first opportunity. You'll require no further advice upon the subject, if you watch them.

Essentials—and Non-Essentials

GOLF instruction, in its varied processes, may be divided into two broad classes:

First—The essentials that apply to all —such as the firm, straight left arm and the non-liftable head—better known as "keeping your eye on the ball." Without these the rest of it is futile froth.

Second—The matter of grip, stance, etc., where no set rule can be applied but where suggestions may work considerable benefit.

A tall, thin golfer, for example, may take a full, free swing utterly beyond the possibilities of a short, rotund player who, attempting the former process, might miss the ball entirely. And the grip that will suit one player might not suit another in any way.

In the matter of grips, we'll take those employed by the last four Open Champions:

Francis Ouimet—This golfer uses, not the over-lapping, but the inter-locking grip where the little finger of the right hand is snugly hooked in with the forefinger of the left.

Walter Hagen—The 1914 open champion uses the over-lapping, or Vardon grip, with the left thumb down the shaft and the right hand partially overriding the left.

Jerome D. Travers—The four-times amateur and the one time open champion, depends upon the straight V grip where the two hands are held in juxtaposition without being either over-lapped or inter-locked, the right and left forefingers being loosely held to prevent rigidity.

Charles Evans, Jr.—The double champion of 1916 has still a new variety of grip. One in which both thumbs are placed down the shaft—the left thumb resting in the grip of the right hand.

These four varying examples are proof enough that no one set grip is an essential affair.

These four eminent golfers were keen enough to make a thorough test of their physical qualifications before adopting the one grip that suited best their style of play. Grip is often a matter of length and strength of fingers. Where the fingers are long and powerful, as in Hagen's case, the over-lapping grip can be used to great advantage. But where the hand is much smaller, as in Travers' case, the simple V-grip is best.

The idea involved here is that each individual golfer should study his own limitations and make a thorough test of the matter. It is easily possible that the grip he is now using is unsuited to his style of play—and that a change might work wonders.

How may one tell what grip suits best?—Mainly through the feeling of comfort, ease and naturalness in the resultant stroke.

The Case of Evans

HICK EVANS, the present amateur and open champion, has given more attention to a complete test of grips and stances than any man we know of. With a home only a mashie pitch from his golf course, he developed the habit of practising an hour in the morning before breakfast and another hour in the late afternoon before dinner, testing every known theory of stance and grip. It was through trying one style and discarding another than he finally settled upon the grip explained above.

With both the right and left thumb down the shaft, the right fingers encircling the shaft and the left thumb, Evans found that he could maintain control without losing any distance. Walter J. Travis is another man who worked out his own salvation in the way of a grip, using the two-handed V-grip, but with the right hand swung under the club, a departure from the normal style.

Aids and Devices

THERE are frequently various devices or side-lines that may help to lift the harassed soul of the foozling golfer from the melancholy depths, and so chase the shadows from his morbid system—bringing the blue color back into the sky, the green tone back to the grass and the pink glow back to the summer sunset.

There is the illustrious case of Jerome D. Travers. From seventy yards off the green to the bottom of the cup, Travers headed the field, amateur or pro. A marvelous putter, he was also a miracle-worker with the chip shot, a valuable instrument in subduing par or crushing an opponent. Through the use of this shot two years ago we saw Travers defeat Gil Nichols and Walter Hagen on successive afternoons and then a day later carry the redoubtable Jdck Hutchinson to the final hole, where only a 250-yard brassie shot to a ditch-guarded green at Siwanoy carried the canny Scot through to victory.

Travers has a double device which he uses for the chip. Knowing that above all other strokes in the game, it is necessary, on this delicate manoeuvre, to keep the head down, he first devised the system of turning his chin to the right at the top of the swing, making it physically uncomfortable to lift the head until the stroke was completed. This turn of the chin, fixing the left eye alone upon the ball, isn't a sure cure for head-lifting, but it is undeniably a great aid.

To make for greater delicacy of touch in a stroke where a foot or two meant valuable soil, he further devised the idea of placing the tip of his right thumb upon the shaft of the club as a guiding factor. The thumb here is bent, the ultimate joint pointing straight down against the shaft. We know of no other golfer who uses this method, yet Travers believes it has been of infinite aid in chipping or dropping the ball close to the pin. "And from seventy yards away," says Alex Smith, "Travers will beat any golfer alive to the cup five times out of eight."

The double system might be worth a trial to those who approach the chip shot with a jigger and a prayer. It may not work in your case. And then again the opponent who has been starting you four up may begin asking for strokes after a round or two. There is nothing in the game so disconcerting as to be on the green in two, with every advantage, and then have an opponent chip up dead, suddenly tossing the burden back upon your own quivering shoulders.

Jock Hutchinson's Sway

YOU will find that swaying the body, which has nothing whatever to do with properly pivoting from the hips, has destroyed many a well intended swing.

Yet, Jock Hutchinson in playing a mashie, frequently uses his so-called fault to considerable advantage. The normal trajectory or curve of a well played mashie is from left to right, which means a trifle sliced to kill the run. Hutchinson's mashie shot has a slight pull, giving him greater distance, yet upon striking the green the ball halts with amazing swiftness. Part of this sudden stoppage is due to the heavy ridging along the face of his club. The rest of it, defying well known laws, is due to a perceptible body swing which Hutchinson alone can use with effect. This is nothing for the average golfer to try unless he desires to wander all over the lot looking for lost balls. But for all that it's an interesting side line for those who care to delve deeper into this uncanny sport.

(Continued on page 84)

(Continued from page 82)

The best suggestion to offer any golfer off his game, floundering in the wilderness of despair, is to ignore the nonessentials and get back to first principles of play:

1. To see that his left arm is used correctly as a guiding force, firmly held and practically unbent.

2. To see that his head is held unlifted until after the stroke.

3. To see that his grip and stance are comfortable and natural, rather than restrained and lacking in ease.

From this foundation he can start upward. Which reminds us that a change should be made in the old maxim—"Keep your eye on the ball"—to "Keep your mind on the ball."

The mind or brain directs the eye. The golfer who is thinking of the bunker just ahead or who is centering his main thought upon the pin, will have a lovely time keeping his thoughts on one thing and his eye on another. Let him centre his entire attention upon hitting the ball, erasing all thoughts of what may wait beyond, and he'll have little trouble in keeping his head down. Travers figures that two-thirds of the missed shots, among leading players, come from lifting the head. Yet how many golfers who practice various grips and stances and various things, ever make a study of some device that will assist them in staving off the drama known as "The Tragedy of the Lifted Bean"?

Maxims of the 19th Hole

He who lifts his golfing head Will often see a lot of red.

It is better to dwell with a brawling woman in a narrow house than with a golfer who is off his drive.

Play for the pin and the green will take care of itself.

Starting out with an excuse is as good as two down.