The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-25
FIRST STROKE In GOLF.
Many PerpIexities Beset u Beginner
ON the Links.
New York Press.

New YORK Press.
Not until a man has tackled golf ball
does he appreciate, in all its bitterness and
cussedness, the total depravity of inanimate
things. He may have chased the decetful
and burrowing. collar button over miles of
bedroom mating in his lifetime and he
may have wrestled with the VIGOROUSLY
perverse baby perambulator at a grade
CROSSING. But until he has tried to coax a
golf ball to vacate the small strip of turf
TO which it is clinging with both feet he has
had no trials or tribulations worth speaking
about.
The first vicious quality which the begin
ner will discover in the modest, unassum-
ing little sphere of gutta percha is its pro-
found helplessness and terrible inertia. In
baseball or cricket or even croquet, the
ball shows some inclination and willingness
to do its share of the work 1t will come
to you, possibly, with undue violence in the
head or the solar plexus, but at any rate
it shows some animation, and that is just
what the golf ball steadfastly and stub
bOrnly refuses to do. 1t has to be adj
dressed, that is the formal putting-green
word for it, and it means just what 1t says.
Addressing the ball is approaching it
stealthily but formally with an unified club
and a smile of misplaced confidence. With
one swing you are going to drive that
miserable little thing half way through
eternity, and after the mud and the Sec
lions of greensward have settled down you
see the thing sitting where it was before
you lunged at it just as impudently as ever.
If you had not smiled contemporary
at the long, beautiful drive of the man who
had brought you out to the links to teach
your delirious swing would be easier to
bear. No one laughs; no one even smiles
they just look at you as though you had
confessed to some great weakness which
they knew you had. but were not going to
tell you until you found out yourself.
Before endeavoring totally to annihilate the
ball again the man who brought you out will
draw you aside and give you a few instruc-
tions There are about twelve things, in
forget in making a drive and about four
which it is quite essential should be remem-
bered. Grasp, balance, keeping your eye
on the ball and following the ball with your
eye are some of the Delsarte movements
which, if followed out carefully, will enable
you in time to land in close proximity to the
BALL
The first thing you will do will be to grasp
the club wrong The right hand being the
simplest and the most natural way to swing
a club, it goes without saying that it is
wrong In making a full drive the club
when brought back, must be held firmly
with the left hand and held loosely, like a
going on you should be facing the ball side
ways and in an attitude of an exaggerated
parade rest.
Keeping your balance is the hardest and
most trying thing next to keeping your tenn
per which the beginner has to learn. In
preparing to strike he necessarily bends for
ward a little and in drawing the club back
he naturally raises the toe of his right foot
That is all wrong and is even more glaring-
the right hand. He should wind the toe of
his left foot firmly into the weeds and let
his right foot take care OF itself so long as
it does not leave the ground.
To keep your eye on the ball sounds too
simple to be worth any serious attention.
The man who can execute half tuIn with
his body and still have both eyes on the
ball without acquiring strabismus the first
time he tries it may hope to make a success
full golfer. And it is not enough to keep
your eye on the ball and hit IT with the
proper part of your club. If you draw in
your arms at the moment of striking and do
not let the club fly freely out in the direc-
ton you wish the pail to take 1t will not
only lose direction but force.
The golfers position before the drive de-
ponds a great deal on the length of his club.
The longer 1t is the more awkward his posi-
ton, for the ball should be so far away that
when one end of the club is touching it the
other should be at the players left knee.
The longer the club the further he has TO
bend over. His feet should be. according to
all rules, a foot and a half apart but If he
finds any difficulty in keeping his balance
he can extend them another foot,
With all these minute instructions the be-
ginner should have no difficulty at all In
| making his first drive in at least ten strokes.