The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-25
GOLFERS SUPERSTITIONS
There Are Many to Interfere With
Play on the Links

!
Golf enthusiasts of this city have
been in ecstacies over the open wealth
err. 1t has allowed uninterrupted play
on the links at Grafton and Tatnuck.
Saturday several of the leading players
of both clubs were out on the links,
taking advantage of the excellent con-
ditions to improve their playing.
Golfers, like other people. have their
superstitions, and Worcester golfers are
no exception to the rule While few
will admit it, many believe in the bane-
full influence of the "hoodoo." Some
players would not think of playing with
a highly polished club and a new ball
at the same time. Their nerve is not
disturbed if an old ball be at hand to
stand the knocks of new club or If
long-used club is to be had to drive
a new ball, but both at the same time
never! Willie Collins, the profession
al, in speaking Of the sIperstitions of
golfers, said the other day: 1.-THE be-
lief that new ball and new club used
at the same time is a sure hoodoo, is
old, and there are others just as an
cient. For instance, many golfers will
always change to a new ball if after
playing two holes they have made a
poor showing. I've found that REPLACE
5 played
over the first two holes with poor sue
cess, always brings an Improvement.
The ball which has been the cause of
the bad playing is never allowed to
see the links again after it has been
relegated to the bag until it has been
taken to the shop, made over and given
fresh coat Of paint. The heating
over an intense fire must drive out
the evil something in those unlucky
Jumps of gutta percha, for I've kept
watch on them, and they often turn
out mascot instead of the former
hoodoo."
I'VE have all heard" says Golf IL
lustrated, "of the golfer who could not
putt because of the lark which per-
sisted in singing over his head The
lark unfortunately is not provided for
in the rules, and must be submitted
to. But what about the other golfer
who refused to play his putt because
he said that ship in the offing caught
his eye, and INSTRUCTED him in his
stroke? His opponent who called on
him to play was somewhat nonplussed
when the INSTRUCTED one read from the
rules: Any vessel, wheelbarrow, tool,
roller grass cutter, box or similar OBJ
struction may be removed" Golfng
'old-timers" have many anecdotes to
relate concerning the sport, and few
of them are more entertaining than the
stories of sharp practice in winning
matches. Of one crafty caddie it is
told that when he saw his employers
ball lying behind a big stone in a
bunker, gave the stone a kick, saying:
Dye think that's wud wood ?" The
obstacle was removed sufficiently, how
ever, to make the ball playable. A
deeper scheme is mentioned by Horace
Hutchinson in THE Golfing Pilgrim"
where a caddie carried with him sup
ply of greenpainted pins, which he
skillfully stuck in the line of the OPP
ponent's putt, heads up just as the
light began to fail a bit Naturally,
the ball took a wrong turn and missed
the hole and while the victim cursed
the witness of the grass, or his own
luck, the unrepentent caddie put his
foot on the pin, and the secret of his
crime disappeared forever. One Scot
fish player is accused of having care
fully trained his dog to push his oppo-
nent's ball into the burn, and the trick
was only discovered when the dog tried
1t on a quondam partner of his mas
ter's, who for that occasion happened
to be partnered against him. The old
dodge of dropping new ball down the
trousers leg when lost ball can't be
found, has been practiced even in mod
ern times.