The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-10-21
TOO MUCH PRACTICE
HURTS MANY GOLFERS.
Exec ;sive and Unremitting Work on the Links
Is Often Calculated to Put a Player Com
pletely Off His Game---Notes
and Gossip.

SNaN N'S @NN'N ~'AS hhNt"S
as the ground on which the amateur cham
pionship OF st. Louis shall be played this
season a great many expressions OF regret
have been heard that q more accessible
course had not been selected. Many golfers
seem to think that it will be absolutely
necessary for them to have daily and pro-
tracted practice on the links if they hope
10 make anything like a creditable showing
in the tournament.
1t must be admitted that the Field Club
is not by any means as accessible az the
Fair Grounds. II is a hard place 10 get TO
and 4 harder place to get away from. They
make Il so pleasant for you there But IL IS
not by any means certain that daily and
protracted practice on a course is necessary
70 achieve success in a tourney played ON IT.
In fact. It is a pretty coed bet that pro-
longed, incessant and enthusiastic practice
on the Field Club course would be excel
lently well calculated to dull g. players
game and stale him.. Too much practice
and too hard practice. particularly on a
stiff, long course. Is more liable to hurt
than anything else. Last year, when the
championship was played on the country
Club course, II was noticeable thar sevefai
good players-meu who had an excellent
chance for leading honors and who prac-
ticed with enthusiasm and energy-did very
poorly when the match play came along.
On the other hand, the high men In that
tourney-Messrs. SuckGey. Scudder, Nc
Kittrick. Oliver ct al.-really pTacticed Out
little on the course.
Hot and hard practice before q tourney 4
dangerous. You are eager TO VIII. ycu go
at IL hard II you find you have a fauIt. you
keep playing TO correct it: IL you play ny
YOU try TO play better by playing too much;
you try TO cure your poor work by playing
more it is hard for a fellow 10 qGit praS-
Iicing When he has just made a bao rouho-
The result OF IL all is that you are Loot-
sore. handsore and eyesore about the time
The Field club is far out. But do not
worry about not getting enough practice.
Play eighteen holes three days in the week
prior TO. the tourney and you VIII nave
All this talk about knowing the links is
n bit nonsensical. How often have you
taken a perfect stranger out on your own
links-he may have never played over them
and been beaten by him Then, ON the
returned the compliment Just a round or
so TO estimate the distances and test the
speed OF the greens. and you are dead sate.
One very decent feature OF the cham
pionship programme tor this season Is that
You do not have to play qualifying ana
ting I'D al the unseemly hour OF $50 O'CLOCK
10 play a qualifying round-and managing
;. tough indeed to be called out after lunch
20 play q match when your man Is Just
about one stroke in nine holes better tnan
YOU are. Thirty-six holes match play is
not too much. but thirty-six holes. eighteen
medal to qualify and eighteen match, are
fearful.
The writer heard a little scandal of the
green talked by several gentlemen about q
small round table the other day. Five OF
them. golfers each and every one, sat ABOUT
the board and told many things they claim
TO know of which We're not exactly sports
I've got one against many, things IN
golf" said one gentleman, and 1 tnouGnt
] was beyond being taught anything new;
But l have recently seen some tricks played
in st. Louis that have startled me l DO
cali them cheating. But the men who
turned them did not seem 10 SO regard
them. At least they did them openly ana
without any attempt at concealment.
One of the most common tricks / have
gone against is the teeing up of seconds
pIaying a good Bit lately just for fun. or a
ball or so; or something IKE that hMs
down ali the way. never was in trouble.
Yet. do you know. l saw him time ana time
again tee his seconds without oatung All
He did no, put them up with bis hand.
But by addressing his ball. beating tne sole
of his club down close behind II. moving
the head against the ball. be beat the turf
behind the ball. pushed the grass way
from between the club head and the sphere
!. and managed to convert a poor ne INTO a.
oh, that is a very common practice with
seen them give the ball a surrep;:tious tap
with the club head to tilt it out Of q BAD
lie. Move it three inches in fact and never
say a worn ,-o,,fcn
shot with an iron back Of a bad lie. Ihey
would stand across the course and cut the
turf away from the back OF the ball witt
their swing. Then when they had trans
formed a cuppy shot into a driver crack
they would face about and let her go.
Another unfair practice all too common
is that Of scraping away the sand from be-
hind A bunkered hall: I have known sew
eraI players 10 address their ball very care
fully I'm a bunker. never lay the club down
until they came back for the stroke. Then
they would bring the club head back
through the sand and tee the ball as they
came back.
Another trick which I despise Is the
practice of cody taking up your ball when
Your opponent holes the odd and saying,
well, we halved IT. No matter how close
you are It is not a cinch that you will hole
out until It Is down. How can a man make
4 kick. but / like to see the ball holed out
right even II the put IS but a tap to con-
vert a hanging ball into a holed one"
"Oh, cried a third" these tricks you talk
OF may be bad enough, hut the fellows, who
turn them are not to be compared with the
boy who stands calmly by and waits for you
10 play the odd when you have outdriven
him twenty feet from tee. I have tn the
eye Of my mind a certain man. a cleric,
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