The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1904-10-06

Il line mind: Metaphysics,
1Fo~ golf and the feminine
neart. The Germans, l believe, pre-
tend to have solved some of the rid
dies of the first, and the French to
nave unraveled some of the intricacies
Of the last; will some on tell us where
IN lies the extraordinary fascination
Of golf?
have just come home from my club.
We played till we could not see the
dag; the caddies We're sent ahead to
find the balls by the. thud Of their
fall; and a low. large moon threw
whispering shadows on the dew-wet
grass-or ere we trod the home green.
At dinner the talk was of golf; and
for three mortal hours after dinner
the talk was of golf. Yet the takers
were neither idiots, fools nor mono
maniacs. On the contrary, many of
them were grave men Of the world.
At all events, the most monomaniacal
Of the lot was a prosperous man of
affairs, worth | do not know how
many thousands, which thousands he
had made by the same mental facul-
ties by which this evening he was
trying to probe or to elucidate the
profunditieS and complexities Of this
so-called game" Will some one tell
us wherein lies its fascination?
THE CLEW is COMPLEX.
The clew is complex one. To
begin with, it is three-fold; physiolog-
lcal. psychological, social In the first
place, no other game has so simple an
object or one requiring, apparently,
so simple an exertion of muscular
effort. To knock a ball into a hole
that seems the acme of ease. 1t is a
purely physiological matter of moving
your muscles so, thus the tyro argues;
and in order to move his muscles so.
he expends more time and money and
thought and temper than he cares, at
the years end, to compute. Without
doubt the ball must be imDelled by
muscular movement; how to co-ordi-
nate that muscular movement-that is
the physiological factor in the fascina-
ton of golf
In the second place, when the novice
begins to give some serious considera-
ton to the game, he discovers that
there is such thing as style in golf,
and that a good style results i'll good
golf. He begins to think that there
must be some reconcile knack in the
game, a knack that has to be learned
] by the head and taught by the head
to the muscles. Accordingly he takes
lessons, learns rules. reads books, la
boriously thinks out every stroke and
oy degrees comes to the conclusion that
mind or brain has as much to do with
the game as have hand and eye. 1t is
here that the psychological faetcr
comes in.
In the third place, having progressed
bit, having learned with a certain
degree Of skill to manipulate his sew
aral clubs; having learned also, and
being able with more or less precision
to put into practice, certain carefully
conned rules as to how he shall stand
and how he shall swing, the beginner
for he is still a eginner-discover
that he has not yet learned everything.
He discovers that the character of his
opponent and the quality of his op-
ponent's play exercise a most eXtraor-
| binary influence over him. Does he
go out with a greater duffer than him
self, unconsciously he finds himself
growing over confident or careless.
Does he go out with redoubtable
player, one whose name on the club
handicap stands at scratch, he cannot
allay a certain exaltaton or trepida-
ton highly noxious to his game.
And it is in vain that he attempts to
reason these away. Not only so, but
even after months Of practice, when
the exaltation or trepidation is under
control often it will happen that an
opponents idiosyncrasies will so thor
never to play with that idiosyncratic
again. This we may call the social or
moral element. 1t affects the feelings
or the emotions; it affects the mind
through these feelings or emotions;
and, through the mind, it affects the
muscles.
Now, take it that there is no other
! game in which these three funda-
mental factors-the physiological, the
psychological and the social or moral
are so extraordinarily combined, or so
constantly called into play. Some
sports, such as football, polo, rowing,
call chiefly for muscular activity, judy
ment and nerve; others, such as chess,
draughts, backgammon, call upon the
intellectual only. In no other game
that I know Of is, first, the whole ana
tomical frame brought into such siren
nous yet delicate action at every stroke;
or, second, does the mind play SO i'm
portant a part in governing the &C
tons Of the muscles; or, third, do the
character and temperament Of your
opponent SO powerfully affect you as
they do in golf. To play well, these
three factors in the game must be most
accurately adjusted, and their accurate
adjustment is as difficult as it is fas-
cin2tinS