The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-01
HOHEBRED WRITES GOLFBOOK'
FIRST AMERICAN TRAINED PRO
no SEEK GLORY IN PRINT.

Stroke and Comforts Cross HANDED
.Players-Smashes Some Old Theories.
A .homebred professional, by which Is
meant one who learns the game In this
country, has written a hook Of instruction
in Rolf., 1t is the first on record and may
soan a period in the long journey that is
70 end IN the victory of a homehred player
in the open championship OF the United
States Golf Association. b resident
Scotch and English professionals are not
writing books but content themselves with
winning in the competitions. In England
the best PROS do both-they win n write
books also on how to do it.. The clever
literary style Of Willie Park, DR., J.H. Taylor
and Harry Yardon, as revealed in their
''bcokS, stands as a monument to the intel
lectual value Of golf. A member OF the
Oxford and Cambridge Goling Society
Gould not nave written any better on the
game and it's associations, nor more enter
tainingly.
The hornebred who has entered the lists
ssks credit only for bis practical hints on
golf and disclaims any further pretenttons.
He ia Lnncelot G. Servos, a Canadian by
birth but who has never been under salary
as professional save to clubs In the United
States. He began the game az a boy at
Eiaeara-on-the-Lake, Canada, in 1895, and
took as his early model Charles B. Mao
donald, then American amateur champion,
who went over to the international tourna-
ment that year with a party from Chicago.
Serves has since been at half a dozen clubs,
last year getting as far south as Bellair,
Fla, and now being at a Boston course.
Five books Of instruction in golf epre
sent the output Of American amateurs. The
earliest, by James P, Lee. OF the Shinnecock
Hills Golf Club, had to tell what the game
was as well to tell how to play. DR.. Dwight
Of Boston, Harry Roy Sweny Of Albany,
Walter j. Travis and ~Niblick" have been the
authors OF the books to succeedLee pioneer
manual, Each Of them has written with
earnestness and has departed from the
beaten paths as the goling spirit has die
tated. The same vlgor IN
methods thai vary from the ordinary char
acterizes Serves in his Instructions. The
illustrations, also, are many and very well
done
A concluding chapter IN Teaching Golf,
gives a good idea OF Servos's system and
ideas. Il want you to clearly understand,
he writes, this is a book of instruction in
golf and was written to be studied not read.
have eliminated all parts which did not
bear concisely on the point at issue, l do
not wish to ~criticise books by others, but
] cannot help thinking that had the majority
never been written and the minority thus
left been welded out to about half Their
present bulk, a more definite idea OF how
70 play golf would have been laid up in the
archives of golf literature.
Il tell you throughout what you are to
do. I don't say, Don't do so and So but
do SO and So The hardest people to
teach are those who have a little knowledge
of golf and who have worked at some one
point, to the exclusion Of everything else,
thereby acquiring a habit which, II it Is
not correct, makes them difficult subjects
81 Iaa1 yrifh The firaa fN foIra inafr1tnf1Nn |
in golf is after you have played long enough
to be sure Of hitting your ball every time.
Then you can be readily taught how to
hit it right.
right-improves. No amount Of practice
will make you a perfect player
The last opinion is flung with the shock
OF a wet sponge in the face OF the reader
on the very last page Of the manual. The
truth SO bluntly expressed, if put on the
opening page, might have spared the am
bilious reader considerable time. but the
next paragraph shows Serves to be only
making a grim professional pleasantly.
Since golf was first played until to-day
there ever be one" explains Serves. Per
feet shots, however, have d d will be made
as long as the game is played, In order
to be a perfect player one would have to
ing distance of the hole. This, if you will
consider, is not an impossibility, but no
one has ever lived who could do it"
The contents of the book represent a
being taken up. Serves has original ways
of teaching, one of his principles being that
to get golf knowledge into a man you
must get energy out of him" In the of
netting and sets him steadily at work until
he swings as he wishes. From 200 to $50
balls are hit in thirty minutes in a cage
lesson at driving, which Serves teaches
A. -, - IL H. 49, 1s~1r- ILL., ~-A- I
ing lesson is 10 acquiring the theory Of the
full swing, not a ball being hit in this lesson.
Serves does not approve Of a professional
playing around with a pupil n showing
him the way Of making each shot. He
styles this a waste of time and energy, for
while walking in idleness to where the ball
lies a half dozen more could be played and
that much moro good derived from the
lesson
A grain Of comfort to crosshanded
players is included in the instructions, a
class Of golfers until now quite overlooked.
"a ball can be driven as far crosshanded
az othsTyise;' the ho%ebred writes, and
don't let any one induce you to change
Another novelty is a chapter on the Fat
Mans SWING
first principle with Serves is that in
order to simplify the game as much as
possible n stance should be adopted
FOR all shots. He urges playing off the
left foot or all shots from drive to put,
but the feet are closer. together and the
stand nearer to the ball when putting in
proportion to the shoTtness Of the club
shaft. Standing square to the ball he
does not approve, but strongly urges
playing of the right foot instead of the
left to stout golfers. The explanation Of
this Serves principle is amusing. He
writes:
Fat men, attention! All ye who are
troubled and heavily laden with a super- |
fuous amount Of a~voirdupois situate. on
the region of the abdominal cavity. harken
to my words. This is the swing for you,
and, as I have found it so successful in
teaching fat men, I have named it the
fat mans swing Now, don't be ashamed
to get out and practise this swing just
because 1 have given it that name. For
q stout person to waste time trying to tie
himself up in a knot, and to come back
steady on the feet at the moment Of inn
pact Of thesclub and ball, is simply ridicu-
lous. The hands and club head are travel
ling at the rate of three or four miles a
minute on the downward swing, and for
any stout person to try the 'uncoiling' act
off the left foot is the height Of a%bsurdity.
You N do it.
" ~ - A.. ~