Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-01
By James Braid.
tOpen champion. 1901. 1908 and 1867

By James Braid.
tOpen champion. 1901. 1908 and 1867
(All rights reserved)
There is a right way and wrong one
Of playing every game that Is worth the
playing. and it is inevitable that in learn
ing to play any such game the novice only
gains success after making nultiture OF
mistakes and then. by correcting them,
learning something more Of the secrets OF
methods than he knew before. But while
this is true of every game. I feel certain
that it is far more true of golf than OF any
other, for it is not once in twenty
times that man or woman learns to play
even a quite average game without in the
first instance having committed practi-
cally every possible error. and that not
accidentally but very often deliberately,
believing for the time being more in the
mistake than in the true method. 1t is
one of the mysteries of this wonderful
game as to how human nature permits
the young players to have patience
through such aI1ong period of bungling
and failure, and certainly the average
player who has attained fair degree of
skill and certainty in his play. looking
back on all his past experiences and what
he has gone through, has some consider
able cause to congratulate himself on his
perseverance, not to say his pluck. He
has fought the good golfing fight.
Let me say that in the case of players
who do not begin when they are children
I do not altogether believe in those who
never make a mistake from the start, but
drop into very fair sort of game right
away. Certainly this implies a consider
able aptitude for the game, but in the
light of experience it is rather unnatural.
and one feels that the man who never
makes mistake and has single-figure
handicap when he has only been at the
game few weeks will have bad time
later on and that his handicap will stick
for long time at a point some way up
above scratch, where he will be passed by
the others who made all the mistakes that
it was possible for them to make and got
rid of them afterward. Slow and sure is
very good way of getting on in golf.
Making the Ball Talk.
Men are in error with their golf the
whole way from the time before they be-
gin to play at all until, If ever. they bring
their game up to the championship stand
ard. They are always finding something
out" as they call it. and the discoveries
that they make are to them of the most
wonderful and interesting character, and
doubt not that this constant novelty,
and the most interesting character of
these results of the daily researches is
another of the chief causes of the popu
larity of the game. Before they take up
the game people make great mistake in
the view they hold Of it and its diff
culties, and this is to a large extent re-
sponsible for their subsequent t-ouble. 1t
seems such very easy thing to hit a golf
ball with club. the good players who are
watched seem to do it with so much GER
tainty. and the evils of duffing. sclaffing,
pulling and slcing are so undreamt Of
that the who has mot p19Vad
see where the difficulty comes in, and it
seems to him that capable player ought
to be able to do almost anything except
make the ball talk.
I was once playing in a match with
Harry Vardon at Beckenham, and at one
of the putting greens. when we were both
very long way from the hole, Vardon
ran down verv fine putt. I followed suit
with one almost exactly like it. and need
not tell golfers that fo- players to hole
puts of more than ten yards length one
after the other like this means very fine
putting. such as even champions cannot
do very often, more is the pity. AS we
were walking away from the green We
heard the loud voice of a spectator in the
crowd explaining to some one else. "Oh.
but, you know. those men only do that
kind of thing for the sake of applause.'
That gentleman was quite plainly not
then a golfer, despite his undertaking to
explain things to his friend t-ust he
has become one since, because If so he
will have realized the enormity and even
folly of some of the earliest errors that
he made in connection with the game.
Clubs Versus Method
The game is held too cheaply by those
who know nothing about 1t. and 1t is the
most fatal mistake to begin play without
a very complete respect for 1t. A
week or even a couple Of days of play is
cnron1ofo
sion on these points though it is a curl
Gus thing that man often plays better on
his very first day than he will do for
weeks afte-ward. and particularly has it
been found in experience that, despite
the irregularity of his methods, he gets
better results from shots made with his
cleek, and holes more puts on the green.
than many players of fair experience. 1
think that that is the result of the sublime
confidence that does not even yet permit
appreciation of the difficulties Of the
game, but by the second day that appre-
citation has come and the confidence is
broken-sometimeS for years. 1t is then
realized that the greatest strength,
fine athletic build supple muscles. a keen
eye and good physique generally are
not much use If the man has not got
the real gift for golf.
abroad that one of the professional strong
men had offered to bet that knowing
nothing whatever about golf. he would
go out on to a tee and drive ball as far
as any experienced player. If such
challenge was really made it is a pity
that nobody took the strong man on, for
it is certain that he would not have had
a look in.
1t might almost be guessed that one of
the chief mistakes made by golfers at the
beginning of their careers is in placing
too much belief in the club at the expense
of the method. They cannot be brought
to understand that most golf clubs have
really very little the matter with them,
and that the good player can get the
proper result from them almost every
time. though, of course, every man has
his personal tastes. and it is better that