The Washington herald., 1908-07-05
Mental POiSe Most Essential
TO Good Playing
LOSS OF TEMPER DISASTROUS
Professional Advances Theory that
UnruffIed Frame of Mind Is Prime
Factor in Victories OF oIost Golf
ers-TaIe OF Match in Which ex-
Professional Was Almost Beaten.

was filled with mon with red-tinted faces,
wlnd-tangled hair and weird raimept
/ The score cards were tctaled up 30 the
tune OF much facetious comment, each
man giving a precise and impressive ac-
count Of the holes he had made IN bogey
From the tenth tee" the man in the
white duck trousers was saying. Il drove
2lO yards. and my approach
Hold on a mInutel" interrupted the ex-
/ professional. Driving is an important
part of the game, and heaven knows ap-
preaching is even more so. But you
chaps have talked a heap about what
you did and neglected 10 do, without say
/ ing 4 word about the fundamental and
essential part Of golf.
L want 10 tell you that an unrufHed
( mental poise is the real short cut 20 the
/ iron-Iined dimple. You give burning de-
| scripuons OF holes you've done in bogey
or better, but you turn IN a score for the
eighteen that likely as not slops over into
three figures.
Why? Because where there should be
mental calm you let your emotions raise
rough house.
IF you fan behind little you get dis
| courlged. force your play. make desperate
strokes, and lose your temper, so that a
dozen caddies couldn't find II. II you
win couple Of holes your play gets in
fiated with self-satisfaction. and takes an
aerial rambie. In both cases. the result
is that your game gets awful.
Advantage of the Professional.
That's where the professional has the
/ average amateur beaten to a murmur
The man who plays because he is paid to
] may not WELD his clubs SO much better
/ than the one who plays because he wants
/ TO. But tie pro. has his psychic matter
trained 10 behavs like a calm lake. and
/ no phase of the game is able TO ripple
the surface
When I used to putt the pill for a con-
sideration, I had my emotions chained.
and on the links l was as impasslve as
an Englishman reading Bret Harte.
But sometimes things happen in golf
that crack your stolldity and let some
frenzied thinking trickle out before you
have time 70 repair the breach
The nearest ever came 20 having the
cover batted of my composure was in
Southern Texas. where they wallop the
rubber core an the year round. It was on
the links OF the Bunker Golf Club.
The Bunkers said they couldn't afford
my price. but that one OF the members
would back the best ball OF couple OF
amateurs with a bet Of SO a hole. I had
never met a proposition Just like that
before. but thought I could stop at
least 800 before It gotpast and ac-
cepted
When I reached the links found that
my opponents were two striplings named
Slicer and Topper Each OF them had a
leather glove on his left hand. When 1
saw the mitts I classified the pair with
the almost rams l squared off to the ball.
| cheered with the belief that I would get
almost all OF that $3.50
we all drove from the tee with fair
accuracy. and each ball lay about 200
yards from the getaway mound.
When we came 70 the pellets we found
a weird situation. The three balls lay in
a straight line with the hole not three
! inches apart.
Makes Great Approach.
Il was back and the enemy insisted
that I clay up. 1t looked like a hopeless
( stinye. for OF course II I moved either Of
the opposition balls I was liable to pen
atty
'Eut instead Of worrying I set my
thinSery in motion, and I noticed tree
10 the left OF the course, about half way
to the putting green. I gripped my mashle
and hit the ball a sidewise swat. II
struck the tree and carromed on accu-
rateiy onto the green.
The boys looked crestfallen. and. II
do say so, IL was a nifty shoot NY an
tagonist approached well and on the
clipped grass lay back.
That putting green was the tail end Of
the limit 1t was so humpy that every
shove wriggled along like a snake having
a fit. II took me four puts TO hole out.
1 figured on the striplings using Up about
eight
Then began TO think that my hear
! ing was double-crossing me. Slicer and
Topper were advising each other TO use
hook putt.
THAT was a new kink in golf. and
when Silver started 70 waggle held my
breath.
He gave the ball a careless whack
and it was a bad steer. I've sphere
started TO roll TO the right Of the hole.
But Just as l thought it was going past
it curved around and tumbled into the in
verted pimple. Topper did likewise.
Il confess that my nOnchalance got a
Jar in the solar plexus. was thinking
ragtime. but I determined to hang on.
New Things in Tees.
AT the next tee Topper and Slicer
both topped their drives, but l swatted
the globule 2lO yards. The ball rolled out
OF sight, and foresaw that was in for
a bad lie. Bad was no name for II. That
hard-hit pill had gone down a woodchuck
hole
4" Two strokes is the penalty for lost
ball. said Slicer, promptly.
Il squinted down the gap. but It looked
a mile long, and took O reef in my get
mad. and started 10 drop another ball.
And at once heard a scufiling sound
in the hole, and in a jiffy an indignant
woodchuck appeared pushing my ball in
his paws He made a great tee, and as
soon as he had the pellet above ground I
walloped it from his paws and landed on
the green.
My opponents were wabbling with sur
prise, and used two extra strokes getting
to the putting green. That green was
worse than the first, and it cost me an
other four to land in the dent At that 1
thought 1 had the hole, for I didn't be-
lieve that the striplings could keep up
their crooked putting.
Topper gripped his goose peck and
biffed. The ball wabbled like a tyro on