Evening star., 1909-06-30
TAFT ON THE LINKS
Expert Travis Tells How He
Plays Golf.
PRESIDENT KNOWS GAME
Champion Describes the Recent
Match at Chevy Chase.
DEFEAT OF VICE PRESIDENT
Some Funny Incidents, Including
Mr.. Sherman's Remarkable Back
ward Play.

| All golfers will be interested in the
details of the recent notable golf match
| on the Chevy Chase links. in which
| President Taft and Allan Lard defeated
Vice President Sherman and Walter J.
| Travis. Here is the story, written
by Mr.. Travis In the July issue of the
| American Golfer, New York just issued
/ The four-ball match at Chevy Chase
June l. between President Taft and Mr.
Allan Lard against Vice President Sher-
man and the present writer resulted in
a decisive win for the presidential side
by up and to playa severe drub-
bing.
! The system of scoring as favored by
the President was adopted; that is, TAX
ing the combined scores of each player
on either side at each hole. For ex-
ample. on the first hole t292 YARDS Mr..
Taft got and Mr.. Lard a >. an ag-
gregate of Q. as against Mr.. Sherman's
the first-named players easily won and,
. were l up.
/ Mr.. Sherman Foozles, But
That Of Mr.. Sherman's 1 fear l am
indirectly responsible for In this way:
l had. prior to the match. been giving
him some pointers at his request. That
was all right. so far it went. But
where l made a grievous error was in
not counseling Mr.. Sherman to play his
, own game and, for that match anyway,
| not to attempt to put into practice any
new theories. It's poor policy to swap
horses while crossing stream it's
| usually great mistake to attempt expert
ments of any kind in a match What was
the result? Mr.. Sherman, having the honor,
teed his ball and then said: Now, what
was it my partner told me? Oh! grip
the club first with the right hand"--suit-
| ing the action to the words-'then'-At
this juncture the President jocosely in
terpolated: Eye on the ball. jim: slow
back. loosen up and follow through Ex-
celent advice and excellentlE Intended
| But " something went wrong; cog
J slipped somewhere. The ball struck on the
i toe of the club, went off at tangent
to the right and lodged in the long grass
right under clump OF trees. Take II
sportsman to think of doing that Mr..
Sherman replied: mo. I'll play it." And
attempt to play it he did. The first stroke
failed to dislodge 1t; in fact. l am com
PEELED to say it was a clean miss. So
| that you see we made very inausp1cious
start. And there's good deal in a good
start.
Mr.. Taft Plays Well.
| The Presidents tee-shot was good
one leaving little to do on the approach,
which in itself was SO fine as to give him
| an easy a. Mr.. Lard topped his drive and
| took 3 to reach the green. The second
| hole we also lost. the third was halved
and the fourth lost. largely owing to two
fine rs at the hands of our opponents
| At this early stage of the match it was
| apparent that Mr.. Taft was In one OF
his happest putting veins. Indeed, had
it not been for his excellent work III
| this department we would nave secured
| a half at both the second and fourth holes
| and won the third. And his good work
| cont tinued throughout. He ran down most
of the holable ones In sharp con-
trast to his display in the previous match.
| Then his putting was rather weak
On the seventh hole his tee-Shot In
point of length, was very good. but faulty
/ in direction, finding the rough or
to borrow Gen. Clarence Edwards ia
vorite expression, the ''pampas." An ex-
cellent recovery, followed by splendid
brassey, helped materially toward the
garnering of another hole for their side.
I'm the Drink"
| At the ninth 141 yards). both Mr..
Taft and Mr. Sherman found the brook
| from the tee. The formers ball was un-
| playable, necessitating dropping with the
| loss OF a stroke. Mr.. Sherman seemed to
think that he could play his ball. so he
popped it up on the green and we
| won in e.
| Mr. Taft's approach at the tenth was
bunkered. and failing to get out on his
first attempt, we stole another hole.
| The play at the eleventh was full of in
cident. In the "pampas" from the tee
| both our partners proceeded to run up
strokes most gayly. Mr.. Taft.s second
| finding a water hazard. while Mr. Sher-
man. after two very fine shots. threw
| away his advantage by weak approach
| ing. each finally holing out in 3. So
| many strokes had been burnt up by
| each player that neither had very vivid
| recollection of the actual number taken.
At first Mr. Sherman ventured the Opin
| ion that they had halved in 4 which
| ELECTED from the President subsequent
| when your opponents arguments appeal
| to you being particularly Weighty. 1t
| is when he is trying to convince you
| you've played when you thought it
was =.
Playing Backward.
A funny thing occurred at the twelfth
absolutely unique, so far my expert
| ence goes. Mr.. Sherman and Mr.. Lard
| had walked off to the tee while Mr.. Taft
| and l seated ourselves on an adjoining
| bench Happening to put his driver down
| on the ground the President heard it rat
| tie I'm afraid that's gone,' he said.
Examining it carefully I came to the
| conclusion that 1t was not impaired in
| any way, the rattle being caused by a
| broken anchor--one of the three thin
fingers of lead used to keep the lead in
place. While this going our at
| tention was suddenly drawn to our re-
| spective partners by loud and insistent
| cries of Fore! Fore" 1t seems that Mr..
| Sherman. who is not very familiar with
| the course. had mistaken the line of play
| and had cracked off his tee-shot in the
| opposite direction, right in the midst of
| the match following-Gen. Edwards. Capt.
| Archie Butt, Senator Bourne and young
| Charlie Taft. the Presidents Son-who
| were just then making their appearance
| over the ridge, some 16O yards away.
why didn't you tell Mr.. Sherman" I
asked Mr.. Lard. We'll, didn't like to-
| he replied. Il thought he was seeing how
| that brassey YOU recommended would go,
| and what more natural than to drive a