Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-07-06
PSYCHOLOGY OF GOLF.
The Player Makes His Own Game, No
Interfering With Him.

Golf differs from most other games in
its individuality-it is absolutely one
self. There are correct and incorrect
ways of making the strokes. but the
whole apparatus of the game is in the
players own hands.
There is no one TO interfere with the
ball except the golfer himself, and he
can use just which club lie prefers. His
opponent may be yards distant from him
during the whole of the game and while
there is no one to blame but himself if
he plays badly he can appreciate the
whole of the glory If all goes well.
In billiards you have to manipulate
what is left for you on the table in golf
you make your own lie of the ball. In
cricket you make the best of what is
sent down 10 you, and there is a field of
phagoyytes in wait TO annihilate you at
every point where you wish to place the
ball, but in golf there is no one to make
things unpleasant; YOU are everything to
yourself, you are the game.
This explains the greater consistency
that is met with in the golfer, because
though the element Of chance must of
course enter into the game to some de-
gree, there is less of the accidental and
uneXpected-of fiuking in fact-than in
most other games. and the golfer has
not to make the best he can of what
others choose TO send him.
Just as in other forms of sport there is
the natural" and the "rnade" performer.
in the natural golfer there is an Unborn
proportion and combination between the
various parts of the body which enables
the player to get the most out of his
strokes; in the made" golfer some
physical irregularity or even defect has
to be overcome. a proceeding which of
necessity ginterferes with the freedom and
certainty of those better endowed. max
ing for doubt and hesitation and conse-
auent failure u achieve the best What
the best eombinatiohs are is impossible
to. define within exact limits: they are
probably not the same for all parts of
the game.
The Wis viva. the living force, of ball
is the velocity multiplied by the mass. so
that other things being equal the quick
ness of the stroke is a very important
feature, and II is not given to everybody
to bring great velocity into his stroke.
The phlegmatic is often the possesser OF
this faculty, and just as one notices an
unexpected rapidity in the hitting of
some boxers of calm and even tempera-
ment, so 1t is in golf. the quiet, steady,
Unconventional player is found to be able
when required to come down upon the
ball with almost lightninglike quickness.
Not so the man OF nervous tempera-
ment, whose very excitability tends to
make him press unduly, to hesitate about
his strokes, TO fidget about with his
clubs until his muscular combinations
get disoreanized and he finishes with a
disappointing foozle. Like few other
forms of sport, the golfer has everything
in his favor; he has the ball lying still
at his feet. he knows the distance TO
which he has to send it, he can estimate
the strength of the wind and the position
of the various obstacles i'm his path--all
he has to do is to use his acquired
knowledge of strength In the right
way. and this the good professional does.
Time after time he accomplishes the