Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-04-24
GOLF GOSSIP

Il 81
Mark Allerto0 goes on to say that
the matured player with an inaccurate
style may gain some valuable hints
toward the Improvement of his game
from the textbooks, the works Of
didactic writer's, but it is doubtful
whether his style will ever be ma
terially affected. He may have pene-
trated, in the study chair, the veil
that hides the soul of golf from the
common gaze, but all the book knowl-
edge in the world will not change
a fundamentally bad style into a
good one. Bad styles are generally
acquired In our early golfing days
and they ARE invariably the result
of a lack of confidence in hitting the
ball.
This is where youth m golf has
its great advantage. The hitting of
ball with club or anything else
seems such supremely easy thing.
1t is only when the muscles get set
that we realize how fatally easy it
IS to make tremendous swing. and
suffer the humiliation of finding the
ball still perched on the tee. Conse-
quently the attention is often center
ed, not on performing the movements
Of the swing rhythmically and ac-
cording to the laws of mechanics or
anything or any one else, but in hit
ting the ball anyhow, anywhere. This
accounts for the fact that the player
striking at daisy heads has COM
pletely different style from the player
striking ball. He is not obsessed
with the Importance of hitting the
daisy, and so he concerns himself
with the proper execution OF the
swing. He decapitates the flower in
unimpeachable STYLE. style which
might stamp his as a scratch player
at least. But see him on the tee with
ball at his feet. His muscles tighten
as he comes down to the ball, and the
fine, full swing that we may have
admired moment before is contract
ed in such a way that it would be
gross nattery to describe 1t as a
swing at all The scratch man with
the daisy is an Indifferent Is with
the BALI
For such who have made their
style we are afraid there is no hope
in the learned books, weighing ma
chimes, and other things, that are In
tended to reform swayward world.
They may find hints as to stance
and grip Of some use, but it would
be as reasonable to expect the leopard
to change its spots as that the bad
player should attain perfection from
a1whole librarys Of stheory AeFla wars.
house Of mechanical appliances. In
golf. as In most other things, we are
what we have made ourselves. Partial
redemption Is possible, but we never
wholly recover from the early folly
of being too greatly impressed by the
difficulty Of hitting the ball. II we
could all set out in the spring with
the notion that the ball was no longer
elusive, there might be some hope
that this winters lecturing would
have good effect on our play. We
fear, however, we shall not be able
to bring ourselves to this state of
perfect confidence, and so we are
likely to see just as many eccentric
and xdeplorable styles in the future as
we have done In the past. But
wnether We play according to the
book, or not, 1t Is game that is well
worth playing.
/ would add to Allertons remarks
the opinion that in the absence of a
good professional teacher a man can
DO a great deal for his game if not
SO much for his style by reading the
best books on the subject Mind you
al g. - -. a
necessarily good teachers. Be sure
your man has the faculty of impart.
Ing knowledge and what is more i'm.
portant the ability to understand the
kind of swing best suited to your
stature; also the sympathy to dis.
cover your faults. Sometimes the
best of teachers is not a particularly
brilliant performer. With poor
teacher you may fare worse than by
working out your own game with the