Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-05-13
GOLF GOSSIP

English golfing authorities fully
aroused to the possibility of an Amer.
lean entrant winning the English am.
ateur championship tournament,
which will be played May Is, and IS,
are watching with close attention the
final practice rounds of the more dan.
gerous competitors. Travers, Eerre-
shoff and 0uimet are objects of care.
full technical scrutiny upon every
course where they have played during
the past month and the same now ap-
plies to Chick Evans who arrived
much later than his fellow entrants.
The ccncensus Of expert opinion APP
pears to be that while all four Amer
leans violate one or more of Eng
lands sacred golfing traditions, they
are players of great ability and to be
feared In the approaching tourna-
ment at Sandwich. They have been
the subjects of scores of interviews
and descriptive articles in which the
writer described their strong and
ygeak points ~ he saw them The
following on Ouimet's play Is typical:.
Mr.. Ouimet's appearance lis vastly
different from that with which Amer
lean photographs have made US fa-
miliaf. and. so far from being the
long, lank youth most of US have pic
tured him, he Is powerfully; built
player with an immense reach, which
becomes very noticeable when he
stretches his arms out in the follow
through of his drive
sI1is style Is too good to possess
much that Is remarkable. and the one
noticeable exception Is his. grip, which
is quite peculiar to himself. At least
/ have seen no player who holds his
clubs In this way, and Mr.. Ouimet
knows Of none In the states. The
club is really held by the first three
fingers of the right hand and the last
three fingers of the left. Instead of
the little finger of the. right hand
overlapping the first finger of the left,
as In the su-caiied Vardon grip. it
actually interlocks it, 80 that neither
of these fingers is in complete con-
tact with the shaft. It is not a style
OF grip which would suit everybody,
but Mr.. Oi1imet's muscular and rather
large hands. seem to make 1t wonder
fully effective In his case. 8,
His stance is rather a square one,
but neither in that nor in his swing
is there anything unorthodox. On the
putting green he usually faVors the
heels together stance which most
of our American visitors have adopted,
but his style Is very easy and uncon-
strained. In short. he appears to pos
sess that most valuable asset for a
holes tournament as style which
gives a minimum Of opportunity for
going off. - =.
AFTER all. however, it seemed to
me that the greatest strength of Mr..
ouimet's game lies In an infinite ca
pacity for playing his own game. Here
Is another instance of what / mean:
As was natural I'm four-ball match,
1t frequently happened that the des-
tination of the hole was decided be-
fore all the players had putted out
but If Mr. Uuin1et were one Of those
who had not putted he always tried
the putt, even though 1t were only a
yard or 50, for practice. The effect
of this was, however, that he was
playing these puts as the other three
players, their caddies and the handful
of spectators. were moving off the
green. The temptation to play, hur.
riedly or carelessly would to most
men have proved Irresistible. and
even the movement Of the little crowd
would have distracted many first
lass player But not so with Mr..
kimet He holed out these puts
" great steadfness and care. and
concentration 81 purpose which
superior to al outside c0nsid-
ms The same sort Of thing was
vshle once or twice when be got
into diffic0lties He struck one as !
player VINO would never play wildly
when things were going wrong nor
carelessiy when things were going
wella very difficult nah 70 beat
even = he were not 4 fine PLAYER a
he il 4
The men, kttt II nan, I'm k<.,.,,<iI IA