The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-02
GOLF DOES NOT
 iNJURE NERVES

The erstwhtIe complacent golfer has had to receive many rude buffets in recent months, but he must think that an assault is now being made upon the last bastion of his creed. We refer to late efforts to show that golf Is bad for its naiddle-aged and older devo- tees. Some sufferers are dragged for ward to tell of their sad experience, and certain medical authorities are cited to prove that the game is neither whole some nor safe for those part forty. Such is the new OsleriSrn! The most specific statement of the case that we have seen is in the English Review, in which an apparently vera cious writer affirms:
 My doctor declares neuraSth en1a to be the pathological symptom of the game The Vexatiois, the constant tr- rttations. the appointments, the concentration demanded, the eye strain exacted, the nervous tension involved, the mental stress and draw necessi- tated by this battle between the inn perfections of humanity and the me chanical perfection aimed at, the nor- al energy rdissipated, the artificial pas siyity of temperament which is essen tial, the sheer egocentricity, egoism, egomania, set up automatically by a game dependent solely upon ones own skill, and the retroactive depressions caused inevitably by failure at it. these things. my doctor asserts con duce to a peculiar morbid action upon the nervous system, resulting in more or less chronic condition of sub- acute meIancholia-the idiosyncrasy of the weekend golfer. I have been nearer to an zoutburst of hysterical weeping on the links than at any oth- CT time in life's calvary
 Wanken auch die Berge? Must we give up the most deep-rooted convic- tions about the benefits of golf for those in advancing years? Has Rock efeller played and preached the game a deluded man? If we are to credit these new aSsailants of the game, then President Taft and President Wilson haye been pitifully deceived, and their predecessor in office is vindfcated who said contemptuous1y: Golf is no game for a fu1l-grown man!'' It will be hard to give up fondly cherished beliefs, but neurasthenia is mighty and will prevail. We are to conclude, then, that all the rosy accounts of having discovered the fountain of youth on the links are vain imagin- ings. The whole army of gray haired golfers who have been boosting of vtg- or renewed and spirit enlivened by their favorite pastine, are to be class ed with the self-deceived cripp1es who throw away their crNutches at Lourdes. or Ste. Anne de Beaupre. In reality, though they have known 1t not, they have been rashly exposing themselves to nervous strain. egomania, and me1- ancholia.
 It looks like desperate case, but 8 little consolation and possibly hope may be left the golfer who has come to forty year-and furthe-if he will stop and do little discriminating He win notice that the neryously wrecked player of the English Review helds 10 the intense and somewhat old-fashioned view of the way in which alone success is to be had at the game. This was the theory of tre- nendous concentration. You were to stand over your ball the world forget ting and the world forgot Every thought, desire and even instinct was to be shut out of your consciousness, except the one fell determination to remember all the rules and to hit that one perfectly. That way, 1t mutt be admitted madness has often seemed to lie. Egocentrfcs of that sort yield ing to melancholy have been seen on every links. But a new school of golf teachers has risen. Their motto is re- Sax Instead of the old terrible grip ping of your club and yourself. you are to cultivate a care-free air, to act upon the rules rather than ceaselessly repeat them to yourself, and to be calm and blithe instead of absorbed and Intense. We do not allege that the children of this theory justify it's wisdom any better than those of the older, but they have much more comfortable time trying to live up to it. and are cerain1y not in the way of becoming neurasthenic-
 Another thing This a1armist of the En glish Review Is plainly g. low-han- dicap man. Though getting on in
 i- hi terIy disappointed if he cannot give his son three bisques and beat him. Of such player we can well believe that failure to improve his game would plunge him into gloomy depres- sion If his handicap were one higher this year than last, he would think that the end of all things was at hand. Tor him golf is not a. recreation, a diversion, a pretty device for cheating yourself into s f1ve-mile walk in the open air, but the serious business of life Not to succeed brilliantly in it is to write yourself down a miserable makeshtft of 8 man. But not such, happ5Iy, is the anima1ing- motive of the increasing numbers of mfddle-aged golfers They like to play well, but if they must play i'll, never mind; they play, and that is enough for them There is always a glorious shot or two in the round to look back upon with joy. The eighteen holes may be done in shoclzingly high figures, hut any, how there was the wonderful eleventh miracuIously made in one under par. And as for their handtcaps, these light-hearted old men are unblushing in making them as high as possible All the better chance that they may some day win something in a medal score competition. To the new goIdng gospel of relaxation, these veterans of the links take eagerly. Some of them carry their relaxed attention so far that they don't notice how many strokes they have made! But they are no prey to neurasthenia. Let the oc- casiona1 nervously broken-down golfer say what he will, and let the medical faculty find new names and causes