Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-01-23
GOLF GOSSIP

1t Is a very strange thing that so
many people seem unable TO realize
that in golf as much as, if not more
than, in other things it is the man
behind the gun" that Is Of import
ance. not the implement itself. Some
people have a perfect fad for buying
new clubs, every novel design seems
to them to hold hidden within it that
wonderful secret which is all that is
needed to turn them from mediocre
golfers into champions for all time.
OF course, it has its good points, this
purchasing habit. II proves lucra-
tive idea for the club-maker But the
great disadvantage is that so many
golfers collect so many kinds Of clubs,
spending their time trying this one
and that one for a few days here and
few days there, with the result
that they never really get confidence
in any club through feeling 1t as an
old familiar friend.
There is a golfer ! know, an eX-
ceptionally fine player too, who at one
time was not over-blessed with this
worlds goods and so not able to at-
ford to indulge in indiscriminate buy
ing of clubs Coming onto the club
veranda one day before a match, he
said: did any Of you fellows see my
mid-iron? l left it on a chair here
a minute ago" His opponent, who
was the possessor of more money than
tact, blurted out: That old thing
yours? I found 1t there and thought
It was a caddie's club and sent it round
to the shop"
may add that there wasn't one of
us who was not heartily glad when
the match was over that 1t was by his
superb play with that despised club
that enabled the first man to give his
discourteous opponent the worst beat
ing that had ever fallen to his lot, in
spite of the fact that the latter was a
very good player whose bag was re+
plete with everything the genius OF
the club maker could devise to enable
people to play fine golf. 1t is not the
club II is the man who Yields it.
No finer illustration of the truth Of
this can be found than in the case in
the Country Club, Brookline, where
among many interesting things there
is to be seen what is possibly the most
unique driver in existence.
Roughly cut out with knife from
a branch of tree. so that the knob
at the end forms the club head; limo
cent Of sandpaRe or sfle or any other
tool OF the craft, it is the last i'm
plement one would choose for a driv-
ing competition. Yet it was not only
useful in enc but its owner carried
off the prize. THAT does not say
much for the class of the other COM
petitors," | hear some one say scorn.
fully.
True, they were caddies and the
owner of the rough club was little
negro boy who whitfield out his own
driver for want Of a regular one
and wonderful as the club is, consid-
sering his lack of training in club max
ing and In tools, there is something
more remarkable about it than that
1t was with an old battered ball (some
say gutta one) and this quaint home.
made club that the boy won his com
petition with drive of 204 yards
Many a man with the latest thing
in drivers and the liveliest of balls
viii Wy no HiSdAS uScpISS SUN d oIlOl
when he brings it off, and so often
when l have heard some one boasting
about the great length he got from
such-and-such tee, l look at his per
feet club and brand new ball, remem,
Der his countless lessons from the pro-
fessional, and somehow great player |
as ne is his performances fade away
into insignificance beside the picture
of a little negro boy with a roughly |
whitfield stick and an old battered |
ball driving over 200 yards in a caddy |
competition.
For the moral of this tale you have
not far to go.
It's not the club that matters, it's !
the man who strikes the blow |
It's not the latest thing in balls, for |
you success will spell,
It's having few clubs in your bag and |
knowing each one we'll