Evening star., 1915-11-28
JEROME D. TRAVERS OPEN GOLF CHAMPION
PUTS VALUE OF PUTTER AT 45 PER CENT
Declares That Winning Shot In Game Is the
Putt-Control of Emotions Is
Very Essential

tice intelligently. Routine practice
without giving any thought TO the shot
will not help nearly SO much.
To become good putter l believe
ball. so that he can all the easier get
the line of the putt. ! don't believe in
istooping over too far, for this is likely
to develop a feeling of cramped play
And by standing fairly erect there isn't
-, the same tendency to jab or stab at the
! ball as there is when one is crouched
with the putter held low. The good
putter should swing the club with
pendulum motion, using his hands and
wrists with the body perfectly still.
And by all means he should look at the
! ball and not the hole, despite advice
given to the contrary
/ If ali golfers would practice looking
at the ball. looking at the back of it,
just where the club should strike. they
would soon find an immediate improve
ment in this part of their game. But
most of them, when they do practice,
| forget about this important feature.
until the putter has started it upon the
way to the hole. and YOU Will be sur
prlsed at the number of strokes you
| can save in single round.
! The point | am trying to bring out is
that the putt IS the winning shot in
golf. the shot to be.developed above
all others. | don't mean to say that
driving and iron play are not impor-
tant. They are, of course But no
! other two clubs in the bag, combined,
are as important as the putter. in SO
far as the art of scoring is concerned.
Control of Emotions in Putting.
One of the main points attached to
good putting is control over emotions.
| The golfer who misses a putt and then
Immediately goes into the air has a
hard time ahead. He must develop the
ha bit of forgetting bad shot and cen
terng his entire attention upon the
, next hole on >hayelld. Many fine
golfer who had good chance to wiz
some important tournament has lost
out because he let a bad putt get upon
his nerves.
To show the importance of Develop
ing this temperament take the case Of
Alec Smith. one year in the Metropolis
tan Open. There was keen rivalry be-
tween Alec Smith and Jack McDer!nott.
who have won most of the American
open championships Of late years. The
play was nip and tuck. One stroke
might decide the match. Coming to
a short hole. q par three. Smith pitched
10 the green. His approach putt ran
up within three feet OF the hole. He
putted for his three and missed, the
ball trickling eighteen inches beyond
the cup. Then. careless for the mo-
I.>Snt, he putted loosely for his four
and >aissed that taking four puts and
requiring a five at an acute stage of
the match.
This loss of two strokes under such
conditions would have unnerved most
golfers. Smith was apparently undis-
turbed. "Oh. I'll get those two back
somewhere else, he remarked as he
walked TO the next tee. He promptly
eliminated that disastrous hole from
his mental makeup, forgot all about
it. stuck TO his work as if nothing
had happened. and finally won by a
small margin. If he had let the loss
of those two puts stick with him for
even one hole, he probably would have
been eliminated. But he had made it
a matter of habit to try and forget ALL
the bad turns of fortune and to play
each hole as If he were making a fresh
start
Compare Smiths case with that OF
thousands who. after missing a putt
show their temper or their worry, and
who seem to be unable to forget their
latest mistake. A golfer can practice
the DEVELOPMENT of the right mental
development of swing. Too many
people make their practice purely
physical.
l know in my own case. earlier in
my career. l have lost my temper and
always with disastrous effects I lost
"a good chance to win championship
by getting into rage because a pho
ltographer snapped his camera just as
was playing my shot. L was up at
the time in an important match, but
went all to pieces and was soon beaten
badly. After that experience I made
a point of keeping my temper well un-
der control. OF accepting each shot and
each condition as il came. 1t was
hard work, but ] was more than repaid
Only last fall, in the amateur cham
pionshlp, when my opponent had just
sunk a long putt, friend of his
cneered just as / vas starting to try
for mine. In earlier years this out
b:ea X, almost a my elbow. would have
got on my nerves. But 7 refused to
let IL bother me. waited d moment. and
then managed 10 gee down a fifteen
footer for half.
Short Game in General.
Not only putting. but the short game
in general must be cultivated. The
chip shot from off the green is {, highly
important one. When Ouimet was
lighting FOR his chance 10 tie Vardon