Evening star., 1915-12-05

tice physically, but they never think OF
practicing mentally. Practice control
ling your mind just as you practice
swinging a club; practice keeping your
mind on the ball as well as your eye;
practice forgetting that any space ex-
lists beyond the ball, and. practice the
thought that your work Is done when
you get the ball away from that one
small spot. How many golfers prac-
tice concentration? Not one out of a
hundred. They expect it to develop
naturally, and such a thing doesn't t
develop without aid any more than the
swing would develop.
The Fault Of Being. Too Ambitious.
But suppose 1 am slicing or hook
ing?" queries the duffer. How am l
to stop that? Just looking at the ball
won't do it."
Well, looking at the ball will help.
But the main fault here is bad timing.
which results mostly from letting the
body get away from control.
And in this connection I would like
to add tip-most golfers are too am
bilious. They want to do all the work
themselves. with their arms. and body
and feet and head, leaving nothing for
the club. Now the club has its part IN
the game. 1t has it's work to do Just
as well as the hands. So why not let
it do it's share of the labor? -
Too many golfers bring into play en-
tirely too many muscles. On short
shots make the stroke as simple as
possible, using only the hands and
arms, keeping the body out OF IL. Cn
longer shots let the arms and club do
more work. and the body less.
In other words, practice playing the
all that unnecessary lunge and twist.
Let the arms pull the body through, in
place Of the body pushing. the arms
through-which' latter is the worst
thing in the world for timing.
These are faults that should be cor
rected by visit to professional, for,
as remarked before. II left too long
they develop into fixed habits;
Getting back on ones commence IS
even more important than getting back
golf come the most Interesting cases
connected with the game. Confidence
or lack of confidence. making or break
ing a player. may come or go at sim
gle shot; -ss....-
| In this connection the case of Wall
ter j. Travis at Sandwich in 1904 Is an
interesting example.
Travis had gone over to compete in
the British amateur championship,
but across the water he wasn't given a
look-in. No one thought he had a
chance He had been playing good golf,
but about ten days before the tourna-
|ment started he Suddeniy went WToHB
in his putting.
Having always been good putter.
and knowing the value of putting in
tournament play. this was a hard blow
to the Americans hope and dream. He
worked for hours. tried out various
stances and various grips and all the
methods in sight, without effect. The
day of the first competitive match In
championship play drew on, ana yet
Travis was still foundering. he was
unable to lay an approach putt close
or to, sink a short one. Something had
happened to break that mystic link
which Joined confidence with his play.
And then, on the day of the tourna-
ment, he threw aside his own putter in
disgust and borrowed one from an
American friend.
The first putt he tried for went down
with cluck. And from that point on
Travis gave the greatest exhibition OF
putting any tournament has ever seen.
He simply walked through the field OF
England,s best, and he turned the trick
by sinking the most wonderful puts
that England had ever seen. A fifteen
footer was dead easy. He got most OF
the twenty-footers. and, strange to say,
about the only puts of any sort that
he missed were the wee ones that he
should have holed easily.
What had happened? Nothing except
that Travis had suddenly recovered his
confidence with new putter,
A Common Fault Among buffers.
s There is still another mistake which
! have noted frequently while watch
p.