Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-10

he was beating me- There wasn't any mys-
terry about 1t. Neither boy took home books
about the Psychology of golf and studied out
It's mysteries" Both of them the minute
they had clubs in their hands instnctively
responded to the muscular demand They felt
the swing of the club, their fingers sensed
the proper timing for the stroke, their
muscles told them how much strength to use
to propel the ball certain distance on an
approach. When the practice which is
sential for any game had given them proper
familiarity with their clubs and with the roll
of ball anybody with half an eye could
have seen that they were born golf players
As q matter of fact both of them would
have been almost equally good at tennis,
and one of them at least was one of the
best preparatory school baseball players OF
his day. They are natural athletes at any
sport which demanded the correct co-ordna-
tion of eye and body in hitting n ball with
some kind of a club,
Why There Are Golf Dubs
The real truth of the matter is that when
a man is a dub at tennis he usually quits
the game. Nobody wants to play with him,
anyhow, because tennis is a game of give
and take and a one-sided match is small
sport. If he Is a dub at baseball he doesn't
get much chance to play, No team wants
him. And so 1t goes. Then too, in the more
violent sports too much physical exertion is
required to keep men at them after the zest
Of youth has passed
But golf. poor old golf, is taken up by
everybody from boys in knickerbockers to
tottering octogenarians. quite irrespective OF
whether they have any natural aptitude for
hitting a ball or not. and they can always
find partners, always so poking and foozling
happily along They can't hit out 250-yard
drives. they can't depend on their brassies
they can't push up a mashie to the pin they
can't gauge their puts and they declare that
golf is a mystery; they write books about 1t,
they pore over magazine articles telling how
to concentrate" how to keep the eye on the
ball, how to keep the head down, how to fol-
low through. and so on, and so forth.
Most of them never stop to reflect that
they couldn't hit home run off Christie
Mathewson nor place railroad service into
| the corners of the service court, nor control
| Lawford to the deep base line, nor lay
! bunt wher they wanted to, nor take a squash
ball neatly off the side wall, nor do hun
dred and one other things which require
that instructive mental and muscular co-or-
dnatlon that characterizes the born athlete
Moreover, they couldn't do any OF these
things IL they studied them as hard as they
| study golf and praeticed them just as much.
Simply the athletic instinct isn't in them.
A Game Without Morals
The pathetic feature of a golf course really
| is the vast number OF people upon 1t who
are trying to be athletes when nature never
| built them that way
This is truly a terrible thought! It takes
away hope How many OF us would keep on
playing golf If 1t weren't for hope2 About
once a year play our course under so. That
| 10 (for 70 Is about as far under so as l ever
go) is to me a pillar OF FIRE and a cloud
OF smoke urging me on across the swaIes
and hazards year after year toward the
promised land of the First Sixteen II there
be mystery in golf 1t is this power It pos
sesses to delude, to cheat, to inspire false
hope Because II lacks the direct physical
contest against a living opponent which ten
mis-. say. possesses. we deluded devotees never
seem to diseover-certainly never admlt-our
inherent limitations, but go right on chasing
the win o. the wisp OF even fours just as If
real athletic ability was in as. It is In reality
highly Immoral game.
''But think of the wholesome exerelse!''
somebody exelaims,
More bunk Nobody ever does think OF the
exercise. A person who plays any game FOR
the exercise" hasn't the first notion Of what
the game is about. II wouldn't be a Rama
any more-it would be medicine.
must end this now, as there's a foursoms
waiting Tor me.