Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-16
BY JEROME D. TRAvERs.

Nearly every golfer has his favorite
club With some this club is driver:
with others mid-iron or a mashle'
with still others it is the putter. Any
number of plain, ordinary average golf
ers, far from the championship lists.
are masters with one club. Any num-
her of these average golfers. who are
wonders at pitching a mashie shot close
to the hole are badly defective in their
driving and long iron play. Any num-
Der of golfers who rarely play below
SIS or 90 are better putters than many
stars.
In practically all other games there
IS but one club to use. In golf there
arc from five to ten clubs in use. and
at least five distinct shoes-the drive.
the full iron, the mashie pitch. the chip
shot and the putt. Each is played
differently and requires a particular
kind of skill So an average golfer
may be good with one certain club and
poor with another There are clubs in
the bag which golfer takes out with
great confidence. and others which he
takes out with great fear and re-
1uctance. although the latter may be
easier clubs for most to use than the
former. All of which is a part of the
mystery of the game.
A ouimet Shot.
This liking for a certain club or for
certain clubs and distrust for other
clubs isn't confined to the duffer
TO the average golfer. 1t applies as
we'll to the great stars of the game
TO the Vardons, the Hiltons. the
Ouimets. the Taylors and the Braids.
Take the case of Francis Ouimet,
American open champion for 1913 and
amateur champion for 1914. Ouimet.
to my mind. is the soundest of all
American amateurs when every club
in the bag is to be considered. He is no
better than Evans from the tee up to
the green. but he is a far better putter.
Yet if had to pick our one club with
which Ouimet is best, 1 should say the
driver. He is fine wooden-club play
er. especially on brassie shots from
fairly close lies, the supreme test of
don and Ray at Brookline he was as
accurate with the wood as Vardon and
almost as long as the mighty Ray.
In the amateur championship. held
at Ekwanok, Ouimet and W. c. Fownes
had one of the hardest matches of the
week. Fownes was up at the thirty
fourth hole, but lost the thirty-fifth.
bringing them to the last hole all
square This hole, about 450 yards,
played as it was against the wind
with the course soft, calls for two fine
shots to make the green. Both got
away good drives. but Fownes was UNI
able to get home on his second.
saw Ouimet walk up to his ball and
study the lie and the distance. He had
close lie that ordinarily would have
called for an iron shot II he topped
with his brassie there was a deep ditch
ahead that meant disaster. But he
reached for the wood. and as he did SO
] turned to a friend and remarked:
That ends the match; he'll put this ON
the green sure" I knew what he could
do with that wooden club The result
was wonderful shot, 22o yards from a
the middle of the green for a sure and
the match. If he hadn't been a master
OF the wood he would never have got
on, and F'ownes might have beaten him
later on.
The Case Of Hilton.
Harold Hilton, the great English
amateur. is a finely rounded golfer, but
should say his two favorite shots are
the spoon and the chip shot 1t is nv
belief that from sixty yards up to the
green Hilton goes down in two oftener
than any other golfer in the world.
Not that he Is such a wonderful put
ter. but largely because he nearly al
ways lands that chip shot within easy
Hilton is almost as accurate with a
spoon: a wooden club for closer lies
and shorter distances than the brassie
calls for. In his match at Sandwich
AGAINST Harris in the British amateur
Hilton came to a shot which called for
2oo-yard distance. with a strong fol-
the green easily with a mid-iron III
would never have thought of using any
other club. To my surprise he took
swing. placing the bali within eight
feet of the hole and then sinking his
putt IT was a ticklish shot, and so he
est confidence. Yet nine golfers out of
ten would have found the mid-iron
much the easiest and much the safest
club to use at that point.
John Ball, eight times British ANA
teur champion, who won his first cham
pionship in 1883 and his last one in
1872. twenty-four years apart, like Hill
ton. is master of nearly every club
In the bag. But Ball can do tricks with
rnid-iron that no other golfer would
ever think of doing He lives at Hoy
lake. and very frequently goes out for
round with nothing but a mid-iron
A big part of the time he doesn't even
take mashie along-the one club con-
sidered the most necessary of all clubs
in the bag.
Just before the British amateur
championship in 1913 Ball was stand
deep trap where most golfers would
have been thankful to get out with
niblick. Ball was using a mid-iron.
shot after shot he laid up within put
ting distance Of the cup 1t looked to
be easy that a certain golfer, one
of the best, figured that he could also
make the shot. Here. let me take a
crack at It," he said to Ball. Ball
smiled and handed the mid-iron over.
The golfer descended into the trap.
whaled away and came near losing an
eye. The ball struck the side of the
trap and came back so swiftly that
one of the experimenter's optics was
closed.
In a hard match at Hoylake Ball
came to the fourteenth hole. where the
second shot frequently catches a heavy
patching of whins short of the green.
Balls second landed in these whins and
he had tough lie. expected TO see
him take a niblick. and was wondering
whether he could get out even with
this club. But he again reached for his
rnid-iron. and not only played the ball
out. but with such terrific back spin
that It carried low and still pulled up.
as IL it had been pitched with a mashie
niblfck.
An American Marvel.
One OF the most pronounced instances
of supremacy with one club is that of