The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-29

that the result of this must be to keep
! the ball longer in the air than it
would remain if there were no under
spin, since it is the force of gravity
| that pulls everything down and all the
| time that the ball is in the air it has
some of the velocity that was i'm
parted to it on the tee acting upon it
until the other forces, chiefly air re-
/ sistance, exhausts it.
"It will be seen. therefore, that
pulls, slices, and balls that fly well all
arise from the same cause, the ro-
] tation of the ball and that the differ
! ence is the direction of the rotation,
which is settled by The kinu of stroke
! that the golfer makes.
| Therefore the great authority
concludes that good driving lies not
merely in powerful hitting but in the
proper apportionment of good hitting
with such knack as gives the right
| amount of 'underspin' to the BALL
| One of the Professor Tait's calcula-
| tions was to the effect that in certain
' circumstances a man who impaired
backspin to his ball when driving it
might get a carry of about 80 yards
more than that obtained by another
i man who hit as hard but gave the ball
no 'underspin.'
Ny readers will appreciate the value
of an added 80 yards to their drive. On
some holes it might mean lowering
! their game a full stroke, tho in more
! cases it would give them the advant-
age of a mashies shot to the green
| while their opponent might have to
! have another full shot to get home.
According to Professor TAFT the ball
that is properly driven is not only not
| consciously aimed upwards but it is
not hit upwards. Such a ball for some
! distance after it has left the tee, fol-
i lows line almost parallel to the
ground, and eventually rises as a re-
j suit of the underspin that is forcing
/ it upward all the time
And let me repeat here emphasis
/ for my readers Professor Taits point
4 made in the first article that the eff
| feet of this .'underspin is to hold the
| ball in the air. a longer length of time,
thereby giving it plenty of opportunity
! to travel the full distance resulting
| from the velocity of its flight. In
| short the 'underspin' given to a
driven ball is a means of neutraliz-
ing the effect of the atmospheric re-
sistance and gravity
| Before ending this topic there are
some other points of great interest
brought out by TAFT and interpreted
by James Braid which | want to pass
on to my readers. With some of them
old golfers are familiar, i-ltho they
| probably never before understood the
! why of these golf points.
For instance many golfers believe
that well driven golf ball reaches
the highest point in its flight halfway
between the spot where it was driven
! from and where it lands AS matter
of fact the ball reaches its highest
point long after it has reached the
halfway mark in its flight. A we'll
driven ball, says TAFT, that has total
carry of say 165 yards is, under nor
NAL conditions, at its highest point
a bout 135 yards from where it was
struck and thereafter falls rapidly.
This fact is the result of the "un-
derspin'' which helps the ball neutral
ize the down pull of gravity and hence
keeps the ball in the air longer and
4 no underspin the ball would have no
help against gravity and the result
would be that the highest point of its
flight would be halfway between the
point where it was driven and where
it alighted.
Quoting further, TAFT says in Braids
article: ut is we'll to call attention
to singularly erroneous notion very
prevalent among golfers, namely, that
a following wind carries the ball on
wards Such an idea is of course alto
gether absurd, except in the extremely
improbable case of the wind moving
faster than the initial speed of the
ball The true way of regarding mat
tiers of this kind is to remember that
there is always resistance while there
is relative motion of the ball and the
air. and that it is less that relative
. motion is smaller, so that it is reduced
turnout the path of flight when there
is a following wind
Another very important point 10
bear in mind, limited at in one of the
quotations already made, is that the re-
sistance of the air or wind to the ball,
as the speed of the ball is increased
is in much greater than simple pro-
portion to that speed. What 1t