The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-25
American Golfers Must Learn to Play
 Short Shots Better
By WALTER CANT

New York, July 24.--If we are to look our national golfing faults fair ly in the face, as well as eXult over our golflng excellence, we must .'eal- ize the fact that large majority ot our crack amateurs have developed a pull with their wooden clubs, and have failed to master the low carry ing run-up shot, If we are to snake any further golfing invasions of Brit ain. we must correct these faults or be unsuccessful on the British courses, for a pulled. shot there will run into the rough too frequently.
 Pulled Shot Lost
 A pulled shot on the seventeenth hole cost Fred Wight, our last man remaining in the British amateur championship his lead and he threw away the decisive hole, the match and Americas chance of continuing in the competition with one pulled shot off the nineteenth hole, too. Only this week, in Connecticut championship, w. Parker Seeley wrote his obituary after being four up on Reggie Lewis, with success sion of pulled shots. Why do our amateurs cultivate a pull?? Perhaps because they are too keen on dis tance. But still more they are spurred along the more doubtful path the American courses are laid out with many parallel fair plays. In the semiannual at the Canoe Brook tour ament, Hale twice was on separate fairways in playing one hole, end then equalled Bogie for the hole, If he had been on a British course ke would have lost box of balls on the round. Also with the bludgeon Mashie Niblicks used by many of our players. they can get a long distance out of any inoffensive rou%h on most of our courses, and take chances on long swipes with that possibility of retrieving mistakes.
 Another Point
 The other point in which the Brit ish amateur has shaue the advan- tage of the American golfer lies in the fact that the best of them are master of both the high pitched shot and the lower run-up shot When necessary. they can play the high pitched shot, but when the wind is high or blows unfavorably and the greens are hard, they always take advantage of a permissible lie to run the ball up.
 Walter Travis, the only American ever to win the British amateur title, accomplished it because he kept in
 
 canny accuracy and because he was master of the low short approach and a great butter. Jack White of sun ningdale won the British open the same year at Sandwich, shooting the four rounds of that course in less than 800, the first time it had been accom- mplished in 14 years. because he sacrificed distance to direction and could use the low approach,
 Is it not wise for us to take an in- ventory of our golfing weaknesses with the direct purpose of correcting them? If we are to win victories on the English and Scotch courses. why not recognize two outstanding facts, namely, that our friends across the water are not going to clear out the "sorse and whin" from along the sides of their fairways. nor will they revise their courses so that our long swipers can hit ball anywhere into the wide, wide world and still find | it nicely teed up on some other fair way. Neither will they postpone championships if the breeze blows and the greens are keen.