The Washington times., 1922-05-31

halve ono Of the remaining holes
to cinch q victory, but he never
did. After q tie ar the eighteenth,
his opponent having won the last
nine holes also won the extra hole
rs by this time his opponents
nerves were completely shot to
pieces.
There 10 nothing so uncommonly
strange about this occurrence when
one understands the psychology of
golf in match play. It is always an
for a man to be playing
for a win rather tnan to one merely
making an effort to obtain a half,
as many players do when attempting
to hold a golf lead.
Golfers who gain an early lead of
four or five holes. ana figure that
that margin Is enough sometimes
draws near. the lead has entirely dis
appeared.
There is an old golf proverb that
says: when you get an opponent
down grind hm hard" Never
show mercy until the match has
passed the danger point. Too many
good-natured golfers to their sor-
row have learned this maxim by
bitter experience.
The same thing has happened to
professionals in medal champion
ships. Find themselves with big
lead, they attempt to hold It by
playing every shot safe, and met
disaster. Safe play usually means
q loss of a stroke here and there in
stead of a gain. 1t involves tight
ening up process and must be per-
lection itself to win.
The loser in such cases is prone
to attribute his loss TO hard luck.
He finds himself playing out of
traps and bunkers and missing
puts because he is not hitting his
shots properly. One never does
hit the ball just right when at
tempting to pls safe instead Of
going boldly afte. every hole by the
shortest route.
Luck in golf is not always what
It appears to be. Anything that
we are ourselves responsible for
cannot be described as good or bad
luck. A good shot reaps its re-
ward usually while a bad shot de-
serves its punishment whether II
gets it or not.
An incident happened In the
winning Of the British champion
ship last year at st. Andrews
that caused q lot Of comment. In
the last round Of play Roger
Wethered accidenhy stepped on
his ball, thereby causing himself
to lose q stroke, and ii was fig
ured out that his one stroke
would have been enough TO win
the championship for him.
It was an unfortunate thing for
young Wethered, but 1t was not a
break in the luck. He tired on his
ball accidentally II is true, but II
was something that was more akin
to carelessness. No outside agency,
such as wind, rain or caddies had
anything to do with 1t. 1t was not
even to be classed as a rub OF
the green" It favored me, it is
true, but had done the same
thing I would have blamed it to
my oarelessness of play.
One Of the hardest breaks i'm
the game appears to be in the un-
playable lie I'm a sand trap. We
will take the case Of two players
who practically miss their ap-
proach shots and find their balls
In Q trap. One is favored with
q good lie while the other finds
his ball in q foot print where
it Is almost impossible to eXtri-
cate it. This is hard luck.
Another tough break comes in
ones ball falling In divot mark.
Golfers have often found their
ball In a trap after a long drive.
but this was due more to bad judg'
ment than hard luck.
Since 1 last wrote, I notice that
the stymie has been restored to
golf by the Western Golf Associa.
ton which makes the return unani'
nous. This Is as II should be
There never was a practical sub
stitute for the stymie and its eliml
ination from the game took away
one of the most skillful shots on the
green II not the whole game OF
golf.
There is not as much luck in
the stymie as most golfers seem tC
think. Nine out of ten stymies
are the direct result Of bad play
One usually lays himself a stymie
or paves the way for 1t.