The Washington herald., 1922-06-19

In behalf of some 967. 900 avera ge
| golfers Ia better phrase than duffer
| or dub). we recently made a tour Of
professional opinion.
The trouble. as you may know. with
the average golfer is not the inability
to make a fine shot, but the inability
to keep making these good shots con-
sistently and steadily.
For here, of course. is the secret OF
the foundation of low scoring and
successful play.
We have heard an endless para lie
of golfers ask this question: IF l
can make a fine shot once. why can't
keep on doing it? The bail Is the
same. the club is the same and I am
the same. Why do so many OF us hit
fine shots and then hit so many poor
ones?"
A Few Reasons.
toured the professional highways.
half of the multitude.
One leading Instructor offered this
idea:
The golfer walks up to his ball
at a certain hole and hits a fine shot
In his enthusiasm over this result
he doesn't remember anything else.
At the next effort he may be stand
ing six inches closer or six inches
farther away; he may be playing the
ball off the right heel. in place of the
left. 1t is astonishing how often
golfers change their stance or swing
during a round without knowing 1t.
They swing one way at one place and
another way at another place. They
come back evenly on one swing and
they hurry back on the next. They
can't be consistent because their
swings are not consistent"
Which Is True Enough.
Did you ever notice" continued
this pro. "the difference between
ting a poor one?
After hitting a good shot he
walks briskly ahead. After hitting
bad one he stops and tries out
two or three practice swings, to
see what the trouble was. why
shouldn't he, after hitting a good
shot. try to keep in mind just what
he did? This is the time to take
one or two additional swings, in
order to help develop the habit. l
| recall the case of a golfer lately
who was playing well one wecE
and who the next week was playing
| badly. Within week he had
moved hack six inches more from
the ball. yet he had no idea that
he had made any change at all"
Hit or Miss.
with too many golfers" re-
marked another Doctor of Divots
''it is all case of hit or miss. Now,
take Jesse Sweetser. Swestser
stands with his toes upon an even
line. line parallel to the line of
flight. This Is easy enough to re-
member and simple enough to do.
! 1t helps to give his game a firm
foundation to start with. Chick
| Evans does the same thing. He
isn't constantly showing his left
| foot forward or bringing II back
OF the right. He knows just how
far away he wants to stand from
the ball on each shot-just so much
for a wooden shot, so much for an
iron, so much less for a mashie
approach. He keeps these distapces
standardized. Any duffer can do
the same by merely taking a little
more pains and giving these fea-
lures little more attention. The
stance and the position of the ball
start the foundation OFF correctly.
Now comes the swing. One time
the average golfer will swing back
on the right arc inside the ball and
get away fine stroke. But the
next time he may swing back out
side the ball. Why does he do this
Because he doesn't concentrate in
the right way II his stance re-
mains the same and his distance
from the ball remains fixed for each
type OF shot, he doesn't have to
bother with these details after a