Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-09
HOLE PUTS AND OBSERVE
THE RULES, HASKIN SAYS
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskio

WASHINGTON, March 9:--Golf
players who are deeply interested IN
the development of the game, and
their name is legion, have sounded
two slogans for the coming season
which they hope will be adopted and
put in practice by every one who is a
devotee of the sport.
The first is Hole your puts. Inc
second. "Observe the rules"
The first is intended to build up or
improve the playing of the individ-
ual; the second is for the general
| improvement of the game.
| Experience has demonstrated that
no golfer ever develops a good game
one that graduates him from the
duffer .lass-until he disciplines
himself to the playing out of every
shot, and particularly the holing out
of every putt every time he goes
around the course. The experts agree
that conceding puts is a habit or
practice that is little short of vicious.
And yet in four out of five matches
in friendly competition outside OF
tournament play four out Of i've or
the short puts are conceded.
The result is that when the play
ers come to tournament play they
find themselves missing an astonish-
ing number of those little puts that
look so easy, and they say they can
not understand it. The reason is OBJ
vious-they have never schooled
themselves in the making of those
short ones. They are accustomed to
! having their opponents knock the
ball away and say. That's good /,
when the putt is anything inside OF
two or three feet.
In competition, and particularly IN
medal play which governs the quail
fying rounds in tournaments, every
| putt, no matter how short, must be
holed out-the ball must be actually
played into the cup with a stroke
with the putter, or di~" strous penal
! ties are incurre', That is where the
average player who has be come con-
| frrned j.. the habit of conceding his
opponents short ones, and of having
an opponent concede his in return,
| finds that he up against 1t and that
| he is the victim Of his own folly. And
| it explains why the man who has
| been "breaking ninety right along
! in his Saturday and SUI ay contests
with his friends so often finds that
| he require more than a hundred
| strokes to negotiate the same old
| familiar course Wien he is trying to
! qualify in the club tournament.
| The Best of EN- Miss 'Em
Nor is it only the duffer or the
| average player who misses tho
| short puts. The best OF 'en miss
| EN-! Not so long ago down in the
sunny southland professional miss
ed an easy foot and half putt a1at
made all the difference to him be-
tween winning first or second honors
and first or second money. TT honor
was worth while, for it was the dis
tinetion of defeating Walter Hagen
present holder of the British open
title, while the monetary dinerence
was a little matter of $500.
Some years ago the Grand OLD
Man of American Golf-WalteI
! Trayis-who was in his prime one OF
the very best putters the game has
ever known, was playing in tourna'
ment at the Columbia Country Club
! Washington, and at q critical juno
ture of one of his matches he actual
ly missed a putt that was not ovel
six or eight inches. Impossible? In
explIcable: 1t is not impossible be-
cause it happened, and 1t can be ex'
planned as one of those things thai
taut nerve sometimes do to golfer
no matter who he is or how good his
game.
When the open championship wa
being played over the same course
here in 1921 Waiter Hagen sank
sixty-footer as his final shot tina
gave him a tie for second money
Ths ball had to ascend two sharl
slopes and Hagen was so far ava!
he could not see the cup when tn
ball dropped in, but it dropp d. Oh
the same green that same day a doz
en- players missed puts that wer'
less than four feet.
And how many heated argument
, have grown out of this thing of con
| ceding puts. The duffer 70 rsom
starts out with everybody in fin
} fettle and fine humor. and on tn
first few holes, or perhaps most o
Z the way round, all the short one
are conceded. Then comes the tim
when one OF those short ones mean
winning or losing a hole or tn
match, and q player is required t
make it. He can not insist or eve
: ask that it be conceded. He trie
! and misses, and what he thinks an
/ what he says about his opponSnts
| one Of the things that make cdddie
xraw hEgteEnat1Eally agsd andAeyn