Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-03-23
SWING: REGULATION
HIT BY SLOW LINKS
Golfer Must Be Especially
Careful in Club Choice
TO Correct Game.
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

~ jobs facing your average
n golfer during the early
Spring, when he is slowly
getting the old swing back in its
normal groove, is the double task
of choosing the proper club for
the distance to be covered and
regulating his swing to make the
ball cover that distance.
Back in the old days of golf, two
decades ago, when matched clubs and
clubs graded according to distance were
unknown, the job was harder than in
these days Of bags filled with irons for
every distance.
Even now, however, when a tool is
handy for almost any sort OF shot,
Johnny Duffer makes plenty Of errors
in judging the club for the distance
and Judging the distance itself when
he starts out hopefully in the Spring
to bring the old golf game back.
It isn't an easy task for the expert
TO Judge distance, or to regulate his
swing 50 the ball will cover the APP
proximate distance wanted, and the
soggy courses Of early Spring, where the
ball will first sit down quickly and
then will take long hop into a wait
ing bunker. don't help him at all.
But there are few simple rules
which may help to lower the score OF
any golfer and certainly will go long
way toward relieving the tendency to-
ward erratic dispositions that is APP
parent when the game doesn't function
as 1t used TO last Summer.
FIRST of these is that most golfers
l. underclub themselves. For one ball
that is hit over the green with any
approaching club, there are q score OF
shots short Of the objective, and no
hole moving toward a shot. It's just
as easy to play O. chip shot from the
back edge Of o putting green as 1t Is
from in front. Far more golfng errors
are made on the short side OF the hole
than on the long side.
Another thing lot of golfers trying
out the game early in the Spring don't
figure is that the ball does not go as
far in the chilly air of Spring as it
does in the Summer. A golf ball
travels many yards farther in warm air
than 1t does in chilled air. It stops
far quicker on the slow green's Of Spring
than on the fast-putting surfaces of
Summer, In short. the ball must be
hit farther nowadays TO get the same
results, even though this years ball is
sphere OF last year.
Manufacturers have made of golf al
most a mechanical proposition In so far
as shot-making Is concerned. That
Is, there now are clubs available for all
distances, numbered from the lengthy
No. ! iron down TO the niblickG and
Yiashie niblicks. And yet just as many
errors are made In distance as In the
past when mashies and mashie niblickS
were about all in the way OF short
pitching clubs before the days when
Jess Sweetser made the spade nashie
o popular club.
GENERALLY speaking a midiron,
~ or No. iron, In the hands of your
average golfer Is good for about
ITO yards and not much more. The No.
3 iron Is good for about 1856 yards, the
No. 4 about las yards, the mashie or
No. 5 about 135 yards, the spade or No.
6 about 125 yards, and so on. OF course.
there are cases where a strong man or
q man with o better swing than the
average will add 10 yards TO the dis
tances Of all these clubs.
The experts figure . No. 2 iron Tor
about 400 yards, O No. 3 iron Tor about
ITS yards and so on. Some players used
q mashie niblick for shot Of $50 yards.
OF course, they press the club, and they
do get extraordinary distances with
these clubs, but by and large. 1t Is not
wise to- underclub.
With your average player 1t Is almost
sure death to press any club. Tommy
Bones, the Columbia southpaw, Is one
of those who can take a mashie-niblick
and knock a ball 100 yards, but Tommy's
swing is better grooved and more power
full by far than that of most golfers.
The better rule is to take a longer
club-one that you may judge too pow
erful-and swing quietly and smoothly
with It, You will be surprised how FAR
the ball will 60 and how UGH more
often you will reach the objective than
II you pressed with an implement Of
shorter range The men who really play
fine golf will not be found underclub-
bling themselves They would rather
play q three-quarter shot with a longer
club than trust In q full swipe with
weapon Of shorter range.
A s to Judgment Of distance, the man
"A who lays down a hard-and-fast
rule for any one to Judge distance
by has picked quite a job tor himself.
But there. also, are genera1ities which
help. For example, on a fiat course
where there are few landmarks, dis
tances are usually longer than they look.
On a hilly course, where many Of the
greens are cut in hillSides, distances are
more nearly normal to the normal eye
than on a nat layout.
Take a longer club than you think
you need on fiat course, and take the
club your eye tells you to use on a billy
layout Trees. bunkerS, hilltops and the
edges of putting greens are all factors
in the Judgment Of distance, Pick the
spot where you want your ball TO land,
IL the shot Is pitch, and try to hit
that spot. A good rule is to try to pitch
iIist naGt the edge Of the nutting green.