Evening star., 1932-03-22
MODERN" CHANGES
MERE DUPLICATION
Volume Published in 1905
Shows 0Id-timers Knew
as Much as We.
by w. r. McCALLUM.

kO4IlHB Sun III tnc way Va
Il clubs or methods of hitting
"a golf ball, even though
golf, as a game for experts, has
progressed far from the days when
any score in the high 70s usually
set course record, and when red
coats, spats and tight knickers
marked the well turned out golfer,
Practically the only changes which
have taken place In the equipment
for golf have come in improve
ment. in golf balls, wooden tees
and steel shafts.
Scores have been lowered consider
ably. for nowadays most course records
are somewhere in the middle Cos, while
40 years ago any score below 60 was
likely to set q record.
But bulger faces for golf clubs, in
troduced only few years ago all over
again were common twoscore years
ago, and even the sand wedge of last
year, which did for the duffer what the
expert couldn't always do with his
niblick by way of getting the ball out
of bunker without loss OF strokes,
was anticipated 40 years ago. The
ruhAIt ABhGuft Ot ttte SdtlQ WcQBc WAS q
concave face, and thousands Of them
were sold until the U. 8. G. A. decided
the concave face struck the ball twice
and ruled 1t out, TO the disgust OF
many manufacturers.
Theories Of the making Of golf shots
which are carefully expounded as new
developments were hoary practices
back In the days OF Tom Morris and
Allan Robertson. while golfing etiquette
remains the same high standard OF
gentlemAnly department today it was
back in the mauve decade.
A IL these facts are brought to light
n in q glance at 'Badminton on
Golf" q part of the Badminton
series on sports, which were regarded
as the last word in sports chronicles
back in the 1905. Nathan M. Wal
ZACH, Washington golfer who goes in
for collecting rare volumes and old
books on goh. has dug up this Bad
rainton, written for the sport series of
Horace G. Hutchinson, q famous Brit
ish amateur Of 20 years back.
II you think you have found new
and revolutionary theory in your golf
swing. listen TO these sage words on
the playing Of the game, written 20
years ago by famed player Of his day:
Above everything. the golhng drive
is o swing and not q hit It may al
most be termed q sweep; it is not TO
be hit at" Notice any similarity be-
tween these words Of 40 years back and
the latest golf instruction Of this year
Of 1892
Don't press" How often have these
words been dinned into the ears Of the
beginner and how often forgotten! Yet
20 years back Horace Hutchinson urged
his readers to let the club swing itself
through. Let it do its work itself and
1t will do well. Interfere with it and
IL viii be quite adequately avenged"
A ND here Is a set Of msxirns for
"A playing balls lying other than on
smooth ard nat turf. which are
quite as applicable today as they were
20 years back:
FOR cuppy hes-Swing evenly down.
ward 20 rs to nip in" between edge
Of cup and ball. Do not think about
the Jerk
with hill in front-Play to somewhat
slice the bali. Which should be easy
for most golfers.
With hanging ball-Swing, with
spooned club, over the surface Of the
ground. as II it were level
Ball lying above, facing you-Swing
freely. with right hand gripping lightly.
Ball lying below, away from you
Swing quietly.
The old st. Andrews swing, wherein
the clubhead nearly touched the left
heel on the back swing--a very DASH
ing style in those days when golf balls
really had to be hit big blow If they
were to 60 anywhere-has vanished. In
Its place there has come the well con-
trolled swing, wherein the club seldom
goes beyond the horizontal in the back
swing, as the modern method. but the
principles OF stance, grip and body and
wrist action, are the same as they were
20 years back So also were the powers
OF the straight, accurate player re-
garded. just as they are today. There
were Freddie McLeods in those days
too, men who couldn't hope to keep up
with the big hitters from the tee, but
who made life miserable for them when
they got around the putting green.
EvEN the language of the game has
IL not changed great deal, for Mr..
Hutchinson solemnly asks wheth-
er the Tut, tut, tut Of the eminent
divine who misses q shot Is not the ex-
preston of the same inward emotion
rs the more sulphurous exclamations
of the vulgar tongue.
The bulger face on wooden CLUBS ls
regarded as modern development. Yet
more than half a century ago one
Henry Lamb invented the bulger face
which was played successfully by the
masters Of the game at that time.
"Their great merit" Hutchinson says.
''is that they are easier to drive straight
with. The effect is that ball hit on
the heel of bulger VIII not go sWerv-
ing of to the right, nor Dali MT on
.l:e zoe to the left" So the bulger
which was forgotten for many years
and came to light again about 10 years
hack. is an old story. And concave
faces on lofting clubs? Willie Park
Invented q patent lofter" back in
1890, which had a concave face OF the
same kind as the sand wedge, ano II
goes further back than that, Tor MI:
Hutchinson points out that some OF
the old irons in the st. AndreWs gon
museum show concaVity OF oiaoe.
WYE now have clubs to take care OF
w ali situations. matched sets with
All sorts of numbers ranging from
No irons down to the lofting irons,
which frequently bear such weird num-
bers as "66" and so on. our goinng
forefathers did not have these, ano
Hutchinson refers to the masnie as q
comparatively new weapon, especiaLy
of the pitching shots-one J. H. Tay-
lor who has since won several British
open championships But with the
coming of this multiplicity OF golf CLUBS
and irons to take care of all distances
we have lost the delicate half and
three quarter shots which were ana sun
are the finest things in the game at
the hands Of a master player. Inc
modern maxim is this: Take out ciuD
for the distance and slug the pan as
far as 1t will go. The club Will take care
OF the distance. so slug it, Something
has been lost by way Of fnesse In these
shots but the game as a whole has
progressed, even though the fineness OF
those sweetly hit half shots has van