Evening star., 1937-08-15
L|NKSMEN IN COS
HURT BY NEGLECT
Fine Teaching Field Seen
in Great Group Between
buffers and Experts.
BY w. n. McCALLJJM

BY w. r. McCALLUM.
~ Offs real forgotten man IA
the gent who shoots between
% and 80 and who is an1bl-
tious to reduce his score 10
the 70s. He gets little attention from
the lads who write about the game and
ne has, generally, to figure out vavs
and means Of getting better from ths
hodge-podge OF primary grade instruc.
ton and that billed as for experts
only"
Bob Barnett. Chevy Chase pro,
holds that here, in this great group
OF men and women who are better
than fair golfers, lies a rare oppor.
tunlty for the pros Of the Nation 10
move out and do some real instruction
work.
Pointing out that most OF the in
struction pieces on the game, In news
papers. books and magazines. are
written for the duffer, Barnett claim,
that most Of the instruction stuff 3
primer stuff for the men and women
who have developed a fairly good golf
game and who are ambitious to get
into the expert" class.
THE worst OF it is that you'll find
few articles on advanced golf and
few who teach It," says Bob We
pros have q large group Of men and
women that knows how to play fairly
good golf, but that is stumped by tbs
shots that mean the difference be-
tween low scoring and fairly coed
scoring.
Wants More Than Funda mentals.
ROB goes on to explain that almost
any man who has developed be-
yond the duffer stage can break 30
and that frequently he'll shoot in the
low Sos. But he's puzzled when 1t
comes to knocking of those shots that
mean the difference between tn. 30.
and the high 7os," says Bob H.
misses just enough shots or he makes
just enough errors In Judgment to keep
from breaking into the 10s. Therein
lies, In my opinion, a great field for
professional instruction and written
lllStl uIllOll VII iii iONCIIlSIlt-
ANY pro knows how to teach the
fundamentals Of the game, the stance,
grip and swing, for example He
knows how he plays cut shots and
half-shots himself, but does he teach
them to his better players? For e1-
ample the IS shooter doesn't know
frequently how to play cut-shot to q
sloping green. He hardly knows how
to play low forcing shot into a
head wind. and he knows very little
about the low pitch with stop or the
cut-shot played into q wind from the
right to stop the ball quickly.
These are the finer points Of the
game along with many others which
you won't fnd much written about.
Yet they are very necessary shots In
the better scoring brackets. You Just
can't play straightawa golf and score
low. You have TO know how to play
all the shots, under all conditions.
Open Field Says Barnett.
FOR example, how many people
playing lie with the feet above
the ball know they have TO use their
hands more to overcome what proba-
bly, will be hook If they don't watch
out? Frequently the IS shooter takes
the wrong club. And he makes many
errors around the green in the scoring
area which he wouldn't make il he'd
been carefully taught how to save
strokes
Il mean he plays pitch-shot where
there's apt to be an error when .
run-up shot would Be much better and
with more chance Of success
Il think in that field and that class
Of golfers the men who play fairly
well, lies . great chance for instruc-
ton. These men usually are not sat-
isfied with their 85s. They want to
improve, but they don't know exactly
how to 60 about it. DufYer stuff is
primer stuff to them. They know how
to swing and how to play straightsvav
golf but the finer points Of the game
are lost to them