Evening star., 1938-07-15
NERVOUS SYSTEM
PUT TO IRON TEST
In Agony Of 'Yips' He Once
Blew Fl Short Puts in
72-HoIe Tourney.
BY GRANTLAND RICE,

special Correspondent Of The star.
NEW YORK, July 15.-The shindig
at shawnee-the battle for the Pro-
fessional Golfers Associations cham
pionship brought up one Of the most
interesting points I've stumbled into
for some time. The argument started
before the Shawnee championship. It
involved the most Furnishing game in
sport.
The answer, according to Tommy
Armour, one Of the smartest COM
petitors I've ever known from any
field, was this-golf.
II know" Armour told me, that, ct
first glance. this may sound stupid.
But can prove it"
Ut may be mentioned, in passing,
that Armour knows what tough COM
petition is-including q closeup on
prize fighting and four years at the
front In the late World War, where
hostile steel located one Of his arms
and one Of his eyes)
"I'll try to give you slant on what
I mean," he said. Punishment In
boxing il largely physical. It has to
be, since about 80 per cent don't know
what the mental side Is. You get
knocked out in . few minutes, or you
get battered up In 20 or 30 minutes,
and it's all over.
"Punishment In football is largely
physical blocking and tackling. The
clock shows that, In football, the ball
Is in motion only IL or 13 minutes
through two hours. In baseball. the
average chance for each player is
around five fielding plays and four
times at bat-nine per game. And
there isn't much physical punishment
in baseball. Otherwise, no one could
play 154 games q season.
Golf Is Different.
Nov, any one with even a slight
touch Of brains knows that physical
punishment doesn't even compare with
nerve punishment. saw Firpo q little
while after Dempsey had knocked him
down eight or nine times-and had
knocked him out-and he looked and
felt about as well as he did two hours
before the fight.
But golf Is different. Golf Is an at
tack upon the nervous system in a
big championship. A 36-hole golf
match lasts at least six hours. Every
shot you play is q drain and q strain
on concentration, and this in turn
cuts directly to the nerves and the
brain. where you take the beating.
I mean the beating that counts to
any one even fairly intelligent. I'm
not talking about the morcnic imbe-
Giles in sport who don't know what
brain or . nerve is. And there are
plenty Of these.
Having had my share Of luck, I've
won the U. s. open, the. British open
and the p. G. A. But no one knows
the beating I've taken in these cham
pionships. It cuts into your soul.
4 played in one big money 72-hole
tournament in which dreaded even
walking on the green. I'd have loved
to see Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey
waiting for me. My troubles would
have been over In . punch. But, in
this tournament. playing my finest
golf up to the green. I blew II puts
under three feet. My nerves were in
q snarl and . tangle. They were
blood-raw. I suffered agony all day
long. But had the yips and I
couldn't cure them. The yips start
with an explosion from the brain and
then pour their cobra poison into the
nerves. I knew that every short putt
I missed was costing me at least 500,
but couldn't do anything about it."
Armour Is Right.
Armour is 100 per cent right. I
saw q star Cornell football player COL