Evening star., 1938-03-15
STARTED CAREER
WITH SCORE OF 81
Wise Example Set by Bill
WeIIman, Film Director,
but Few Heed It.
BY GRANTLAND RICE.

LOS ANGELES. March 15.-The
smartest golfer know doesn't happen
to be star amateur or a winning
professional The name isn't even
Walter Hagen, often listed in this
bracket.
He happens to be motion picture
director by the name of Bill Well
man-once better known as Wild Bill
Wellman when he came down out of
the war clouds in a fighting plane
some 20 years ago.
Bill Wellman first decided to take
up tennis. He worked at the game
hard enough to get quite good and
then he broke his right arm. So he
learned to play left-handed-and play
well. That gives you some idea about
Bill.
But this is golf yarn. Wellman
decided then to take up golf. That's
when he proved to be the smartest
golfer on the long list. When Bill
plays game, he likes to play it WE'LL
or not at all AS long as he was
going to play golf, he wanted to be
a good golfer, and not wait too long
Lays Out Campaign.
So, instead of playing competitive
rounds and developing faults, Bill laid
out set campaign. He began taking
lessons from Harry Basler, the pro at
Lakeside out here. In between lessons
no nr9rtlnaS Nn,, L,
on a course. First lesson. then a
practice session. But no competition.
This system moved along for several
months. Finally, one day, Bill decided
10 try the course. On his first round.
ne shot an 81. This is a score that
golfers playing for years have been
aiming at. In short while he was
down around IS. He was breaking 80
steadily after less than a year at golf
And. with any chance to play between
pictures, he was around "a or IS
The answer is fairly simple. Most
golfers, starting out. begin by develop
ing flock of bad faults that soon
turn into worse habits. And a habit
isn't easy to cure. Other golfers take
lessons, but they never give the lessons
chance to work.
Few Go Through With 1t.
After a lesson, the golfer should
try what he has picked up from the
pro on a practice tee-all alone-with
no angle Of competition in mind. Will
ne 90 that? Practically never. The
pro manages to do something to his
swing so that he is hitting the ball
in much better fashion than he ever
did before.
So he immediately SAYS to himself
What I'll do to old Bill Smith will
be plenty. I'll murder him with this
new swing"
But, without any testing practice.
without applying his lesson or lessons
minus any pressure. things begin to
happen. He suddenly finds he is
worse off than he was before. He
gets caught in jam between the
old swing and the new swing, and
there's nothing left but a smoking
niblick.
NO one can learn golf that way. A
lesson is little good if it is thrown at
once into the strain and pressure of q
money match.
The Right Way.
Iheres a new spring and a new
season coming on. There are millions
OF golfers-a few anyway-who haven't
improved stroke in 5 or 10 wears.
Their games rarely change, except
possibly for the worse.
Many of these take lessons, They
apparently have certain faults cured.
but their main mistake comes in
trying to play competitive rounds too
soon. They don't give the pro a
chance
What they should DO after lesson
is to go, at first chance, to the practice
tee to try to work out what they have
learned while they have nothing to
think about except the stroke they are
working on-the corrections they have
been given.
The lesson from the pro, translated
almost at once into competitive play,
will do more harm than good. The
golfer with certain set faults isn't
going to cure these in any day or two.
The cure calls for time, work and
patience.
Bill Wellman was smart enough to
know that faults and habits are hard
to cure. That's why he decided to
learn how to play golf-to find out
what the golf swing was-before en-
tering any matches. That's why, with
in six months, he was giving eight or
nine strokes to players who had been
playing golf for years.
That's why think he is the smart
est golfer know.
Copyright. 1898, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance Inc)