Evening star., 1939-01-16
Col. Wa||ach SAVAGE
After 0uimet's Tin
Proves Fruit|ess
Concentrate on Swing,
Not on Hitting Ball,
Houehton Suggests
By WALTER McCALLUM.

BY WALTER McCALLUM.
Col. Nathan Wallach of the Ken
lucky colonel Wallachs moves to
ask: what am I gonna do in this
screwy golf game of mine to prevent
freezing on the backswing? How
am I gonna hit that ball in relaxed
way"
The good colonel, in case you don't
know, is one of Washington's lead
ing book collectors. He has a golf
library that would knock out Mer-
rill Lords eye, and Merrill has one
of the best in the world That fellow
you may see browsing around any
secondhand book store any day
may be the colonel. He has yen
for old books; the wormier the
better.
Somewhere in his browsing around
the dusty bookshelves he came
across volume written by Francis
. Ouimet, the Boston master of the
game. Approach every shot as if
you were about to fall down." Fran
els said in effect. BE loose and
don't ever tighten up on shot at
any time" All of which the colonel
took literally. He tried it out on
the first tee at Woodmont and
whitfield.
Disagrees With Ouimet.
Undeterred by this vile blow from
fate he tried it again and parked
the ball 3 yards away at right
angle. "Phooey on this Ouimet
guy" roared the colonel He can
fall down if he wants, but I'm going
to fall down facing the enemy" p"
And he went back to his old habit
of gripping the club as If Londos
was trying to take it away from
him. He tied himself into muscular
knots and wound up with his usual
53--and paid off. The colonel is
nothing if not consistent.
The good colonel is only one of a
great army of golfers who freeze at
the ball. You know, the gents who
can snip the head off dandelion
like Hoppe playing a simple bank
shot, and who get themselves into
muscular knot when they try to
hit golf ball. We asked AL Hough-
ton about it. Al has been around
town this winter selling soda water
and playing a little golf.
That's tough one to cure" said
AL. 1T isn't uncommon, but it is
something that takes more than a
few minutes on the practice tee to
work out. I guess the colonel is
afraid the golf ball will rise up and
bite him. He should take out his
Kentucky sword and wave it gall
lantly at the foe to loosen up his
wrist action. But seriously those
poor guys who freeze into a state
OF muscular immobility in front of
a golf ball have something really
bad.
Think Only of Swing"
1.-The only cure I know is to for
get they have something to hit with
and think they have something to
swing with. If they can get out of
their minds the hit idea and con-
centrate on the swing idea they'll
stop that freezing during the back
swing. There are very few golfers
who can hit the ball with tense
muscles, and the colonel appar-
emily isn't one of em. He should
loosen up - take that Ouimet
stuff seriously-but first he should
' concentrate on swinging the club
head.
Il imagine he tries to hit the ball
when hitting is the one thing he
shouldn't do. If he could form a
mental picture of the club-face
meeting the ball simply as an in
cident in the swing and concen-
trate on swinging the club to bring
about that incidental meeting I
think he'd do all right.
But don't let the idea run away
. with you that good golfers don't
freeze, too. I've seen plenty of
them almost completely unable to
bring that club down. I know one
fellow who took so many waggles
on an important shot I wondered
II he ever would hit the ball. It's
something that comes to a lot of
men who play this game. The only
way to overcome it is to think in
terms OF swinging the club and not
OF hitting the ball"
Wonder if the colonel will stick
that in his library?