GOLF FROM TWO SIDES.*
THOSE two brilliant golfers, Mr. Roger and Miss Joyce Wethered, brother and sister, have written a capital book about the game. They both have ideas and express them. selves exceptionally well, with the help of apt similes. They do not always see things quite from the same point of view— what brother and sister do l—but they do not quarrel about it ; there is, in fact, an agreeable family harmony, based on differ- ences, throughout the book. About one thing they are quite agreed—that infallaZa tips for playing a stroke in the right way and professional instruction are all very well, but that ultimately the player mat work out his own salvation. Ho must learn, as it were, through blood and team ; he must profit by his own mistakes and learn from them. Correct form in
golf seems to be so subtle a thing that the authors take almost a metaphysical view of it. We are told, for example, that it is probably a mistake to continue practising the same stroke time after time with the intention of never being able to play it wrong again. We are invited to believe that it is indeed desirable to repeat the stroke a few times till it comes right, but that when it has come right you should not tempt fortune by frightening the correct form away. It is evidently rather like courting the muse of poetry. You cannot make a mood mechanical.
Miss Joyce Wethered's opinions will be received with particular respect just now, after her smashing victory—at the age of twenty f—in the Ladies' Championship. She has formed a moderate estimate of the golfing ability of her sex. Those who have watched her play would say that she is a good deal too modest. But, however that may be, it is an undoubted fact that women players, as a whole, are much better with wooden than with iron clubs. She acknowledges this, and her explanation is very interesting :-
" It is in putting and wooden-club play that I consider the strength of ladies' golf lies. As regards their play with the irons, certain weaknesses become apparent. It is in the approach shot that they are disappointing—and the stroke to which I am at the moment referring is the back-spin shot, as it is played by the greatest players, and recognised by them to be the master-stroke of the game. Very few ladies can play this shot ; and the question may reasonably be asked : Is the stroke within their reach ? On this point I propose to advance a theory which may have little in it, but is at any rate a suggestion worth risking. It is often said that a girl or woman cannot throw. This is not strictly true ; but whether from want' of practice or the absence of some necessary muscles, as is some- times stated, the action of throwing is a rare art amongst our sex. It is the common thing in mixed cricket to see a girl bowl underhand with natural ease, and to send up the ball underhand from a distance ; but when the attempt is made to throw, or even bowl overhand, there certainly does seem to be something missing in the majority of cases. The full awing in golf appears to me in many respects similar to the underhand action in cricket ; and the best iron-club play has an action of its own, which resembles an actual throw with a cricket ball. If there is anything valid in this theory, it would explain the fact that ladies meetly play their irons with a natural swing, which tends to lift the ball and causes it to run freely when it itches. This stroke, which may be called the ' pitch and run' is indeed played very well by them, and is most serviceable' but the difficulties of present-day golf courses seriously handicap the player who has to rely almost entirely on this method of playing iron shots. Anyone, however, who. can pitiy the back-spin shot really well will score time after time, and will find any trouble taken over its cultivation in no sense wasted."
The match-winning value of the stroke which makes the ball' drop dead instead of over-running the mark can, of course; hardly be exaggerated. Professionals, as a whole, are more accomplished at this stroke than amateurs. Among women, we suppose, nobody is quite so finished in the use of the iron clubs as Miss Cecil Leitch. At least, we should' have said this with conviction till Miss Wethered beat' her so- decisively at iron play last week.
We turn• from Miss Wethered's treatment of iron- [ghats to a chapter on the same difficult subject by her brother. He says that when a player is enjoying-some sort of success with his iron shots he declines to change them. That is to say, he may be bitting the ball cleanly and straight and judging the distance well, and yet if he cannot put that cheek-spin on his ball which will prevent it from running when it drops he is at the mercy every time of a player who- really knows how to play iron shots. Mr. Wethered describes the- kind of iron shot which satisfies too many players. It is played with a swing which corresponds to • GeV from Two Side. By Romer and Jogm Wetherell. London : long. mans. [108. ed. net.] the swing of a driver. The ball is swept forward with a long, full finish without taking any turf. Mr. Wethered then goes on :— " If real progress is desired it is imperative that such a style should be discarded. Turf must bo taken, or at any rate defi- nitely grazed, in front of- the spot upon which the ball was situated before it left the face of the club. If the edge of the blade strikes the bottom of the ball and the ground simultane- ously, and thence proceeds onwards into the turf, back spin and a controlled flight will be achieved. This point may be constantly reiterated • but it is of such vital importance that, if the repetitiOn of the doctrine helps to impress its significance upon the reader, it will be at any rate space well occupied. I believe that the insistence upon this principle strikes nearer the root of the matter than any other accepted law. It is the first of the primary essentials upon which I had wished to lay emphasis before an attempt was made to describe the shots themselves."
Mr. Wethered is himself one of the longest drivers in England, and he lays it down that success in driving is a combination of two or three things, and that since it is impossible to keep in mind more than two simple rules while you are playing the stroke it is necessary to practise each rule separately until the series of complicated movements becomes a harmonious whole. The old tip dinned into every beginner about swinging back slowly is, of course, sound so far as it goes, but it does not go all the way, or even very far. The downward swing of the club towards the ball will correspond to a certain extent to the backward swing, because the one is the result of the other. A funereal back swing cannot be the beginning of a really strong, true and flexible stroke. Another important point is that the arc of the swing must be as wide as possible. It must proceed as close to the ground as possible for as long as possible, both before and after the ball has been struck. Mr. Wethered also strongly believes in the straight left arm in addressing the ball and in the swing. He declares that a wide swing or sweep of the club-head is impossible if the left arm is not kept straight and stiff. More- over, the rigidity of the left arm is a very great aid to steadiness. Finally, ho says that the resistance of the left hip and the upper portion of the left leg can be used as a great stimulus to hard hitting. Their resistance can be imposed against the force of the swing and they will add impetus to its career. This is, we think, fairly demonstrable. If the left hip swinge round in sympathy with the swing of the club there will be flabbiness instead of decisiveness.
We have said enough to show that this book is a valuable treatise. Wo hardly know who is likely to learn more from it, the beginner or the expert.
Previous page
