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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41149 ***
+
+                THE SOUL OF GOLF
+
+
+           MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+
+           LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
+                    MELBOURNE
+
+              THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+           NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
+             DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
+
+        THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
+
+                     TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+    [Illustration: GEORGE DUNCAN
+
+    The famous young Hanger Hill professional, one of the finest
+    golfers, and probably the best golf coach, in the world.]
+
+
+
+
+                THE SOUL OF GOLF
+
+                       BY
+
+                   P. A. VAILE
+
+  AUTHOR OF 'MODERN GOLF,' 'MODERN LAWN TENNIS,'
+    'SWERVE, OR THE FLIGHT OF THE BALL,' ETC.
+
+              _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
+
+           MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+
+           ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
+
+                      1912
+
+
+                    COPYRIGHT
+
+
+                       TO
+
+            PHILIP REGINALD THORNTON
+
+        MY CO-WORKER IN IMPERIAL POLITICS
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+It is frequently and emphatically asserted by reviewers of golf books
+that golf cannot be learned from a book. If they would add "in a room"
+they would be very near the truth--but not quite. It would be quite
+possible for an intelligent man with a special faculty for games, a
+good book on golf, and a properly equipped practising-room to start
+his golfing career with a game equal to a single figure handicap.
+
+As a matter of fact the most important things concerning golf may be
+more easily and better learned in an arm-chair than on the links. As a
+matter of good and scientific tuition the arm-chair is the place for
+them. In both golf and lawn tennis countless players ruin their game
+by thinking too much about how they are playing the stroke _while they
+are doing it_. That is not the time to study first principles. Those
+should have been digested in the arm-chair, where indeed, as I have
+already said and now repeat with emphasis, the highest, the most
+scientific, and the most important knowledge of golf _must_ be
+obtained. There is no time for it on the links, and the true golfer
+has _no time_ for the man who tries to get it there, for he is
+generally a dreary bore.
+
+Moreover, the man who tries to get it on the links is in trouble from
+the outset, for in golf he is faced with a mass of false doctrine
+associated with the greatest names in the history of golf, which is
+calculated, an he follow it, to put him back for years, until indeed
+he shall find the truth, the soul of golf.
+
+This book is in many ways different from any book concerning golf
+which has ever been published. It assumes on the part of the reader a
+certain amount of knowledge, and it essays to bring back to the truth
+those who have been led astray by the false teaching of the most
+eminent men associated with the game, teaching which they do not
+themselves practise. At the same time it seeks to impart the great
+fundamental principles, without which even the beginner must be
+seriously handicapped.
+
+It does not concern itself with showing how the golfer must play
+certain strokes. That certainly may be done better on the links than
+in the smoking-room; but it concerns itself deeply with those things
+which every golfer who wishes really to know golf, should have stowed
+away in his mind with such certainty and familiarity that he ceases
+almost to regard them as knowledge, and comes to use them _by habit_.
+
+When the golfer gets into this frame of mind, and not until then, will
+he be able to understand and truly appreciate the meaning and value of
+"the soul of golf."
+
+This he will never do by following the predominant mass of false
+teaching. This book is a challenge, but it is not a question of Vaile
+against Vardon, Braid, Taylor, Professor Thomson, and others. The
+issue is above that. It is a question of truth or untruth. Nothing
+matters but the truth. It rests with the golfing world to find out for
+itself which is the truth. This it can do with comfort in its
+arm-chair, and afterwards it can with much enhanced comfort, almost
+insensibly, weave that truth into the fabric of its game, and so
+through sheer practice, born of the purest and highest theory--for
+there is no other way--come to the soul of golf.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAP.                                 PAGE
+
+          PREFACE                          vii
+
+       I. THE SOUL OF GOLF                   1
+
+      II. THE MYSTERY OF GOLF               15
+
+     III. PUTTING                           47
+
+      IV. THE FALLACIES OF GOLF             95
+
+       V. THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEIGHT       117
+
+      VI. THE POWER OF THE LEFT            140
+
+     VII. THE FUNCTION OF THE EYES         162
+
+    VIII. THE MASTER STROKE                178
+
+      IX. THE ACTION OF THE WRISTS         202
+
+       X. THE FLIGHT OF THE GOLF BALL      222
+
+      XI. THE GOLF BALL                    283
+
+     XII. THE CONSTRUCTION OF CLUBS        316
+
+    XIII. THE LITERATURE OF GOLF           334
+
+          AFTERWORD                        350
+
+          INDEX                            353
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  PLATE                                                   FACE PAGE
+
+        GEORGE DUNCAN                                _Frontispiece_
+
+     I. HARRY VARDON'S GRIP                                      16
+
+    II. HARRY VARDON. STANCE AND FRONTAL ADDRESS IN SHORT PUT    38
+
+   III. HARRY VARDON AT THE TOP OF HIS SWING                     60
+
+    IV. HARRY VARDON AT THE TOP OF HIS SWING IN THE DRIVE        82
+
+     V. J. H. TAYLOR AT THE TOP OF HIS SWING IN THE DRIVE       104
+
+    VI. HARRY VARDON. THE FINISH OF HIS DRIVE                   124
+
+   VII. HARRY VARDON. THE FINISH OF THE DRIVE                   146
+
+  VIII. EDWARD RAY. FINISH OF DRIVE                             168
+
+    IX. JAMES BRAID. FINISH OF STROKE                           190
+
+     X. HARRY VARDON. FINISH OF A DRIVE                         212
+
+    XI. JAMES BRAID. FINISH OF DRIVE                            234
+
+   XII. GEORGE DUNCAN. A CHARACTERISTIC FINISH                  256
+
+  XIII. J. SHERLOCK. STANCE AND ADDRESS FOR IRON-SHOT           278
+
+   XIV. J. SHERLOCK. TOP OF SWING IN IRON-SHOT                  304
+
+    XV. J. SHERLOCK. FINISH OF IRON-SHOT                        330
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE SOUL OF GOLF
+
+
+Nearly every one who writes about a game essays to prove that it is
+similar to "the great game, the game of life." Golf has not escaped;
+and numberless scribes in endeavouring to account for the fascination
+of golf have used the old threadbare tale. As a matter of fact, golf
+is about as unlike the game of life as any game could well be. As
+played now it has come to be almost an exact science, and everybody
+knows exactly what one is trying to do. This would not be mistaken for
+a description of the game of life. In that game a man may be
+hopelessly "off the line," buried "in the rough," or badly "bunkered,"
+and nobody be the wiser. It is not so in golf. There is no double life
+here. All is open, and every one knows what the player is striving
+for. The least deflection from his line, and the onlooker knows he did
+not mean it. It is seen instantly. In that other game it may remain
+unseen for years, for ever.
+
+Explaining the fascination of anything seems to be a thankless kind of
+task, and in any case to be a work of supererogation. The fascination
+should be sufficient. Explaining it seems almost like tearing a violet
+to pieces to admire its structure; but many have tried, and many have
+failed, and there are many who do not feel the fascination as they
+should, because they do not know the soul of golf. One cannot
+appreciate the beauty of golf unless one knows it thoroughly.
+
+Curiously enough, many of our best players are extremely mechanical in
+their play. They play beautiful and accurate shots, but they have no
+idea how or why they produce them; and the strange thing about it is
+that although golf is perhaps as mechanical a game as there is, those
+who play it mechanically only get the husk of it. They miss the soul
+of the game.
+
+Golf is really one of the simplest of outdoor games, if not indeed the
+simplest, and it does not require much intelligence; yet it is quite
+one of the most difficult to play well, for it demands the greatest
+amount of mechanical accuracy. This, on consideration, is apparent.
+The ball is the smallest ball we use, the striking face of the club is
+the smallest thing used in field sports for hitting a ball, and, most
+important, perhaps, of all, it is farther away from the eye than any
+other ball-striking implement, except, perhaps, the polo stick, in
+which game we, of course, have a much larger ball and striking
+surface.
+
+In all games of skill, and in all sports where the object is
+propelling anything to a given point, one always tries, almost
+instinctively, to get the eye as much in a line with the ball or
+missile and the objective point as possible. This is seen in throwing
+a stone, aiming a catapult, a gun, or an arrow, in cueing at a
+billiard ball, and in many other ways, but in golf it is
+impracticable. The player must make his stroke with his eye anywhere
+from four to six feet away from his little club face. One may say that
+this is so in hockey, cricket, and lawn-tennis. So, in a modified
+degree, it is, but the great difference is that in all these games
+there is an infinitely larger margin of error than there is in golf.
+At these games a player may be yards off his intended line and yet
+play a fine stroke, to the applause of the onlookers; while he alone
+knew that it was accident and not design.
+
+The charm of golf is in part that its demand is inexorable. It lays
+down the one path--the straight one. It must be followed every step,
+or there is trouble.
+
+Then there is in golf the sheer beauty of the flight of the ball, and
+the almost sensuous delight which comes to the man who created that
+beauty, and knows how and why he did it. There is at any time beauty
+in the flight of a golf ball well and plainly driven; but for grace
+and the poetry of flight stands alone the wind-cheater that skims away
+from one's club across the smooth green sward, almost clipping the
+daisies in its flight ere it soars aloft with a swallow-like buoyancy,
+and, curving gracefully, pitches dead on the green.
+
+Many a man can play that stroke. Many a man does. Not one in fifty
+knows how he puts the beauty into his stroke. Not one in fifty would
+be interested if you were to start telling him the scientific reason
+for that ball's beautiful flight. "The mechanics of golf" sounds hard
+and unromantic, yet the man who does not understand them suffers in
+his game and in his enjoyment of it. That wind-cheater was to him,
+during its flight through the air, merely a golf ball; a golf ball
+'twas and nothing more. To the other man it is a faithful little
+friend sent out to do a certain thing in a certain way, and all the
+time it is flying and running it is sending its message back to the
+man who can take it--but how few can? They do not know what the soul
+of golf means. So, when our golfer pulls or slices his ball badly, and
+then--does the usual thing, he cannot take the message that comes back
+to him. He only knows the half of golf, and he does not care about
+the other, because he does not know what he is missing. He is like a
+man who is fond of music but is tune-deaf. There are many such. He may
+sit and drink in sweet sounds and enjoy them, but he misses the linked
+sweetness and the message which comes to his more fortunate brother
+who has the ear--and the knowledge.
+
+There is in England a curious idea that directly one acquires a
+scientific knowledge of a game one must cease to have an interest in
+it so full as he who merely plays it by guesswork. There can be no
+greater mistake than this. If a game is worth playing well, it is
+worth knowing well, and knowing it well cannot mean loving it less. It
+is this peculiar idea which has put England so much in the background
+of the world's athletic field of late years. We have here much of the
+best brawn and bone in the world, but we must give the brain its
+place. Then will England come to her own again.
+
+England is in many ways paying now for her lack of thoroughness in
+athletic sports. Time was when it was a stock gibe at John Bull's
+expense that he spent most of his time making muscle and washing it.
+Then it was, I am afraid, sour grapes. England had all the
+championships. The joke is "off" now. The grapes are no longer sour.
+The championships are well distributed throughout the world--anywhere
+but in England; and we say it does not matter; that the chief end of
+games is not winning them. Nor is it; but we did not talk like that
+when we _were_ winning them, and the trouble is not so much that we
+are losing, as the manner in which we are losing. The fact is that we
+are losing because our players do not, in many sports, know the soul
+of the game. The ideal is lost in the prosaic grappling for cups or
+medals, in the merely vulgar idea of success. Thus it comes to pass
+that many will not be content to get to the soul of a game in the
+natural way, by long and loving familiarity with it.
+
+Hordes of people are joining the ranks of the golfers, and their
+constant cry is, "Teach me the swing," and after a lesson or two at
+the wrong end of golf, for a beginner, they go forth and cut the
+county into strips and think they are playing golf. Is it any wonder,
+when our links are cumbered with such as these, that those who have
+the soul of golf are in imminent daily peril of losing their own?
+
+One who would know the soul of golf must begin even as would one who
+will know the soul of music. There is no more chance for one to gather
+up the soul of golf in a hurry than there is for that same one to
+understand Wagner in a week.
+
+It is this vulgar rushing impatience to be out and doing while one is
+still merely a nuisance to one's fellows, which causes so much
+irritation and unpleasantness on many links; that prevents many from
+starting properly, and becoming in due course quite good players; for
+it is manifest that the "rusher" is starting to learn his game upside
+down, as, indeed, most professionals and books teach it. There can be
+no doubt that the right way to teach anything is to give the beginner
+the easiest task at first. About the easiest stroke in golf is a
+six-inch put. That is where one should start a learner. The drive is
+the stroke in golf that offers the greatest possibility of error, so
+he is always started with it. It is his own fault. "Teach me the
+swing" is the insistent cry of the beginner, who does not know that he
+is losing the best part of golf by turning it upside down. He will
+never enjoy it so much, or play so good and confident a game as he
+would were he to work his way gradually and naturally from his putter
+to his mashie, to his niblick, his iron, his cleek, his brassy, and
+his driver. Such a one may come to an intimate knowledge and love of
+the game. The rusher may play golf, but it will be a long time before
+he gets to the soul of the game.
+
+A very good golfer in reviewing a golf book some time ago stated that
+he did not care in the least what happened while the ball was in the
+air, that all he cared about was getting it there. He has played golf
+since he was five years old, but he has clearly missed the soul of the
+game.
+
+It is not necessary to dilate upon the wonderful spread of golf
+throughout the world. An industrious journalist some time ago marked a
+map of England wherever there was a golf club. It looked as though it
+had been sprinkled with black pepper. It is not hard to understand
+this marvellous increase in the popularity of the great game, for golf
+is undoubtedly a great game. The motor has, unquestionably, played a
+great part in its development. Many of the courses, particularly in
+the United Kingdom, are most beautifully situated. Many of the
+club-houses are models of comfort, and some of them are castles. The
+game itself is suitable for the octogenarian dodderer who merely wants
+to infuse a little interest into his morning walk, or it may be turned
+into a severe test of endurance for the young athlete; so no wonder it
+prospers.
+
+There is a wonderful freemasonry among golfers. This is not the least
+of the many charms of the game, and to him who really knows it and
+loves it as it deserves to be loved, the sign of the club is a
+passport round the world.
+
+Many a time and oft I see golfing journalists, when writing about the
+game, stating that something "is obvious." It has always seemed to me
+that it is impossible to say what is obvious to anyone in a game of
+golf. Writing of George Duncan, the famous young professional golfer,
+during the first half of the big foursome at Burhill, a great sporting
+paper said that a certain mashie shot was a "crude stroke." The man
+who wrote that article did not know the soul of golf. He saw the
+mashie flash in the air, some turf cut away, and a ball dropping on to
+the green. Just that and nothing more, and it was "obvious" to him
+that it was a crude stroke.
+
+One who knew the soul of golf saw it and described it. It was a tricky
+green, with a drop of twenty feet behind it. To have overrun it would
+have been fatal. There was a stiff head-wind. The player would not
+risk running up. He cut well in under the ball to get all the
+back-spin he could. He pitched the ball well up against the wind,
+which caught it and, on account of the spin, threw it up and up until
+it soared almost over the hole, then it dropped like a shot bird about
+a yard from the hole, and the back-spin gripped the turf and held the
+ball within a foot of where it fell. It was obvious to one man that it
+was a crude shot. It was equally obvious to another, who knew the
+inner secrets of the game, that it was a brilliantly conceived and
+beautifully executed stroke. One man saw nothing of the soul of the
+stroke. He got the husk, and the other took the kernel.
+
+Much has been made of the assumption that golf is the greatest
+possible test of a man's temperament. This has to a great extent, I am
+afraid, been exaggerated. It is one of those things in connection with
+the game that has been handed down to us, and which we have been
+afraid to interfere with. I cannot see why this claim should be
+quietly granted. In golf a man is treated with tragic solemnity while
+he is making his stroke. A caddie may not sigh, and if a cricket
+chirped he would be considered a bounder. How would our golfer feel if
+he had to play his drive with another fellow waving his club at him
+twenty or thirty feet away, and standing ready to spoil his shot?--yet
+that is what the lawn-tennis player has to put up with. There is a
+good deal of exaggeration about this aspect of golf, even as there is
+a good deal of nonsense about the interference of onlookers. What can
+be done by one when one is accustomed to a crowd may be seen when one
+of the great golfers is playing out of a great V formed by the
+gallery, and, needless to say, playing from the narrow end of it. Golf
+is a good test of a man's disposition without doubt, but as a game it
+lacks one important feature which is characteristic of every other
+field sport, I think, except golf. In these the medium of conflict is
+the same ball, and the skill of the opposing side has much to do with
+the chances of the other player or players. In golf each man plays his
+own game with his own ball, and the only effect of his opponent's play
+on his is moral, or the luck of a stymie. Many people consider this a
+defect; but golf is a game unto itself, and we must take it as it is.
+Certainly it is hard enough to achieve distinction in it to satisfy
+the most exacting.
+
+When one writes of the soul of golf it sounds almost as though one
+were guilty of a little sentimentality. As a matter of fact, it is the
+most thorough practice which leads one to the soul of golf. Many a
+good professional can produce beautiful shots, such as the
+wind-cheater and the pull at will, but he cannot explain them to you;
+and no professional ever has explained clearly in book or elsewhere
+what produces these beautiful shots.
+
+A famous professional once asked me quite simply, "How do I play my
+push-shot, Mr. Vaile?" I explained the stroke to him. He is as good a
+sportsman as he is a golfer, and would be ashamed to pretend to a
+knowledge which he has not. When I had told him, he said, "Thank you.
+Of course, I can play it all right, but I never could understand why
+it went like that. Now I shall be able to explain it better to my
+pupils."
+
+Now it may in some measure sound incongruous, but I repeat that unless
+one knows the mechanics of golf one has missed the soul of the game.
+It is simply an impossibility for the blind ball-smiter to get such
+joy and gratification from his game as does the man who from his
+superior knowledge has produced results which are in themselves worth
+losing the game for. Many a golfer, or one who would like to be a
+golfer, will wonder at this. Many a game at billiards has been lost
+for the poetry of a fascinating cannon when the win was not the main
+object of the game; but in this respect billiards and golf are not
+alike. One is not, in golf, penalised for putting the soul and the
+poetry of the game into his shots, for they come of practice, and
+simply render one's strokes more perfect than they would otherwise be.
+So in the end it will be found that he who knows the game most
+thoroughly will have an undoubted advantage.
+
+Therefore it behoves every golfer to strive for the soul of golf.
+
+And now, as we must for a little while leave the soul of golf, let us
+consider its body, that great solid, visible portion which is the part
+that appeals most forcibly to the ordinary golfer. It is this to which
+the attention of players and writers has been most assiduously
+directed for centuries, yet it is safe to say that no game in the
+whole realm of sport has been so miswritten and unwritten as golf.
+
+This is very strange, for probably there is no other game that is so
+canvassed and discussed by its followers. The reason may possibly be
+found in the fact that golfers are a most conservative class of
+people, and that they follow wonderfully the line of thought laid down
+for them by others. This at its best is uninteresting; at its worst
+most pernicious.
+
+Another contributing cause is the manner in which books on sport are
+now produced. A great name, an enterprising publisher, and a
+hack-writer are all that are now required. The consequence is that the
+market is flooded with books ostensibly by leading exponents of the
+different sports, but which are, in many cases, written by men who
+know little or nothing of the subject they are dealing with. The
+natural result is that the great players suffer severely in
+"translation," and their names are frequently associated with quite
+stupid statements,--statements so foolish that one, knowing how these
+things are done, refrains from criticising them as they deserve, from
+sympathy with the unfortunate alleged author, who is probably a very
+good fellow, and quite innocent of the fact that the nonsense alleged
+to be his knowledge is ruining or retarding the game of many people.
+This is a most unscrupulous practice, which should be exposed and
+severely condemned, for it must not be thought that it is confined to
+any one branch of sport.
+
+While we are dealing with the slavish following of the alleged thought
+of the leading golfers of the world, we may with advantage consider a
+few of the most pronounced fetiches which have been worshipped almost
+from time immemorial, fetiches which are the more remarkable in that
+they receive mental and theoretical worship only, and are, in actual
+practice, most severely despised and disregarded by the best players;
+but unfortunately the neophyte worships these fetiches for many years
+until he discovers that they are false gods.
+
+Perhaps one of the silliest, and for beginners most disastrous, is the
+ridiculous assertion that putters are born, not made. In the book of a
+very famous player I find the following words:--
+
+     It happens, unfortunately, that concerning one department of
+     the game that will cause the golfer some anxiety from time to
+     time, and often more when he is experienced than when he is
+     not, neither I nor any other player can offer any words of
+     instruction such as, if closely acted upon, would give the
+     same successful results as the advice tendered under other
+     heads ought to do. This is in regard to putting.
+
+Now this idea is promulgated in many books. It is, in my opinion, the
+most absolute and pernicious nonsense. The best answer to it is the
+fact that the writer of the words was himself one of the worst
+putters, but that by careful study and alteration of his defective
+methods, he became a first-class performer on the green. Also it will
+be obvious to a very mean intelligence that there is no branch of golf
+which is so capable of being reduced to a mechanical certainty as is
+putting.
+
+The importance of removing this stupid idea will be more fully
+appreciated when one remembers that quite half the game of golf is
+played on the green, leaving the other half to be distributed among
+all the other clubs. It is well to emphasise this. A good score for
+almost any eighteen-hole course is 72. The man who can count on
+getting down in an average of 2 is a very good putter. Many
+professionals would throw away their putters if they were allowed to
+consider it down in 2 every time. This gives us 36 for puts. With this
+before us we cannot exaggerate the pernicious effect of the false
+doctrine which says that putting cannot be taught, that a man must
+just let his own individuality have full play, and similar nonsense;
+whereas the truth is that one might safely guarantee to convert into
+admirable putters many men who, from their conformation and other
+characteristics, would be almost hopeless as golfers. I must emphasise
+the fact that there is no department of the game which is so important
+as putting; there is no department of the game more capable of being
+clearly and easily demonstrated by an intelligent teacher; and there
+is no department of the game wherein the player may be so nearly
+reduced to that machine-like accuracy which is the constant demand,
+and no small portion of the charm, of golf.
+
+Another very widely worshipped fetich, which has been much damaged
+recently, is the sweep in driving a ball. Trying "to sweep" his ball
+away for two hundred yards has reduced many a promising player to
+almost a suicidal frame of mind. Fortunately the fallacy soon
+exasperates a beginner, and he "says things" and "lets it have it."
+Then the much-worshipped "sweep" becomes a hit, sometimes a very
+vicious one, and the ball goes away from the club as it was meant to.
+It is becoming more widely recognised every day that the golf-drive is
+a hit, and a very fine one--when well played.
+
+Perhaps the most pernicious fetich which has for many years held sway
+in golf, until recently somewhat damaged, is that the left arm is the
+more important of the two--that it, in fact, finds the power for the
+drive. Anything more comical is hard to imagine. There is practically
+nothing in the whole realm of muscular exertion, from wood-chopping to
+golf, wherein both arms are used, that is not dominated by the right,
+yet golfers have for generations quietly accepted this fetich, and it
+has ruined many a promising player. The votaries of this fetich must
+surely find one thing very hard to explain. If we admit, for the sake
+of argument, that the left arm is the more important, and that it
+really has more power and more influence on the stroke than the right,
+can they explain why the left-handed players, who have been provided
+by a benevolent providence with so manifest an advantage, tamely
+surrender it and convert their left hand into the right-handed
+players' right by giving it the lower position on the shaft? If this
+idea of the left hand and arm being the more important is correct,
+left-handed players would use right-hand clubs and play like a
+right-handed player, with the manifest advantage of being provided by
+nature with an arm and hand that fall naturally into the most
+important position. I think that this consideration of the subject
+will give those who put their faith in the fetich of the left,
+something to explain.
+
+Almost from time immemorial it has been laid down by golfing writers
+that at the top of the swing the golfer must have his weight on his
+right leg. A study of the instantaneous photographs of most of the
+famous players will show conclusively that this is not correct. It is
+expressly laid down that it is fatal to sway, to draw away from one's
+ball during the upward swing; the player is specially enjoined on no
+account to move his head. A very simple trial will convince any
+golfer, even a beginner, that without swaying, without drawing his
+head away from the hole, he cannot possibly, if swinging correctly,
+put his weight on his right leg, and that at the top of his swing it
+must be mainly on his left--and so another well-worn belief goes by
+the board.
+
+So it is with the exaggerated swing which for so many years dominated
+the minds of aspiring golfers to such an extent that many of them
+thought more of getting the swing than of hitting the ball. It is
+slowly but surely going.
+
+The era of new thought in golf has dawned. It will not make the game
+less attractive. It will not make it any more exacting, for the higher
+knowledge cannot become an obsession. It sinks into a man, and he
+scarcely thinks of it as something beyond the ordinary game. It brings
+him into closer touch with the best that is in golf. He is able to
+obtain more from it than he could before. He is able to do more than
+he could formerly, for a man cannot get to the soul of golf except
+through the body, and love he not the body with the love of the truest
+of true golfers he will never know the soul.
+
+     This chapter originally appeared in _The Fortnightly Review_
+     in the United Kingdom, and in _The North American Review_ in
+     the United States of America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MYSTERY OF GOLF
+
+
+There is no such thing as "the mystery of golf." One might reasonably
+ask, "If there is no such thing as 'the mystery of golf,' why devote a
+chapter to it?" But "the mystery of golf" should really be written
+"the mystery of the golfer," for the simple reason that the golfer
+himself is responsible for all the mystery in golf--in short, "the
+mystery of golf" may briefly be defined as the credulity of the
+golfer. Notwithstanding this, at least one enterprising man has
+produced a book entirely devoted to elucidating the alleged mystery of
+golf, wherein, quite unknown to himself, he proves most clearly and
+conclusively the truth of my opening statement in this chapter, that
+the mystery of golf is merely the credulity of the golfer; but of that
+anon.
+
+There really is no mystery whatever about the game of golf. It is one
+of the simplest of games, but unquestionably it is a game which is
+very difficult to play well, a game which demands a high degree of
+mechanical accuracy in the production of the various strokes. It is
+apparent from the nature of the implements used in the game that this
+must be so. All the foolishness of nebulous advice, and all the quaint
+excuses which have been gathered together under the head of "the
+mystery of golf," are simply weak man's weaker excuses for his want
+of intelligence and mechanical accuracy. Until the golfer fully
+understands and freely acknowledges this, he is suffering from a very
+severe handicap. If, when he addresses his ball, he has firmly
+implanted in his mind the idea that he is in the presence of some
+awesome mystery, there is very little doubt that he will do his level
+best to perform his part in the mystery play.
+
+We do not read anywhere of the mystery of lawn-tennis, the mystery of
+cricket, the mystery of marbles, squash racquets, or ping-pong. There
+are no mysteries in these games any more than there are in golf, and
+the plain fact is that the demand of golf is inexorable. It insists
+upon the straight line being followed, and the man who forsakes the
+straight line is immediately detected. In no game, perhaps, is the
+insistent demand for direction so inexorable as in golf. Perhaps also
+in no game is that demand so frequently refused, and, naturally, the
+erring golfer wishes to excuse himself. It is useful then for him to
+be told of the mysteries of golf--the wonderful mysteries, the
+psychological difficulties, the marvellous cerebration, the incredibly
+rapid nerve "telegraphing," and the wonderful muscular complications
+which take place between the time that he addresses the ball and hits
+it, or otherwise.
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, this is all so much balderdash, so much
+falseness, so much artificial and indeed almost criminal nonsense. It
+would indeed almost seem as if the people who write this kind of stuff
+are in league with the greatest players of the world, who write as
+instructions for the unfortunate would-be golfer things which they
+themselves never dreamed of doing--things which would quite spoil the
+wonderful game they play if they did them.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE I. HARRY VARDON'S GRIP
+
+    Showing the overlapping of the first finger of the left hand
+    by the little finger of the right. This is now the orthodox
+    grip.]
+
+If there may be said to be any mystery whatever about golf, it is
+that in such an ancient and simple game there has grown up around it
+such a marvellous mass of false teaching, of confused thought, and of
+fantastic notions. No game suffers from this false doctrine and
+imaginative nonsense to the same extent as does golf. It is
+magnificently played. We have here in England the finest exponents of
+the game, both amateur and professional, in the world. If those men
+played golf as they tell others by their printed works to play it, I
+should have another story to tell about their prowess on the links.
+
+Golf, in itself, is quite sufficiently difficult. It is quite
+unnecessary to give the golfer, or the would-be golfer, an additional
+handicap by instilling it into his mind that golf is any more
+mysterious than any other game which is played. The most mysterious
+thing about golf is that those who really ought to know most about it
+publish broadcast wrong information about the fundamental principles
+of the game. Innocent players follow this advice, and not unnaturally
+they find it tremendously difficult to make anything like adequate
+progress. Naturally, when some one comes along and explains to them in
+lengthy articles, or may be in a book, about the psychological
+difficulties and terrific complications of golf, they are pleased to
+fasten on this stuff as an excuse for their want of success, whereas
+in very truth the real explanation lies simply in the fact that they
+are violating some of the commonest and simplest laws of mechanics.
+
+Here, indeed, I might almost be forgiven if I went back on what I have
+said about the mystery of golf, and produced, on my own account, that
+which is to me an outstanding mystery, and labelled it "the mystery of
+golf." This really is to me always a mystery, but I should not be
+correct in calling it "the mystery of golf," for it is more correctly
+described as the simplicity of the golfer. This mystery is that
+practically every writer about golf, and nearly every player, seems to
+labour under the delusion that there is a special set of mechanical
+laws for golf, that the golf ball flying through the air is actuated
+by totally different influences and in a totally different manner from
+the cricket ball, the ping-pong ball, or the lawn-tennis ball when
+engaged in a similar manner. That is bad enough, but the same
+delusions exist with regard to the conduct of the ball on the green.
+
+Now it is impossible to speak too plainly about this matter, because I
+want at the outset to dispel the illusion of the mystery of golf.
+There is no special set of mechanical laws governing golf. Golf has to
+take its place with all other games, and the mechanical laws which
+govern the driving of a nail, a golf ball, or a cricket ball are fixed
+and immutable and well known, so that it is quite useless for any one
+to try to explain to intelligent persons that there is any mystery in
+golf or the production of the golfing strokes beyond that which may be
+found in other games. Some people might think that I labour this
+point. It is impossible to be too emphatic at the outset about it, for
+the simple reason that it is bad enough for the golfer to have to
+think at the moment of making his stroke about the things which
+actually do matter. If we are going to provide him with phantoms as
+well as solid realities to contend with, he will indeed have a sorry
+time. As a matter of fact, about seven-tenths of the bad golf which is
+played is due to too much thinking about the stroke _while the stroke
+is being played_. The golf stroke in itself may be quite easily
+learned; I mean the true golf stroke, and not the imaginary golf
+stroke, which has been built up for the unfortunate golfer by those
+who never played such a stroke themselves, and by those who write of
+the mystery of golf; but it is an absolute certainty that the time for
+thinking about the golf stroke, and how it shall be played, _is not
+when one is playing the stroke_.
+
+As a matter of fact the golf stroke is in some respects a complicated
+stroke. Certain changes of position in the body and arms take place
+with extreme rapidity during the execution of the stroke. It is an
+utter impossibility for any man to think out and execute in proper
+order the component parts of a well-executed drive during his stroke.
+When a man addresses his ball he should have in his mind but the one
+idea--he has to hit that ball in such a manner as to get it to the
+place at which he wants it to arrive; but between the time of his
+address and the time that the ball departs on its journey his action
+should be, to use a much-hackneyed but still expressive word,
+practically sub-conscious; in fact, the way he hit that ball should be
+regulated by habit. If the result was satisfactory--well and good. If
+otherwise, he may analyse that shot in his armchair later on; but when
+once one has addressed the ball it is absolutely fatal to good golf to
+indulge in speculation as to how one is going to hit that ball, and if
+to that speculation one adds a belief in what is called "the mystery
+of golf," one had better get right away back to marbles at once,
+because it is a certainty that any one who believes in nonsense of
+this sort and practises it can never be a golfer.
+
+The bane of about eighty-five per cent of golfers is a pitiful attempt
+to cultivate style. The most contemptible man at any game is the
+stylist. The man who cultivates style before the game is not fit to
+cumber any links. Every man should strive to produce his stroke in a
+mechanically perfect manner. A good style is almost certain to follow
+when this is done. Style as the result of a game produced in a
+mechanically perfect manner is most desirable, but style without the
+game is simply despicable. One sometimes sees misguided golfers, or
+would-be golfers, practising their follow-through in a very theatrical
+manner. It should be obvious to a very mean intelligence that a
+follow-through is of no value whatever, except as the natural result
+of a correctly executed stroke. If the stroke has been correct up to
+the moment of impact, the follow-through will come almost as naturally
+as a good style will be born of correctly executed strokes.
+Self-consciousness is the besetting sin of the golfer. It is hardly
+too much to say that the ordinary golfer devotes, unfortunately, too
+much thought to himself and "the swing," and far too little to the
+thing that he is there for--namely, to hit the ball.
+
+In golf the player has plenty of time to spare in making his stroke,
+and he occupies too much of it in thinking about other things than the
+stroke. The essence of success at golf is concentration upon the
+stroke. The analysis has no right whatever to intrude itself on a
+man's mind until the stroke has been played. The inquest should not be
+held until the corpse is there. If this rule is followed, it will be
+found that the corpse is frequently wanting.
+
+Golf is a very ancient game. Lawn-tennis is an absolute parvenu by its
+side, and there are many other games which, compared with golf, are
+practically infants. Golf stands alone as regards false instruction,
+nebulous criticism, and utter disregard of the first principles of
+mechanics. I have always been at a loss to understand this. It is not
+as though golf had not been played and studied by some of the keenest
+intellects in the land. We have had, as we shall see later on, men of
+the highest scientific attainments devoting their attention to the
+game, writing about it, lecturing about it, publishing things about it
+which exist solely in their imagination. This truly may be called a
+mystery.
+
+I cannot leave the mystery of golf without giving some illustrations
+of the things which are published as instruction. For instance, I read
+lately that a good style results in good golf. This is the kind of
+thing which mystifies a beginner. The good style should be the result
+of the good golf, and not the golf of the style. I read elsewhere:
+
+     As a matter of fact most of the difficulties in golf are
+     mental, not physical, are subjective, not objective, are the
+     created phantasms of the mind, not the veritable realities of
+     the course.
+
+I find these things in Mr. Haultain's book entitled _The Mystery of
+Golf_.
+
+There is no game where there are fewer mental difficulties than in
+golf. The game is so extremely simple that it can practically be
+reduced to a matter of physical and mechanical accuracy. The mental
+demand in golf--provided always, of course, that the man who is
+addressing the ball knows what he wants to do--is extremely small and
+extremely simple. "The created phantasms of the mind" are supplied by
+fantastic writers who have proved for themselves that these phantasms
+are the deadliest enemies of good golf. In another place I read the
+following passage:
+
+     You may place your ball how or where you like, you may hit it
+     with any sort of implement you like; all you have to do is to
+     hit it. Could simpler conditions be devised? Could an easier
+     task be set? And yet such is the constitution of the human
+     golfing soul that it not only fails to achieve it, but
+     invents for itself multiform and manifold ifs and ans for not
+     achieving it--ifs and ans, the nature and number of which
+     must assuredly move the laughter of the gods.
+
+Probably this is meant to be satirical, but it is merely a libel on
+the great body of golfers. It is not the "human golfing soul" which
+"invents for itself multiform and manifold ifs and ans for not
+achieving it." He who invents these ifs and ans is the author of the
+ordinary golf book on golf, written ostensibly by some great player,
+and the "ifs and ans" most assuredly, if they do not "move the
+laughter of the gods," are sufficient to provoke the derision and
+contempt of the golfer who feels that nobody has a right to publish
+statements about a game which must act in a detrimental manner upon
+those who attempt to follow them.
+
+It is not the "human golfing soul" or the human golfing body which is
+so prone to error. Those who make the errors are those who essay to
+teach, and the time has now come for them to vindicate themselves or
+to stand back, to stand out of the way of the spread of truth; for one
+may be able to fool all the golfers some of the time and some of the
+golfers all the time, but it is a sheer impossibility to fool all the
+golfers all the time; and if the teaching which has obtained credence
+in the past were to be left unassailed, the result would be untold
+misery and discomfort to millions of golfers.
+
+It is for this reason that I am dealing in an early chapter with the
+alleged mystery of golf, for I want to make it particularly clear that
+in the vast majority of cases those who attempt to explain the mystery
+of golf proceed very much on the lines of the octopus and obscure
+themselves behind clouds of inky fluid which are generally as
+shapeless in their form and meaning as the matter given off by the
+uncanny sea-dweller. In fact, the ordinary attempt to explain the
+mystery of golf generally resolves itself into the writer setting up
+his own Aunt Sally, and even then exposing how painfully bad his aim
+is.
+
+Nearly every one who writes about golf claims for it that above all
+games it is the truest test of character, and in a degree unknown in
+any other game reveals the nature of the man who is playing it, and
+they proceed on this assumption to weave some of the most remarkable
+romances in connection with the simple and fundamental principles of
+the game. In the book under notice we are asked
+
+     ... and yet why, _why_ does a badly-played game so upset a
+     sane and rational man? You may lose at bridge, you may be
+     defeated in chess, you may recall lost chances in football or
+     polo; you may remember stupid things you did in tennis or
+     squash racquets; you may regret undue haste in trying to
+     secure an extra run or runs in cricket, but the mental
+     depression caused by these is temporary and evanescent. Why
+     do foozles in golf affect the whole man? Humph! It is no use
+     blinking matters--say what the scoffers may--to foozle at
+     golf, to take your eye off your ball, cuts down to the very
+     deeps of the human soul. It does; there is no controverting
+     that.... Perhaps this is why golf is worth writing about.
+
+It certainly is mysterious that any "sane and rational man" can write
+such stuff about golf. This is a fair sample of the kind of thing one
+gets from those who attempt to treat of golf from the physiological or
+psychological standpoint. I can hardly say too often that there is no
+such thing as the mystery of golf, any more than there is, in reality,
+such a thing as the soul of golf, but the mystery of golf is a
+meaningless and misleading term. The soul of golf means, in effect,
+the heart of golf--a true and loving understanding of the very core of
+the game.
+
+It would be bad enough if the persons essaying to explain the alleged
+mystery of golf knew the game thoroughly themselves, but, generally
+speaking, they do not--in the case under consideration, the writer
+himself admits that he is "a duffer." Now taking him at his own
+valuation, it does indeed seem strange that one whose knowledge of the
+game is admittedly insufficient, should attempt to explain to players
+the super-refinements of a game at which he himself is admittedly
+incompetent. It may seem somewhat cruel to press this point, but in a
+matter such as this we have to consider the greatest good of the
+greatest number, and we must not allow false sentiment to weigh with
+us in dealing with the work of anyone who publishes matter which may
+prejudicially affect the game of an immense body of people.
+
+The attempts to deal with the psychology and the physiology of golf
+are a mass of confused thought and illogical reasoning, but it is when
+the author proceeds to deal in any way with the practical side of golf
+that he shows clearly that his estimate of himself, at least in so far
+as regards his knowledge of the game, is not inaccurate. Let us take,
+for instance, the following passage. He says that William Park,
+Junior, has informed us that
+
+     ... pressing, really, is putting in the power at the right
+     time. You can hit as hard as you like if you hit accurately
+     and at the right time, but the man who presses is the man who
+     puts in the power too soon. He is in too great a hurry. He
+     begins to hit before the club head has come anywhere near the
+     ball.
+
+This quotation, I may say, is not from William Park's book, but is
+taken from the volume I am quoting, and the last sentence--"He begins
+to hit before the club head has come anywhere near the ball"--shows
+clearly that the author has no idea whatever of even a mechanical
+analysis of the golf stroke, for it is impossible to begin the hit too
+soon. The main portion of the power of the drive in golf is developed
+(as indeed anyone with very little consideration might know) _near the
+beginning of the downward swing_. This is so simple, so natural, so
+apparent to any one who knows the game of golf that I feel it is
+almost unnecessary to support the statement; but there are so many
+people who follow the game of golf, and are willing to accept as
+gospel any remarkable statement with regard to the game, that I may as
+well refer doubters to James Braid's book on _Advanced Golf_ wherein
+he shows clearly that anyone desiring to produce a proper drive at
+golf must be hard at it from the very beginning of the stroke. The
+author continues:
+
+     If in the drive the whole weight and strength of the body,
+     from the nape of the neck to the soles of the feet, are not
+     transferred from body to ball, through the minute and
+     momentary contact of club with ball, absolutely surely, yet
+     swiftly--you top or you pull or you sclaff, or you slice, or
+     you swear.
+
+It is almost unnecessary to tell any golfer that the whole weight of
+his body is not thrown at his golf ball, for this, in effect, would
+produce a terrific lunge and utterly destroy the rhythm of his stroke.
+
+Here is another remarkable passage--"and as to that mashie shot where
+you loft high over an abominable bunker and fall dead with a back-spin
+and a cut to the right on a keen and declivitous green--is there any
+stroke in any game quite so delightfully difficult as that?" and my
+answer is "Certainly not, for there is no such stroke in golf." When
+one puts a cut to the right or to the left, one has no back-spin on
+the ball. The back-spin is only got by following through after the
+ball in a downward direction, and as to a mashie approach with a cut
+to the right--well, the cut on a golf ball in a mashie stroke is in
+practical golf _always_ a cut to the left, which produces a run to the
+right. The shot as described by Mr. Haultain simply does not exist in
+golf. It probably is a portion of the mystery of golf which he has not
+yet solved.
+
+Then we are told
+
+     ... not only is the stroke in golf an extremely difficult
+     one--it is also an extremely complicated one, more especially
+     the drive, in which its principles are concentrated. It is,
+     in fact, a subtile combination of a swing and a hit, the
+     "hit" portion being deftly incorporated into the "swing" just
+     as the head of the club reaches the ball, yet without
+     disturbing the regular rhythm of the motion.
+
+This again is another of the mysteries of golf, and a mystery purely
+of the inventive brain of the author. The drive in golf is played with
+such extreme rapidity that the duration of impact does not last more
+than one ten-thousandth of a second, yet we are asked to believe that
+the first portion of the stroke is a swing, but in, say, the
+five-thousandth of a second it is to be changed to a hit. Could the
+force of folly in alleged tuition go further than this?
+
+We now come to an absolutely fundamental error in the golf stroke, an
+error of a nature so important and far-reaching that if I can
+demonstrate it, any attempt on the part of its author to explain
+anything in connection with the golf stroke mechanically,
+physiologically, psychologically, logically, or otherwise, must
+absolutely fall to the ground. We are told "the whole body must turn
+on the pivot of the head of the right thigh bone working in the
+cotyloidal cavity of the _os innominatum_ or pelvic bone, the head,
+right knee and right foot remaining fixed, with the eyes riveted on
+the ball."
+
+Now, put into plain English this ridiculous sentence means that the
+weight of the body rests upon the right leg. It is such a fundamental
+and silly error, but nevertheless an error which is made by the
+greatest players in the world in their published works, that I shall
+not at the present moment deal with the matter, but shall refer to it
+again in my chapter on the distribution of weight, for this matter of
+the distribution of weight, which is of absolute "root" importance in
+the game of golf, has been most persistently mistaught by those whose
+duty it is to teach the game as they play it, so that others may not
+be hampered in their efforts to become expert by following false
+advice.
+
+Further on we are told, "in the upward swing the vertebral column
+rotates upon the head of the right femur, the right knee being fixed,
+and as the club head nears the ball the fulcrum is rapidly changed
+from the right to the left hip, the spine now rotating on the left
+thigh-bone, the left knee being fixed." Of course, I do not know on
+what principle the man who writes this is built, but it seems to me
+that he must have a spine with an adjustable end. None of the famous
+golfers, so far as I am aware, are able to shift their spines from one
+thigh bone to another. Moreover, to say that "the vertebral column
+rotates upon the head of the right femur" is merely childish
+unscientific nonsense, for it is obvious to any one, even to one who
+does not profess to explain the mystery of golf, that one's spine
+cannot possibly rotate within one, for to secure rotation of the spine
+it would be necessary for the body to rotate. This, it need hardly be
+pointed out, would be extremely inconvenient between the waggle and
+the moment when one strikes the ball.
+
+We are told that in the downward swing "velocity of the club in the
+descent must be accelerated by minute but rapid gradations." For one
+who is attempting to explain the mystery of golf there could not
+possibly be a worse word than "gradations." The author, in this
+statement, is simply following an old and utterly obsolete notion.
+There is no such thing as accelerating the speed by minute gradations.
+Quoting James Braid in _Advanced Golf_, from memory, he says that you
+must be "hard at it" from the very moment you start the stroke, and
+even if he did not say so, any golfer possessed of common sense would
+know that the mere idea of adding to the speed of his golf drive by
+"steps," which is what the word "gradations" implies, would be utterly
+futile. The futility of the advice is, however, emphasised when we are
+told that these gradations come from "orders not issued all at once,
+but one after another--also absolutely evenly and smoothly--at
+intervals probably of ten-thousandths of a second. If the curves are
+not precise, if a single muscle fails to respond, if the timing is in
+the minutest degree irregular--the stroke is a failure. No wonder it
+is difficult."
+
+It would indeed be no wonder that the golf drive is difficult if it
+really were composed as indicated, but, as a matter of fact, nothing
+of the sort takes place in the ordinary drive of a sane golfer. There
+is one command issued, which is "Hit the ball." All these other things
+which are supposed to be done by an incredible number of efforts of
+the mind are practically performed sub-consciously, and more by habit
+than by any complex mental directions. The drive in golf is not in any
+respect different from numerous other strokes in numerous other games
+in so far as regards the mental portion of it.
+
+Now so far as regards the complicated system of mental telegraphy
+which is claimed for golf in the production of the stroke, absolutely
+the same thing happens in practically every game, with the exception
+that in most other games the player is, so far as regards the
+production of his stroke, at a greater disadvantage than he is in
+golf, for he has nearly always a moving ball to play at and much less
+time wherein to decide how to play his stroke. In golf he has plenty
+of time to make up his mind as to how he will play his stroke, and the
+operation, to the normal golfer, in so far as regards the mental
+portion of it, is extremely simple. His trouble is that he has so much
+nonsense of this nature to contend with, so much false instruction to
+fight. If he were given a correct idea of the stroke he would have no
+difficulty whatever with regard to his "gradations."
+
+Braid has explicitly stated that this idea of gradually and
+consciously increasing the speed is a mistake, and I have always been
+especially severe on it as one of the pronounced fallacies of golf. I
+shall deal with it more fully in my chapter on "The Fallacies of
+Golf," but I may here quote Braid, who says:
+
+     Nevertheless, when commencing the downward swing, do so in no
+     gentle, half-hearted manner such as is often associated with
+     the idea of gaining speed gradually, which is what we are
+     told the club must do when coming down from the top on to the
+     ball. It is obvious that speed will be gained gradually,
+     since the club could not possibly be started off at its
+     quickest rate. The longer the force applied to the down
+     swing, the greater do the speed and momentum become. But this
+     gradual increase is independent of the golfer, and he should,
+     as far as possible, be unconscious of it. What he has to
+     concern himself with is not increasing his speed gradually,
+     but getting as much of it as he possibly can right from the
+     top. No gentle starts, but hard at it from the top, and the
+     harder you start the greater will be the momentum of the club
+     when the ball is reached.
+
+Now this is emphatic enough, but it should not be necessary to quote
+James Braid to impress upon any golfer of average intelligence that
+this idea of consciously increasing his speed gradually as he comes
+down to the ball is the most infantile and injurious tuition which it
+is possible to impart. To encumber any player's mind with such utterly
+stupid doctrine is most reprehensible.
+
+As an illustration of how little the author of this book understands
+the true character of the golf stroke, I may quote him again. In a
+letter recently published over his signature he says: "Mind and
+muscle--both should act freely and easily _till the moment of impact_;
+then, perhaps, the mind should be concentrated, as the muscles must be
+contracted, to the utmost." Now this is such utterly fallacious
+doctrine that I certainly should not notice it were it not that this
+book, on account of its somewhat original treatment of the subject,
+has obtained a degree of notice to which I do not consider it
+entitled.
+
+This is so far from what really takes place in the drive at golf that
+I must quote James Braid from _Advanced Golf_, page 56. It will be
+seen from Braid's remarks that the whole idea of the golf drive from
+the moment the club starts on its downward course until the ball has
+been hit is that of supreme tension and concentration. It seems almost
+a work of supererogation to deal with a matter of such apparent
+simplicity, but when one sees matter such as that quoted published in
+responsible papers, one realises that in the interests of the game it
+is necessary to deal with statements which really, in themselves,
+ought to carry their own refutation.
+
+Braid says: "Look to it also that the right elbow is kept well in
+control and fairly close to the side in order to promote tension at
+the top." Again at page 57 he says: "Now for the return journey. Here
+at the top the arms, wrists, body--all are in their highest state of
+tension. Every muscle and joint in the human golfing machinery is
+wound up to the highest point, and there is a feeling that something
+must be let go at once." On page 58 we read again: "No gentle starts,
+but hard at it from the very top, and the harder you start the greater
+will be the momentum of the club when the ball is reached." At page 60
+again: "Keep the body and wrist under tension a little longer." At
+page 61 we read:
+
+     Then comes the moment of impact. Crack! Everything is let
+     loose, and round comes the body immediately the ball is
+     struck, and goes slightly forward until the player is facing
+     the line of flight.
+
+     If the tension has been properly held, all this will come
+     quite easily and naturally. The time for the tension is over
+     and it is allowed its sudden and complete expansion and quick
+     collapse. That is the whole secret of the thing--the bursting
+     of the tension at the proper moment--and really there is very
+     little to be said in enlargement of the idea.
+
+Now here it will be seen that Braid's idea, which is undoubtedly the
+correct one, is that the golfer's muscles, and it follows naturally
+also his mind, are in a state of supreme tension until the moment of
+impact, _when that tension is released_. On the other hand, we are
+told by our psychologist that the moment which Braid says is the
+moment of the collapse of the tension is the moment for introducing
+tension and concentration. The statement is, of course, an extremely
+ridiculous one, especially coming, as it does, from one who presumes
+to deal with the psychology and physiology of golf, because nothing
+could be further from the truth than the statement made by him. It
+proves at the very outset that he has not a correct idea of the golf
+stroke, and therefore any attempt by him to explain the psychology of
+golf, if golf may be said to have such a thing as a psychology, is
+worthless.
+
+Our author has also explained how, in the downward swing, the speed of
+the club is increased by extremely minute gradations. I have elsewhere
+referred to this fallacy, but the matter is so important that I shall
+quote James Braid again here. At page 57 Braid says:
+
+     Nevertheless, when commencing the downward swing, do so in no
+     gentle, half-hearted manner, such as is often associated with
+     the idea of gaining speed gradually, which is what we are
+     told the club must do when coming down from the top on to the
+     ball. It is obvious that speed will be gained gradually,
+     since the club could not possibly be started off at the
+     quickest rate. The longer the force applied to the down swing
+     the greater does the speed of the momentum become, but this
+     gradual increase is independent of the golfer, and he should,
+     as far as possible, be unconscious of it. What he has to
+     concern himself with is not increasing his speed gradually,
+     but getting as much of it as he possibly can right from the
+     top.
+
+I am very glad indeed to be able to quote Braid to this effect, for if
+we may accept his statement on this matter as authoritative, it
+completely refutes one of the greatest and stupidest fallacies in
+golf, which is this particular notion of gradually increasing one's
+speed by any conscious effort of muscular regulation. Now if Braid's
+statement with regard to the muscular work in the downward portion of
+the drive is correct, it follows naturally that the explanation of the
+"mystery of golf" offered by the author is merely an explanation of a
+mystery which he has evolved from the innermost recesses of his
+fertile imagination; but it is needless for me to say that unless such
+an idea as this is absolutely killed, it would have a most pernicious
+effect upon the game of anyone who came within its influence.
+
+It may seem, perhaps, that I attach too much importance to the writing
+of a gentleman who describes himself as "a duffer." It is not so. No
+one knows better than I do the influence of printed matter. I have
+lived amongst print and printers and newspapers for very many years,
+and needless to say I know as well as any man that not everything
+which one sees in print is true, but the remarkable thing about the
+printed word is that even with one who is absolutely hardened and
+inured to the vagaries and extravagances and inaccuracies of those who
+handle type, the printed word carries a certain amount of weight.
+
+We can easily understand, then, that to those who are not so educated
+the printed word is much more authoritative. Therefore, even if the
+circulation of a book or a paper may be very little, it is always
+worth the while of one who has the interests of the game at heart to
+do his best not only to scotch, but absolutely to kill false and
+pernicious teaching of this nature, for the simple reason that even if
+a book circulates but a hundred copies, or a newspaper two hundred and
+fifty, which is giving them both a remarkably small circulation, it is
+impossible, or at least extremely improbable, that any man will be
+able, by his influence, _to follow each copy of that book or that
+newspaper_. There is a great fundamental truth underlying this
+statement. If one gives a lie a day's start, it takes a terrible lot
+of catching. This is particularly so in connection with printed
+matter, and I have had some very remarkable illustrations of the fact.
+So strongly, indeed, do I realise this fact, that although I believe
+that I am as impervious to adverse criticism as any one, I will never,
+if I can prevent it, allow criticism of that nature which I consider
+inimical to the interests of any subject with which I am dealing, to
+get the slightest possible start. Indeed, I have, on occasions,
+carried this principle still further, and when I have known that
+matter was to appear which I considered of a nature calculated to
+produce wrong thought in connection with a certain subject I have
+taken means to see that it did not appear.
+
+It will be readily understood that I am not now referring to matters
+of personal criticism. I refer particularly to matters of doctrine
+published and circulated, even in the smallest way. If, for the sake
+of argument, the paper which spreads that false doctrine circulates
+only twenty copies, _one cannot follow every copy_, and to do one's
+work thoroughly and effectively it would be necessary to follow every
+copy of that paper in order to counteract the pernicious influence
+which it might otherwise exercise. Taking this view of the effect of
+printed matter, it should be apparent that I consider the time devoted
+to refuting injurious and false teaching well spent.
+
+In the attempted explanation of the mystery of golf there are some
+amazing statements which tend to show clearly that the author of that
+work has not that intimate knowledge of sport generally which is
+absolutely essential to any man who would even essay satisfactorily to
+do what the author is trying to do. Let us examine, for instance, such
+a statement as this: "Indeed, the difficulties of golf are innumerable
+and incalculable. Take, for example, that simple rule 'Keep your eye
+on the ball.' It is unheard of in tennis; it is needless in cricket;
+in golf it is iterated and reiterated times without number, and
+infringed as often as repeated." Can anyone imagine a more wonderful
+statement than this? In tennis, by which from subsequent remarks it is
+clear that the author means lawn-tennis, and also indeed in tennis, it
+is, of course, a fundamental rule that one must keep one's eye on the
+ball. It is repeatedly drilled into every player, and even the most
+experienced players by neglecting it sacrifice points.
+
+Lifting one's eye is one of the most prolific causes of missed smashes
+and ordinary volleys, while the half volleys which are missed through
+not attempting to follow out this universal rule are innumerable. We
+are told that it is "unheard of in cricket." This indeed is a
+marvellous statement. No coach who knows his duty in tennis,
+lawn-tennis, cricket, racquets, or in fact any game where one plays at
+a moving ball, could possibly have gone more than about half a dozen
+lessons, if so many, without impressing upon his pupil the extreme
+importance of endeavouring to watch the ball until the moment of
+impact. This, of course, is a counsel of perfection, and is not often
+perfectly carried out, for various reasons which I shall deal with in
+my chapter on "The Function of the Eyes."
+
+For one who has attempted a critical analysis of the psychology of
+golf the author makes some wonderful statements. Speaking about
+"looking" _versus_ "thinking," and keeping one's eye on the ball, the
+author says: "As a matter of fact, instead of _looking_, you are
+_thinking_, and to _think_, when you ought to _play_, is the madness
+of mania." It should be fairly obvious to anyone who does not even
+profess to be capable of analysing the emotions of a golfer that to
+look it is necessary to be thinking--to be thinking about looking, in
+fact; that it would be impossible to look without thinking; that
+indeed the looking is dependent upon the thinking, or, as our author
+would probably put it, he must will to look--not only must he will to
+look, but he must will to hit. Those are the two important things for
+him to will--to look and to hit. Now those things cannot be done
+without thinking, and yet we are told that to _think_ when you ought
+to _play_ is "the madness of mania."
+
+The author goes on to give what he calls a very "simple and anatomical
+reason" for this inability to see one's ball when one is thinking
+instead of looking. He says:
+
+     Everybody has heard the phrase "a vacant stare." Well, there
+     actually is such a thing as a vacant stare. When one's
+     thoughts are absorbed in something other than the object
+     looked at, the eyes lose their convergence--that is to say,
+     instead of the two eyeballs being turned inwards and focussed
+     on the thing, they look straight outwards into space, with
+     the result, of course, that the thing looked at is seen
+     indistinctly. I am convinced that this happens to many a
+     grown-up golfer. He thinks he is looking at his ball, but as
+     a matter of fact he is thinking about looking at his ball (a
+     very different affair), or about how he is going to hit it,
+     or any one of a hundred other things; and, his mind being
+     taken off that supreme duty of doing nothing but _look_, the
+     muscles of the eye are relaxed, the eyeballs resume their
+     natural position and stare vacantly into space.
+
+It will probably not be news to most of us that there is such a thing
+as "a vacant stare." We probably remember many occasions when, "lost
+in thought," our eyes have lost their convergence, but it will indeed
+be news to most of us that it is the supreme duty of the eyes to do
+nothing but _look_.
+
+We are now face to face with this fact according to this analysis. The
+author quotes the great psychologist, Höffding, as saying, "We must
+will to see, in order to see aright." We now, by a natural and
+logical process of reasoning, have the golfer settled at his ball, his
+address duly taken, his eye fixed on the ball, and he is in the act of
+"willing" to see as hard as he can. So far so good. Let us presume
+that he _is_ seeing. Now we are told that to think when he ought to
+play is the madness of mania. We must presume that it will now be
+impossible to proceed with his stroke unless he "wills" to move. How
+will he "will to move" without thinking? If anybody can explain to me
+how a golfer can play a stroke without willing to hit as well as to
+look, I shall indeed consider that he has explained at least one
+mystery in golf.
+
+We are told that
+
+     ... if during that minute interval of time which elapses
+     between the commencement of the upward swing of the club and
+     its impact with the ball, the golfer allows any one single
+     sensation, or idea to divert his attention--consciously or
+     unconsciously--from the little round image on his retina, he
+     does not properly "perceive" that ball; and of course, by
+     consequence, does not properly hit it.
+
+Notwithstanding this statement, we see that the author tries to
+implant in the mind of the golfer the idea that during his downward
+stroke arms and hands are receiving innumerable orders "at intervals
+probably of tens of thousandths of a second," and that at the moment
+of impact with the ball the mind has to become suddenly concentrated
+and the muscles suddenly contracted. He surely will allow that in this
+advice he is trying to impart at least one single sensation or idea
+which is sufficient to ensure that he will "not properly perceive that
+ball, and of course, by consequence, that he will not properly hit
+it."
+
+Here is another paragraph worthy of consideration: "But if one tautens
+any of the muscles necessary for the stroke, the stroke is spoiled."
+I think I have already quoted James Braid on the subject of tension in
+the drive, to show that this statement is utterly fallacious, and that
+without very considerable tautening of the muscles it would be
+impossible to produce a golf drive worthy of the name.
+
+The strangest portions of this alleged explanation of the mystery of
+golf are always when it comes to the question of practical golf. Let
+us consider briefly such a statement as the following:--
+
+     Both sets of stimuli must be intimately and intricately
+     combined throughout the whole course of the swing; the wrists
+     must ease off at the top and tauten at the end. The left knee
+     must be loose at the beginning, and firm at the finish, and
+     the change from one to the other must be as deftly and
+     gently, yet swiftly wrought, as a crescendo passage from
+     pianissimo to fortissimo on a fiddle.
+
+We have already seen what James Braid says about the golf stroke--that
+from the top of it right to the impact the muscles must be in a state
+of the fullest tension; while it is of course well known now that the
+left knee is never at any time in the stroke what is described as
+loose, for from the moment that a properly executed golf drive begins,
+the weight proceeds towards the left foot and leg, and therefore it
+would be impossible to play a proper drive with the left knee "loose."
+I deal fully with this subject in my chapter on "The Distribution of
+Weight."
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE II. HARRY VARDON
+
+    Stance and frontal address in short put.]
+
+As we proceed with the consideration of this work we find that golf is
+indeed a mystery to the author. We are informed that "the golf stroke
+is a highly complex one, and one necessitating the innervation of
+innumerable cerebrospinal centres; not only hand and eye, but arms,
+wrist, shoulders, back, loins, and legs must be stimulated to action.
+No wonder that the associative memory has to be most carefully
+cultivated in golf. To be able, without thinking about it, to take
+your stance, do your waggle, swing back, pause, come forward, hit
+hard, and follow-through well over the left shoulder, always
+self-confidently--ah! this requires a first-class brain, a first-class
+spinal cord, and first-class muscles"; and--if I might be pardoned for
+adding it--a first-class idiot. Nobody but a first-class idiot could
+possibly do all these things without thinking of them, except probably
+that brilliant follow-through "well over the left shoulder!"
+
+I have heard many things enunciated by people who considered
+themselves possessed of first-class brains, but this is absolutely the
+first time that I have ever heard of a good follow-through "well over
+the left shoulder." A good follow-through "well over the left
+shoulder" generally means a most pernicious slice. Any follow-through
+at any game goes after the ball. What happens when that is finished is
+merely a matter of individual style and the particular nature of the
+stroke which has been played. The club, in some cases, may come back
+over the left shoulder; in other cases it may point right down the
+course after the ball; in another it may swing practically round the
+body. It is little touches such as these which show the lack of
+practical acquaintance with the higher science of the game. No one
+acquainted with the inner secrets of golf could possibly refer to that
+portion of a stroke which is coming back from the hole as "the
+follow-through."
+
+As an instance of absolutely ridiculous nonsense I may quote the
+following:
+
+     What the anatomists say is this, that, if the proper orders
+     are issued from the cortex, and gathered up and distributed
+     by the corpora striata and the cerebellum, are then
+     transferred through the crus cerebri, the pons varolii, the
+     anterior pyramid and the medulla oblongata, down the lateral
+     columns of the spinal cord into the anterior cornua of grey
+     matter in the cervical, the dorsal and the lumbar region,
+     they will then "traverse the motor nerves at the rate of
+     about 111 feet a second, and speedily excite definite groups
+     of muscles in definite ways, with the effect of producing the
+     desired movements."
+
+Of course this to the ordinary golfer is absolute nonsense, but to the
+skilled anatomist and student of psychology, who may also be a golfer,
+it is worse than nonsense, for the simple reason that assuming that
+the measurement of the speed at which these orders travel has been
+even approximately measured as proceeding at the rate of "about 111
+feet a second," it is obvious that such a rate of progression would
+be, by comparison with the speed at which the golf stroke is
+delivered, merely a gentle crawl.
+
+One might be excused if one thought that this book was merely a
+practical joke perpetrated by a very ingenious person at the expense
+of golfers, but I do not think we should be justified in assuming
+that, for then we should have to speak in a very much severer manner
+than we are doing; for when one reads about such things as "the twirl
+of the wrists, the accelerated velocity, and the hit at the impact,"
+one is justified in assuming that even if the psychology of the author
+were sound, his knowledge of the mechanical production of the golf
+drive is extremely limited. He says:
+
+     Psychologists are, I believe, agreed that there is in the
+     mind a faculty called the Imagination. Indeed, there has been
+     a whole essay written and printed on "The Creative
+     Imagination."
+
+Even if psychologists are not agreed on this subject we could, I
+think, take as irrefutable evidence of the existence of the "creative
+imagination" the work under notice.
+
+It is curious to find one who is endeavouring to analyse matters which
+are psychologically abstruse exhibiting the greatest confusion of
+thought. Let us take an illustration. He says: "We misuse words; we
+construct an artificial and needless barrier between mind and matter.
+By 'matter' we simply mean something perceptible by our five senses."
+Let us consider this statement. It would be impossible to imagine a
+more sloppy definition of matter. According to this definition of
+matter, glass is not matter, for it is not perceptible by our sense of
+hearing, smelling, or tasting. It is evident that the author
+means--which in itself is erroneous--to define matter as something
+which is perceptible by one of the five senses, but in an analytical
+psychologist so overwhelming an error is inexcusable. It is manifest
+that he is not equal to the task which he has set himself in any way
+whatever. He says that "The golfer, strive as he may, is the slave of
+himself." Here again we have a gross libel on the poor golfer. The
+ordinary golfer is not the slave of himself. He is the slave of
+thoughtless persons who write about things which they do not
+understand, and, in some cases, the bond-servant of those who write
+without understanding of the things which they do very well.
+
+Elaborating this idea, the author proceeds: "It is not a matter of
+want of strength or want of skill, for every now and again one proves
+to oneself by a superlative stroke that the strength and the skill are
+there if only the mind could be prevailed upon to use them." This
+truly is a marvellous statement from one who essays a critical
+analysis of anything. It is undoubtedly possible that a player might
+be set at a tee blindfolded, and provided his caddie put down
+sufficient balls for him to drive at and he continued driving long
+enough, he would unquestionably hit "a superlative stroke." Would this
+prove that the strength and the skill are there? I wonder if our
+author has ever heard of such a thing as "a ghastly fluke"?
+
+A little later on we read: "Time and time again you have been taught
+exactly how to stand, exactly how to swing," and he then proceeds to
+wonder how it is that the unfortunate golfer is so prone to error. The
+reason is not far to seek. It is found in the work of such men as our
+author, and others who should know much better than he; it is found in
+the work of men who teach the unfortunate golfer to stand wrongly, to
+swing wrongly. These, in company with our author, will be duly
+arraigned in our chapter on "The Distribution of Weight." That is the
+plain answer why golfers do not get the results which they should get
+from the amount of work and thought which they put into their game,
+for golfers are, unquestionably, as a class, the most thoughtful of
+sportsmen. If they were not, a book such as I am dealing with could
+not possibly have secured a publisher. Continuing his argument on this
+subject he says:
+
+     ... and yet how often it has taken three, four, and even five
+     strokes to cover those hundred yards! It would be laughable
+     were it not so humiliating--in fact, the impudent spectator
+     does laugh until he tries it himself; then, ah! then he, too,
+     gets a glimpse into that mystery of mysteries--the human
+     mind--which at one and the same time wills to do a thing and
+     fails to do it, which knows precisely and could repeat by
+     rote the exact means by which it is to be accomplished, yet
+     is impotent to put them in force. And the means are so
+     simple. So insanely simple.
+
+To which I say, "And the means are indeed so simple, so sanely
+simple." It is writers who do not understand the game at all who make
+them insanely complex. As a definite illustration of what I mean let
+me ask the man who writes that the golfer who desires to drive
+perfectly "could repeat by rote the exact means by which it is to be
+accomplished" where, in any book by one of the greatest golfers, or in
+his own book, the golfer is definitely instructed that his weight must
+not at any time be on his right leg. In fact the author himself, in
+common with everybody who has ever written a golf book, _deliberately
+misinforms the golfer in this fundamental principle_.
+
+How, then, can a man who claims to be possessed of an analytical mind
+say that the ordinary golfer could repeat by rote the exact means by
+which anything is to be accomplished when it is now a matter of
+notoriety that practically the whole of the published teaching of golf
+is fundamentally unsound?
+
+Speaking of the golfer's difficulties in the drive the author says,
+"The secret of this extraordinary and baffling conflict of mind and
+matter is a problem beyond the reach of physiology and psychology
+combined." Yes, there is no doubt that it is; but it is a matter which
+is well within the reach of the most elementary mechanics and common
+sense.
+
+It will probably seem that I am dealing with this attempt to explain
+the mystery of golf very severely, but I do not feel that I am
+treating the matter too strictly. Golf is enveloped and encompassed
+round about with a wordy mass of verbiage. All kinds of men and some
+women, who have no clearly defined or scientific ideas, have presumed
+to put before the unfortunate golfer directions for playing the game
+which have landed him in a greater maze of bewilderment than exists in
+any other game which I know. It is obvious that if a man is both "a
+duffer" and a slow thinker it will be unsafe for him, until he has
+improved both his game and his mental processes, to attempt to explain
+the higher science of golf for anyone. It should be sufficient for him
+to study the mechanical processes whereby he may improve his own game
+until at least he has been able to take himself out of the class which
+he characterises himself as the duffers. To explain golf
+scientifically in the face of the mass of false doctrine which
+encumbers it, it is necessary that one should be, if not at least a
+quick thinker, an exact thinker, and that one should know the game to
+the core.
+
+It seems to me that there is possibly a clue to the remarkable
+statements which we get in this book in the following quotation, which
+I take from the chapter on "Attention":
+
+     When I first rode a bicycle, if four or five obstacles
+     suddenly presented themselves, these to the right, those to
+     the left, I found I could not transfer my attention from one
+     to the other sufficiently quickly to give the muscles the
+     requisite orders--and I came a cropper ... and so with the
+     golf stroke.
+
+It seems to me that here we have the key of the author's difficulty.
+His mind was fixed on the obstacles--some to the right and some to the
+left. In similar circumstances most budding cyclists, and I have
+taught many, confine their attention to the clear path right ahead,
+and consequently the obstacles "these to the right, those to the left"
+do not trouble them. This, psychologically speaking, is a curious
+confession of the power of outside influences to affect the main
+issue. It seems to me that right through the consideration of this
+subject the author, like many other golfers, has been devoting his
+mind far too much to the things which he imagines about golf, instead
+of to the things which are, and they are the things which matter. No
+wonder, then, that he has "come a cropper."
+
+There is a chapter called "The One Thing Necessary," which starts as
+follows: "But, since I stated that my own belief is that only one
+thing can be 'attended' to at a time, you will probably be inclined to
+ask me what is the most important thing? what precisely ought we to
+attend to at the moment of impact of club with ball? Well, if you ask
+me, I say _the image of the ball_." This is really an astonishing
+statement. "At the moment of impact of club with ball" the image of
+the ball does not really matter in the slightest degree. As I shall
+show later on, the eye has fulfilled its functions long before the
+impact takes place. Also, of course, to the non-analytical mind it
+will be perfectly obvious that _the image of the ball_ could be just
+as well preserved if the golfer had lifted his head three to six
+inches, but his stroke would have been irretrievably ruined.
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, by the time the club has arrived at the ball
+it is altogether too late to attend to anything. All the attention has
+already been devoted to the stroke, and it has been made or marred. As
+we have clearly seen from what James Braid says about the stroke the
+moment of impact is the time when the attention and the tension is
+released, so it will obviously be of no service to us to endeavour
+forcibly to impress upon our minds in any way the image of the ball.
+If there is any one thing to think of at the moment of impact, the
+outstanding point of importance must be that the eyes should be in
+exactly the same place and position as they were at the moment of
+address.
+
+Here is a most remarkable sentence:--
+
+     It is a pity that so many literary elucidators and
+     explicators of the game devote so many pages to the
+     subsidiary circumstances.... I wonder if they would pardon
+     me if I said that, as a matter of simple fact, if one
+     _attended to the game_ (with all that that means), almost one
+     could stand and strike as one chose, and almost with any kind
+     of club.
+
+There is a large amount of truth in this; but it comes most peculiarly
+from the author of this book, for of all the literary obfuscators whom
+I have ever come across I have never met his equal in attention to the
+"subsidiary circumstances" and neglect of the real game. Much time is
+wasted in an analysis of the nature of attention. Now, attention,
+psychologically, is somewhat difficult to define from the golfing
+point of view, but as a matter of simple and practical golf there is
+no difficulty whatever in explaining it. Attention in golf is merely
+habit acquired by practice and by starting golf in a proper and
+scientific manner. I shall have to deal with that more fully in my
+next chapter, so I shall not go into the matter here. Suffice it to
+say that lifting the eye at golf is no more a lack of attention than
+is lifting the little finger in the club-house. It is merely a vice in
+each case--a bad habit, born probably of the fact that in neither case
+did the man learn the rudiments of the game thoroughly.
+
+We are told that "the arms do not judge distance (save when we are
+actually touching something), nor does the body, nor does the head.
+The judging is done by the eyes"; but we must not forget that the arms
+accurately measure the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PUTTING
+
+
+The great mystery to me, not about golf, but about the work of the
+greatest golfers, is the attitude which they all adopt with regard to
+putting. Now, putting may quite properly be said to be the foundation
+of golf. It really is the first thing which should be taught, but, as
+a matter of fact, it is generally left until the last. Practically all
+instructors start the player with the drive. It is beyond question
+that the drive is the most complex stroke in golf, and it is equally
+beyond question that the put is the simplest. There can be no shadow
+of doubt whatever that the only scientific method of instructing a
+person in the art of playing golf is one which is diametrically
+opposed to that adopted by practically all the leading players of the
+world. Instead of starting the beginner at the tee and taking him
+through his clubs in rotation to the putting-green, the proper order
+for sound tuition would be to start him six inches from the hole and
+to back him through his clubs to the tee.
+
+This is so absolutely beyond argument that I need not labour the point
+here, except in so far as with it is bound up the important question
+of attention--that is, of riveting one's eye and one's mind on the
+ball for the whole period employed in making the stroke. As I said in
+the preceding chapter, attention is habit. Attention includes the
+habit of keeping the eye on the ball and the head still until the
+stroke has been played. The best way of inculcating the vices of
+lifting the head and the eye during the stroke is to teach the player
+the drive first. It stands to reason that if a player is started, say,
+with a six-inch put, that he has at the moment of making his stroke
+both the ball and the hole well within the focus of his eyes, so that
+it is absolutely unnecessary for him to lift his eye in order to
+follow the ball. It therefore follows that he is not tempted to lift
+his eye.
+
+Now, no player should be allowed to go more than two or three feet
+from the hole until he has learned to hole out puts at that distance
+with accuracy and confidence. By the time he is allowed to leave the
+putting-green, he will have acquired the habit of attention.
+
+It will be clearly seen that, starting now from the edge of the green
+with his chip shot, he is much more certain of striking the ball and
+getting it away than he would be were he put on to the more uncertain
+stroke in the drive; so by a gradual process of education the player
+would come in time to the drive, and by the time he arrives at the
+most complicated stroke in the game--the stroke wherein is the
+smallest margin of error--he has cultivated the habit of attention,
+which includes keeping one's head still.
+
+Of course, this is a counsel of perfection which one does not expect
+to find carried out, although a similar course is followed by all good
+teachers in every trade, profession, science, or game, but as I have
+said before, in golf there is a tremendous amount of false teaching
+which is generally followed. It is, however, a certainty that any
+beginner who has the patience, perseverance, and moral courage to
+educate himself on these lines, will find golf much easier to play
+than it would be if he had started, as nearly everybody wants to
+start, with "the swing." It is bad enough that putting should be
+relegated to the position it is, but the attitude of the great
+writers, or perhaps I should say the great golfers who have written
+books about golf, aggravates the offence, and forms what is to me the
+greatest mystery in connection with golf literature.
+
+I shall give here what Braid, Vardon, and Taylor have to say about
+putting. Let me take Vardon first. At page 143 of _The Complete
+Golfer_ he says:
+
+     For the proper playing of the other strokes in golf, I have
+     told my readers to the best of my ability how they should
+     stand and where they should put their feet. But except for
+     the playing of particular strokes, which come within the
+     category of those called "fancy," I have no similar
+     instruction to offer in the matter of putting. There is no
+     rule and there is no best way.
+
+     The fact is that there is more individuality in putting than
+     in any other department of golf, and it is absolutely
+     imperative that this individuality should be allowed to have
+     its way.
+
+And now comes a very wonderful statement:
+
+     I believe seriously that every man has had a particular kind
+     of putting method awarded to him by Nature, and when he putts
+     exactly in this way he will do well, and when he departs from
+     his natural system he will miss the long ones and the short
+     ones too. First of all, he has to find out this particular
+     method which Nature has assigned for his use.
+
+Again on page 144 we read that when a player is off his putting
+
+     ... it is all because he is just that inch or two removed
+     from the stance which Nature allotted to him for putting
+     purposes, but he does not know that, and consequently
+     everything in the world except the true cause is blamed for
+     the extraordinary things he does.
+
+Let us now repeat what James Braid has to say on the important matter
+of putting. On page 119 of _How to Play Golf_ he says:
+
+     It happens, unfortunately, that concerning one department of
+     the game that will cause the golfer some anxiety from time to
+     time, and often more when he is experienced than when he is
+     not, neither I nor any other player can offer any words of
+     instruction such as, if closely acted upon, would give the
+     same successful results as the advice tendered under other
+     heads ought to do. This is in regard to putting.
+
+Further on we are informed that "really great putters are probably
+born and not made."
+
+So far we must admit that this is extremely discouraging, but there is
+worse to follow.
+
+Let us now see what Taylor has to say about putting. At page 83 in his
+book, _Taylor on Golf_, and in the chapter, "Hints on Learning the
+Game," he says:
+
+     Coming back to the subject of actual instruction. After a
+     fair amount of proficiency has been acquired in the use of
+     the cleek, iron, and mashie, we have the difficulty of the
+     putting to surmount. And here I may say at once it is an
+     absolute impossibility to teach a man how to putt.
+
+     Even many of the leading professionals are weak in this
+     department of the game. Do you think they would not improve
+     themselves in this particular stroke were such a thing within
+     the range of possibility? Certainly they would. The fact is
+     that in putting, more than in aught else, a very special
+     aptitude is necessary. A good eye and a faculty for gauging
+     distances correctly is a great help, indeed, quite a
+     necessity, as also is judgment with regard to the requisite
+     power to put behind the ball. Unfortunately, these are things
+     that cannot be taught, they must come naturally, or not at
+     all.
+
+     All that is possible for the instructor to do is to discover
+     what kind of a putting style his pupil is possessed of,
+     offer him useful hints, and his ultimate measure of success
+     is then solely in his own hands.
+
+     It is easy to tell a pupil how he must needs hold his clubs
+     in driving or playing an iron shot, but in putting there is
+     hardly such a necessity. The diversity of styles accounts for
+     this, and in this particular kind of stroke a man must be
+     content to rely upon his own adaptability alone.
+
+Now in the same book on page 240, in the chapter on "The Art of
+Putting," we read:
+
+     The drive may be taught, the pupil may be instructed in the
+     use of the cleek, the iron, or the brassie, but in putting he
+     must rely upon his own powers of reducing the game to an
+     actual science. The other strokes are of a more or less
+     mechanical character; they may be explained and demonstrated,
+     but with the ball but a few feet distant from the hole there
+     are many other things to be considered, and hints are the
+     only things that can be offered. The pupil may be advised
+     over the holding and grip of the putter, but as far as the
+     success of the shot is concerned it remains in his own hands.
+
+In passing, I may remark that it seems to me that in this latter
+respect the put is not vastly different from any other stroke in golf,
+or indeed, for the matter of that, in any other game.
+
+Continuing, Taylor says:
+
+     Putting, in short, is so different to any other branch of the
+     game that the good putter may be said to be born, not made.
+
+     That this is really the case is proved by the fact that many
+     of the leading players of the day, professionals and amateurs
+     alike, are very frequently weaker when playing with the
+     putter than when performing with any other of their clubs.
+     Speaking solely of professionals, is it at all probable that
+     this would be so were they capable of improving themselves in
+     this particular department? Certainly not.
+
+Now it will be admitted that this is a very gloomy outlook for him who
+desires to learn how to put. He is thrown entirely on his own
+resources. I must quote Taylor once again with regard to putting. He
+says:
+
+     And yet it is none the less true that to putt perfectly
+     should be the acme of one's ambition. Putting is the most
+     important factor of success, for it happens very frequently
+     that a man may meet a stronger driver, or a better performer
+     with the iron clubs, and yet wrest the leadership from him
+     when near the hole.
+
+There can be no doubt whatever of the truth of what Taylor says in
+this last paragraph--"Putting is the most important factor of
+success"; yet we are confronted with the amazing statement made by the
+three greatest masters of the game, men who between them have
+accounted for fourteen open championships, men whose living depends
+upon playing golf and teaching it, that "the most important factor of
+success" cannot be taught. There is no possible doubt about their
+ideas on this subject. They deliberately tell the unfortunate golfer,
+or would-be golfer, that good putters are born and not made, that
+putting cannot be taught, and that each person must be left to work
+out his own salvation.
+
+It is admitted that putting is practically half the game. It has been
+well illustrated in the following way:--Seventy-two strokes is a good
+score for almost any course. The man who gets down in two every time
+is not a bad putter. This allows him thirty-six strokes on the green,
+which is exactly one-half of his score. Now what does this statement
+which is made by Braid, Vardon, and Taylor amount to? It is an
+assertion by them that they are unable to teach half of the game of
+golf, and _that_ the most important half, for, as we have seen, Taylor
+says that it is "the most important factor of success." Now surely
+there is something wrong here. As a matter of fact it is the most
+absolute nonsense which it is possible to imagine. Putters are not
+born. They are made and shaped and polished to just as great an extent
+as any metal putter that ever was forged. Putting is the simplest and
+easiest thing in golf to learn and to teach, and it is positively
+wrong for men of the eminence in their profession which these players
+enjoy to append their names to statements which cannot but have a
+deleterious effect on the game generally, and particularly on the play
+of those who are affected by reading such absolutely false doctrine.
+
+There are certain fundamental principles in connection with putting
+which cannot be disregarded. It is quite wrong to say that the first
+thing to consider is some particular idiosyncrasy which a man may have
+picked up by chance. The idea of Nature having troubled herself to
+allot any particular man or men, or, for the matter of that, women or
+children, any particular styles for putting is too ridiculous to
+require any comment. Needless to say, very many people have
+peculiarities which they exhibit in putting, as well as in other
+matters, but in many cases it is the duty of the capable instructor
+not to attempt to add the scientific principles of putting to a
+totally wrong and ugly foundation. The first duty of one who knows the
+game and how to teach it is to implant in the mind of his pupil the
+correct mechanical methods of obtaining the result desired. If, after
+he has done this, it be found that his natural bent or idiosyncrasy
+fits in with the proper mechanical production of the stroke, there is
+no harm in allowing him to retain his natural style; but if, for the
+sake of argument, it should be found that his natural method is
+unsuitable for the true production of the stroke, there is only one
+thing to do, which is to cut out his natural method, and make him put
+on the lines most generally adopted.
+
+Nor is this difficult to do, for it stands to reason that anyone who
+is a beginner at golf has not already cultivated a style of his own.
+
+The statements of these three great golfers are absolutely without
+foundation--in fact, they are indeed so far from the truth that I have
+no hesitation whatever in saying that in at least ninety per cent of
+the cases which come before a professional for tuition, if the subject
+is properly dealt with by an intelligent teacher, putting is, without
+any shadow of doubt, the easiest portion of golf to teach and to
+learn. In the face of the mischievous statements which have been so
+widely circulated in connection with the difficulty of learning the
+art of putting, one cannot possibly be too emphatic in stating the
+truth. In doing this, let it be understood that I am not stating any
+theory or publishing any idea which I am not prepared fully to
+demonstrate by practical teaching. It is a curious thing, but one to
+which I do not wholly object, that those who read my books seem to
+consider that they have a personal claim on my services as well, and
+it is no uncommon thing for me to receive visits from men who are in
+trouble about their putting, their drive, or their approach, and I
+have not, as a rule, any very great trouble in locating the seat of
+the difficulty.
+
+The pernicious influence of such teaching as that which I have just
+quoted repeatedly comes before me. I know men who seem to consider
+that the chief art of putting in golf is bound up in another art,
+namely, the art of the contortionist, whereas, of course, nothing
+could be further from the truth. Putting, as I shall show later on, is
+an extremely simple operation. In fact its simplicity is so pronounced
+that little children, almost without instruction, do it remarkably
+well, because they do it naturally. It is only when people come to the
+game possibly rather late in life, and perhaps with habits acquired
+from other games, and in addition to this are told that they must
+evolve their own particular style, that we find the difficulty, for
+the style which is evolved is, in the vast majority of cases, no style
+at all, and the stroke is played unnaturally.
+
+That is what I have to say with regard to the "difficulty" of putting.
+I shall, later on, deal with the principles involved in putting. It
+will, in the meantime, be sufficient for me to consider and criticise
+these statements generally. If this were my own uncorroborated
+opinion, it is possible that the definite statements of three men like
+Braid, Taylor, and Vardon might outweigh what I have said, although I
+do not believe that even in that case they would; for what I have
+quoted is such obvious nonsense that it would indeed be to me a
+mystery if any golfer possessed of ordinary common sense could accept
+any view of the matter other than that which I put forward.
+
+However, when dealing with names like these, it is worth while to
+reinforce oneself. Let us see what James Braid has to say about the
+matter in _Advanced Golf_. At page 144, chapter x., dealing with
+"Putting Strokes," Braid says: "Thus practically any man has it in his
+power to become a reasonably good putter, and to effect a considerable
+improvement in his game as the result." Here is the message of hope to
+the putter. It will be remembered that Taylor states that the good
+putter may be said to be born, not made, and that Braid practically
+said the same thing. This, of course, is nonsense, and if any
+refutation were necessary, James Braid himself is the refutation. The
+first time I saw Braid putting, he was trying a Vaile putter for me
+at Walton-on-Heath. He came down on the ball before he had come to the
+bottom of his swing, and finished on the green quite two inches in
+front of the spot where the ball had been. Before I had reflected in
+the slightest degree, I came out quite naturally with the question,
+"Do you always put like that?" "Yes," said Braid in his slow, quiet
+way, "and it is the best way." By this time I had remembered who Braid
+was, and I did not pursue the subject any further, but I thought a
+good deal. I thought that Braid would, in due course, find out that it
+was not the best way, and I fully understood why he was such a bad
+putter.
+
+Since then Braid has found out that his method was wrong. He has
+altered it, and now plays his puts in the only proper way, which I
+shall refer to later on. As everybody knows, Braid is now a very fine
+putter--_but he was not born so_. If ever there was an illustration of
+a fine putter made out of a bad putter, James Braid is the outstanding
+example, and James Braid is the answer to Taylor's question as to
+whether a professional can improve his putting or not. Any
+professional whose putting is bad can improve it by using his brains,
+because when a professional puts badly it is rarely a question of his
+hands, his eye, or his wrist being wrong. The seat of the deficiency
+is much deeper than that.
+
+Let us now see what James Braid has to say about putting. At page 146
+of _Advanced Golf_ he practically eats his own words. This is what he
+says:
+
+     Of course, they say that good putters are born and not made,
+     and it is certainly true that some of the finest putters we
+     know seem to come by their wonderful skill as a gift, and
+     nowadays constantly putt with an ease and a confidence that
+     suggest some kind of inspiration. But it is also the fact
+     that a man who was not a born putter, and whose putting all
+     through his golfing youth was of the most moderate quality,
+     may by study and practice make himself a putter who need fear
+     nobody on any putting green. I may suggest that I have proved
+     this in my own case. Until comparatively recently there is no
+     doubt that I was really a poor putter. Long after I was a
+     scratch player I lost more matches through bad putting than
+     anything else. I realised that putting was the thing that
+     stood in the way of further improvement, and I did my best to
+     improve it, so that to-day my critics are kind enough to say
+     that there is not very much wanting in my play on the putting
+     green, while I know that it was an important factor in
+     gaining for me my recent championship.
+
+     So I may be allowed the privilege of indicating the path
+     along which improvement in this department of the game may
+     best be effected; and what I have to say at the beginning is,
+     that putting is essentially a thing for the closest
+     mathematical and other reckoning. It is a game of
+     calculations pure and simple, a matter for the most careful
+     analysis and thought.
+
+Now here at least we have common sense with regard to putting. Braid
+holds himself out as an example of the bad putter turned into the good
+putter. He does not, it is true, tell us why he was a bad putter and
+how he changed his bad methods to his present excellent method, but I
+have already given the key to that. I shall, however, deal with it
+more fully when I come to the question of the practice of putting.
+Braid says on page 147 of _Advanced Golf_, still speaking of putting,
+that "the mechanical part is comparatively simple." He continues:
+"Putts most generally go wrong because the strength or the line, or
+both, were misjudged, and they were so misjudged because the different
+factors were not valued properly, and because one or two of them were
+very likely overlooked altogether."
+
+I think very few golfers will be inclined to dispute the opening
+statement that "Putts most generally go wrong because the strength or
+the line, or both, were misjudged." I may say that I never heard of a
+put which went wrong for any other reason. If the strength and the
+line are both right, one always has an excellent chance of ending in
+the tin! Braid tells us again on page 148
+
+     ... that what I call the mechanical part of putting--the
+     hitting of the ball--is simple and sure in comparison with
+     the other difficulties that are presented when a long putt
+     has to be made; yet it is hardly necessary to say to any
+     experienced golfer that there are absolutely thousands of
+     players who fail in their putting, not because of any lack of
+     powers of calculation or a good eye, steady hand, and
+     delicacy of touch, but simply because they have fallen into a
+     careless way of performing this mechanical part, and of
+     almost feeling that any way of hitting the ball will do so
+     long as it is hit in the right direction and the proper
+     degree of strength is applied.
+
+Again Braid says on page 149:
+
+     Absolutely everything depends on hitting the ball truly, and
+     the man who always does so has mastered one of the greatest
+     difficulties of the art of putting. A long putt can never be
+     run down except by a fluke when the ball has not been hit
+     truly, however exactly all the calculations of line and
+     strength have been made.
+
+Now the point which I am making, and I hope making in such a manner
+that no one will ever dare even to attempt to refute it, is the fact
+that the mechanical operation of putting is one of extreme simplicity,
+entirely devoid of mystery, and capable of acquirement by persons even
+of a very low order of intelligence. I want to make it plain beyond
+the possibility of doubt that putting is the foundation of golf and
+that it can be very easily learned, provided always that the
+instructor has a proper idea of the mechanics of the put. Generally
+speaking, when one uses the word "mechanics" a golfer is afraid that
+he is about to receive some abstruse lecture illustrated by diagrams
+and mathematical formulæ, but it is not so. It is essential to a
+thorough knowledge and enjoyment of the game of golf that the golfer
+should understand the mechanics of putting.
+
+James Braid says that it is a matter of mathematics and calculation,
+and he is not far wrong; but the mechanics of the put are of such
+extreme simplicity that no golfer or would-be golfer need be
+discouraged because one refers to the elementary science which is
+involved in the making of the perfect put. Rather let him be thankful
+that he has James Braid's corroboration of the fact, which I have for
+many years past tried to impress upon golfers, that the main thing to
+strive at in connection with improving their game is a proper
+understanding of the mechanical principles involved in producing the
+strokes. Until the ordinary golfer has this he will not progress so
+rapidly as he may desire.
+
+I think that we may now consider that it _is_ possible to teach people
+how to put; so, having disposed of this fable, let us consider the
+most important features of putting. I do not propose here to
+illustrate the manner in which the stroke is to be played. I have done
+that fully in _Modern Golf_ and in other places. I am here concerning
+myself mainly with the fundamental principles. When these are properly
+grasped, and these I may say are practically all arm-chair golf, any
+person of ordinary intelligence should be able to go on to a putting
+green, and by carrying them out become quite a good putter.
+
+Let us first consider the manner of propulsion of the ball. Provided,
+for the sake of argument, that the putting-green were an enlarged
+billiard table with a hole in the middle of it, and one were given a
+penny to put into that hole from the edge of the table, how would one
+endeavour to do it? There can be but little doubt one would try to
+_roll_ the coin into the hole. Now that is the way one must try to
+put. The ball must be rolled up to the hole. At first sight this seems
+an entirely superfluous direction. The reader may say: "In what other
+way may puts be sent into the hole than by rolling?" Practically,
+there is no other way. It was the idea that there was another and a
+better way of holing puts than by rolling them into the hole which
+made James Braid in the old days such a bad putter, for in those days
+James Braid putted with what is commonly called "drag." It is no
+uncommon thing to hear men who play a very fine game of golf advise
+players to "slide" their long puts up. Put in another way this simply
+means--advice to play a long put with what is known as "drag."
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE III. HARRY VARDON
+
+    At the top of his swing, showing his weight mainly on the left
+    leg. This characteristic is very marked in Vardon's play.]
+
+It is well known that at billiards one can hit very hard and direct
+one's ball very well by playing with a large amount of drag, and
+golfers have carried this notion on to the putting-green, but, it must
+be admitted, in a very thoughtless manner. In billiards the ball is
+very heavy in proportion to its size. It moves on a perfectly level
+and practically smooth surface, the tip of the cue is soft and covered
+with chalk, which gives a splendid grip on the ball, and the blow is
+delivered very far below the centre of the ball's mass, and is
+concentrated on a particular point. In golf it is impracticable in
+putting to get very much below the centre of the ball. It can be done,
+of course, with a club which is sufficiently lofted, but the moment
+this is done there is a tendency to make the ball leave the green,
+which is not calculated to make for accuracy. Moreover, be it
+remembered that the contact here is between two substances which
+are not well calculated to enter into communion, namely, the
+comparatively hard and shiny surface of a golf ball, and the hard and
+frequently unmarked face of a putter. Moreover, the golf ball is
+frequently marked with excrescences called brambles or pimples.
+
+It is obvious that in many cases the first impact will be on one of
+these pimples, and also in many cases certainly not in a line dead
+down the centre of that bramble and in a line coinciding with the
+intended line of run of the ball. When the impact takes place in this
+manner it is obvious that, according to the simplest laws of
+mechanics, the put must be started wrongly. It is also obvious that if
+there is this tendency to go crookedly off the face of the club the
+ball will have more opportunity of getting out of the track, which it
+makes for itself in the turf, if it is lifted in any degree from the
+turf by a lofted club.
+
+It is apparent that a golf ball on a putting green sinks into the
+turf. It is equally apparent that it will, on its way to the hole,
+make for itself a track or furrow of approximately the same depth as
+the depression in which it was resting when stationary. That furrow,
+to a very great extent, holds the ball to its course and minimises
+very much the faulty marking of a great many of the golf balls of
+to-day, so that it will be seen that the object of the player should
+be not in any way whatever to lift his ball from the green in the put,
+which is the invariable and inevitable tendency of attempting to put
+with drag by means of a lofted club. It is an extremely common error
+to suppose that a put played with drag hugs the green more than one
+played in the ordinary way, or with top. As a matter of
+incontrovertible fact, no put hugs the green more than a topped put.
+It would be easy enough to demonstrate this were it necessary to do
+so, but it is a matter which comes in more in the dynamics of golf,
+and possibly I shall have the space to treat of it further there. We
+may, for our immediate purpose, content ourselves with the fact that
+James Braid has abandoned putting with drag, and now rolls his ball up
+to the hole with, if anything, a little top, although, be it clearly
+understood, there is no apparent intention on his part to obtain this
+top, nor does he in _Advanced Golf_ advocate that any attempt should
+be made to obtain top; but there can be no doubt whatever that the
+manner in which he plays his put tends to impart a certain amount of
+top to the ball, and this, of course, causes it to run very freely.
+
+Now with regard to putting drag on a long put, it should be obvious to
+any one that, considering the roughness of the green, the extreme
+roughness of the ball and its comparatively light weight in proportion
+to its size, it would be impossible to make that ball retain any
+considerable measure of back-spin over any appreciable distance of the
+green. The idea is so repugnant to common sense and practical golf
+that it has always been a matter of astonishment to me to think that
+it could have prevailed so much as it has. However, there can be no
+doubt that putting under this utterly wrong impression has done a very
+great amount of harm to the game of players who might otherwise have
+been many strokes better. Let our golfer understand that there is one
+way, and one way only, in practical golf to put the ball, and that is
+to roll it up to the hole.
+
+There is generally an exception to prove the rule, and if I can find
+an exception to this rule, it must be when one is trying to bolt short
+puts. Practically every one has experienced the difficulty of holing
+short puts, especially when the green is extremely keen. It is here
+that the delicacy of the stroke allows the ball and the inequalities
+thereof and any obstructions on the turf to exercise their fullest
+power to deflect the ball from the line to the hole. James Braid, in
+these circumstances, advises bolting one's puts. Needless to say, he
+explains that one should put dead for the middle of the hole, and by
+bolting, of course, is meant that one should put firmly so as to give
+the ball sufficient strength of run to overcome its inequalities or
+those of the turf.
+
+This, unquestionably, is good advice; but if one puts at the hole in
+this manner and does not get it cleanly enough to sink into the tin at
+once, the ball with top will run round the edge of the tin and remain
+on the green. This is the only case in golf that I can call to mind
+where there is any use in putting drag on a put, and the reason for
+this is that the distance from the ball to the hole and the nature of
+the green is such that the ball is able to retain a very considerable
+portion of its backward spin, and upon contact with the rim of the
+hole, instead of having a forward run on it which enables it to hold
+up and so get away from the hole, the back-spin gets a grip on the
+edge of the hole and the ball falls in.
+
+So far as I can remember, this is absolutely the only case in which
+drag of any sort may be considered useful in a put. When I say drag of
+any sort I am not, of course, referring to cutting round a put, or
+negotiating a stymie with back-spin, for neither of these strokes
+comes within the scope of my remark.
+
+Having arrived at a decision as to the best method of sending the ball
+on its journey to the hole, we have now to consider a point of supreme
+importance in golf, and one which is not sufficiently insisted upon
+by instructors. This is, that at the moment of impact the face of the
+putter shall form a true right angle with the line of run to the hole.
+That is the fundamental point in connection with putting; but it is of
+almost equal importance that the right angle shall be preserved for as
+long a time as possible in the swing back, and also in the
+follow-through--in other words, the head of the putter should be in
+the line of run to the hole as long as possible both before and after
+the stroke. With this extremely simple rule, and it will be apparent
+that this can be just as well learned in an arm-chair as anywhere
+else, almost anyone could put well.
+
+There is another point of outstanding importance. I have said that the
+head of the putter should form a right angle to the line of run to the
+hole. I shall be more emphatic still. Let us consider the line of run
+to the hole as the upright portion of a very long letter T laid on the
+ground. The top of the letter T will then be formed by the front edge
+of the sole of the putter, so that it will be seen that not only does
+the putter face form a dead right angle to the line of run to the
+hole, but that the line of run to the hole hits the putter face dead
+in the centre. For all ordinary putting, that is the one and only way
+to proceed. One reads in various books about putting off the heel,
+putting off the toe, and putting with drag. This is, comparatively
+speaking, all imbecility and theory. There is no way to put in golf
+comparable with the put that goes off the centre of the club's face.
+If we may treat the face of the putter as a rectangle, bisect it by a
+vertical line and also by a horizontal line, the point where these two
+lines cross each other will be the portion of the putter which should
+come into contact with the ball.
+
+These are extremely elementary matters; but it is impossible,
+although they are so elementary, to exaggerate their importance, and
+it is amazing, considering their simplicity, how much neglected they
+are in all books of instruction, and, generally speaking, by all
+instructors. For instance, James Braid, at page 149, tells us:
+
+     Hitting the ball truly is simply a question of bringing the
+     putter on to it when making the stroke to exactly the same
+     point as when the final address was made, and of swinging the
+     putter through from the back swing to the finish in a
+     straight line.
+
+This statement would be correct if the address had been made correctly
+in the first instance, but unless one has it in one's mind to make
+one's putter the top of the T--that is, the completion of the right
+angle to the line of run to the hole--the chances are that one's
+original address was wrong. Then it will be clearly seen that it is
+not "simply a question of bringing the putter on to it when making the
+stroke to exactly the same point as when the final address was made."
+The important point is to see that the final address is correctly
+made; but in no book which I have read--and I have read practically
+every book on golf which deserves to be read--do I find any simple and
+explicit directions for the mechanical portion of the put, which, as
+James Braid truly observes, is extremely simple.
+
+Now for the idea of the stroke: The player will, of course, have
+learned his grip from some of the books on golf, or from a
+professional. He will in all probability have adopted the overlapping
+grip, for that grip tends, more than any other, to bring both wrists
+into action together; and there can, I think, be little doubt that for
+most people it is the better grip. Having obtained a good general idea
+of the simple mechanical operations involved in the contact of the
+club with the ball, the player now has to consider how that club
+moves where it is, if we may so express it, bound to him. Well, if he
+has even a rudimentary idea of mechanics, he will know that if he
+wishes to swing that club so that it may hit the ball in an exactly
+similar manner every time, he should suspend it on a single bearing,
+so that it would swing in a similar manner to the pendulum of a clock.
+
+The perfect put, from a mechanical point of view, is made by a motion
+which is equivalent to the swinging of a pendulum. If, instead of
+allowing the weight of the pendulum to be, as it generally is, in the
+plane of the swing, it were turned round so that the flat side faced
+towards the sides of the clock, we should have a rough mechanical
+presentment of the golf club in the act of making a put. This is, of
+course, a counsel of absolute perfection. It is an impossibility to
+the golfer, both on account of his physical and physiological
+imperfections, and on account of the fact that the golfer practically
+never puts with an upright putter.
+
+We are frequently told that a put is the only true wrist stroke in
+golf. As a matter of fact there is no true wrist stroke in golf, for
+it is evident that if one played the put as a true wrist stroke with a
+club whose lie is at a considerable angle to the horizontal, the
+centre of the circle formed by the club head will be away from the
+ball to such an extent that the instant the club head leaves the ball
+it must leave the line of run to the hole, and equally as certainly
+will it leave the line of run to the hole immediately after it has
+struck the ball.
+
+Now this is not what we require, so it has come to pass that the put
+at golf is to a very great extent a compromise. It must, above
+everything, be a deliberate stroke with a clean follow-through. There
+must be no suggestion of reducing the put to a muscular effort. The
+idea of the pendulum must be preserved as much as possible, and the
+strength of the put regulated to a very great extent by the length of
+one's backward swing.
+
+It is of the first importance that the body should be kept still
+during the process of putting, and it stands to reason that the wrists
+must also be kept as much as possible in the same place. If one finds
+that one has a marked tendency to sway or to move the body about,
+standing with one's feet close together will frequently correct this.
+
+I have referred to the fact that the put is not a wrist stroke. As a
+matter of fact, the wrists must in all good putting "go out after the
+ball." By this is meant that at the moment of impact the wrists must
+in the follow-through travel in a line parallel with the line of run
+to the hole, and they must finish so that the club head is able, at
+the finish, to stay over the line of run to the hole. To do this, it
+is obvious that the wrists, after impact, must move forward. No true
+follow-through in the put can be obtained from stationary wrists. This
+may sound a little complicated. As a matter of fact it is nothing of
+the sort, and the action is very simple, very natural, and when
+properly played the ball goes very sweetly off the club and with
+splendid direction.
+
+There is one good general rule for regulating the distance which one
+should stand from the ball in putting. When one addresses one's ball,
+one should be in such a position that the ball is right underneath
+one's eyes. To put it so that there can be no possible mistake as to
+what I mean, I may say that in most cases the eyes, the ball, and the
+hole should form a triangle in a plane at a right angle to the
+horizon. Now I know how hard it is for some people to follow a remark
+which refers to planes and right angles and horizons, so as this is a
+matter of extreme importance, and a matter where many beginners go
+absolutely wrong, I shall make it so plain that there is no
+possibility of misunderstanding what I mean.
+
+Let us imagine a large, irregularly shaped triangle with the apex at
+the hole. We shall suppose, for the sake of argument, that this
+triangle is composed of cardboard, that it is a right-angled triangle,
+and that its base is 4' 6" wide. This triangle, then, is laid on the
+green so that its base is vertical, and the corner which is remote
+from the hole represents the ball, the upper corner of the base being,
+of course, the player's eyes.
+
+I believe this to be a matter of very great importance, for here it
+will be seen that we have the eyes, the ball, and the hole all in the
+same plane. Some people like putting with very upright putters. For
+the purpose of experiment I had a perfectly upright putter made, but
+upright putters are, I think, open to this objection--one's body hangs
+too far over them, so that at the moment of striking the ball one is
+looking inwards towards the ball, for one's head projects beyond the
+line of run to the hole for a considerable distance. It will thus be
+seen that one is looking down one line to the hole, and putting over
+another. Needless to say, this cannot be good for direction. The eye,
+the ball, and the hole should undoubtedly be in the same plane, and
+that plane at right angles to the horizon.
+
+As regards the position of the ball in relation to the feet there is
+some slight difference of opinion, but generally it may be said that
+about midway between the feet is the best position. If anything, the
+ball should perhaps be a little nearer to the left foot than to the
+right, but this is a matter upon which we cannot lay down any hard and
+fast rule. The main point for the player to consider will be how he
+can best secure the mechanical results which I have stated as being
+the fundamental requisites of good putting. The matter of an inch or
+two in his stance, nearer the hole or farther from it, is not of very
+great importance compared with this. Some players have an idea that
+they can secure a better run on their ball when putting by turning
+over their wrists at the moment of impact. This is one of the most
+dangerous fallacies which it is possible to conceive. The idea is
+absolutely and fundamentally erroneous.
+
+If one desires to put any run on one's ball more than is obtained by
+the method of striking it which I have stated, it is always open to
+one to play the put a little after the club has reached the lowest
+point in its swing,--that is to say, as the putter is ascending, but
+this is practically unnecessary. If one requires a little more run on
+the ball it is best obtained by making the stroke a little stronger.
+Any attempt whatever to do anything by altering the angle of the face
+of the club during impact is utterly beyond the realm of practical
+golf.
+
+There are many refinements in the art of putting which go somewhat
+beyond the fundamental principles laid down in this chapter, in that
+they call for cut of a particular kind; but for about ninety-five per
+cent of the puts which one has to play, practically nothing more need
+be known by the golfer than is here set out.
+
+I am not here going to describe the method in which one cuts round a
+stymie, for I have done that very fully elsewhere; and, moreover, this
+does not so completely come within the scope of this work, for it
+enters much more into the region of practical stroke play than do the
+matters which I have treated of and which I intend to treat of in this
+book.
+
+There is, however, one stroke which is played on the putting-green,
+yet is not truly, of course, a put. It is a stroke which I myself
+introduced into the game several years ago. This is the stroke which
+is now known as the Vaile Stymie Stroke. It is unique among golf
+strokes in that it is not an arc. Every known golf stroke before I
+introduced this stroke into the game was an arc of a more or less
+irregular shape, but it was an arc. The essence of my stroke is that
+it is produced in practically a straight line. For all ordinary
+stymies it is without doubt the most delicate and accurate stroke
+which can possibly be played, and the manner of playing it, after a
+golfer has once conquered the force of habit which tends to make him
+raise his club from the earth immediately he leaves his ball, is very
+simple. The mashie is drawn back from the ball in a perfectly straight
+line, and with the sole of it practically brushing, or no more than
+just clearing the green. It is then moved sharply forward, but instead
+of coming up with the ball after it has hit it, it passes clean
+forward down the intended line of flight in a perfectly horizontal
+line, provided always, of course, that the green is level, so that it
+finishes some inches down the line to the hole and practically
+touching the green. No attempt must be made to strike the ball or to
+take turf. The idea in one's mind should be to divide the ball from
+the green with the front edge of the sole.
+
+Many mashies are not suitable for this shot, because the sole is not
+cut away enough on the back edge, as indeed the sole of every mashie
+should be; so it will frequently be found that the best club for
+negotiating stymies is the niblick, for its sole being cut away so
+much enables the front edge of the club to get well in underneath the
+ball. This is a matter of the very greatest importance in playing
+stymies, for the simple reason that it enables the player to put so
+much more of his force into elevation than is possible when the front
+edge of his mashie is cocked up, as it frequently is, by the breadth
+of the sole of the mashie; for in many cases when one is trying to
+play a stymie the rear edge of the sole of the club makes contact with
+the green first and tilts up the front edge, so that it is at least a
+quarter of an inch higher than it should be, and instead of striking
+the ball almost at the point where it is resting on the turf, it gets
+it fully a quarter of an inch to half an inch higher up. The
+consequence of this is that too much of the force of the blow goes
+into propulsion instead of elevation.
+
+This means that if the stymie is close to the hole and there is only a
+very short run after the ball has got over the obstacle, the player
+invariably finds that with his imperfectly constructed mashie he
+cannot put enough stop on the ball, nor play the shot delicately
+enough to give it a chance to get into the hole, because the run is in
+many cases far too strong. Every golfer who desires to play a stymie
+well should see to it that he has a mashie with a very fine front
+edge, and that the sole is not flat in any part, but begins to curve
+away immediately it leaves the front edge. With the mashie constructed
+on these lines all ordinary stymies absolutely lose their terror if
+the shot is played as described.
+
+The delicacy and accuracy of this stroke are remarkable. The direction
+is an astonishing illustration of the importance of the rule for
+putting which I have laid down, of keeping the front edge of the
+putter at a right angle to the line of run to the hole, both before
+and after impact. As the whole essence of playing this stymie stroke
+correctly consists of the straight movement of the face of the club
+sharply down the intended line of flight and run to the hole, the
+wrists have naturally to follow the head of the club in a line
+parallel with that made by the head of the club, and so accurate is
+the result that in any ordinary stymie if a wire were stuck on the top
+of the intervening ball, I would guarantee to hit the wire every time.
+
+This stroke was a revelation to me of the importance of the principles
+which I am now enunciating, although, of course, I was well aware of
+their soundness before I discovered this stroke.
+
+The usefulness of this stroke is not confined merely to playing
+stymies, but it makes a magnificent and accurate chip shot; or if one
+has a bad portion of green to put over one can, with this stroke, rely
+upon going as straight through the air as one can in the ordinary
+course over the green.
+
+Lest anyone should think that this is merely a theoretical stroke, let
+me tell how I came to introduce it into the game of golf. I had used
+the stroke myself for some time. One afternoon I was in the shop of
+George Duncan, the famous young Hanger Hill professional. It was
+raining heavily, and to pass the time I was knocking a ball about on
+the mat. Presently I set up a stymie and said to Duncan:
+
+"Show me how you play your stymie, George."
+
+"Oh, just in the usual way," said Duncan.
+
+"Well, show me," I said.
+
+Duncan took his mashie and played the stymie shot perfectly, "just in
+the usual way."
+
+"There is a much better way of playing a stymie than that," I said,
+and I set up the shot and showed Duncan how I played it by my method.
+Very few people can give George Duncan any points with the mashie. He
+got hold of the stroke at once, and he would hardly wait for the rain
+to stop before he went out on to the green to try it there. He plays
+the shot perfectly now, and maintains, as indeed I show in _Modern
+Golf_, that there is no stymie stroke to compare with it, and of that
+I have myself absolutely no doubt. In fact, so accurate is the stroke
+that if I found myself badly off my game with my putter, I should take
+my mashie and play this stroke, for as regards the fundamental
+principle of putting it is a wealth of instruction in itself.
+
+Cutting round a stymie is nearly always included in the chapter on
+putting, but it is practically always a mashie stroke, and in the
+majority of cases is a very short pitch with a large amount of cut. On
+account of the loft of the mashie the club gets well in underneath the
+ball, and as the head of the club at the moment of impact is
+travelling in a line which runs at a fairly sharp angle across the
+intended line of flight and run of the ball it imparts a strong _side
+roll_ to the ball. The cut on a golf ball in such a stroke as I am now
+describing resembles almost exactly the off-break spin in cricket.
+This means that the ball has a strong side-spin, so that the moment it
+hits the earth it endeavours to roll sideways, but the force of
+propulsion fights this tendency, and the resulting compromise is a
+curve which enables the ball to get round the intervening obstacle,
+and, if the stroke is well executed, to find the hole.
+
+Almost all golf books instruct the player wrongly about this stroke.
+He is told to draw his hands in towards him at the moment of impact,
+and in some cases, even where the author calls his book _Practical
+Golf_, he is told to draw his hands in after impact. Both of these
+instructions are utterly wrong. There must be no conscious drawing in
+of the hands at the moment when one is trying to cut a put. All the
+cut must be done by the natural swing of the club across the intended
+line of run of the ball: in other words, the cut is a continuous
+process from the time that the club begins its swing until the time
+that it ends it. The fact that the ball is in the way of the face of
+the club as it crosses the intended line of run to the hole may be
+said to be merely an incident in the passage of the club head. Any
+attempt whatever to interfere with the natural swing of the club or to
+juggle with the ball during impact, or, more futile still, after
+impact, must result in irretrievably ruining the stroke.
+
+The stymie shot which I have described will also be found of use a
+little farther from the green, and by means of it an excellent run-up
+shot, with most accurate direction, can be played. There is another
+way of negotiating a stymie which I have never seen described. It is
+pulling round a stymie. It will be obvious to any one acquainted with
+the game that cutting round a stymie is merely another form of slice;
+although of course the run of the ball is obtained in a different
+manner from the curve of the slice in the air, yet the method of
+production of the stroke is practically similar. So is it with pulling
+a put. There is no doubt that this can be done; but I think there is
+also no doubt that it is the most difficult method of negotiating a
+stymie which there is. The stroke is played, to all intents and
+purposes, as is the pulled drive. Some people imagine that it may be
+obtained by turning over the wrist at the moment of impact. This is
+quite an error, and is absolutely destructive of accuracy. As, in the
+cut put, the head of the club is travelling from outside the line
+across it, towards the player's side of the line at the moment of
+impact, so, in the pull, the head of the club must be travelling from
+the player's side of the line across and away to the far side of the
+line at the moment of impact. That is the secret of the pull either in
+the drive or the put.
+
+I cannot refrain from quoting Vardon again. He says on page 148:
+
+     There should be no sharp hit and no jerk in the swing, which
+     should have the even gentle motion of a pendulum. In the
+     backward swing, the length of which, as in all other strokes
+     in golf, is regulated by the distance it is desired to make
+     the ball travel, the head of the putter should be kept
+     exactly in the line of the putt. Accuracy will be impossible
+     if it is brought round at all. There should be a short
+     follow-through after impact, varying, of course, according to
+     the length of the putt. In the case of a long one, the club
+     will go through much further, and then the arms would
+     naturally be more extended.
+
+This is wisdom as regards the put. There can be no doubt whatever
+about this being practical golf of the highest order, but Vardon
+rather spoils it by the following sentence in which he says, "In the
+follow-through the putter should be kept well down, the bottom edge
+scraping the edge of the grass for some inches."
+
+Now, if that means anything at all, it means that although Vardon's
+conception of the put and its execution in many ways is excellent, yet
+he has been making for years the error which made James Braid a bad
+putter--in other words, he has been putting with drag. It is well
+known that for a very long time Vardon's weakness was his putting; and
+I firmly believe that the secret of his bad putting was this low
+follow-through with his put. I think that Vardon's follow-through in
+his put is now not so low as it was, and the consequence is that his
+putting has improved.
+
+Vardon continues:
+
+     It is easy to understand how much more this course of
+     procedure will tend towards the accuracy and delicacy of the
+     stroke than the reverse method, in which the blade of the
+     putter would be cocked up as soon as the ball had left it.
+
+What is more natural, then, than that the blade of the putter should
+be cocked up immediately after the ball has left it? That is exactly
+what should happen in the perfectly played put. Vardon has already
+told us that the put is to be played with the "even gentle motion of a
+pendulum." Let us suppose for a moment that it was the weight of the
+pendulum turned side-wise which had struck the golf ball. It stands to
+reason that immediately the weight, which in this case answers to the
+face of the golf club, has struck the ball and sent it on its way to
+the hole, the face begins to "be cocked up."
+
+Vardon here makes a totally erroneous claim. He claims greater
+delicacy and accuracy for the put played with drag as against that
+played as Braid now plays his puts. There can be no shadow of doubt
+that the put played with drag, or with a low follow-through "scraping
+the top of the grass for some inches," partakes much more of the
+nature of a tap than does the put which is played with top or a
+perfectly horizontal blow. If Vardon has not completely realised this,
+as I think he has, he will, ere long, do so, as James Braid already
+has done.
+
+I need not here deal with complicated puts; that is to say, puts of
+such a nature that one has to traverse one, two, or more slopes on
+the way to the hole. These puts do not, in themselves, contain any of
+the fundamental principles of golf. Each one stands entirely by
+itself, and these are absolutely matters in which nothing but practice
+on the green can be of any use. It will be obvious to any schoolboy
+that if he has to run across five little hills on his way to the hole,
+and that three of these slant one way and two the other; and if we say
+for the sake of example that they are all practically equal in their
+width and slope, that it will be a case of four of them cancelling out
+on the good old plus and minus system of our schoolboy days, and we
+shall then be left practically to calculate how much we will have to
+allow for putting across the incline of one slope. This is not a case
+which I should think of giving myself. I merely give it because I came
+across such an illustration given in a book which is supposed to cater
+for those who desire the higher knowledge of golf, but as a matter of
+practical golf these situations but seldom occur.
+
+Allowing for the drop in a green when one is putting across the slope,
+requires a lot of practice, and is most absolutely and emphatically
+not a thing that can be learned in an arm-chair, or in any golf
+school. It must be learned on the green itself.
+
+Although James Braid has remodelled his putting with such success, he
+still, to a certain extent, clings to his own idea of putting with
+drag. On page 154 of _Advanced Golf_ he says:
+
+     For general use I am a strong believer in a putter having
+     just a little loft. I know that some players like one with a
+     perfectly straight face which does not impart the slightest
+     drag to the ball, their theory being that such putters are
+     capable of more delicate work than others, and that the ball
+     answers more readily to the most delicate tap from them.
+     There may be considerable truth in this, though, obviously,
+     great skill and confidence on the part of the player are
+     taken for granted.
+
+And again he says:
+
+     The strength of long putts can generally be more accurately
+     regulated with a lofted putter than with a straight-faced
+     one.
+
+He continues:
+
+     This is the kind of putter that I might recommend for what
+     might be called a medium or average green, if there can be
+     said to be such a thing; but I wish to point out that the
+     putter that is the best suited to such a green is not so well
+     suited to either a very fast green or a very slow one, and
+     that in each of the latter cases the club best adapted to the
+     circumstances is one with considerably more loft on it.
+
+On page 56 he says:
+
+     Now in both these cases, when the greens are very slow and
+     when they are extremely fast, the best putter for them is one
+     with very considerable loft on the face, and it will often be
+     found that there is nothing better than a fairly
+     straight-faced iron, or an ordinary cleek, if it is big
+     enough in the face to suit the player. With this club and its
+     great dragging power, the effect seems to be practically to
+     reduce the distance between the ball and the hole. Such is
+     the drag that the ball is simply pushed over a considerable
+     part of the way, and it is only when it is quite near to the
+     hole that it begins, as it were, to run in the usual way. The
+     fact is that for the first part of the journey the ball does
+     not revolve regularly upon its axis, as it does when
+     approaching the hole, but simply skates over the turf, and it
+     will be found that with a little practice the point at which
+     it will stop skating can be determined with very considerable
+     exactness. When it does so stop there is still so much drag
+     on it that it is very quickly brought to a standstill. Thus
+     in both cases, of the very fast and the very slow green, the
+     ball can be played without fear right up to the hole when the
+     putter is so well lofted as I have recommended.
+
+Here we are told that the ball "simply skates over the turf." As I
+have shown before, this is one of the greatest fallacies in golf. It
+is impossible to obtain any results by drag in a long put, which are
+not better obtained by simply rolling the ball up. Braid says that
+"with a little practice the point at which it will stop skating can be
+determined with very considerable exactness," and he goes on to say
+that "when it does so stop there is still so much drag on it that it
+is very quickly brought to a standstill."
+
+This is obviously nonsense. It is the drag on the ball which makes it
+do any skating which may take place. It is obvious that when the
+skating has ceased the drag has stopped exerting its influence. How,
+then, is it going to stop the ball from rolling in a natural manner?
+
+We see here the mistake of importing into golf the well-known
+phenomena of billiards, but one would have thought that the experience
+of the billiard-table would have been sufficient to show the fallacy
+of this statement. The billiard player uses drag to enable him to play
+his ball fast and accurately, and there is no doubt that by means of
+this drag he does obtain very considerable accuracy, but directly the
+ball has ceased to "skate" he knows that that is the time when the
+drag has entirely departed from it, and that the momentum has
+conquered the friction caused by the back-spin; in other words, the
+drag having accomplished its work has gone out of business, and all
+the run that is on the ball is derived from the remains of the
+momentum imparted to it.
+
+I cannot say too emphatically that in my opinion this idea of putting
+with drag, or with any club having a loft more than that which barely
+enables one to see the face of it when it is properly soled, is
+dangerous and calculated to produce bad putting on the part of anyone
+who attempts it, even as it did in the case of James Braid himself.
+
+There is one remark which James Braid makes about stymies which I
+should like to refer to here. Braid says: "Given complete confidence,
+the successful negotiation of a stymie is a much less difficult matter
+than it is imagined to be, though in the nature of things it can never
+be very easy." I must say that I differ entirely from Braid in this
+respect. I maintain that in the nature of things most ordinary
+stymies, when played in the manner which I advocate, are very easy.
+The difficulty of the stymie, provided one's club is properly
+built--and later on I shall refer to the construction of the
+mashie--is much exaggerated. Eight of ten stymies should present no
+more difficulty than an ordinary put. The only time a stymie should
+present a difficulty to the golfer is when the intervening ball is
+much nearer to the hole than to the ball which is stymied, so that the
+force required to get over the obstacle is so much that the player,
+after landing on the far side of the stymie, has too much power in his
+ball to give it a chance to settle in the hole, but even such a stymie
+as this may, if the ground be suitable, be overcome by lofting one's
+ball so as to drop on the hither side of the stymie, bound over it on
+its first bound, and continue on its way to the hole. This, probably,
+is one of the most difficult ways of negotiating a stymie; but as
+showing that it is eminently a matter of practical golf, I may say
+that I was illustrating the shot one day to a man who had practically
+just started golf. I showed him how to obtain the shot, and he did it
+at his first attempt. I advised him not to try again that day.
+
+Braid continues:
+
+     I need not say that the pitching method is only
+     practicable--and then it is generally the only shot that is
+     practicable--when both balls are near the hole, and are so
+     situated in relation to each other and to the hole that the
+     ball can reach the latter as the result of such a stroke as
+     enabled it to clear the opponent's ball.
+
+Braid is, I think, referring to a clean pitch into the hole, although
+the photograph leaves this open to doubt. The pitching method is
+practicable when one is stymied in almost any position on the green,
+provided always, as I have said, that one has any chance whatever of
+pulling up in time to get into the hole after having got over the
+stymie. Let me give an example:--Supposing my ball were fifteen yards
+from the hole, that the green was absolutely level, and that I had a
+stymie ten inches or ten feet in front of me. I should not hesitate
+for a moment to use the shot which I have described as the best stymie
+stroke in the game. The ball in front of me, so far from being an
+obstruction, or in any way whatever putting me off, would, if
+anything, serve as a good line to the hole. I am aware that to many
+golfers who do not know this stroke, and comparatively few do, this
+will sound like exaggeration. I am prepared at any time to demonstrate
+the practical nature of what I am writing to any one of my readers who
+cannot obtain the results which I get with this stroke.
+
+At the time that I introduced this stroke there was much controversy
+about it, and it was claimed that it was not a new stroke, but that it
+was exactly the same as the stroke played by all golfers when stymied.
+This, however, is quite an error. Speaking of the stymie shot, James
+Braid says
+
+     ... it is just an ordinary chip up, with a clean and quick
+     rise, the fact being remembered that the green must not be
+     damaged. To spare the latter the swing back should be low
+     down and near to the surface, which will check the tendency
+     to dig. The thing that will ensure the success of the shot,
+     so far as the quick and clean rise is concerned--and often
+     enough success depends entirely upon that--is the
+     follow-through. Generally, if the club is taken through
+     easily and cleanly, all will be well.
+
+It is obvious from this description that the stroke in Braid's mind is
+totally different from my stymie stroke. With the stroke as I play it,
+it is an absolute impossibility to "dig" into the green. One has no
+need to have any anxiety whatever about the green, for as the club
+travels parallel with the surface of the green all the time, it is
+obvious that no damage can ensue. If there is any deflection whatever
+from the straight line, it would be at the moment of impact, but even
+here it stands to reason that there is practically no deflection
+whatever; for even in a stroke played, relatively speaking, so slowly
+as is this shot, any alteration of the line of the stroke after it has
+once been decided upon, is quite improbable, but the dominant idea in
+the player's mind must be to insert the front edge of his mashie
+between the ball and the grass, and above everything to keep his
+follow-through as straight and as low along the surface of the green
+as was his swing back. It is this straight and low follow-through
+which gives the ball its "quick and clean rise," as Braid calls it.
+Curiously enough, the follow-through which Braid shows for his stymie
+shot, wherein the head of the club is raised from the green, will not
+give anything like so quick a rise or such delicacy of touch as will
+the stroke played in the manner which I have described, and, above
+everything, with the very low follow-through insisted upon by me.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE IV. HARRY VARDON
+
+    At the top of his swing in the drive. This is a fine
+    illustration of Vardon's perfect management of his weight,
+    which is mainly on his left foot. Observe carefully the
+    wrists, which are in the best possible position to develop
+    power.]
+
+I may mention that George Duncan never uses any other stroke than this
+when playing a short stymie. Indeed, he went so far as to say, when I
+was having him photographed for my illustrations in _Modern Golf_,
+that it was useless to take any exposures of the ordinary stymie shot,
+for the stroke introduced and described by me had practically put it
+out of the game.
+
+Speaking of cutting round a stymie, James Braid says: "Whichever way I
+wish to make the ball curl, either round the other ball from the
+left-hand side, or from the right, I hit my own with the toe of the
+club, drawing the club towards me in the former case so as to make a
+slice, and holding the face of it at an angle--toe nearer the hole
+than the heel--in the latter, in order to produce a hook." And he
+adds: "You cannot do anything by hitting the ball with the heel of
+your putter," to which I would rejoin, nor can you do anything by
+hitting the ball with the toe of your putter, that you cannot do
+better by hitting it absolutely in the middle, which is the only
+proper part wherewith to hit a golf ball.
+
+In the illustrations Braid is shown cutting the put with an aluminium
+club. One has no more chance of cutting round a stymie with a club of
+this nature than one would have with a bar of soap, for the simple
+reason that on account of the breadth of its sole--for if it be not an
+aluminium club, it is at least shaped on the same lines--it is
+impossible to get the face of the club sufficiently underneath the
+ball for the loft to get to work so as to impart that side roll which
+is of the essence of cutting round. Braid says at page 171: "But
+remember that you can never get any work on the ball if the green is
+stiff." Now if this is so, I should like to know what use there is in
+attempting to put with drag?
+
+I quite agree with Braid that it is practically impossible to get any
+work whatever on the ball with the club he is shown using. With such a
+club it would be still more difficult, if not absolutely impossible,
+to obtain any appreciable drag, but if, as Braid says, "you can never
+get any work on the ball when the green is stiff," how can he advise
+one to attempt to put with drag on a stiff green? To my mind this is
+absolutely bad and misleading advice.
+
+In my chapter on the "Construction of Clubs" it will be seen that I
+advocate a short putter for short puts. In _Advanced Golf_ James Braid
+has some interesting things to say about gripping low down. He says:
+
+     Many golfers grip very low down, even half-way between the
+     leather and the head. If their putting when done this way is
+     first class, nobody can say anything to them, but if it is
+     not first class it may be pointed out to them that the system
+     is absolutely bad. It may be allowed to pass for holing-out
+     purposes; but for a putt of any length it cannot be good, for
+     the club is not swung in the ordinary easy manner by which
+     distance can be so accurately gauged. The ball is more or
+     less poked along. When a man putts in this way he is putting
+     largely by instinct, and even though he may generally putt
+     well, his work on the greens cannot be thoroughly reliable.
+     No putting is so good and consistently effective as is that
+     which is done with a gentle even swing, which can be
+     regulated to a nicety, and such putting is only possible when
+     there is enough shaft left below the grip to swing with.
+
+I am quite in accord with what James Braid says about this method of
+putting, and I do not for one moment think that the short grip should
+be used for approach puts, but I am sure the nearer one gets to the
+hole the closer one should get down to the ball. Braid deals further
+on with the question of shortening one's putter. He says:
+
+     As to the length of the shaft, many players, because they
+     find that they always grip their putters a foot or so from
+     the end of it, proceed in due course to have the best part of
+     that foot cut off, or in purchasing a new putter they have
+     the shaft cut very short. Are they quite satisfied that it is
+     not better to have a fair amount of shaft projecting up above
+     the place where they grip when that place is very low down?
+
+The answer to this is that in many cases the wood which projects above
+the grip is very much in the way of true putting. Any golfer who is
+foolish enough to cut anything like a foot off any club without any
+compensation to the head in the way of balance must be expected to pay
+the penalty for his ignorance, and anyone having a club constructed
+for him on such a principle, or, rather, want of principle, will
+inevitably pay for it. Braid goes on to say:
+
+     Often enough no consideration is given to this point; it is
+     not imagined that the shaft above the grip can serve any
+     useful purpose. Yet it is constantly found that a putter cut
+     down is not the same putter as it was before, not so good,
+     and has not the same balance; and, again, many players must
+     have been surprised sometimes, when doing some half-serious
+     putting practice with a cleek, iron, or driving mashie, each
+     club with its long shaft, to find out what wonderfully
+     accurate work could be done in this way. The inference from
+     all experience, having theoretical principle to back it, is
+     that the top or spare part of the shaft acts as a kind of
+     balance when the putter is gripped low down, and tends
+     materially to a more delicate touch and to true hitting of
+     the ball. A very little reflection will lead the reader to
+     believe that this is so, and in some cases it may lead him
+     towards a revision of his present methods.
+
+Personally, I should not think that even "a very little reflection"
+would be necessary to induce anyone to believe that the top part of
+the shaft acts "as a kind of balance" when the putter is gripped low
+down, but it is quite obvious that it is possible to build a putter,
+let us say, for the sake of example, two-thirds of the length of an
+ordinary putter, which is just as perfectly balanced as the long
+club. This is not any question of theory--it is a matter of absolutely
+proved and tried practice in golf. One may have a perfect putter which
+will be ruined by taking a few inches off the shaft. The balance of
+that putter is probably irrevocably destroyed, unless, perchance, the
+owner is lucky in adding weight to the head in some way, but dealing
+with a putter like this is tricky work for one who does not understand
+it. The main point in connection with this matter of Braid's, which I
+have quoted, is that he gives a kind of qualified approval to the idea
+of the short putter for short puts. Personally, I think it is the
+soundest of sound golf, and I am inclined to think that before many
+years we shall see the shorter clubs used in their proper place when
+their value is more clearly understood.
+
+Vardon has some very interesting things to say in his book, _The
+Complete Golfer_, on "Complicated Putts," while dealing with what he
+calls "one of the most difficult of all putts--that in which there is
+a more or less pronounced slope from one side or the other, or a
+mixture of the two." As he truly says, "In this case it would
+obviously be fatal to putt straight at the hole." He continues: "I
+have found that most beginners err in being afraid of allowing
+sufficiently for the slope"; and I have found that nine champions of
+ten make exactly the same error. It is as bad a fault at golf as it is
+at bowls to be "narrow," by which, in golf, is meant not to allow
+enough for the slope of the green, for it is obvious that if one is
+narrow one does not give the hole a chance any more than one does when
+one is short; so we may add to the stock maxim in putting "Never up,
+never in," another one, which is just as sound, "Never be narrow."
+
+Vardon goes fully into the general principles underlying these
+complicated puts, but as I have already indicated, this is
+unquestionably a matter which can only be settled by practice on the
+green; but he also goes into the question of the manner in which the
+stroke should be played, and here we have a subject which legitimately
+comes within the scope of this work. He continues:
+
+     But there are times when a little artifice may be resorted
+     to, particularly in the matter of applying a little cut to
+     the ball. There is a good deal of billiards in putting, and
+     the cut stroke on the green is essentially one which the
+     billiard player will delight to practise, but I warn all
+     those who are not already expert at cutting with the putter
+     to make themselves masters of the stroke in private practice
+     before they attempt it in a match, because it is by no means
+     easy to acquire. The chief difficulty which the golf student
+     will encounter in attempting it will be to put the cut on as
+     he desires, and at the same time to play the ball with the
+     proper strength and keep on the proper line. It is easy
+     enough to cut the ball, but it is most difficult, at first at
+     all events, to cut it and putt it properly at the same time.
+     For the application of cut, turn the toe of the putter
+     slightly outwards and away from the hole, and see that the
+     face of the club is kept to this angle all the way through
+     the stroke. Swing just a trifle away from the straight line
+     outwards, and the moment you come back on to the ball draw
+     the club sharply across it. It is evident that this movement,
+     when properly executed, will give to the ball a rotary
+     motion, which on a perfectly level green would tend to make
+     it run slightly off to the right of the straight line along
+     which it was aimed.
+
+There are one or two points in this statement which are of very great
+importance. Vardon says: "For the application of cut turn the toe
+slightly outwards and away from the hole, and see that the face of the
+club is kept to this angle all the way through the stroke." This is
+absolutely unsound golf, for Vardon is advising his reader to play the
+put with the toe of the putter slightly outwards and away from the
+hole. It stands to reason that following this advice will put the face
+of the club in such a position that at the moment of impact it will be
+impossible for it to be at a right angle to the intended line of run
+to the hole, and this rule is, for all purposes of practical golf,
+invariable. It is obvious that coming on to the ball in the manner
+suggested must tend to push it away to the right--that is to say, it
+would have a strong tendency to go away to the right from the very
+moment of impact, which is not what is generally wanted in a good put;
+also playing the put in this manner tends quite naturally to decrease
+the amount of cut put on it. The idea that cut mashie shots and cut
+puts are played in this manner has arisen from the fact that very
+frequently the golfer addresses the ball with the toe of his club laid
+back a little, but by the time he has come on to the ball again he has
+corrected this. In many cases, if it were not for laying the toe of
+the club back a little in this manner, golfers would be inclined,
+although as a matter of strict and accurate golf they should not be,
+to drag the ball across towards the left of the hole.
+
+Vardon says: "Swing just a trifle away from the straight line
+outwards, and the moment you come back on to the ball draw the club
+sharply across it." Now here again we see this outstanding error of
+practically every man who ever put pen to paper to write about golf,
+which is that in producing the cut, whether it be in a put or a sliced
+drive, something is done intentionally to the ball during the period
+in which the ball and the club are in contact. This is absolutely
+wrong. I have explained before that the cut put, and indeed all cut
+strokes at golf, are produced by the club swinging across the intended
+line of flight or run at the moment of impact, and the amount of cut
+depends entirely upon the angle and the speed at which the club head
+is travelling across the intended line of flight or run. It is obvious
+that the amount of cut must also, to a certain extent, depend on the
+amount of loft of the club, for the greater the loft of the club the
+greater assistance will the golfer who is applying the cut obtain from
+the weight of the ball.
+
+Vardon goes on to say: "It is evident that this movement, when
+properly executed, will give to the ball a rotary motion, which on a
+perfectly level green would tend to make it run slightly off to the
+right of the straight line along which it was aimed"; but as I have
+already shown, the unfortunate part of it is that a put so played
+would not go down the straight line which every golfer desires that
+his put shall go on; nor indeed on anything like it.
+
+Also it is a delusion that it is possible with any of the ordinary
+putters to obtain a cut of a sufficiently pronounced degree to remain
+on the ball, especially on the bramble balls, for any appreciable
+distance. Vardon supposes a case of a steep but even slope all the way
+from the ball to the hole, and he gives instructions as to how to put
+across this slope with cut so as to hold the ball up against the
+slope. He says:
+
+     But we may borrow from the slope in another way than by
+     running straight up it and straight down again. If we put cut
+     on the ball, it will of itself be fighting against the hill
+     the whole way, and though if the angle is at all pronounced
+     it may not be able to contend against it without any extra
+     borrow, much less will be required than in the case of the
+     simple putt up the hill and down again.
+
+In the first place, I may remark that we do not generally borrow from
+a slope "by running straight up it and straight down again." The path
+of the ball is generally, almost from the time it is hit, a curve, and
+a gradual curve, in which one sees to it that the ball is at its
+farthest from the straight line to the hole somewhere about midway to
+the hole. But this idea of putting cut on the ball with a putter,
+which is sufficient to hold the ball up against the hill for any
+appreciable distance, is practically a delusion. I can easily
+understand that if Vardon plays the cut put as he himself directs it
+to be played, that he thinks that cut administered to a ball by an
+ordinary putter may have a very great effect in holding the ball up
+against the side of a hill for a considerable distance, but this
+really is not so. Putting, however, as Vardon instructs one to put for
+obtaining cut, would in itself punch the ball up against the slope of
+the hill, and I can easily believe that anybody who plays the put like
+this, thinking that he is obtaining cut by so doing, will be under the
+impression that cut is a very useful thing for holding the ball up
+against the slope in this manner, whereas he is in effect simply
+punching the ball up against the slope--in other words, he is playing
+a put, which if the green were perfectly level, would be yards off his
+line to the hole and to the right of it.
+
+Vardon goes on to say:
+
+     Now it must be borne in mind that it is a purely artificial
+     force, as it were, that keeps the ball from running down the
+     slope, and as soon as the run on the ball is being exhausted
+     and the spin at the same time, the tendency will be, not for
+     the ball to run gradually down the slope--as it did in the
+     case of the simple putt without cut--but to surrender to it
+     completely and run almost straight down.
+
+There is a fundamental error here, for Vardon states that practically
+the spin on the put and the run on the ball will be exhausted at the
+same time, but it is an utter impossibility to calculate with any
+exactness whatever as to what happens in such a case. Vardon knows no
+more about it than any other golfer, and all that any golfer knows
+about this is extremely little, so that to advise anyone to attempt to
+hold his ball up against a slope by the application of cut with any
+ordinary putter, particularly a broad-soled putter, is to invite him
+to play his shot blindfolded.
+
+Vardon does not mention the length of the put which he considers it
+possible to play with this cut, but in his diagram he shows a put
+which would conceivably be quite a long put, let us say for the sake
+of argument fifteen or sixteen feet, but the theory would be just as
+bad if it were much less. He says:
+
+     Our plan of campaign is now indicated. Instead of going a
+     long way up the hill out of our straight line and having a
+     very vague idea of what is going to be the end of it all, we
+     will neutralise the end of the slope as far as possible by
+     using the cut and aim to a point much lower down the
+     hill--how much lower can only be determined with knowledge of
+     the particular circumstances, and after the golfer has
+     thoroughly practised the stroke and knows what he can do with
+     it. And instead of settling on a point half-way along the
+     line of the putt as the highest that the ball shall reach,
+     this summit of the ascent will now be very much nearer the
+     hole, quite close to it in fact. We putt up to this point
+     with all the spin we can get on the ball, and when it reaches
+     it, the forward motion and the rotation die away at the same
+     time, and the ball drops away down the hill, and, as we hope,
+     into the hole that is waiting for it close by.
+
+Vardon may well say "as we hope," for the put described by him has no
+more chance of being brought off on a putting-green than Vardon has of
+winning another open championship from an aeroplane. To speak of
+putting a ball in this manner, and treating it with such magic that
+when it gets up by the hole the forward motion and the rotation die
+away at the same time, is not practical golf, but absolute moonshine,
+for it would be an utter impossibility to persuade any golf ball which
+has ever been made to receive from any known form of golf club
+sufficient cut to make it behave in the manner described. The theory
+of the thing on paper is to a very great extent right, with the
+exception that the cut described would require to be obtained by a
+club with a much greater loft than any ordinary putter; but it is
+evident that putting with putters such as those which Braid or Vardon
+use, it would be an utter impossibility to get cut on the ball which
+would stay with the ball during a long put and exert much influence in
+holding the ball up against any appreciable slope, for with these
+putters, which have not much loft, it is evident that any spin
+whatever which is imparted to them by drawing the putter across the
+line of run at the moment of impact will be mainly about a vertical
+axis which is, in effect, the spin of a top. It is evident that as the
+ball progresses across the green there will be a very strong effort
+indeed on the part of the ball, following its friction on the green,
+to wear down this vertical motion and convert it into the ordinary
+roll of a naturally hit put.
+
+Even when one is putting with a highly lofted club and with a
+tremendous amount of drag on a perfectly flat green, the drag goes off
+the ball in a wonderfully short space of time, and here, of course,
+one is using a spin which is analogous to the drag of the billiard
+player, for it is pure back-spin which is fighting in the same plane
+the forward roll of the golf ball. Therefore it is reasonable to
+suppose, and indeed it is undoubted that the ball would be more likely
+to retain this pure back-spin for a much longer time than would the
+ball with the side-spin imparted by the putter, for the spin which is
+imparted by the putter does not directly fight the forward progress of
+the ball as it is spinning across the plane of the roll which the ball
+desires to take, whereas, as I have before pointed out, the ball
+played with drag is absolutely fighting the forward roll of the golf
+ball. It therefore would for a very short distance skid over the
+putting-green, but those who only theorise about these matters have a
+ridiculously exaggerated idea of the influence of drag on the golf
+ball.
+
+I have made it very plain, and I cannot emphasise the matter too
+strongly, that any attempt whatever in long puts to use drag or cut of
+any kind is to be deprecated.
+
+There is another matter which Vardon refers to that I should like to
+notice here. He says:
+
+     One of the problems which strike most fear into the heart of
+     the golfer is when his line from the ball to the hole runs
+     straight down a steep slope and there is some considerable
+     distance for the ball to travel along a fast green. The
+     difficulty in such a case is to preserve any control over the
+     ball after it has left the club, and to make it stop anywhere
+     near the hole if the green is really so fast and steep as
+     almost to impart motion of itself. In a case of this sort I
+     think it generally pays best to hit the ball very nearly upon
+     the toe of the putter, at the same time making a short, quick
+     twitch or draw of the club across the ball towards the feet.
+     Little forward motion will be imparted in this manner, but
+     there will be a tendency to half lift the ball from the green
+     at the beginning of its journey, and it will continue its way
+     to the hole with a lot of drag upon it. It is obvious that
+     this stroke, to be played properly, will need much practice
+     in the first place, and judgment afterwards, and I can do
+     little more than state the principle upon which it should be
+     made.
+
+I need hardly do more here than repeat what I have said in the case of
+the other puts. Any attempt to jump a ball at the beginning of the
+put on a steep, fast green is about as bad a method of starting it as
+one could possibly imagine. There is nothing for it but the smooth,
+steady roll. Few greens, of course, are so steep that the ball will
+run off them unless it has been very violently played, so the ordinary
+principles of putting still hold good here--there is one way to play
+that put, and that is not from the toe, but from the centre, of the
+club, and as straight as may be for the hole, having due regard to the
+slope or slopes of the green. Of course, as I have before indicated,
+if one is very near to the hole, certainly not more than two to three
+feet at the utmost, one may be excused for putting straight at the
+hole with drag, because a ball can be made to carry its drag for about
+this distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FALLACIES OF GOLF
+
+
+The fallacies of golf, as it has been written, are so numerous and so
+grave that it would be impossible to deal with them fully in a
+chapter, so I must here content myself with dealing generally with
+them, and specifically with a few of the minor mistakes which are so
+assiduously circulated by authors of works on golf. I shall take them
+as they come, in their natural order. We shall thus have to deal with
+them as follows: slow back, the distribution of weight, the sweep, the
+power of the left hand and arm, the gradually increasing pace of the
+sweep, the action of the wrists, and the follow-through.
+
+We have then to consider, in the first place, the oft-repeated and
+much-abused instruction to go "slow back." The rhythm of many a swing
+is utterly spoilt by this advice, for the simple reason that,
+generally speaking, it is tremendously overdone. Anyone who has ever
+seen George Duncan's swing could surely be excused for thinking that
+slow back must be a delusion. It is not, however, given to everybody
+to be able to swing with the rapidity and accuracy which characterise
+Duncan's wonderful drive. In fact, the most that can be said in favour
+of going slowly back is that all that is necessary in the way of
+slowness is that the player shall not take his club up to the top of
+his swing at such a rate that in his recovery at the top of the swing
+he will have any unnecessary force to overcome before he begins his
+downward stroke.
+
+It stands to reason that there must be at the top of the swing a
+moment wherein the club is absolutely stationary. The whole object of
+slow back is to ensure that at this moment, which is undoubtedly a
+critical portion of the swing, there shall be no undue conflict of the
+force which brought the club head up to the top of the swing and that
+force which the golfer then exerts to start the club on its downward
+journey. When this has been said, practically all that need be said
+about slow back has been said.
+
+It is almost a certainty that slow back, as one of what Vardon calls
+the parrot cries of the links, has done more to unsettle the drives of
+those who follow it, and the tempers of those who follow them, than
+any other of the blindly followed fetiches of golf. Let it be
+understood then, once and for all, that undue slowness is almost as
+great a vice as undue quickness. What the player must, in every case,
+strive after is the happy medium. It is an absolute impossibility to
+preserve the rhythm of a swing that goes up with the painful slowness
+and studied deliberation which we so frequently see as the precursor
+of a tremendous foozle.
+
+Incorporated in this overdone injunction, "slow back," we have the
+idea of swinging the club away from the ball. In various places we are
+told plainly that the club is not to be lifted away from the ball, but
+that it must be swung back, whereas, of course, there can be no doubt
+whatever that the club is lifted back, and is started on its journey
+by the wrists.
+
+It is obvious that no swing can be started from the lowest point in an
+arc. If, for example, we take the pendulum of a clock which is
+hanging motionless, it will be impossible to swing it one way or the
+other without lifting it. Equally obvious is it that the golf club
+must be lifted away from the ball.
+
+"As you go up, so you come down" is another revered fallacy. We are
+clearly, and probably rightly, instructed, when driving, to take the
+club away from the ball in the line to the hole produced through the
+ball.
+
+We do this going back comparatively slowly until we are compelled to
+leave the line, or rather the plane, of the ball's flight. So at the
+moment of making our first divergence from the straight swing back, we
+import into our arc a sudden and pronounced curve. On the return
+journey, the downward swing, we travel all the way at express speed.
+He would indeed be credulous and unanalytical who could believe that
+the arc of the downward swing coincides with that of the upward, when
+the upward swing is carried out according to the generally published
+theory, which, of course, it generally is not. The theory is only good
+in so far as it goes to inculcate the idea of remaining in the line to
+the hole both before and after impact as long as possible.
+
+The next fallacy which we have to deal with is the matter of the
+distribution of weight in the drive. Practically every book that has
+been published misinforms the golfer on this point, which is a matter
+of fundamental importance in the game; in fact, it is of such great
+importance that I shall not deal with it fully here, but shall reserve
+it for my next chapter wherein I shall give the views of the leading
+exponents of the game on this all-important subject, and shall then
+show wherein I differ from them.
+
+Let us consider that we have now arrived at the top of the swing.
+Every author of a golf book insists upon the fact that the drive at
+golf is a sweep and not a hit. James Braid, in chapter viii. of _How
+to Play Golf_, writing of "The Downward Swing," says:
+
+     The chief thing to bear in mind is that there must be, in the
+     case of play with the driver and the brassie, no attempt to
+     _hit_ the ball, which must be simply swept from the tee and
+     carried forward in the even and rapid swing of the club. The
+     drive in golf differs from almost every other stroke in every
+     game in which the propulsion of a ball is the object. In the
+     ordinary sense of the word, implying a sudden and sharp
+     impact, it is not a "hit" when it is properly done.
+
+The impact in the golf drive has been measured by one of our most
+eminent physicists to occupy one ten-thousandth of a second. I think
+we may take this as "implying a sudden and sharp impact." Braid goes
+on to say, "when the ball is so 'hit' and the club stops very soon
+afterwards, the result is that very little length, comparatively, will
+be obtained, and that, moreover, there will be a very small amount of
+control over the direction of the ball."
+
+This might be right, but it seems almost unnecessary to point out that
+when a ball has been struck at the amazing speed which such a brief
+contact indicates, there is extremely little probability that the club
+will stop "very soon afterwards"--in fact, it would be almost a matter
+of impossibility to induce a club which had been used for delivering a
+blow at the rate which this brief time indicates, to stop very shortly
+afterwards. The head of a golf club at the moment of impact with the
+golf ball is travelling so rapidly that a camera timed to take
+photographs at the rate of one twelve-hundred-and-fiftieth of a
+second's exposure, gets for the club head and shaft merely a vague
+swish of light, while the ball itself, if it is caught at all, appears
+merely to be a section of a sperm candle, so rapid is its motion. I
+am speaking now of a photograph taken at this extremely rapid rate
+when the photographer is facing the golfer who is making the stroke,
+but so rapid is the departure of the ball from the club that even when
+the photographer is standing in a straight line directly behind the
+player, the ball still presents the appearance of a white bar.
+
+It should then be sufficiently obvious to anyone that so far as
+regards the stroke "implying a sudden and sharp impact," the golf
+stroke, probably of all strokes played in athletics, is, at the moment
+of impact, incomparably the most rapid. It has, therefore, always
+seemed to me a matter for wonder to read that this stroke is a sweep
+and not a hit.
+
+Braid here says one thing which is of outstanding importance as
+exploding another well-known fallacy. It is as follows:
+
+     While it is, of course, in the highest degree necessary that
+     the ball should be taken in exactly the right place on the
+     club and in the right manner, this will have to be done by
+     the proper regulation of all the other parts of the swing,
+     and any effort to direct the club on to it in a particular
+     manner just as the ball is being reached, cannot be attended
+     by success.
+
+This is so important that I must pause here to emphasise it, because
+we are frequently told, and even Braid himself, as I shall show later
+on, has made the same mistake, that certain things are done during
+impact, by the intention of the player during that brief period, in
+order to influence the flight of the ball. There can be no greater
+fallacy in golf than this. No human being is capable of thinking of
+anything which he can do in this minute fraction of time, nor even if
+he could think of what he wished to do, would it be possible for his
+muscles to respond to the command issued by his mind.
+
+To emphasise this, I must quote from the same book and the same page
+again. Braid says:
+
+     If the ball is taken by the toe or heel of the club, or is
+     topped, or if the club gets too much under it, the remedy for
+     these faults is not to be found in a more deliberate
+     directing of the club on to the ball just as the two are
+     about to come into contact, but in the better and more exact
+     regulation of the swing the whole way through up to this
+     point.
+
+That is the important part in connection with this statement of
+Braid's. Many a person ruins a stroke, as, for instance, in
+endeavouring to turn over the face of the putter during the moment of
+impact, through following, in complete ignorance, the teaching of
+those who should know better, and they then blame themselves for their
+want of timing in trying to execute an impossibility, whereas the
+remedy is, as Braid says, not in trying to do anything during the
+moment of impact "but in the better and more exact regulation of the
+swing the whole way through up to this point."
+
+Braid is here speaking of the drive, but what applies to the drive
+applies to every stroke in the game, with practically equal force. He
+continues:
+
+     The object of these remarks is merely to emphasise again, in
+     the best place, that the despatching of the ball from the tee
+     by the driver, in the downward swing, is merely an incident
+     of the whole business.
+
+"Merely an incident of the whole business." It is impossible to
+emphasise this point too much. The speed of the drive at golf is so
+great that the path of the club's head has been predetermined long
+before it reaches the ball, so that, as I have frequently pointed out
+in the same words which Braid uses in this book, the contact between
+the head of the club and the ball may be looked upon as merely an
+incident in the travel of the club in that arc which it describes.
+
+The outstanding truth of this statement will be more apparent when we
+come to deal with the master strokes of the game. Braid's remarks here
+are so interesting that I must quote him again:
+
+     The player, in making the down movement, must not be so
+     particular to see while doing it that he hits the ball
+     properly, as that he makes the swing properly and finishes it
+     well, for--and this signifies the truth of what I have been
+     saying--the success of the drive is not only made by what has
+     gone before, but it is also due largely to the course taken
+     by the club after the ball has been hit.
+
+In this paragraph Braid is making a fallacious statement. It will be
+quite obvious to a very mean understanding that nothing which the club
+does after it has hit the ball and sent it on its way, can have any
+possible effect upon the ball, and, therefore, that the success of the
+drive cannot possibly in any way be "due largely to the course taken
+by the club after the ball has been hit." The success of the stroke
+must, of course, be due entirely to the course taken by the club head
+prior to and at the moment of impact. What Braid would mean to
+express, no doubt, is that if the stroke has been perfectly played, it
+is practically a certainty that what takes place after the ball has
+gone, will be executed in good form.
+
+I have frequently seen misguided players practising their
+follow-through without swinging properly, whereas it is, of course,
+obvious that a follow-through is of no earthly importance whatever
+except as the natural result of a well-played stroke; and provided
+that the first half of the stroke was properly produced, it is as
+certain as anything can be that the second half will be almost
+equally good, but it is certain that nothing which the club does after
+contact with the ball has ceased can possibly influence the flight or
+run of the ball. It is, for instance, obvious that if a man has played
+a good straight drive clean down the middle of the fair-way, his
+follow-through cannot be the follow-through of a slice, because the
+pace at which he struck that ball must make his club head go out down
+the line after the ball. Similarly, if a man has played a sliced
+stroke, it stands to reason that after the ball had left his club, his
+club head could not, by any possible stretch of imagination, follow
+down a straight line to the hole.
+
+These things are so obvious to anyone who is acquainted with the
+simplest principles of mechanics that it is strange to see them stated
+in the fallacious manner in which Braid puts them forth. Braid here
+says:
+
+     The initiative in bringing down the club is taken by the left
+     wrist, and the club is then brought forward rapidly and with
+     an even acceleration of pace until the club head is about a
+     couple of feet from the ball.
+
+Now here we see that Braid subscribes to the idea of "the even
+acceleration of pace," but it will be remembered that in a previous
+chapter I quoted him as saying that there must be no idea of gaining
+speed gradually; that one must be "hard at it from the very top, and
+the harder you start the greater will be the momentum of the club when
+the ball is reached." Here there is no notion whatever of even
+acceleration of pace. It is to get the most one can from the absolute
+instant of starting, but notwithstanding this, Braid tells us on page
+57 of _How to Play Golf_: "When the ball has been swept from the tee,
+the arms should, to a certain extent, be flung out after it."
+
+We observe here that Braid speaks of the ball as having been "swept
+from the tee," notwithstanding that in _Advanced Golf_ at page 58 we
+read: "But when he has got all his movements right, when his timing is
+correct, and when he has absolute confidence that all is well, the
+harder he _hits_, the better." I have italicised the word "hits."
+
+Now here we have the practical golf of the drive, and I cannot do
+better, in disposing of the fetich of the sweep, than re-echo Braid's
+words that for a golfer who wants to get a good drive, when he has
+everything else right, "the harder he hits the better."
+
+As a matter of simple practical golf, provided always that a golfer
+executes his stroke in good form, it is impossible for him to hit too
+hard. This amazing fallacy of the sweep ruins innumerable drives, and
+renders many a golfer, who would possibly otherwise play a decent
+game, merely an object of ridicule to his more fortunate
+fellow-players who know that the golf drive is a hit--a very palpable
+hit--and not in any sense of the word a sweep.
+
+Taylor also subscribes to the fetich of the sweep. At page 186 of
+_Taylor on Golf_ he says:
+
+     In making a stroke in golf the beginner must feel sure that
+     the correct method of playing is not the making of a hit--as
+     such a performance is understood--but the effort of making a
+     sweep. This is an all-important thing, and unless a player
+     thoroughly understands that he must play in this style I
+     cannot say I think the chance of his ultimate success is a
+     very great one; it is an absolute necessity this sweep, and I
+     cannot lay too much stress upon it.
+
+He continues:
+
+     As a more practical illustration of my meaning, I will
+     suppose that the player is preparing to drive. His position
+     is correct, he is at the exact distance from the ball. All
+     that is then necessary is that with a swinging stroke he
+     should sweep the ball off the tee. But, if in place of
+     accomplishing this sweep, the ball is _hit_ off the
+     tee--well, that may be a game, but it certainly does not come
+     under the heading of golf.
+
+Now we have already seen that James Braid in _Advanced Golf_, which
+was published after _How to Play Golf_, has abandoned the idea that
+the golf drive is a sweep. Taylor is wonderfully emphatic about the
+sweep, but I think it will not require much to convert any golfer, who
+is in doubt about the matter, to my views, for the comparative results
+obtained will speak for themselves. Moreover, if there is any one man
+more than another who is a living refutation of the sweep notion that
+man is J. H. Taylor. It is impossible to watch him driving, and to
+know the power which he gets from his magnificent forearm _hit_,
+without being absolutely convinced that the true nature of the golf
+drive is a hit and not a sweep.
+
+I do not find that Vardon subscribes to this idea of the sweep so
+definitely as does Taylor, and as did Braid in _How to Play Golf_, but
+he does unquestionably subscribe to the notion of the club gradually
+gathering speed in its downward course, for he says at page 69 of _The
+Complete Golfer_:
+
+     The club should gradually gain in speed from the moment of
+     the turn until it is in contact with the ball, so that at the
+     moment of impact its head is travelling at its fastest pace.
+
+This, of course, in itself is correct, but there should be no
+conscious effort of gradually increasing the pace. As Braid says, "one
+must be 'hard at it' right from the beginning." The gradual and even
+acceleration of pace must unquestionably be left to take care of
+itself, and it has no more right to cumber the golfer's mind than has
+the idea when he is throwing a stone that his hand should be moving at
+its fastest when the stone leaves it.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE V. J. H. TAYLOR
+
+    At the top of his swing in the drive. Note here the position
+    of Taylor's wrists. This is a matter of the utmost importance.
+    Taylor is at times inclined to get a little on to his right
+    leg, but probably here the weight is at least equally
+    distributed, if not mainly on the left.]
+
+One of the most pronounced and harmful golfing fallacies is what I
+call "the fetich of the left." All of the leading writers and players
+do their best to instil into the minds of their pupils the idea that
+the left hand is the more important. This is a fallacy of the most
+pronounced and harmful nature, but it is of such great importance to
+the game that I shall not deal with it particularly here, but shall
+reserve it for a future chapter.
+
+We now have to deal with the question of gradually increasing the pace
+in the drive. I have already, to a certain extent, dealt with this
+matter. Nearly all writers make a strong point of this fallacy. James
+Braid at page 54 of _How to Play Golf_ says:
+
+     The initiative in bringing down the club is taken by the left
+     wrist, and the club is then brought forward rapidly, and with
+     an even acceleration of pace until the club head is about a
+     couple of feet from the ball.
+
+Here it will be seen clearly that Braid gives the idea that the player
+is, during the course of the downward swing, to exercise some
+conscious regulation of the increase of the speed of the head of the
+club.
+
+Braid then goes on to say:
+
+     So far, the movement will largely have been an arm movement,
+     but at this point there should be some tightening-up of the
+     wrists, and the club will be gripped a little more tightly.
+
+Anyone attempting to follow this advice is merely courting disaster.
+To dream of altering the grip, or of consciously attempting in any way
+to alter the character of the swing, or to introduce into the swing
+any new element of grip, touch, control, or anything else whatever,
+must be fatal to accuracy. Braid is much sounder on this matter in
+_Advanced Golf_ where he makes no assertion of this nature, but tells
+the golfer that he must not bother himself with any idea of gradually
+increasing his pace.
+
+This is what Braid says. It is worth repeating:
+
+     Nevertheless, when commencing the downward swing, do so in no
+     gentle, half-hearted manner, such as is often associated with
+     the idea of gaining speed gradually, which is what we are
+     told the club must do when coming down from the top on to the
+     ball. It is obvious that speed will be gained gradually since
+     the club could not possibly be started off on its quickest
+     rate. The longer the force applied to the down swing, the
+     greater do the speed and the momentum become, but this
+     gradual increase is independent of the golfer, and he should,
+     as far as possible, be unconscious of it. What he has to
+     concern himself with is not getting his speed gradually, but
+     getting as much of it as he possibly can right from the top.
+     No gentle starts, but hard at it from the very top, and the
+     harder you start the greater will be the momentum of the club
+     when the ball is reached.
+
+That, I take it, is absolutely sound advice, for herein there is no
+stupid restriction whatever, nor should there be, for the golfer, from
+the time his club leaves the ball till it gets back to it, should have
+nothing whatever wherewith to cumber his mind but the one idea, and
+that is to _hit_ the ball. Braid is surely wide of the mark when he
+says "but this gradual increase is independent of the golfer, and he
+should, as far as possible, be unconscious of it."
+
+Firstly, it seems to me that this gradual increase is entirely
+dependent on the golfer, and secondly, that he should be extremely
+conscious of it, and the necessity for the production of it; but this
+is one of the many things in golf which, when once it is thoroughly
+learned, becomes so much a matter of second nature that the golfer
+does it instinctively. He knows perfectly well that he _will_
+gradually increase his pace until he hits the ball, but he will not
+have it in his mind that he _has_ to do so. All this is bound to be
+in the hit. The man who drives the nail does not worry himself about
+gradually increasing the pace of the hammer head until it encounters
+the head of the nail. He knows he is doing it, but he does not worry
+himself about it as the golfer does about his similar operation. If
+the golfer would remember that nothing matters much except to hit the
+ball hard and truly, and would disregard a lot of the absolute
+nonsense about the domination of either one hand or the other, the
+gradual acceleration of speed, and many other items of a similar
+nature, he would find that his game would be infinitely improved.
+
+I could quote pages from leading authors dwelling upon this matter of
+the gradual increase of speed, but I shall content myself with the
+passage which I have here quoted from James Braid, together with the
+remarks that I have made in former portions of this book, and may make
+in later chapters. Braid, in _Advanced Golf_, is sufficiently emphatic
+about this matter, and I think we may take it that in _Advanced Golf_
+he has given up the idea expressed in his smaller and less important
+work _How to Play Golf_, that one should trouble oneself with the even
+acceleration of speed. Whether he has or not, it is an absolute
+certainty that any idea of consciously regulating the speed of the
+club's head in the drive, will result in a very serious loss of
+distance, for it will be found an utter impossibility for anyone so to
+regulate the speed of the club without seriously detracting from the
+rate at which the head is moving through the air, and as every golfer
+knows, or should know, the essence of the golf stroke is, that the
+club shall be travelling at the highest possible speed when it strikes
+the ball. I am, of course, now speaking with regard to the drive, and
+obtaining the greatest distance possible, for that is generally the
+object of the drive.
+
+The point which must be impressed upon the golfer is, that from the
+moment he starts his downward swing until he hits the ball, he has
+nothing whatever to think of except hitting that ball. Everything which
+takes place from the top of the swing to the moment of impact should
+practically be done naturally, instinctively, sub-consciously--any way
+you like, except by the exercise of thought during that process as
+especially applied to any particular portion of the action, for it is
+proved beyond doubt that the human mind is not capable of thinking out
+in rotation each portion of the golf drive as it should be played,
+during the time in which it is being played.
+
+Probably there is more ignorance about the action of the wrists in
+golf than about any other portion of the golf stroke, yet this is a
+matter of the utmost importance, a matter of such grave importance
+that I must in due course deal with it more fully and examine the
+statements of the leading writers on the subject.
+
+It is laid down clearly and distinctly by nearly all golf writers and
+teachers that the golfing swing must be rhythmical, that there must be
+no jerking, no interruption of the even nature of the swing--in fact,
+we have seen that according to many of them the stroke is a sweep and
+not a hit, yet we are told distinctly that at the moment of impact a
+snap of the wrists is introduced. This must tend, of course, to
+introduce a tremendous amount of inaccuracy in the stroke at a most
+critical time, and it is therefore a matter worthy of the closest
+investigation.
+
+We have already dealt with the fallacy of the sweep. It is a curious
+thing that although the leading golfers and authors pin their faith to
+the sweep as being the correct explanation of the drive in golf, yet
+nearly all of them, when it comes to a question of the stroke with the
+iron clubs, say that it is a hit. Now the stroke with the iron clubs
+is identical with the stroke with the wooden clubs, with the
+exception, of course, in many cases, that it has not gone back so far;
+but the action of the wrists is, or should be, the same. The club head
+travels, stroke for stroke, relatively in exactly the same arc; the
+beginning of the stroke and finish of the stroke is the same, and all
+the other laws, _mutatis mutandis_, apply. It would, indeed, be hardly
+too much to say that there is at golf only one stroke, and that every
+other stroke is a portion of that stroke, that stroke being, of
+course, the drive. If we take the drive as the supreme stroke in golf,
+and examine the nature of the stroke, we shall find that in that
+stroke is included practically every stroke in the game. That being
+so, it seems to me extremely hard to differentiate between a cleek
+shot and a drive--in fact, in so far as regards the production of the
+shot it is impossible to differentiate between them. If the one is a
+hit, the other is, and as a matter of fact, every stroke in golf, with
+the possible exception of the put, is a hit.
+
+While we are speaking of hits and fallacies, it will not be out of
+place to devote a little attention to a point of extreme importance,
+and at the same time one which is very much neglected in most books
+dealing with the game. It is the ambition of many a golfer to get what
+he imagines to be "the true St. Andrews swing." They try this in
+numberless cases, where, from the stiffness of their joints and their
+build generally, it is impossible in the nature of things that they
+can obtain a very full swing. It is bad enough in these cases, for I
+speak now of people who have taken to the game when their frames have
+become so set that it is practically an impossibility for them to
+obtain anything in the nature of a full swing, but the attempt to
+obtain a long swing is not, however, confined to those who have taken
+to the game late in life, although it is with them naturally a greater
+error than it is with those who started the game when their limbs were
+more supple and their frames more easily adapted to the stroke.
+
+If I allow myself to take my natural swing, I can nearly always see
+the head of the club at the top of my swing, and at the finish it is
+hanging nearly as far over the right shoulder as it was at the top of
+the swing over the left shoulder. There can be no doubt that with a
+swing like this, when one can control it sufficiently, one gets a very
+long ball, and there is a very delightful feeling in getting a perfect
+drive with such a swing, but from the very nature of the stroke it
+stands to reason that it must be less accurate than a much shorter and
+less showy effort.
+
+Harry Vardon, in _The Complete Golfer_, asks: "Why is it that they
+like to swing so much and waste so much power, unmindful of the fact
+that the shorter the swing the greater the accuracy?" There can be no
+doubt whatever that in the very full swing, such as I have described,
+there is a waste of power and a sacrifice of accuracy. The rule which
+is true of the put, "Keep the head of the club in the line to the hole
+as long as you can, both before and after impact," is, _mutatis
+mutandis_, just as applicable to the drive.
+
+Vardon continues:
+
+     Many people are inclined to ask why, instead of playing a
+     half shot with the cleek, the iron is not taken and a full
+     stroke made with it, which is the way that a large proportion
+     of good golfers would employ for reaching the green from the
+     same distance. For some reason, which I cannot explain,
+     there seems to be an enormous number of players who prefer a
+     full shot with any club to a half shot with another, the
+     result being the same or practically so.
+
+This is a curious remark to come from a golfer of the ability of Harry
+Vardon. I should have thought that the reason is sufficiently obvious.
+In playing a full shot the ordinary golfer feels that he has simply to
+get the most that his club is capable of. He therefore has no
+necessity to exercise any conscious muscular restraint. He plays the
+shot and trusts the club for his regulation of distance, but on the
+other hand, in playing a half shot he knows that he must exercise a
+good deal of judgment in applying his strength. It seems to me that
+there can be very little doubt that this is the reason why most
+golfers prefer the full shot. However that may be, it is beyond doubt
+that the desire, as Vardon puts it, "to swing so much" is the root
+cause of a vast amount of very bad golf.
+
+"The shorter the swing, the greater the accuracy." This statement is
+as true of one's wooden clubs as it is of the iron. It should be
+printed as a text and hung in every golf club-house in the world, for
+there can be very little doubt that if the value of this advice were
+thoroughly realised, it would make golf pleasanter and better for
+every one. The blind worship of the full swing has been carried to a
+lamentable extent, and golfers who devote any thought to their game
+are beginning to understand that beyond a reasonable swing back, the
+surplus is so much waste energy, and, which is more important still,
+simply imports into the stroke a very much greater risk of error.
+
+Many years ago I had a very remarkable illustration of the value of
+the short swing. A club mate of mine who was an adept at most games,
+and a champion at lawn-tennis and billiards, took it into his head to
+play golf. He was in the habit of thinking for himself. Of course,
+directly he started to learn golf, every one wished to make him tie
+himself into the usual knots, but he refused to be influenced by other
+people's ideas. He was content to work out his own salvation. He had
+watched many of the unfortunate would-be golfers contorting themselves
+in their efforts to reproduce what they took to be "a true St. Andrews
+swing," but determined that he would not follow their example.
+
+He had conceived the idea that a drive was only an exaggerated put,
+and he made up his mind that he would proceed to exaggerate his put by
+degrees until he had reached the limit of his drive, and had found
+that no further swinging back would give him extra distance. He found
+that he got no farther with his drive when he carried his club right
+round to what is known as the full swing, than he did when his club
+head came from about the same height as his lawn-tennis racket did in
+playing the game which he knew so well.
+
+When he had ascertained this he resolutely refused to increase the
+length of his swing. His club mates laughed at him and told him that
+it was not golf, that he was playing cricket, and many other pleasant
+little things like this. It had no effect whatever on him, for he knew
+that he was producing the stroke, in so far as he played it, exactly
+according to the best-known methods of the leading golfers of the
+world. He was content, in this respect, to follow known and accepted
+methods, but he would not in any way adopt the prevalent idea of a
+long swing.
+
+Of course, he was laughed at and told that it was extremely bad form,
+but before long he "had the scalps" of his detractors. Then they were
+unable to say much about his golf, and he had very much the best of
+the argument when within a remarkably short space of time he won the
+championship of his Province. He proved quite conclusively to his own
+satisfaction, and to the great chagrin of many of the other players,
+the truth of Vardon's statement, "The shorter the swing the greater
+the accuracy."
+
+There can be very little doubt that for those who take to golf late in
+life, especially if they have not played other games, the orthodox
+swing is a trap. A very great number of them get the swing, but not
+the ball. Many of them are, I am afraid, under the impression that the
+swing is of more importance than getting the ball away. Needless to
+say, they do not improve very much.
+
+For those who take to golf late in life, I am sure that the great
+principle which makes for length and direction in any ball game that
+is, or ever was played, namely, keep in the line of your shot as long
+as you can both before and after impact, will be found as sound to-day
+as it always has been. Probably it will be found, and before very long
+too, that what is true for the late beginner is equally true for the
+greatest experts. As a matter of fact, some of our leading
+professionals are beginning to realise this already, particularly with
+regard to their iron play.
+
+There are several very important points in connection with the short
+swing--points which, I believe, are of very great advantage to the
+golfer when once he has thoroughly grasped them. It is obvious that
+the shorter the swing is, the less necessity will there be for
+disturbing the position of one's feet. This naturally means that there
+is less likelihood of any undue swaying. Secondly, the shorter swing
+is naturally much more upright than the orthodox swing, and it comes
+more natural to a player to hit downwards at his ball when using it.
+
+The first point which we have made is that the shorter swing produces
+less disturbance of the feet, because it is generally more upright
+than a corresponding length of the orthodox swing. In the flat swing
+there is less need to move the feet than there is in the upright
+swing. It is in the latter that one feels _soonest_ the necessity for
+lifting the heel of the left foot, but in the short swing there is not
+the same necessity for balancing and pivoting on the toes as there is
+in the orthodox drive, for the swing back is not extended enough to
+require it. It should be apparent then that with the short swing much
+of the complexity of the golf drive is taken away.
+
+I must make this a little clearer: practically all the golf books tell
+us that the left heel must come away from the earth when the arms seem
+to draw it. Anyone who follows this out in practice will find that it
+is impossible to preserve the rhythm of his swing. As a matter of
+practical golf the left heel must come away from the earth as soon as
+the head of the club leaves the ball. The motions are practically
+simultaneous. This matter of the management of the feet is probably
+the greatest contributing cause to the complexity of the golf drive,
+and the many erroneous descriptions of it which are given by our
+leading players. The principal reason for this is that it is the
+latitude given to the body by this shifting of the heels which
+accounts for the wrong transference of the weight to the right foot,
+and the equally wrong _lurching_ on the left foot.
+
+One would not, of course, for a moment advocate that the golfer's
+heels should be immovable, although James Braid does maintain, quite
+wrongly, I think, that the position of the feet at the moment of
+impact should be exactly the same as at the moment of address--that
+is, that the heels should be firmly planted on the ground. Although he
+says this, the instantaneous photographs of him in the act of driving
+show conclusively that he does not carry his theory into practice.
+Many of our greatest golfers are beginning now to see that the firmer
+the foundation, the more fixed and immovable the base, the steadier
+must be the superstructure--to wit, the chest and shoulders--and
+therefore the more constant will be the centre, if I may use the word
+in a general sense, of the swing.
+
+The importance of preserving this "centre" cannot be overestimated,
+for golf is a game which demands a wonderful degree of mechanical
+accuracy, and it is only by observing the best mechanical principles
+that the best results can be obtained.
+
+In the ordinary drive of the ordinary golfer there is usually an
+excessive amount of foot and ankle work, and, generally speaking, this
+foot and ankle work is not carried out in the best possible manner.
+There is, as a matter of fact, imported into the drive far too great
+an opportunity for the player to move his weight about. He takes full
+advantage of this, and the usual result is that he transfers his
+weight, when driving, to his right leg, which, as we shall see later
+on, is a very bad fault for the golfer to acquire. In the shorter
+swing there is much less temptation for the golfer to make the errors
+which are usually attendant on faulty footwork.
+
+The other point of importance which I have mentioned in connection
+with the short swing, is that it comes much more naturally to the
+player to hit downwards. Probably not one golfer in a hundred
+realises that the vast majority of his strokes are made in a manner
+wholly opposed to the best science of golf. They are, generally
+speaking, _hit upwards_, whereas the most perfect golf drive should be
+hit downwards, and this statement is, in perhaps a less degree, true
+of nearly all golf strokes which are not played on the green.
+
+The best way to get any ordinary ball into the air is to hit it
+upwards, but this general rule does not apply to the golf ball, for it
+is always stationary and is generally lying on turf. However, few
+players will trust the loft of the club to perform its natural
+function. They seem to forget that each club has been made with a loft
+of such a nature that, given the ball is struck fairly and properly,
+the loft may be relied on to do its share of the work. Consequently,
+as they will not trust the club to get the ball up, they hit upwards,
+and so, to a very great extent, minimise the amount of back-spin which
+might come from the loft, were the club travelling in a horizontal
+line at the moment of impact.
+
+It is very much harder, however, to hit upwards with a short swing, or
+perhaps it would be more correct to say that there is a much greater
+tendency to hit the ball before the club head has got to the lowest
+point in its swing. We must emphasise this point, for it is of great
+importance, as back-spin is of the essence of the modern game, and
+particularly of the modern drive. If, therefore, we can show that the
+short swing tends more naturally to produce back-spin than does the
+full St. Andrews swing, and at the same time to give greater accuracy
+as regards direction, it need hardly be stated that it will not be
+long before we have the scientific players giving the stroke the place
+to which it is undoubtedly entitled in the game of golf.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEIGHT
+
+
+The distribution of weight is of fundamental importance in the game of
+golf. If one has not a perfectly clear and correct conception of the
+manner in which one should manage one's weight, it is an absolute
+certainty that there can be no rhythm in the swing. One often sees
+references to the centre of the circle described by the head of the
+club in the golf swing. It will be perfectly apparent on giving the
+matter but little thought that the head of the golf club does not
+describe a circle, but it is convenient to use the term "centre of the
+circle" when referring to the arc which is described by the head of
+the club.
+
+The all-important matter of the distribution of weight has been dealt
+with by the greatest players in the world. Let us see what Taylor,
+Braid, and Vardon have to say about this subject, for it is no
+exaggeration to say that this is a matter which goes to the very root
+of golf. If one teaches the distribution of weight incorrectly, it
+does not matter what else one teaches correctly, for the person who is
+reared on a wrong conception of the manner in which his weight should
+be distributed, can never play golf as it should be played. It is as
+impossible for such a person to play real golf as it would be for a
+durable building to be erected on rotten foundations.
+
+Now let us see what the greatest players have to say about this.
+Vardon, at page 68 of _The Complete Golfer_, says:
+
+     The movements of the feet and legs are important. In
+     addressing the ball you stand with both feet flat and
+     squarely placed on the ground, the weight equally divided
+     between them, and the legs so slightly bent at the
+     knee-joints as to make the bending scarcely noticeable. This
+     position is maintained during the upward movement of the club
+     until the arms begin to pull at the body. The easiest and
+     most natural thing to do then, and the one which suggests
+     itself, is to raise the heel of the left foot and begin to
+     pivot on the left toe, which allows the arms to proceed with
+     their uplifting process without let or hindrance. Do not
+     begin to pivot on this left toe ostentatiously, or because
+     you feel you ought to do so, but only when you know that the
+     time has come, and you want to, and do it only to such an
+     extent that the club can reach the full extent of the swing
+     without any difficulty.
+
+     While this is happening it follows that the weight of the
+     body is being gradually thrown on to the right leg, which
+     gradually stiffens, until at the top of the swing it is quite
+     rigid, the left being at the same time in a state of
+     comparative freedom, slightly bent in towards the right, with
+     only just enough pressure on the toe to keep it in position.
+
+That is what Vardon has to say about this important matter.
+
+At page 53 of _Great Golfers_, speaking of the "Downward Swing,"
+Vardon further says:
+
+     In commencing the downward swing, I try to feel that both
+     hands and wrists are still working together. The wrists start
+     bringing the club down, and at the same moment, the left knee
+     commences to resume its original position. The head during
+     this time has been kept quite still, the body alone pivoting
+     from the hips.
+
+It is obvious that if the pivoting is done _at the hips_ it will be
+impossible to get the weight on the right leg at the top of the swing
+without some contortion of the body, yet we read at page 70 of _The
+Complete Golfer_ that "the weight is being gradually moved back again
+from the right leg to the left." Thus is the old fatal idea persisted
+in to the undoing of thousands of golfers.
+
+I have already referred to the wonderful spine-jumping and rotating
+which is described in _The Mystery of Golf_. Many might not understand
+the jargon of anatomical terms used in this fearful and wonderful
+idea, so I shall add here the author's corroboration of my
+interpretation of his notion.
+
+At page 167 he says: "The pivot upon which the spinal column rotates
+is shifted from the head of the right thigh-bone to that of the left."
+
+I have always been under the impression that the spinal column is very
+firmly embedded on the os sacrum--that, in fact, the latter is
+practically a portion of the spinal column, and that it is fixed into
+the pelvic region in a manner which renders it highly inconvenient for
+it to attempt any saltatory or rotatory pranks.
+
+We are, however, told that the pivot on which the spinal column
+rotates "shifts from the right leg to the left leg." If the spine were
+"rotating," which of course it cannot do in the golf stroke, on any
+"pivot," which, equally of course, it does not, that "pivot" must be
+the immovable os sacrum. What then does all this nonsense mean?
+
+James Braid, at page 56 of _Advanced Golf_, says:
+
+     At the top of the swing, although nearly all the weight will
+     be on the right foot, the player must feel a distinct
+     pressure on the left one, that is to say, it must still be
+     doing a small share in the work of supporting the body.
+
+Taylor, in _Taylor on Golf_, at page 207, says:
+
+     Then, as the club comes back in the swing, the weight should
+     be shifted by degrees, quietly and gradually, until when the
+     club has reached its topmost point the whole weight of the
+     body is supported by the right leg, the left foot at this
+     time being turned, and the left knee bent in towards the
+     right leg. Next, as the club is taken back to the horizontal
+     position behind the head, the shoulders should be swung
+     round, although the head must be allowed to remain in the
+     same position with the eyes looking over the left shoulder.
+
+At page 30 of _Practical Golf_ Mr. Walter J. Travis says:
+
+     In the upward swing it will be noticed that the body has been
+     turned very freely with the natural transference of weight
+     almost entirely to the right foot, and that the left foot has
+     been pulled up and around on the toe. Without such aid the
+     downward stroke would be lacking in pith. To get the
+     shoulders into the stroke they must first come round in
+     conjunction with the lower part of one's anatomy, smoothly
+     and freely revolving on an axis which may be represented by
+     an imaginary line drawn from the head straight down the back.
+     Otherwise, the arms alone, unassisted to any appreciable
+     extent, are called upon to do the work with material loss of
+     distance.
+
+At page 88 of _Golf_ in the Badminton Series, Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson
+says:
+
+     Now as the club came to the horizontal behind the head, the
+     body will have been allowed to turn, gently, with its weight
+     upon the right foot.
+
+We here have the opinions of five golfers, whose words should
+undoubtedly carry very great weight. The sum total of their considered
+opinion is that in the drive at golf the weight at the top of the
+swing must be on the right leg. I have, however, no hesitation in
+saying that this idea is fundamentally unsound and calculated to
+prove a very serious hindrance to anyone attempting to follow it. So
+far from its being true that the weight of the body is supported by
+the right foot at the top of the swing, I must say that entirely the
+opposite is true, and that at the top of the swing the weight of the
+body is borne by the left foot and leg in any drive of perfect rhythm.
+
+This may possibly be going a little too far, so we shall, in the
+meantime, content ourselves with _absolutely denying_ that the weight
+at the top of the swing goes on to the _right_ leg, and with
+_insisting_ that at the top of a perfectly executed swing _the main
+portion of the weight must be borne by the left foot and leg_. In so
+positively making this statement I am confronted by a mass of
+authority which would deter many people from essaying to disprove such
+a well-rooted delusion in connection with the game, but I think that
+before we have finished with this subject we shall be able to show
+very good reason for doubting the statements of these eminent players.
+
+There is no possible doubt as to the rooted nature of this belief in
+the minds of these players. James Braid, in fact, emphasises it in
+some places. He says in _How to Play Golf_:
+
+     When the swing is well started, that is to say, when the club
+     has been taken a matter of about a couple of feet from the
+     ball, it will become impossible, or at least inconvenient and
+     uncomfortable to keep the feet so firmly planted on the
+     ground as they were when the address was made. It is the left
+     one that wants to move, and consequently at this stage you
+     must allow it to pivot. By this is meant that the heel is
+     raised slightly, and the foot turns over until only the ball
+     of it rests on the ground. Many players pivot on the toe, but
+     I think this is not so safe, and does not preserve the
+     balance so well. When this pivoting begins, the weight is
+     being taken off the left leg and transferred almost entirely
+     to the right, and at the same moment the left knee turns in
+     towards the right toe. The right leg then stiffens a little
+     and the right heel is more firmly than ever planted on the
+     ground.
+
+It seems to me that these famous golfers are confronted by a
+mechanical problem in this matter. The veriest tyro at golf is
+familiar with the axiom that it is absolutely necessary for him to
+keep his head still. Many authors tell one that the swing is conducted
+as though the upper portion of the body moved on an axis consisting of
+the spine. All golfers, authors, and professionals, who know anything
+about the game, will tell one that the habit of swaying, which means
+moving the head and body away from the hole, is fatal to accuracy.
+
+Harry Vardon, at page 67, says: "In the upward movement of the club
+the body must pivot from the waist alone and there must be no swaying,
+not even to the extent of an inch." A little further down on the same
+page, we read: "In addressing the ball you stand with both feet flat
+and securely placed on the ground, the weight equally divided between
+them."
+
+Now it seems fairly obvious that if one starts the golf drive with the
+weight practically evenly distributed between the right foot and the
+left foot, and seeing that it is an axiom of golf that one must not
+move one's head, it is impossible for one to get the weight of the
+body on to the right foot and leg without absolutely contorting one's
+frame. Let us make this clearer still. We have our golfer set at his
+ball, his address perfect, and his weight evenly distributed between
+his two feet. As he knows that it is wrong for him to move his head,
+we can, without interfering with his drive in the slightest degree,
+stretch tightly a wire at a right angle to the line of flight to the
+hole and pass it across within a quarter of an inch of his neck,
+below his right ear.
+
+The position of this wire will not in any way hamper the golfer in his
+drive, but in order to fulfil the instructions which are laid down
+with the utmost persistence by every golf book, that it is of
+fundamental importance to keep the head absolutely still, it will be
+necessary for our golfer to play his drive without allowing his head
+or neck to touch this wire; but if he can do this, and at the same
+time get the weight of his body, at the top of his swing, on to his
+right leg, as advised by Taylor, Braid, and Vardon, and by Messrs.
+Hutchinson and Travis, without making himself both grotesque and
+uncomfortable, he will indeed have performed an unparalleled feat in
+the history of golf, for, to put the matter quite shortly, it is
+nonsense to suppose that it can be done. The thing is mechanically
+impossible.
+
+If a man starts with his weight equally distributed between his legs,
+and then uses his spine or any other imaginary pivot to turn his body
+upon in the upward swing, it will be impossible for him to shift his
+weight so that it goes back on to his right leg. I am not, of course,
+allowing for a person who has an adjustable spine, such as that
+described by Mr. Arnold Haultain in _The Mystery of Golf_, which
+rotates, according to the author, first on one thigh bone and then on
+another. This spine is of such a remarkable nature that I must devote,
+later on, a little time to considering its vagaries. At present I am,
+however, dealing with a matter of practical golf and simple mechanics,
+about which there is absolutely no mystery but a vast amount of
+misconception.
+
+When I first stated in _Modern Golf_, which, so far as I am aware, was
+the first book wherein this fundamental truth was laid down, that the
+left was the foot which bore the greater burden, it was regarded as
+revolutionary teaching, but there is not a professional golfer of any
+reputation whatever who now dares to teach that at the top of the
+swing the weight is to be put on the right. There is, however, no harm
+in fortifying oneself with the opinion of at least one of the
+triumvirate expressed elsewhere. Personally, I think that the
+mechanical proposition is so extremely simple and incontrovertible, as
+I have stated it, that it is unnecessary to go further, but such is
+the veneration of the golfer for tradition that as a matter of duty to
+the game I shall leave no stone unturned, not only to scotch, but
+absolutely to kill, this mischievous idea which is so injurious to the
+game.
+
+In _Great Golfers_, Harry Vardon says, speaking of his address and
+stance: "I stand firmly, with the weight rather on the right leg." At
+page 50 of the same book he says, speaking of the top of the swing:
+"There is distinct pressure of the left toe and very little more
+weight should be felt on the right leg than there was when the ball
+was addressed." We see clearly here that Vardon's statement in _Great
+Golfers_ that at the top of the swing "very little more weight should
+be felt on the right leg than there was when the ball was addressed"
+does not agree with his statement in _The Complete Golfer_ wherein he
+states that "the weight of the body is being gradually thrown on to
+the right leg." The unfortunate part about this contradiction is that
+_Great Golfers_ was published before _The Complete Golfer_, so that we
+are bound to take it as Vardon's more mature and considered opinion
+that the weight at the top of the stroke is thrown mainly on the right
+leg.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE VI. HARRY VARDON
+
+    The finish of his drive, showing how the weight goes forward
+    on to the left foot.]
+
+This leaves us apparently as we were, but seeing the contradiction in
+Vardon's statement, we may with advantage turn to action
+photographs of him taken whilst actually playing the stroke. Here we
+see most clearly in such photographs as those shown on pages 86 and 87
+of _Great Golfers_, that the body, instead of going away from the
+hole, has, if anything, gone forward. This is sufficiently marked in
+the photographs which I am now referring to, but in _Fry's Magazine_
+for the month of March 1909 there appeared a remarkable series of
+photographs showing ten drives by Harry Vardon. These photographs are,
+unquestionably, of very great value to the game, for they show beyond
+any shadow of doubt whatever, that Vardon's weight is never, at any
+portion of his drive, mainly on his right leg. The first photograph
+showing him at the top of his swing is a wonderful illustration of the
+fact that at the top of the swing in golf the main portion of the
+weight goes forward on to the left foot.
+
+Before leaving this portion of our consideration of the distribution
+of weight, I must refer again to the description given of this matter
+in _The Mystery of Golf_. The author says:
+
+     The whole body must turn on the pivot of the head of the
+     right thigh bone working in the cotyloidal cavity of the "os
+     innominatum" or pelvic bone, the head, right knee, and right
+     foot, remaining fixed, with the eyes riveted on the ball. In
+     the upward swing the vertebral column rotates upon the head
+     of the right femur, the right knee being fixed; and as the
+     club head nears the ball, the fulcrum is rapidly changed from
+     the right to the left hip, the spine now rotating on the left
+     thigh bone, the left knee being fixed; and the velocity is
+     accelerated by the arms and wrists in order to add the force
+     of the muscles to the weight of the body, thus gaining the
+     greatest impetus possible. Not every professional instructor
+     has succeeded in putting before his pupil the correct stroke
+     in golf in this anatomical exposition.
+
+For which we may be devoutly thankful, for if ever there was written
+an absolutely ridiculous thing about golf which could transcend in
+stupidity this description, I should like to see it.
+
+As a matter of fact, the statement does not merit serious notice, but
+the book is published by a reputable firm of publishers, and no doubt
+has been read by some people who do not know sufficient for themselves
+to be able to analyse the alleged analysis of the author.
+
+Let us now subject his analysis to a little of the analysing process.
+We are told that "the whole body must turn on the pivot of the head of
+the right thigh bone working in the cotyloidal cavity of the 'os
+innominatum' or pelvic bone." This is merely another way of saying
+that the right leg and foot is supporting the whole weight of the
+body, although the head must remain fixed. We have already considered
+the similar statements expressed in _The Mystery of Golf_, and by much
+more important people in the golfing world than the author of this
+book, so we need not labour this point, but he goes on to reduce his
+directions to the most ludicrous absurdity. We are told that in the
+upward swing the vertebral column rotates upon the head of the right
+femur.
+
+Of course, I am not personally acquainted with Mr. Haultain, and he
+may be speaking from his own practice, but assuming for the sake of
+argument that he is a normally constructed man, the base of his
+vertebral column never gets anywhere near his right femur, nor is it
+possible for anybody's vertebral column to rotate unless the person is
+rotating with it, which one is inclined to think would prove rather
+detrimental to the drive at golf if indulged in between the stance and
+address and impact.
+
+As though we had not already had sufficient fun for our money, we are
+told that "as the club head nears the ball the fulcrum is rapidly
+changed from the right to the left hip, the spine now rotating on the
+left thigh bone."
+
+So far as one can judge from our author's description he must have
+been in the habit of playing golf amongst a race of men who have
+adjustable spines, the tail end of which they are able to wag from one
+side of the pelvic bone to the other. Personally, I have yet to meet
+golfers of this description. One feels inclined to ask the author of
+this remarkable statement what is happening to the os coccyx whilst
+one is wagging one's spine about in this remarkable manner.
+
+This statement is about the funniest thing which has ever been written
+in golf, and it has absolutely no relation whatever to practical golf.
+It is merely an imaginative and absolutely incorrect exposition of the
+golf drive, not only from a golfing, but from an anatomical, point of
+view; and it is to me an absolute wonder how anyone, even one who
+labels himself "a duffer," can attach his name to such obviously
+inaccurate and foolish statements. One really would be inclined to be
+much more severe than one is in dealing with such a book were it not
+for the amusement which one has derived from a perusal of such fairy
+tales as a rotating spine which, during the course of the golf drive,
+jumps from one thigh bone to the other, steeplechasing the pelvic bone
+as it performs this remarkable feat.
+
+I have referred in other places to the looseness of Mr. Haultain's
+descriptions in all matters of practical golf. At page 89 he confirms
+one's impression, if confirmation were required, that his idea of the
+fundamental principle of the golf swing is as ill-formed as are his
+notions of anatomy, for he says: "The left knee must be loose at the
+beginning and firm at the finish." At no time during a stroke in golf,
+of any description whatever, should there be any looseness of the
+body. During the production of the golf stroke the body is practically
+full of tension and attention. It is the greatest mistake possible to
+imagine that because one portion of the body is doing the work, any
+other portion may "slack." One who makes this statement has not a
+glimmering of the beginning of the real game of golf. I can readily
+believe that to such an one golf is a "mystery."
+
+The left knee is in harness from the moment the ball is addressed
+until long after it has been driven, and it is a certainty that the
+left knee has far more work to do than has the right, so for anyone to
+cultivate an idea that the left knee may, at any time during the
+production of the golfing stroke, "be loose," is a very grave error.
+
+While we are considering the matter of the distribution of weight, it
+will be advisable for us to devote our attention to the disposition of
+the weight at the moment of impact. Speaking of the management of the
+weight at this critical time, Vardon says:
+
+     When the ball has been struck, and the follow-through is
+     being accomplished, there are two rules, hitherto held
+     sacred, which may at last be broken. With the direction and
+     force of the swing your chest is naturally turned round until
+     it is facing the flag, and your body now abandons all
+     restraint, and to a certain extent throws itself, as it were,
+     after the ball. There is a great art in timing this body
+     movement exactly. If it takes place the fiftieth part of a
+     second too soon the stroke will be entirely ruined; if it
+     comes too late it will be quite ineffectual and will only
+     result in making the golfer feel uneasy, and as if something
+     had gone wrong. When made at the proper instant it adds a
+     good piece of distance to the drive, and that instant, as
+     explained, is just when the club is following through.
+
+It is evident from this statement, that Vardon is under the
+impression that the timing of this body movement should be so
+performed as to come in when the club is following through. I have
+shown before that the follow-through of a stroke is of no importance
+whatever except as the result of a perfectly executed first half of
+the stroke, if one may so describe it. It must be obvious to anyone
+who knows but little either of golf or mechanics that nothing which
+the body or the club does after contact between the ball and the club
+has ceased can have any influence whatever upon the flight of the
+ball, either as to distance or direction. Practically everything which
+takes place after the ball has left the club is the natural result of
+what has been done before impact. This cannot be too forcibly
+impressed upon golfers, for it is not at all uncommon to find men
+deliberately stating that the follow-through exerts a tremendous
+influence on the stroke. It should be perfectly manifest that this
+cannot be so. It is no doubt of very great importance to have a good
+follow-through, but the good follow-through must be the result of a
+good stroke previously played, otherwise it will be worthless.
+
+Harry Vardon states that this timing of the body movement takes place
+immediately after impact, for that is "just when the club is following
+through." He has himself provided the best possible refutation of this
+obviously erroneous statement. The timing of the body on to the ball
+in the manner mentioned by him practically commences, in every drive
+of perfect rhythm as are so many of Vardon's, from the moment the
+stroke starts, for the body weight which is put into the golf drive
+comes largely from the half turn of the shoulders and upper portions
+of the body from the hips in the downward swing. This half turn and
+the slight forward movement of the hips are practically one and the
+same. If they are not, something has gone wrong with the drive.
+
+Absolute evidence of the correctness of this statement is provided by
+Vardon himself in _Fry's Magazine_ for March 1909. Here we see the
+remarkable series of ten drives by Vardon which I have already
+referred to. The first photograph shows most clearly that at the top
+of the swing the main portion of his weight is on his left foot. As a
+matter of carrying golf to the extreme of scientific calculation it is
+quite probable that there is much more than Vardon's physical weight
+on his left leg, for the rapid upward swing of his club is suddenly
+arrested when considerably nearer the hole than his left shoulder, so
+that the leverage of the head of the club will have thrown more weight
+than that which the left actually bears on it as its share of Vardon's
+avoirdupois. This, of course, is undoubted as a matter of practical
+mechanics, but it is not of sufficient importance to enter into fully
+in any way here.
+
+It is, however, of importance for us to consider the photographs which
+follow, for here we see quite clearly that very early in the downward
+swing Vardon raises his right heel and bends his left knee slightly
+forward, and in the third, fourth, and fifth photographs we see very
+clearly that he is executing that turn of his body which carries his
+weight forward on to the ball in a very marked degree. This point is
+very clearly brought out in the instantaneous photographs of both
+Vardon's driving, and in that of George Duncan's. It is positively
+futile to say that the timing of the body weight in the follow-through
+is done when the club is following through, because it is obvious that
+this would not be "at the proper instant," and that it could not, by
+any stretch of imagination, add "a good piece of distance to the
+drive."
+
+It is curious to note in this connection that on page 53 of _Great
+Golfers_ Harry Vardon says:
+
+     Almost simultaneously with the impact, the right knee
+     slightly bends in the direction of the hole, and allows the
+     wrists and forearms to take the club right out in the
+     direction of the line of flight, dragging the arms after them
+     as far as they will comfortably go, when the club head
+     immediately leaves the line of flight and the right foot
+     turns on the toe. This allows the body to turn from the hips
+     and face the hole, the club finishing over the left shoulder.
+
+Here it will be seen that Vardon brings the timing of this very
+important forward movement back a little to "almost simultaneously
+with the impact." Now this phrase may mean immediately prior to, or
+immediately after, impact, and there can be no possible doubt which it
+is. It must be _prior_ to impact if it is to exert any beneficial
+effect whatever upon the stroke. To add any distance to the drive, it
+is obvious that what was done in the way of timing the body on to the
+ball must have been done _prior to impact_, and merely continued after
+the ball had gone away, so that the finish was perfectly natural.
+
+Now Vardon shows quite clearly in his drive that in his follow-through
+his weight goes forward until it is practically all on his left leg.
+So, for the matter of that, do the instantaneous photographs of nearly
+every famous golfer, but some of them have a very peculiar
+misconception of the disposition of weight at the moment of impact.
+
+Let us, for instance, see what James Braid has to say about the matter
+at page 53 of _Advanced Golf_. Dealing with this all-important moment,
+he says:
+
+     I would draw the reader's very careful attention to the
+     sectional photographs that are given on a separate page, and
+     which in this form show the various workings of the
+     different parts of the body while the swing is in progress
+     as they could not be shown in any other way. They have all
+     been prepared from photographs of myself, taken for the
+     special purpose of this book. In some cases, in order to show
+     more completely the progress of the different movements from
+     the top of the swing to the finish, the position at the
+     moment of striking is included. Theoretically, that ought to
+     be exactly the same as the position at the address: and even
+     in practice it will be found to be as nearly identical as
+     possible, in the case of good driving, that is. Therefore,
+     for the sake of precision, the third photograph in each
+     series of four is a simple repetition of the first, and is
+     not a special photograph.
+
+I may mention that this is a common idea of illustrating a golf
+stroke. The author of the book shows the stance and address. He then
+shows the top of the swing, and after that the finish, and he thinks
+that he has then done his duty by his reader. As a matter of fact,
+these are all positions in the swing where there is practically
+"nothing doing" as the American puts it.
+
+To illustrate the various movements in the drive, I took for _Modern
+Golf_, and used, eighteen different positions, and there was not one
+too many. It is quite impossible to illustrate the drive in golf by
+three positions; and it is absolutely erroneous to attempt to
+illustrate the moment of impact by a repetition of the photograph
+taken for stance and address. From the golfing point of view it is
+almost impossible to imagine two positions which are so entirely
+dissimilar. From the point of view of a mere photographer there may be
+some slight similarity, as indeed there is in all photographs of
+golfers, but to compare stance and address with the position at the
+moment of impact with the ball, is mere futility.
+
+Let us quote Braid's remarks with regard to stance and address:
+
+     When in position and ready for play, both the legs and the
+     arms of the player should be just a trifle relaxed--just so
+     much as to get rid of any feeling of stiffness, and to allow
+     of the most complete freedom of movement. The slackening may
+     be a little more pronounced in the case of the arms than with
+     the legs, as much more freedom is required of them
+     subsequently. They should fall easily and comfortably to the
+     sides, and the general feeling of the player at this stage
+     should be one of flexibility and power.
+
+     Everything is now in readiness for making the stroke, and the
+     player prepares to hit the ball.... While he is doing this he
+     will feel the desire to indulge in a preliminary waggle of
+     the club just to see that his arms are in working order,
+     waving the club backwards and forwards once or twice over the
+     ball.... Obviously there is no rule in such matters, and the
+     player can only be enjoined to make himself comfortable in
+     the best way he can.
+
+Now we see here that the main idea of the player at the moment of
+address is to make himself comfortable--in other words, to get into as
+natural a position as he possibly can in order to execute his stroke.
+The whole idea of the stance and address is to get into a perfectly
+natural position, and one that is quite comfortable and best
+calculated to enable one to produce a correct stroke. We see clearly
+that this is what Braid considers to be necessary at the moment of
+address.
+
+Let us turn now to _Advanced Golf_ at page 61, which we have already
+quoted. Braid, at that page and on the preceding pages, explains
+clearly that the whole idea of the golf stroke is supreme tension, and
+that at the moment of impact the tension is greatest. He says: "Then
+comes the moment of impact. Crack! Everything is let loose, and round
+comes the body immediately the ball is struck and goes slightly
+forward until the player is facing the line of flight." Is it possible
+to imagine two more diametrically opposed conditions of the human
+frame than those which I have described in Braid's own words? Yet we
+find this fine player producing, for the guidance of golfers as to
+what takes place at the moment of impact, the same photograph which he
+shows them for stance and address!
+
+Moreover, Braid himself clearly shows in his action photographs that
+such a statement as this is quite wrong. If we had any doubt at all
+about the matter, we might examine the photographs of Braid himself,
+which show clearly that the positions taken up by him when addressing
+the ball and when hitting it, are, as might easily be believed, widely
+different, for at the moment of impact there is the supreme tension
+and power which he advises as being a necessity for the production of
+a long drive. It is true that James Braid's feet, particularly his
+right foot, do not move from the ground so much as do those of Harry
+Vardon or George Duncan; but it is nevertheless true that the movement
+of his legs, arms, and shoulders show, at the moment of impact, a
+position totally different from that taken up by him during his stance
+and address.
+
+It might seem that these things are not of sufficient importance to
+warrant the critical analysis to which I am subjecting them, but there
+can be no doubt that there are a vast number of people to whom golf is
+of infinitely more importance than political economy, and to these it
+is a matter of most vital importance that they should know what they
+are doing and what they ought to do at this critical period; and in
+dealing with the books which have been produced in connection with the
+game of golf they have such a mass of contradictory and fallacious
+teaching to wade through, that it is small wonder that they are, as a
+rule, utterly befogged as to the proper principles upon which to
+proceed.
+
+Let us, for instance, examine these two statements with regard to the
+follow-through. At page 55 of _How to Play Golf_, in his chapter on
+"Finishing the Stroke," James Braid says:
+
+     The second that the ball is hit, and not before, the player
+     should begin to turn on his right toe, and to allow a little
+     bend of the right knee, so as to allow the right shoulder to
+     come round until the body faces the line of flight of the
+     ball. When this is done properly the weight will be thrown on
+     to the left foot, and the whole body will be thrown slightly
+     forward. The whole of this movement needs very careful
+     timing, because it is a very common fault with some players
+     to let the body get in too soon, and in such cases the stroke
+     is always ruined. Examine the photographs.
+
+Let us now turn to page 62 of _Advanced Golf_. Here we read:
+
+     As for the follow-through, there is very little that can be
+     said here, which is not already perfectly understood, if it
+     is not always produced. After impact, and the release of all
+     tension, body and arms are allowed to swing forward in the
+     direction of the flight of the ball, and I would allow the
+     right knee to give a little in order to remove all restraint.
+     But the weight must not be entirely taken off the right foot.
+     That foot must still be felt to be pressing firmly on the
+     turf, showing that although the weight has been changed from
+     one place to another, the proper balance has not been lost.
+
+Braid here says that the weight must not be entirely taken off the
+right foot. Well, to all intents and purposes, it is entirely taken
+off the right foot, as will be shown by photographs of any of the
+leading players in the world at the finish of the stroke, and, indeed,
+of James Braid himself. Braid says: "Examine the photographs," and I
+have examined them. At pages 57 and 59 of _How to Play Golf_ Braid is
+shown finishing a full drive or brassy shot. Here, without any
+possible doubt, his weight is all on his left foot. At page 61 of
+_Advanced Golf_ there are some photographs of Braid's boots and
+trousers from the knee downwards, entitled "Leg action in driving."
+One of these is entitled "Finish." Here it will be seen that the whole
+of the weight is unmistakably on the left leg.
+
+If one looks at the instantaneous photographs of James Braid in this
+book and in _Great Golfers_ one will see quite clearly that in all
+finishes his weight goes unmistakably on to his left leg.
+
+Braid makes a very wonderful statement in _Great Golfers_ at page 175.
+Writing there of the downward swing, he says: "My body does not
+commence to turn till the club head is about two feet from the
+ball--namely, at the point when the wrists come into the stroke." As a
+matter of fact James Braid's body begins to turn almost simultaneously
+with the beginning of the downward stroke, and as another matter of
+practical golf the wrists also come in at the very beginning of the
+stroke. With this latter point I shall, however, deal later on.
+
+Let me here emphasise the fact that the body turn must commence very
+early in the stroke, as indeed is quite natural. It is obvious that if
+anyone were to postpone the turning of the body until the club head
+"is about two feet from the ball" the rhythm of the stroke would be
+utterly destroyed. In this matter I am contradicting Braid flatly
+about his own practice. Therefore, I must refer any reader who doubts
+the accuracy of my statement, and Braid himself, if he cares to
+challenge it, to _Fry's Magazine_ for May 1909, wherein are shown
+eight drives by James Braid. No. 1 shows Braid at the top of his
+swing; No. 2 shows him before his club head has travelled a foot, and
+even in this short distance we see that his body has already turned
+very considerably. Any attempt whatever to follow out what Braid says
+here and to postpone the turn of the body until the club head is two
+feet from the ball, must prove disastrous.
+
+Braid continues on the same page:
+
+     At this moment the left knee turns rather quickly, as at the
+     moment of striking, I am firm on both feet; the quickness of
+     the action makes it difficult to follow with the eye, but I
+     am convinced this is what happens. Immediately after impact I
+     commence turning on the right toe, bending the right knee
+     slightly. This allows the right shoulder to come round till
+     the body is facing the hole. It is most essential that this
+     should be done, and then no thought will be given as to how
+     the club will finish, as the speed at which the club head is
+     travelling will naturally take it well through.
+
+Here we have, at least, very important corroboration of the fact that
+one need not worry about the follow-through if the first portion of
+the stroke has been correctly played. Braid says that at the moment of
+striking "the player is quite firm on both his feet and faces directly
+to the ball, just as he did when he was addressing it before he began
+the upward swing. Anyone who thinks out the theory of the swing for
+himself will see that it is obviously intended that at the moment of
+impact the player shall be just as he was when he addressed the ball,
+which is the position which will afford him most driving power and
+accuracy."
+
+This statement is so amazing that I must give definite instructions as
+to where to find it. It is on page 54 of _How to Play Golf_, and I
+think it proves conclusively that the idea which Braid is endeavouring
+to impart to his pupils and readers is entirely wrong, and is not the
+method which he himself follows in practice. Confirmation of my
+opinion can be obtained from a study of the third picture in the
+series of drives by James Braid in the May number of _Fry's Magazine_
+for 1909, which I have just referred to. Here we see clearly that the
+positions, from a golfing point of view, are utterly dissimilar, as
+indeed is most natural.
+
+Braid states that immediately after impact he commences "turning on
+the right toe, bending the right knee slightly." I think it will be
+found that even with James Braid, who certainly uses his legs in a
+somewhat different manner from many of the leading professionals, the
+right foot begins to lift before impact with the ball. I am inclined
+to think that both Braid and Taylor are more flat-footed at the moment
+of impact than most of the other professional golfers; but there can
+be little doubt that the body is swung into the blow before impact,
+otherwise it would be a matter of practical impossibility for them to
+obtain the length which they do; while it is a certainty that for the
+ordinary golfer it would be fatal to attempt to keep his weight in any
+way whatever on his right leg at the finish of his drive.
+
+This rooted fallacy with regard to the distribution of weight so that
+at the top of the swing it shall be on the right foot, has obtained
+its hold in a very peculiar manner. At the top of the swing the right
+leg is practically perfectly straight, and, naturally, as the foot is
+firmly planted on the ground and therefore held at both the heel and
+the toe while the leg has turned with the body, there is a very
+considerable amount of torsional or twisting strain on the leg. This
+torsional strain, added to the fact that the leg is perfectly
+straight, has led to the idea that a great deal of the weight is on
+the right leg.
+
+This idea has been confirmed to a very great degree by the manner of
+contact of the left foot with the earth. At the top of the swing the
+golfer pivots on the left foot, practically from the ball of the big
+toe to the end thereof, or on that portion of his boot representing
+this space. This naturally makes his contact with the earth _appear
+light_. These two causes, taken together, have produced the fallacy
+with regard to having the weight on the right foot and leg at the top
+of the swing. In the one case it is a physical cause, namely, the
+stiffness and torsional strain on the right leg, and in the other case
+it is a visual deception. It stands to reason that, provided the two
+surfaces will bear the strain, as much weight could be borne on a
+point as on a surface immeasurably greater, but in the second case
+there would be a greater _appearance_ of weight. This is exactly what
+has happened with regard to the golf drive. It is executed extremely
+quickly, and those who have attempted to explain it have not been able
+to follow the motions with sufficient rapidity and intelligence, nor
+have they been able to explain them accurately either from a
+mechanical or anatomical point of view.
+
+Until we can get some golfer who can pass the test suggested by me,
+and play his stroke without touching the wire strained within a
+quarter of an inch of his neck, after having taken his stance with his
+weight evenly distributed between his legs, and at the same time play
+it without contortion with his weight on his right leg, we may take it
+that this tremendous fallacy with regard to the distribution of weight
+at the top of the swing has been exploded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE POWER OF THE LEFT
+
+
+The fetich of the left is, amongst golfers, only second, if indeed it
+is second in its injurious nature, to the idea that the weight should
+be put on the right foot at the top of the swing. It is very hard
+indeed to trace the origin of the idea that the left hand and arm is
+of more importance in the golf stroke than the right, but that it is a
+very rooted idea there can be no doubt whatever.
+
+To those who are not acquainted with the literature of golf and the
+remarkable ideas which many golfers have of the nature of their game,
+it would seem almost superfluous to go very fully into this matter,
+for one would think that it is sufficiently obvious that the right
+hand and arm are the dominant factors in producing the golf stroke. It
+is, however, useless to deny that there is a large body of opinion,
+backed by most influential authority, in favour of the left hand and
+arm being more important than the right.
+
+Let us see, before we go any further in the matter, what the leading
+professionals have to say about it.
+
+Harry Vardon, it is true, does not explicitly state that the right
+hand is the more important, but by implication he does assert so right
+throughout _The Complete Golfer_. Let me quote a few of his remarks
+with regard to the left hand. On page 61 Vardon says:
+
+     The grip with the first finger and thumb of my right hand is
+     exceedingly firm, and the pressure of the little finger on
+     the knuckle of the left hand is very decided. In the same way
+     it is the thumb and first finger of the left hand that have
+     most of the gripping work to do. Again, the palm of the right
+     hand presses hard against the thumb of the left. In the
+     upward swing this pressure is gradually decreased, until when
+     the club reaches the turning point there is no longer any
+     such pressure; indeed, at this point the palm and the thumb
+     are barely in contact.
+
+We see here clearly that, as indeed Vardon has stated elsewhere, at
+the top of the swing the grip of the right has opened up until it may
+almost in a measure be said to have ceased to direct operations.
+
+Vardon continues:
+
+     This release is a natural one, and will or should come
+     naturally to the player for the purpose of allowing the head
+     of the club to swing well and freely back. But the grip of
+     the thumb and first finger of the right hand, as well as that
+     of the little finger upon the knuckle of the first finger of
+     the left hand, is still as firm as at the beginning.
+
+From this it will be seen that the grip at each side of the hand is
+apparently as firm as it was at the beginning of the stroke, but in
+some mysterious manner it has eased up in between the forefinger and
+the little finger. We need not, however, go any further into that
+matter at the present time, but we may continue the consideration of
+Vardon's statement here. He goes on to say: "As the club head is swung
+back again towards the ball, the palm of the right hand and the thumb
+of the left gradually come together again. Both the relaxing and the
+retightening are done with the most perfect graduation, so that there
+shall be no jerk to take the club off the straight line. The easing
+begins when the hands are about shoulder high and the club shaft is
+perpendicular, because it is at this time that the club begins to
+pull, and if it were not let out in the manner explained, the result
+would certainly be a half shot or very little more than that, for a
+full and perfect swing would be an impossibility. This relaxation of
+the palm also serves to give more freedom to the wrist at the top of
+the swing just when that freedom is desirable."
+
+We might, for a moment, leave this statement, and turn to page 126.
+Speaking here of the approach shot with the mashie Vardon says: "This
+is one of the few shots in golf in which the right hand is called upon
+to do most of the work, and that it may be encouraged to do so the
+hold with the left hand should be slightly relaxed"; and again at page
+147 in dealing with putting Vardon says: "But in this part of the game
+it is quite clear that the right hand has more work to do than the
+left."
+
+In these statements it is quite evident that Vardon wishes to express
+the idea that, generally speaking, the left hand is in command of the
+stroke.
+
+Reverting for a moment, and before I proceed to consider what the
+other authorities have to say on this subject, to Vardon's remark that
+"This is one of the few shots in golf in which the right hand is
+called upon to do most of the work," I may say that Vardon does not,
+in the whole of _The Complete Golfer_, explicitly describe any one
+stroke wherein he shows that the left hand "is called upon to do most
+of the work," nor, for the matter of that, does any other professional
+golfer or author, although the statement is common to nearly all books
+on the game.
+
+James Braid, on page 55 of _How to Play Golf_, says:
+
+     A word about the varying pressure of the grip with each hand.
+     In the address the left hand should just be squeezing the
+     handle of the club, but not so tightly as if one were afraid
+     of losing it. The right hand should hold the club a little
+     more loosely. The left hand should hold firmly all the way
+     through. The right will open a little at the top of the swing
+     to allow the club to move easily, but it should automatically
+     tighten itself in the downward swing.
+
+Here again we see the idea that the left is in charge, because
+although we are told that in the address the left hand should "just be
+squeezing" the club, yet we are told clearly and definitely that "the
+left hand should hold firmly all the way through." It is somewhat
+difficult to reconcile these directions, and it is obvious that if the
+right is going to "open a little at the top of the swing" the club
+will certainly move easily--in fact it will move so easily that the
+accuracy of the stroke will be very considerably interfered with.
+
+Let us for a moment turn to _Advanced Golf_. There, James Braid,
+speaking of the top of the swing, says: "Now for the return journey.
+Here at the top, arms, wrists, body--all are in their highest state of
+tension." Let me pause here for a moment to ask how it is possible for
+"arms, wrists, body" all to be "in their highest state of tension," if
+the right hand is to "open a little at the top of the swing to allow
+the club to move easily"; and how is it possible for the right hand to
+"automatically tighten itself in the downward swing" if it was already
+in its "highest state of tension" when it was at the top of the swing?
+
+It will be apparent that it is utterly impossible for the arms and
+wrists to be tighter than they are when they are "in their highest
+state of tension." Therefore, we must take it that James Braid's
+advice at page 55 of _How to Play Golf_ is over-ridden by his advice
+at page 57 of _Advanced Golf_, for I think that we are entitled to
+consider that _Advanced Golf_ represents Braid's last word with regard
+to the science of golf.
+
+Quoting still from the same passage, page 57 of _Advanced Golf_, Braid
+says: "Every muscle and joint in the human golfing machinery is wound
+up to the highest point." It is impossible to get away from that. We
+are told that at the beginning of the downward swing "every muscle and
+joint in the human golfing machinery is wound up to the highest
+point."
+
+Now the student of golf who desires to start his swing on a firm and
+sure foundation must mark this statement well. I repeat it for the
+third time: "Every muscle and joint in the human golfing machinery is
+wound up to the highest point," and let it be remembered that Braid is
+now speaking _of the start of the downward swing_.
+
+We will now turn to _Taylor on Golf_. At page 193 Taylor says:
+
+     My contention is simply this: that the grasp of the right
+     hand upon the club must be sufficiently firm in itself to
+     hold it steady and true, but it must not be allowed on any
+     account to over-power the left. The idea is that the latter
+     arm must exercise a predominant influence in every stroke
+     that may be played. As regards my own position in the matter,
+     my grip with either hand is very firm, yet I should hesitate
+     before I told every golfer to go and do likewise.
+
+Here we see that Taylor distinctly says that "the idea is that the
+latter arm (_i.e._ the left) must exercise the predominant influence
+in every stroke that may be played," and although he says explicitly
+that his own grip with both hands is very firm, he puts the utterly
+false idea of the predominance of the left into the minds of those who
+are influenced by his teaching.
+
+Taylor, at page 107 of _Great Golfers_, says in dealing with the
+"Downward Swing":
+
+     The club is brought down principally by the left wrist, the
+     right doing very little until the hands are opposite the
+     right leg, when it begins to assert itself, bringing the full
+     face of the club to the ball.
+
+It is almost unnecessary to say, especially in view of Taylor's
+statement that he holds very firmly with both hands, that he does not
+carry out this dangerous teaching. Harry Vardon says to attempt it is
+fatal, and I am pleased to add my corroboration.
+
+This amazing fallacy is wonderfully deeply rooted. A friend of mine
+some time ago was in trouble about his iron shots. He consulted a
+professional, who endeavoured to cure him by telling him when playing
+his stroke to hold so lightly with his right hand that at any time
+during the stroke he could slide it up and down the shaft.
+
+Oh no! He is not a duffer, nor is he mentally unbalanced. He is merely
+a professional golfer who plays for England and suffers from the
+hallucination handed on to him by more famous players than he.
+
+What could be stronger than this? Let me quote Taylor again. At page
+90 of _Taylor on Golf_ he says:
+
+     The right hand is naturally the stronger of the two--much
+     more powerful in the average man than the left--and the
+     learner is just as naturally prone to use it. But in the game
+     of golf he must keep in front of him at all times the fact
+     that the left hand should fill the position of guide, and it
+     must have the predominating influence over the stroke.
+
+     That this is rather unnatural I am perfectly willing to
+     admit. Its being unnatural is the basis of its great
+     difficulty, but it is a difficulty that must needs be
+     grappled with and overcome by any man who desires to play the
+     game as it should be played.
+
+But Taylor will not give in to this idea himself! Is not this
+wonderful?
+
+Harry Vardon says of the grip that one should "remember that the grip
+with _both_ hands should be firm. That with the right hand should not
+be slack as one is so often told." This is valuable corroboration, for
+it must be remembered that Vardon only subscribes to the fetich of the
+left _by implication_. Nowhere, I think, can we convict him of
+actually preaching it.
+
+Now let us turn to the volume on _Golf_ in the Badminton Library
+contributed by Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson. At page 85 Mr. Hutchinson
+says:
+
+     Since, as will be shown later on, the club has to turn in the
+     right hand at a certain point in the swing, it should be held
+     lightly in the fingers, rather than in the palm, with that
+     hand. In the left hand it should be held well home in the
+     palm, and it is not to stir from this position throughout the
+     swing. It is the left hand, mainly, that communicates the
+     power of the swing; the chief function of the right hand is
+     as a guide in direction.
+
+At page 87 Mr. Hutchinson continues:
+
+     So much, then, for the grip. Now, when the club, in the
+     course of its swing away from the ball, is beginning to rise
+     from the ground, and is reaching the horizontal with its head
+     pointing to the player's left, it should be allowed to turn
+     naturally in the right hand until it is resting upon the web
+     between the forefinger and the thumb.
+
+We see here that this distinguished amateur is an out and out adherent
+of the fallacy of the left. He tells us distinctly that it is the
+"left hand, mainly, that communicates the power of the swing, and that
+the chief function of the right hand is as a guide in direction," but
+notwithstanding the fact that "the chief function of the right hand is
+as a guide in direction," we see that at the top of the stroke it
+turns loosely in the hand until it is "resting upon the web between
+the forefinger and the thumb."
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE VII. HARRY VARDON
+
+    The finish of the drive--a little later than in Plate VI.,
+    showing the weight completely on the left foot.]
+
+Of course, in the circumstances, it will be very hard indeed for us to
+follow out James Braid's idea of everything at this point being in
+supreme tension, but it is interesting to see what Mr. Hutchinson
+thinks about the matter.
+
+We have here the opinions of the three most distinguished
+professionals in the world, backed by that of one of the distinguished
+amateurs in the game, a man who has distinguished himself both by his
+play and his writing. In the face of this weight of authority it may
+seem rash to venture to state plainly and explicitly that as a matter
+of practical golf the right hand and arm is the dominant partner, and
+that it is the duty of every normal golfer to have this idea firmly
+implanted in his mind when he settles down to his address.
+
+As the right is the dominant partner in the golf drive, so must the
+predominance of the right be the dominant idea in one's mind, but the
+domination of the right must not be abused, as we shall show later on.
+
+It is, of course, proper for a golfer to have clearly fixed in his
+mind the fact that the right is the more important member of the two,
+but when he has once got that fact carefully and well stowed away in
+his mind, it will be no more trouble to him than it is at present to
+every normal person to use his knife in his right hand with which to
+cut his meat, for it is an absolutely natural proceeding. The trouble
+with the fetich of the left is that not only is it a perfectly
+unnatural proceeding, but it is also, on that account, something extra
+for the golfer to cumber his mind with during his swing. If he plays
+his stroke naturally and without any thought of the mismade maxims of
+unpractical persons, he will inevitably let the right hand and arm
+take charge of the stroke, but the right will not at any time
+endeavour to do more than its proper share, and therefore the left
+will be given every chance to do a fair amount of the work. It is the
+interference with Nature by putting the left forward into a place
+which it has no right to occupy, which ruins so many golf strokes.
+
+Let us now turn to _The Complete Golfer_. Here, at page 60, Harry
+Vardon says:
+
+     We must now consider the degree of tightness of the grip by
+     either hand, for this is an important matter. Some teachers
+     of golf, and various books of instruction, inform us that we
+     should grasp the club firmly with the left hand and only
+     lightly with the right, leaving the former to do the bulk of
+     the work and the other merely to guide the operations.
+
+     It is astonishing with what persistency this error has been
+     repeated, for error I truly believe it is. Ask any really
+     first-class player with what comparative tightness he holds
+     the club in his right and left hands, and I am confident that
+     in nearly every case he will declare that he holds it,
+     nearly, if not quite, as tightly with the right hand as with
+     the left. Personally, I grip quite as firmly with the right
+     hand as with the other one. When the other way is
+     adopted--the left hand being tight and the right hand simply
+     watching it, as it were--there is an irresistible tendency
+     for the latter to tighten up suddenly at some part of the
+     upward or downward swing, and, as surely as there is a ball
+     on the tee, when it does so there will be mischief.
+
+If we sum up the advice of Vardon and Taylor, and of Braid as shown in
+his latest work _Advanced Golf_, we see clearly that although they
+subscribe to the idea of the predominance of the power of the left
+hand and arm, they do not themselves carry it out in practice. Taylor
+says that his grip with both hands is very firm, yet he should
+hesitate before recommending other people to follow his methods. I
+think we may take it for granted that a method which has resulted in
+four open championships may be considered good enough to follow.
+
+Vardon, as we have seen, only subscribes to this notion inferentially,
+and nobody could be more emphatic than he is with regard to the
+distribution of force in the grip. His words "Ask any really
+first-class player with what comparative tightness he holds the club
+in his right and left hands, and I am confident that in nearly every
+case he will declare that he holds it, nearly, if not quite, as
+tightly with the right hand as with the left," present the case
+exactly. Any man who plays golf properly will find it impossible to
+tell you how he distributes the force of his grip on his club, and
+what proportion of power the grip of the left bears to the right. As a
+matter of fact, the man who plays golf properly has no time to think
+of such nonsense as this. This is a matter which is regulated for him
+by common sense and nature.
+
+The trouble steps in when he is advised to interfere with the ordinary
+course of Nature, and to put the left hand in a position of authority
+which it has no right whatever to try to exercise. I say advisedly
+"try" to exercise, because it never can exercise the power which it is
+supposed to have. It stands to reason, therefore, that any attempt
+whatever to make it exercise a power superior to the more powerful arm
+must result in interfering with the proper functions of the hand and
+arm which should be naturally in command of the stroke.
+
+We have seen that James Braid in _Advanced Golf_ has quite altered the
+opinions which he expresses in _How to Play Golf_, and he also agrees
+that at the top of the swing, and until the stroke is played, it is
+right to grip the club as hard as one can with both hands--in fact,
+he says as plainly as it is possible for anyone to say anything, that
+during the whole of the downward swing the muscles are in a state of
+supreme tension, and fortunately he does not repeat the common error,
+the error which he himself makes in _How to Play Golf_, of advising
+the player to encumber his mind with any idea of regulating the
+increase of speed of the club head.
+
+Vardon puts the matter splendidly when he says:
+
+     Personally, I grip quite as firmly with the right hand as
+     with the other one. When the other way is adopted--the left
+     hand being tight and the right hand simply watching it, as it
+     were--there is an irresistible tendency for the latter to
+     tighten up suddenly at some part of the upward or downward
+     swing, and, as surely as there is a ball on the tee, when it
+     does so there will be mischief.
+
+This is such an important statement that I must, in passing, emphasise
+it, although I hope to deal with it again later on, for Vardon here
+strikes a deadly blow to the absurd nonsense which most books lay down
+about regulating the grip during the upward and downward swing. As
+Vardon truly says, any attempt to apportion the respective power of
+the grip of the left and right during the golf swing must inevitably
+result in disaster, for there will unquestionably be, as he well
+remarks, a pronounced tendency to tighten up at some part of the swing
+in a jerky manner. The only way to guard against this is to be, as
+James Braid says in _Advanced Golf_, in a state of supreme tension
+from the moment the downward swing starts.
+
+It must be remembered that Vardon himself advocates easing up with the
+grip of the right at the top of the swing, although he says that he
+grips as firmly with the right as the left. It stands to reason that
+if Vardon does ease up with his right at the top of the swing, he
+must during his downward stroke restore the balance of power. It seems
+perfectly clear that in doing this there is a very great danger of
+what he describes as an "irresistible tendency for the latter," that
+is the right hand, "to tighten up suddenly."
+
+I cannot see that, because Vardon starts with his grip equally firm
+with each hand, and then relaxes the firmness of his grip with his
+right hand at the top of the stroke, trusting to regain his firmness
+by the time he has reached the ball again, he removes from his swing
+the danger of the sudden tightening-up which he shows will threaten
+the swing of anyone who attempts to let the left hand have the
+predominant grip. It seems to me perfectly clear that this danger must
+be even in Vardon's downward swing, but we know quite well that
+Vardon, as a stroke player, is a genius, and that even if it is not a
+danger for him, it would be for ninety-five of every hundred golfers.
+
+The truth is, with regard to the golf grip, although none of the
+leading professionals or authors are courageous enough to state it,
+that for the ordinary golfer--aye, and even for the extraordinary
+golfer--there is only one way to apportion the force of the left and
+right in the grip, and that is _not to think about it at all when one
+is doing it_, but to grip very firmly with both hands, and leave any
+apportionment of force which may be necessary to Nature, and the
+golfer who follows this advice and instruction will find that Nature
+can attend to it infinitely better than he can.
+
+In golf we frequently find that one fallacy is built up on another,
+and it is quite an open question if the fallacy of the power of the
+left hand and arm is not founded on another fallacy, namely, the
+fallacy of the present overlapping grip. Now this sounds like rank
+heresy, and I may as well say at once that I am not prepared to
+assert that the present overlapping grip is a fallacy, but it is at
+least open to argument if it is the best grip which can be taken of a
+golf club.
+
+There is no such thing as standing still in golf or any other
+game--either we are progressing or we are going backwards. In golf,
+notwithstanding the vast amount of false teaching which is published,
+we are unquestionably advancing. It must not be thought from this that
+it is of no importance that most of the matter which is published
+about golf is entirely misleading, for that is not so. This misleading
+matter is followed by an enormous army of golfers who are not able to
+think out the matter for themselves, but there are a very great number
+of golfers who absolutely disregard the published tuition of the
+greatest experts in the world and play golf as it should be played,
+and in no case is this more pronounced than in the persons of leading
+professional golfers, for they write one thing, but do absolutely the
+other themselves.
+
+In the old days, when Vardon and all the other champions used the
+two-handed grip, it would have been rank folly for any person other
+than Vardon to have asserted that it was better to get the grip of the
+right hand off the club, as the overlapping grip does to a very great
+extent, but this grip was tried by Vardon, and it very soon became
+almost universal. However, I think we are justified in asking if this
+grip is undoubtedly the best that it is possible for us to get. Before
+the overlapping grip became fashionable both hands had their full grip
+on the shaft of the club, and in those days men played great golf, and
+there are many of them who still play great golf with the same hold,
+which they have refused to alter.
+
+At page 194 of _Taylor on Golf_, speaking of the grip, Taylor says:
+
+     To sum up the matter, I should describe the orthodox manner
+     of gripping with the right in the following words: The
+     fingers must close around the club in such a way that
+     provision is made for the thumb to cover and cross the shaft,
+     the first joints of the fingers, providing this is done,
+     being just in sight. Nothing more or nothing less. This is
+     the grip generally accepted as being orthodox, and the one
+     generally favoured by the majority of those who decide to
+     follow up the game properly. But, as is the case with
+     everything which is favoured by any considerable number of
+     enthusiasts, there are those who, untrammelled by tradition,
+     break away and hold the club differently, with one hand at
+     least.
+
+     Take, as for instance, the case of Mr. John Ball, jun. This
+     gentleman--one of the leading golfers of the day--holds the
+     club firmly, not to say tightly, in the palm of his right
+     hand. Well, he has discovered that this does not
+     detrimentally affect his play, so I presume that may be taken
+     as a satisfactory proof that the orthodox way may sometimes
+     be departed from. Then, after Mr. Ball, I might mention the
+     name of Mr. Edward Blackwell. He is almost certainly the most
+     consistently good long driver we possess now, and his
+     unorthodox method of grip with the right hand has not
+     affected his play.
+
+Taylor, of course, uses the overlapping grip, which is to-day the
+orthodox grip.
+
+Taylor speaks here of "those who, untrammelled by tradition, break
+away and hold the club differently, with one hand at least," but it
+seems to me that the two golfers quoted are not those who are breaking
+away from the traditional hold. Rather does it seem to me that it is
+we of the orthodox grip of to-day who have broken away from the best
+traditions of golf, and taking best and best of those who have adopted
+the modern grip and those who have maintained the old grip, there is
+practically "nothing in it." Looking at the grip of men like Mr. H. H.
+Hilton, Mr. John Ball, and Mr. Edward Blackwell, it would, I think,
+to-day, require a person almost bereft of intelligence to imagine for
+one moment that the power of the stroke in the play of these golfers
+is obtained from their left arms and hands, and I do not suppose for a
+single moment that any one of these players would dream of asserting
+that he gets his length or direction from the left arm.
+
+We are now confronted with the fact that one at least of these players
+with the two-handed grip is at practically no disadvantage against the
+best golfers in the world, and we must take it for granted in the face
+of what we have said, that his power of stroke and his command thereof
+is obtained from his right hand and arm. Now that being so, let us say
+for the sake of argument that he desires to improve his play by
+bringing the action of his wrists into greater harmony by adopting the
+overlapping grip. Surely one is confronted with this question--should
+one overlap the left hand with the right, or should one overlap the
+right with the left. In the present overlap the left hand takes the
+first grip of the club, and the right hand overlaps it, and in so
+doing is taken, to a very great extent, off the shaft of the club.
+
+The question now arises, Should not one first take one's grip with the
+right hand, the dominant hand, the guiding hand, and the hand which is
+operated by the stronger arm, and having got this grip, proceed to
+overlap with the left, always allowing, of course, for the necessary
+insertion of the thumb of the left between the shaft and the palm of
+the right hand?
+
+This may sound revolutionary, but I assure my readers that it is not
+one half so revolutionary as the change from the old two-handed grip
+to the present overlapping grip, for in that change the right hand
+was, to a very great extent, deprived of its pride of place. I think
+there is very little doubt that a player who became accustomed to the
+right-handed grip with the left overlap, would find that he produced a
+better game than he was able to do with the present overlapping grip.
+The fact is that we are inclined to take a much too complimentary and
+optimistic view of our exploits. Golf has now come to such a pass that
+it is played almost perfectly by a few of the best players, so that we
+have come to consider a five by a leading player as a serious lapse;
+but we must not judge the great body of golfers by the perfect
+players. These men would probably play very well under any conditions
+which could exist in the game. We have to consider the greatest good
+of the greatest number--in other words, the object of our search is to
+ascertain and understand perfectly what is the best way, and although
+I am stating this proposition with regard to the golf grip quite
+tentatively, and am laying it down as a subject for argument, I have
+very little doubt indeed that it will be found in the future that the
+right-handed grip is the best grip for playing golf.
+
+I think there is very little doubt that the most important change in
+the next decade will be in the right hand and arm coming into their
+kingdom. It need not be thought that this will happen in a day, or a
+month, or a year. For very many years the great game of golf was
+played, and was well and truly played by men who never dreamed of
+putting part of one hand beneath the other--who would have scouted the
+overlapping grip and the levering of the right hand off the shaft as
+sacrilege--but some one introduced the idea, because it brought the
+wrists closer together so that they worked more in harmony than with
+the old grip. Harry Vardon tried it and found it good, and it went
+into the game of golf and the history thereof.
+
+And to see Vardon use it, one might well say, "What more can you
+want?"; but that is not argument. Probably the one who asked that
+question would have asked the same question had he seen Vardon playing
+when he was using the old grip, when one wrist was fighting the other;
+so we must not be deterred from our speculation, from peering into the
+future. Of course, the essence of the overlapping grip is that it
+reduces the conflict of the wrists, and so conduces to greater
+accuracy and to less interference with the rhythm of the swing. It
+stands to reason that in the old days of the two-handed grip this
+conflict was worse than it would be now, for then the fetich of the
+left had not been weakened, and it was a distressful thing to have a
+hefty left in possession of the end of one's shaft and interfering
+with the proper functions of the right in an unwarrantable manner.
+
+Scientific golfers have, however, now come to the conclusion that the
+right hand and arm are the dominant partners in the production of the
+golf stroke, although there are many of the old school who still
+pathetically retain and exhibit their allegiance to the old tradition
+of the left being the master.
+
+If we have established the fact that the right is the dominant factor
+in the production of the drive, it seems to me that it follows quite
+naturally that the place of honour on the shaft should be allotted to
+it, and that it should be allowed the full grip, and not as it is at
+present, pushed off the shaft so that the grip of the dominant hand is
+practically reduced to that of the thumb and the first and second
+fingers. If this point is conceded the right hand obtains the full
+benefit of its undoubtedly superior power, for it obtains a firm and
+natural grip, whereas the present overlapping grip is a most unnatural
+hold and a difficult one for beginners to acquire, although very few
+players who have once used it return to the old grip.
+
+Not only is the proposed grip more solid and natural, and productive
+of greater power and accuracy than the present overlapping grip, but
+it unquestionably carries the main idea of the overlapping grip to its
+logical conclusion, as it reduces the stroke much more to a one-wrist
+shot than does the present grip.
+
+There will always be found many people who are prepared to condemn
+utterly anything which they do not understand. Some of these are sure
+to exercise themselves on this subject, so I shall give them some
+additional food for thought. Some time ago, a golfer who was capable
+of removing Mr. John Ball from the Amateur Championship Competition,
+lost his left thumb at the second joint. After his misfortune he took
+to driving a much longer ball than he had been in the habit of doing
+before his accident.
+
+Now there must have been some reason for this. The only one which I
+can suggest is that his accident put the right hand more into its
+proper and natural place on the shaft than it had been before.
+Curiosity led me to try to reproduce this grip as much as possible. I
+used the ordinary overlapping grip, with the exception that I allowed
+my thumb to remain out and to rest on the back of my right hand in a
+line with the knuckle of the little finger. I was astonished to find
+how closely it seemed to bring the wrists together. The injured golfer
+would probably have the ideal golf grip if he overlapped his right
+with his left forefinger instead of using the ordinary overlap, for he
+would have a perfectly free and full right-hand grip, no interference
+by the thumb of the left hand, and a natural overlap with the left
+forefinger on the little finger of the right hand.
+
+There is surely food for thought in these considerations, and I am
+sure that many who take to golf late in life could do much better with
+this grip and the short swing than they do with the grip which is most
+in vogue, and with much striving after an exaggerated swing. It is not
+wise for us to think that there is nothing to discover or to improve
+on in the grip. There is in this suggestion much room for experiment
+and argument, and unless I am very much mistaken we shall, in the
+future, see the relative position of the hands on the shaft altered.
+
+I may here refer again to the remarks made on the power of the left by
+Mr. Horace Hutchinson. It will be remembered that he said:
+
+     Since, as will be shown later on, the club has to turn in the
+     right hand at a certain point in the swing, it should be held
+     lightly in the fingers, rather than in the palm, with that
+     hand. In the left hand it should be held well home in the
+     palm, and it is not to stir from this position throughout the
+     swing. It is the left hand, mainly, that communicates the
+     power of the swing; the chief function of the right hand is
+     as a guide in direction.
+
+Notwithstanding Mr. Horace Hutchinson's statement with regard to the
+function of the right hand, there is given on page 86 of the Badminton
+_Golf_ an illustration entitled "At the top of the swing (as it should
+be)." Here we see a player in about as ineffective a position for
+producing a drive as one could possibly imagine, for the right elbow
+is considerably above the player's head and is pointing skyward. It
+would be an impossibility from such a position to obtain either
+adequate guidance or power from the right hand, and it is a matter of
+astonishment to find the name of such a fine player and good judge of
+the game as Mr. Horace Hutchinson attached to an illustration which
+must always be a classical illustration of "The top of the swing (as
+it should _not_ be)."
+
+We may here for the time being disregard the fundamentally unsound
+position of the right arm, for Mr. Horace Hutchinson has apparently
+altered his mind since, as we find him in _Great Golfers_ photographed
+at the top of his swing with the right elbow in an entirely different
+position. We see there clearly that he had come to realise the
+importance of keeping his elbow well down and as much as possible in
+the plane of force indicated by the swing and the shaft of the golf
+club. These photographs are very interesting. Mr. Horace Hutchinson
+says that the golf club "should be held well home in the [left] palm,
+and it is not to stir from this position throughout the swing," yet at
+the top of Mr. Horace Hutchinson's swing illustrated on page 296 of
+_Great Golfers_ we see clearly that at the top of his swing the club
+is barely held in the fingers of the left hand--as a matter of fact
+the forefinger of the left hand is raised and the club is merely
+resting in the three other fingers, which appear to be curved on to
+the club and hardly exerting any pressure whatever.
+
+It is abundantly clear from this photograph that Mr. Hutchinson, who
+is the most pronounced adherent to the fetich of the left, is driving
+his ball with a grip which is, to all intents and purposes, a
+right-handed stroke. This photograph was taken in action and at the
+rate of about one twelve-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second, so that
+there cannot be much doubt as to the fact that Mr. Horace Hutchinson
+is merely another exemplification of the fact that the golfers who
+write for the public tell them one thing, while they themselves
+practise another.
+
+Before concluding this chapter on the power of the left, I may mention
+that Mr. H. H. Hilton in Mr. John L. Low's book _Concerning Golf_,
+subscribes to the idea of attempting to regulate the force of the
+grips taken by the hands. He says on page 78 of that book:
+
+     When the main object of a shot is to obtain length, hold
+     tight with the left hand. The left hand will then do most of
+     the work in taking up the club. The right hand comes in on
+     the down swing to add force to the shot, and all parts of the
+     player's anatomy cohering together, the impetus will carry
+     his shoulders round, and unless he arbitrarily checks the
+     motion, he will finish his shot with his arms and club thrown
+     forcibly away from him; in short, he will have followed
+     through.
+
+It will be seen that this fine player distinctly advises a stronger
+grip with the left than with the right hand when one's object is
+distance. In the drive the object, of course, generally is distance,
+and we are distinctly advised by Mr. Hilton to play our stroke in a
+manner which Harry Vardon has clearly laid down as almost certain to
+lead to irretrievable disaster, for starting with a firm grip with our
+left, which we are to put practically in command of the club on the
+upward swing, we are then to bring the right into play "on the down
+swing to add force to the shot."
+
+It will be clearly seen here that Mr. Hilton is under the impression
+that the left is performing the more important portion of the work,
+for he speaks of the right hand as coming in to add force to the shot,
+whereas, in fact, the main portion of the force is provided by the
+right, and if there is any question of either hand and arm _adding_
+force to the shot, that will be done by the left hand and arm, and not
+by the right.
+
+I do not think it is necessary for me to go any further in order to
+show how deeply rooted and how widespread is this delusion about the
+power of the left. It is another one of those pernicious fallacies
+which absolutely strike at the root of the game of the great body of
+golfers, and it is impossible for one to take too much trouble in
+discrediting it to such an extent that it will soon be recognised as
+not being practical golf.
+
+I can hardly close this chapter better than by a quotation from a
+letter received by me from the professional of an American club as far
+afield as San Antonio, Texas. He writes:
+
+     It has taken me years of persistent effort to bury the many
+     prejudices against the proper use of the right arm, but they
+     must go, and I am glad to see you voiced sentiments strong
+     enough to make men stop and think over the situation. Let us
+     hope they will act.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE FUNCTION OF THE EYES
+
+
+One of the commonest of the many excuses advanced for missing one's
+drive is, "I lifted my eye." If the player only knew it he could lift
+his eye with impunity. That is not what matters. It was lifting his
+head which caused the trouble.
+
+"Keep your eye on the ball" is, without question, the soundest of
+sound golf maxims, but it is both abused and misused. We need not
+waste time arguing the question as to whether or not keeping one's eye
+on the ball at the moment of impact is absolutely essential to success
+in driving. Every golfer knows that for all purposes of practical golf
+one absolutely must keep one's eye on the ball, and that to do any
+other thing with the eyes at the moment of striking the ball is, to
+put it mildly, quite inconvenient.
+
+The trouble in connection with lifting one's eye is that one's eyes
+are in one's head. The seat of the machinery which works the golf
+drive is in the same place. If one relaxes for a moment the mental
+effort which has to be made whilst the golf stroke is being executed,
+the eyes quite naturally wander in the direction in which the ball is
+about to go. That in itself would not be so bad. The eyes
+unfortunately do not wander without carrying the head with them. The
+head is attached to the portion of the body where, roughly speaking,
+the centre of the swing is situated. Immediately the head moves, the
+centre of the circle, if it may for purposes of illustration be so
+called, is affected. Hopeless inaccuracy is the result. It is a matter
+of the most vital importance in golf that the eyes must not move.
+Keeping the eyes in the one position from the moment when one has
+finally addressed the ball until the moment of impact practically
+ensures the proper management of one's weight; for it stands to reason
+that if the eyes do not move it is impossible for the head to move,
+and if the head does not move it will be impossible to sway, and
+therefore to get the weight on to the right leg at the top of the
+swing, as do so many golfers who follow the misleading directions
+given with regard to the distribution of weight in the golf drive.
+
+Keeping one's head perfectly still is a matter of far greater
+importance than keeping one's eye on the ball; for it will be obvious
+that it is quite possible for a golfer, after having taken his
+address, to keep his eye on the ball until he has driven it, but he
+may in the meantime have lifted his head three or four inches. Lifting
+his head three or four inches will not have caused him to take his eye
+off the ball for an instant, but it will have been sufficient to have
+ruined his drive. Therefore, we see that the really important thing is
+to keep one's head and eyes in the same position for the impact as
+they were at the moment of address. When I say the same position it is
+manifest that there will be a fractional alteration, but it must be
+the aim of the scientific golfer to have his eyes, at the moment of
+impact, almost exactly in the same position as they were at the moment
+of address.
+
+Keeping one's eyes steady in this manner means, as has already been
+pointed out, that one preserves the centre, if it may be so called, of
+the swing much better than if one allows one's weight to move from one
+leg to the other. Preserving the centre of the swing in this manner
+means that the rhythm of the swing must be very much better than if it
+has a moving "centre." A moving centre must import into the stroke of
+any golfer far greater inaccuracy than there would be if his centre
+had remained constant, as it will do if he keeps his head in the same
+place.
+
+Some time ago a good professional golfer asserted that the well-known
+maxim "Keep your eye on the ball" was a delusion, and that it was
+possible to play perfectly good golf blindfolded, provided one had
+first taken one's stance and judged one's swing at the ball. In due
+course a match was arranged between this professional, blindfolded,
+and an amateur, and the professional was very badly beaten, as he did
+not, I believe, win a single hole. This result naturally tended to
+discredit his ideas very considerably.
+
+As a matter of practical golf, what he wished to establish is
+perfectly correct. Although "Keep your eye on the ball" is the
+soundest of sound practical golf, it is to a very large extent
+preached in a manner which is in itself entirely fallacious--for two
+reasons: Firstly, the player is told that it is absolutely essential
+to his stroke that he must keep his eye on the ball up to the moment
+of impact, and not only must he keep it there until the moment of
+impact, but that he should keep on gazing at the turf where the ball
+had lain after the ball has gone on its way.
+
+Now our professional golfer, who essayed the task of playing
+blindfolded golf, was perfectly correct in stating that it is not
+necessary to keep one's eye on the ball in playing golf, for the
+simple reason that the eye has fulfilled its function and has gone
+out of business, so far as regards that stroke, long before the head
+of the club has come into contact with the ball. It is this fact which
+makes us so prone to lift our eyes, and with them our heads, which of
+course is fatal to good golf. I go so far as to say that if Vardon in
+his drive could be automatically blindfolded when his club was two
+feet from his ball, and that he could accustom himself to keeping his
+head still after he was blindfolded, it would not affect his drive in
+the slightest degree, for the very simple and all-sufficient reason
+that the eye has finished its function in connection with the golf
+stroke for a very considerable period before impact takes place. It
+has assisted the golfer to take his proper stance and address, and has
+aided him in judging his distance, but the arc of the golf stroke is
+practically settled almost from the instant that it starts on its
+downward path.
+
+The duration of impact in a drive at golf has been measured by the
+most competent authority to be one ten-thousandth of a second.
+Photographs of the impact of the golf club with the golf ball taken at
+the one twelve-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second, are merely blurs.
+There is no clear definition of the club whatever. We can see from
+this that the rate of speed at which the golf club is travelling is
+extreme, even had we not the scientific measurement of the exact
+amount of time consumed during the contact. It will be obvious to a
+very ordinary understanding that when a club is travelling at this
+terrific pace it would be impossible for anyone to impart into the
+line of travel of the club head a new direction at, say, two feet from
+the ball, without ruining both the force and the direction of the
+ball. Therefore, it is evident that if one could close one's eyes when
+the club head was two feet from the ball and still keep one's head in
+exactly the same position, the impact would be practically not
+affected at all.
+
+This is the undoubted fact in so far as regards the work of the eye.
+It fulfils its duty very early in the stroke; but although the
+explanation of the function of the eye is so incorrectly given, still
+"Keep your eye on the ball" is, and ever will be, a sound golfing
+maxim, for it is not given to golfing man to be able to lift his eye
+and at the same time to keep his mind concentrated on his stroke, and
+to keep his head in the same place as it was in when he addressed his
+ball. Therefore, although it is not so absolutely necessary to keep
+one's eye on the ball as is generally laid down, it is expedient to
+preach to the fullest extent and to insist on what Harry Vardon calls
+"the parrot cry of the links."
+
+Most writers who deal with the matter of keeping one's eye on the ball
+are not satisfied with exhorting the player to keep his eye on the
+ball until after the moment of impact; they go further still and
+insist upon the fact that he must continue to gaze at the piece of
+turf whereon the ball lay, long after the ball has departed to the
+hole. This, again, is an absolute fallacy. It is only excusable on the
+principle that the greater includes the less, and that by insisting on
+one gazing at the turf long after the ball has sped on its way, one
+may be able to make the player do what he should do, and that is just
+to keep his eye on the ball until the moment of impact, for if we
+follow the advice given by many notable men of continuing to gaze at
+the turf after the ball has been driven, there can be no doubt
+whatever that we do much to spoil the rhythm and effectiveness of the
+drive.
+
+To preserve these we have been told that the head must be kept
+immovable throughout the golf drive, and that one must keep one's eye
+on the ball until it has been driven, and on the place where it was
+after it has been driven. However, following Vardon's explanation of
+the drive and taking what we know of this stroke ourselves, it will be
+remembered that at the moment of impact, "simultaneously," Vardon
+says, the body moves down the line of flight to the hole. It follows,
+therefore, that if one continues turf-gazing after one has hit the
+ball, that one's body is going on its way towards the hole whilst
+one's head is being held backward in the opposite direction to the
+travel of the body. This is absolutely bad golf, and Vardon does not
+do this himself.
+
+The truth with regard to the proper management of the eye in the golf
+stroke is that it should move simultaneously with the ball, for if
+there be any attempt whatever to drive the ball and to keep the head
+in the same position as it was at the moment of address, this will
+inevitably result in preventing the right shoulder getting through and
+the body following it as it ought to do, for a rigid head and neck
+will prevent any follow-through.
+
+Vardon is very explicit about the value of timing the body so that it
+goes forward down the line of flight towards the hole at the moment
+the stroke is made. He shows us, as a matter of fact, that this
+forward movement is practically simultaneous with the impact of the
+club on the ball. It will be obvious, then, to anyone, that this
+turf-gazing after one has hit the ball, which is recommended by the
+leading authorities of the game, is absolutely bad golf, for it must
+inevitably interfere with the follow-through.
+
+At page 174 of _The Complete Golfer_ Vardon says:
+
+     Keep your eye on the ball until you have hit it, but no
+     longer. You cannot follow through properly with a long shot
+     if your eye remains fastened on the ground. Hit the ball and
+     then let your eye pick it up in its flight as quickly as
+     possible. Of course this needs skilful timing and management,
+     but precision will soon become habitual.
+
+It was by the merest chance that I saw this passage after I had
+written my chapter on "The Function of the Eyes," although I am now
+incorporating it herein.
+
+I am very glad to have Vardon's authority to back me up in
+discrediting the silly idea about turf-studying; but although I have
+him with me I cannot hold him guiltless of spreading the error, for he
+has been photographed _repeatedly_ illustrating it in a style which he
+never uses in actual play. This may be seen in the series of
+photographs in _Fry's Magazine_ already referred to, and also at pages
+89 and 97 of _Great Golfers_, wherein this great player is shown in
+positions which in actual play he would not understand how to get
+into; but people who know no better, and have not the real power of
+comparative analysis and close thinking, are led away and suffer for
+this kind of foolishness merely because it is associated with a great
+name.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE VIII. EDWARD RAY
+
+    This plate shows the champion's tremendous finish in the
+    drive. Ray, at the top of his stroke, gets much of his weight
+    on his right foot, but does not advise others to do so.]
+
+In connection with this matter of the function of the eye there is an
+interesting point which I have not seen mentioned in any golf book--a
+point which makes it, if anything, more necessary for one to insist
+upon the vast importance of the maxim "Keep your eye on the ball,"
+although it is fallaciously preached both before and after impact.
+This point is that there is just before impact a very considerable
+portion of the travel of the head of the golf club during which the
+ball is practically never seen by the golfer. This is what I may
+call the golfer's "blind spot." It exists in practically all ball
+games where the ball is struck by a bat or other implement of that
+kind. Its existence, of course, is well known in cricket. I have
+played lawn-tennis for twenty years, and I do not believe that I have
+at any time during that period seen my racket hit the ball when
+actually playing. I have seen it do it when I have made up my mind to
+watch the ball and forget other matters, but in actual play one does
+not do this. One plays the stroke with the utmost naturalness. The
+ball is coming towards one and one gauges the distance and strikes.
+One knows that whatever happens one's stroke is made for good or ill,
+and there is in many strokes a blind spot of fully six to nine inches
+in length.
+
+I have had some wonderful photographs of this blind spot wherein it is
+shown most clearly that the lawn-tennis player is looking right away
+from his ball long before he has struck it. I think it is beyond
+question that this same blind spot exists in golf. I have no doubt
+whatever that, perfect player as he is, there is in Harry Vardon's
+stroke a blind spot of at least five inches. Few people who have not
+studied this question can realise the incredible rapidity with which
+the head of a golf club travels. I am well aware that there are many
+photographs of Harry Vardon in existence, which show him carefully
+studying the turf after the ball has gone on its way. I am also well
+aware that these photographs were taken to illustrate the fact that he
+does engage in turf-studying after the ball has gone on its way. I am
+also well aware that in actual play he does nothing of the kind, and
+that his beautiful, free, and natural finish is as different from the
+stiff and constrained photographs shown when he does not lift his
+head, as chalk is from cheese.
+
+I have watched Harry Vardon many and many a time, and I am absolutely
+certain that in his natural play he has no thought whatever in his
+mind of gazing at the turf after his ball has gone away. There is
+nothing whatever to be gained by doing so, and there is much to be
+lost. Any attempt whatever to anchor the head by gazing at the turf
+after the ball has gone away, and then afterwards to allow it to
+resume its place, together with the shoulders, in the swing of the
+follow-through, is mere futility, and must result in absolutely
+spoiling the rhythm of the swing and a proper follow-through.
+
+There is no player in the world who could be taken as a finer example
+than Harry Vardon, of the fact that in the golf swing and at the
+moment of impact there must be no restraint whatever on the movement
+of the shoulders and the head. They must work together with the club
+head and the ball. If they do not all move at the same time something
+is out of gear.
+
+In the game of blindfolded golf which I have referred to, the
+professional player took his stance, addressed his ball, and was then
+blindfolded with a handkerchief, an operation which naturally took
+some considerable time, but even as it was, he played some
+astonishingly good shots even when his whole swing was blindfolded. He
+should have had a pair of spectacles lined with cotton wadding or some
+similar material and fastened with an elastic band, which could have
+been lifted up whilst he was taking his address and closed down the
+moment he was ready to make his stroke. This would have given him a
+better chance to demonstrate what he desired to, which, as I have
+already said, was in itself practically sound.
+
+I have spoken of Harry Vardon's blind spot, and I have said that it is
+a matter of five inches. As a matter of fact it may quite well often
+be double that; but it seems to me perfectly plain that nothing
+whatever that Vardon can do when his club is within a foot of the
+ball, so long as he keeps his head steady or still, is likely to alter
+the path of the club head--I am speaking now, of course, of any normal
+golf stroke. This consideration of the matter brings us back to the
+statement which I have made time and time again, and in which I am
+supported by James Braid, that once the golf stroke is commenced, the
+fact of it connecting with the ball is merely an incident in the path
+of the club head; and that after the club head has proceeded a certain
+distance on the way to the ball it is beyond the power of the player
+to alter the character of that stroke, for his force has been
+irretrievably directed, in so far as regards that particular stroke,
+in a particular manner.
+
+Speaking of the position of the head in driving, Taylor says:
+
+     The head is maintained in exactly the same position as the
+     arms are brought down again, and so it remains until the ball
+     has been swept from the tee. The arms and body for all
+     practical purposes go through the same action, but in the
+     reverse way as in the upward swing, the body being held in a
+     similar position, but with the head turned and eyes looking
+     over the right shoulder at the finish of the stroke.
+
+     During the progress of this downward movement the weight of
+     the body is again transferred, passing from the right leg to
+     the left, until when the finish arrives the whole of the
+     weight has been placed upon the left foot, while the right
+     has assumed the position previously held by its neighbour.
+
+We see here in a very marked degree the fallacy of the distribution of
+the weight so that at the top of the swing the greater portion of it
+is on the right leg; for Taylor, although he tells us that "the head
+is maintained in exactly the same position," says that "during the
+progress of this downward movement the weight of the body is again
+transferred, passing from the right leg to the left."
+
+It is a very natural question for us to ask, "How can all this
+shifting of the body be going on if the head is to be kept perfectly
+still?" As a matter of fact it is a physical impossibility; and it is
+also obvious that it would be impossible to keep the head still,
+rigidly fixed, as we are told it should be, at the moment of impact,
+and yet to get a true follow-through.
+
+Let us read a little farther on, and we see that Taylor says: "If the
+ball has been struck there must be no semblance of checking or
+snatching at the club. The player must not check himself or allow
+premonitory symptoms of a check to make themselves felt even in the
+slightest degree. He must allow the club head to follow the line of
+flight of the ball as straight and as far as is possible." It stands
+to reason that if one's head remains fixed for an instant after the
+impact of the club with the ball, that instant the club head must feel
+the tendency to be drawn out of the straight line to the hole, and the
+follow-through down the line to the hole, which is so properly
+insisted on by all great golfers, is ruined.
+
+Taylor continues: "The arms must be thrown forward freely and
+naturally, and as a consequence the right shoulder must be allowed to
+swing forward too." This should effectually dispose of the idea of
+holding the head still after the ball has left the ground, for the
+simple reason that if the head and neck be held still, it will be a
+matter of utter impossibility for the right shoulder to go through and
+down the line to the hole as it should.
+
+I must emphasise this matter a little more strongly by Taylor's own
+words, for it is of very great importance in the golf drive.
+Continuing, he says, in reference to the fact that the arms must be
+allowed to go forward freely and naturally and that therefore the
+right shoulder must be allowed to swing forward:
+
+     By doing this the involuntary checking of the swing is
+     rendered impossible; but if arms and shoulders were to be
+     held tightly under control and as rigid as steel, the stroke
+     would be finished as soon as the head of the club had been
+     brought into contact with the ball. Every stroke in golf must
+     be played freely, every muscle of the body must be allowed to
+     do its full share of the necessary work.
+
+That is undoubtedly so; but if one arbitrarily fixes the position of
+one's head as a stationary point in the golf swing after the ball has
+gone on its journey, one prevents the right leg doing its share of the
+work in shifting the weight forward down the line towards the hole,
+and therefore one, to a very great extent, ruins one's follow-through.
+This is a point which, in my mind, is of very great importance to the
+drive, and it is, in so far as regards the function of the eyes, one
+of the most pronounced fallacies of the many fallacious statements
+with which unfortunate golfers are loaded.
+
+This blind spot which I have referred to, exists, as I have already
+said, in practically every game wherein the ball is struck with an
+implement. It is found in lacrosse, racquets, tennis, cricket,
+lawn-tennis, polo, base-ball, hockey, ping-pong, and even in
+billiards; but the probability is that the farther the striking
+surface of the club or other implement is from the eye, the less is
+the blind spot; and this is very fortunate for the golfer, for his
+margin of error is so small that it is of great importance to him to
+reduce this blind spot to a negligible quantity. But on the other
+hand, as a matter of scientific and accurate golf, he will make nearly
+as great a mistake in his golf if, in his endeavour to follow out the
+well-known and useful maxim, "Keep your eye on the ball," he acquires
+the habit of turf-gazing after the ball has gone on its way to the
+hole.
+
+I have before had occasion to refer to the book entitled _The Mystery
+of Golf_, and I have already, in part, touched upon some of the
+author's curious ideas with regard to the analysis of the golfing
+stroke. At page 159 he tells us that "the arms do not judge distance
+(save when we are actually touching something) nor does the body, nor
+does the head. The judging is done by the eyes." I am afraid that we
+cannot deny that the judging is, in all cases, done by the eye,
+because it is obvious that if we had not the use of our eyes, we
+should not be able to see the ball; but the author seems to overlook
+the somewhat important fact that although the arms do not judge
+distance, yet they _measure_ it, and this matter of measurement is a
+matter of extreme importance, as is exemplified in the case of play
+out of a bunker where one has to measure the distance without
+grounding the club.
+
+On the same page the author says: "If the eyes look up before the ball
+is hit, the muscles do not receive the proper orders to hit, and the
+most important part of the stroke is done blindly. That is my theory";
+and a most remarkable theory it is too. The muscles received their
+proper orders to hit at the moment the stroke was begun, and lifting
+the eyes a moment before impact would not affect the stroke if the
+head remained in the same position. Lifting the eyes is in nearly
+every case, as I have already pointed out, an action following on
+lifting the mind. The mind has been allowed to come off the stroke
+because the player's mental picture of the stroke has been completed
+long before the physical act. In other words, he has got ahead of his
+stroke. Then his head comes up, which of course is fatal to good
+golf.
+
+It is a very remarkable circumstance that the attempted analysis by
+the author of _The Mystery of Golf_ shows clearly that he has entered
+upon his task with but a very faint idea of sport generally, and he is
+in this respect much handicapped in his efforts. Let us consider what
+he has to say with regard to lifting the eye in golf. We read on page
+164:
+
+     I have sometimes thought that there are two simple and
+     especial reasons for this difficulty of keeping one's eye on
+     the ball: first, because there is nothing to stimulate the
+     attention; second, because one has to attend so long. In
+     cricket, tennis, racquets, as I have shown, the stimulus is
+     extreme; by consequence, your eye follows the ball like a
+     hawk. In billiards there is no stimulus, but you rarely, if
+     ever, take your eye off your ball in billiards. Why? I think
+     because (1) the ball is so near to the eye--and, therefore,
+     the stimulus strong; (2) because the period of time requisite
+     for the stroke is so short. In golf there is no stimulus and
+     the period is always long: you have to look at your ball for
+     more than the whole period of the upward and downward swings.
+
+This remarkable statement shows very clearly, as I have before said,
+that the author is not practically acquainted with games generally,
+for lifting the eye is common in practically every game where a ball
+is used. And it is amazing to find anyone attempting to analyse such a
+stroke as the golf stroke and at the same time making the statement
+that "you rarely, if ever, take your eye off your ball in billiards";
+and he proceeds to give reasons why one rarely takes one's eye off
+one's ball in billiards, whereas the game of billiards is an
+outstanding illustration of the fact that one does take one's eye off
+the ball. To a very great extent one plays one's stroke at billiards
+with a most pronounced blind spot every time, in that, just prior to
+the moment of striking the cue ball, one always looks at the object
+ball and practically one never sees one's cue on to one's own ball.
+
+Also, it is open to doubt if the golf stroke takes, on the average,
+from the time the club leaves the ball in its upward swing until the
+moment of impact, any longer than the billiard player takes in playing
+his stroke. If it does, the difference is not a matter which need
+enter into any practical comparison of the strokes.
+
+The curious thing is that in the game instanced by the author as
+possessing the greater stimulus, that is those games wherein the ball
+is moving, as in cricket, tennis, racquets, the tendency to lift the
+eye from the ball is much more pronounced than in those games where
+the ball is stationary, and this, I think, is by no means unnatural.
+The operation of the eye is incredibly swift. It catches the flight of
+the oncoming ball and one plays the stroke to meet it. In playing a
+stroke at a moving ball, it stands to reason that one has, all other
+things being equal, less time between the beginning of the stroke and
+impact than one would have in executing a similar blow where the ball
+is stationary, for here we have merely the pace of one moving object
+to deal with, whereas we have in the other case the pace of the two
+moving objects added together.
+
+It seems to me clear, therefore, that the eye has been able to
+ascertain much more rapidly what will happen in the case of the two
+moving objects, and having decided definitely that the stroke must be
+played in a certain way, the mind has given to the muscles the
+necessary orders, and the eye has then gone out of business so far as
+regards that particular stroke, and we get the astonishing result that
+we find famous players at lawn-tennis playing their strokes with a
+blind spot of, in many cases, as much as nine inches. This is beyond
+the region of doubt, and can be proved to demonstration by numerous
+photographs, so it will be seen that even if there were anything
+whatever in the suggested comparisons, they are fundamentally unsound
+in their premises, and therefore absolutely useless for any purposes
+of practical golf.
+
+We are told at page 166: "If you _don't_ keep your eye on the ball,
+your stroke is cut short the moment you take your eye off." This is
+obviously an error. Let us imagine that the golfer has played his
+stroke perfectly accurately up to within three inches of his ball and
+then takes his eye away from it, will any practical golfer believe
+that if he keeps his head still the fact of moving his eye is going to
+alter that stroke in any way whatever? I think not.
+
+Again we are informed at page 167 that: "It is at all events
+indisputable that any photograph showing a good follow-through shows
+the player looking at the spot where the ball was, after the ball had
+left it; proving that he was really looking at the ball when he hit."
+Personally, I may say that I have never yet seen a photograph of a
+good follow-through which did show the player looking at the spot
+where the ball was after the ball had left it, for photographs of that
+nature which I have seen showed most clearly that if one desires to
+absolutely prevent oneself from following through, one of the best
+methods of doing it is to cultivate the habit of studying the turf
+after the ball has gone on its way to the hole.
+
+In this we know that we have Vardon entirely with us. His
+corroboration is valuable for the point is of great and practical
+importance to the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE MASTER STROKE
+
+
+In his chapter on "Special Strokes with Wooden Clubs" Vardon discusses
+the question of the master stroke in golf. At page 86 of _The Complete
+Golfer_ he says:
+
+     Which, then, is the master stroke? I say that it is the ball
+     struck by any club to which a big pull or slice is
+     intentionally applied for the accomplishment of a specific
+     purpose which could not be achieved in any other way, and
+     nothing more exemplifies the curious waywardness of this game
+     of ours than the fact that the stroke which is the
+     confounding and torture of the beginner who does it
+     constantly, he knows not why, but always to his detriment,
+     should later on at times be the most coveted shot of all and
+     should then be the most difficult of accomplishment. I call
+     it the master shot, because to accomplish it with any
+     certainty and perfection, it is so difficult, even to the
+     experienced golfer, because it calls for the most absolute
+     command over the club and every nerve and sinew of the body,
+     and the courageous heart of the true sportsman whom no
+     difficulty may daunt, and because, when properly done, it is
+     a splendid thing to see, and for a certainty results in
+     material gain to the man who played it.
+
+Here we have a very definite statement by one of the greatest stroke
+players in the world, that the master stroke at golf is "the ball
+struck by any club to which a big pull or slice is intentionally
+applied for the accomplishment of a specific purpose which could not
+be achieved in any other way."
+
+It is to me a most extraordinary thing to find a golfer of the ability
+of Harry Vardon classing the pull and the slice as practically equal
+in order of merit. Anyone who is acquainted with golf must know that
+the pull is an infinitely more difficult stroke to play correctly than
+the slice. The slice is a stroke which is comparatively easy, but no
+one can truthfully say the same thing of the pull.
+
+Before we proceed to a consideration of the question of the master
+stroke, it will be interesting to quote what Taylor has to say on the
+subject. At page 88 of _Taylor on Golf_ he says:
+
+     Still it is not advisable, neither do I look upon it as being
+     golf in the truest sense of the word, for the knack of
+     pulling or slicing to be cultivated, as I am afraid it is by
+     a great many players. No compromise should be made with a
+     fault.
+
+Here we see that what Harry Vardon regards as the master strokes of
+the game, are looked upon by Taylor as faults.
+
+I may say at the outset that I am not inclined to agree with Vardon at
+all in this matter of the master stroke in golf. If there is one
+stroke which stands out above and beyond all others in its demand for
+accuracy, and a perfect knowledge of the method of applying spin, also
+a supreme ability perfectly to apply that knowledge, it is the stroke
+which is commonly called a "wind-cheater"; that is to say a long low
+ball which flies very close to the earth for the greater portion of
+its journey, and rises towards the end of its flight to its greatest
+height.
+
+Although this ball is called the wind-cheater, it is just as effective
+and just as useful on a perfectly still day as it is against a
+howling gale, for this stroke is, in my opinion, without any doubt
+whatever, the master stroke in golf, and if a man has this stroke he
+should be very willing to allow anybody else to have all the pulls and
+slices in golf. The supreme importance of this stroke is so pronounced
+that I have always wondered at the comparatively unimportant position
+which has been given to it in every book on golf, with the exception
+of my own works. Pulling and slicing, as golfing shots, may be said to
+be practically unnecessary if a man has full command of the plain
+drive without back-spin and the wind-cheater.
+
+Very frequently when a man is called upon to pull or to slice, it is
+to remedy a previous error, and there can be no doubt that with the
+pull and the slice it is an utter impossibility to keep on the line in
+the same manner as can one who uses back-spin in the drive. The secret
+of the greatest golf of the future lies, in my opinion, in the proper
+application of back-spin in the drive.
+
+I do not intend here to go fully into the effect of spin on the flight
+of the ball, as I shall do that at length in my chapter on "The Flight
+of the Golf Ball." Suffice it to say that the tremendous advantage of
+the ball with back-spin is, that being hit as the club is descending,
+and the hands at the time of impact with the ball being a little in
+front of the ball, the loft of the club is, to a certain extent,
+minimised, so that the ball is, in effect, struck with a club which
+has much less loft than would be the case if it were driven in the
+ordinary manner. This means that for the first part of the carry, the
+flight of the ball is very low, and as the club was not at the lowest
+portion of the swing when it struck the ball, the wind-cheater
+acquires a large amount of back-spin which asserts itself later on,
+and causes the ball to reach the highest point in its trajectory
+towards the end of its flight.
+
+One of the greatest of the many merits of this ball is that the method
+of producing it almost commands a follow-through down the intended
+line of flight. This in itself tends to give better direction than any
+of the ordinary golf strokes. The pull and the slice, as is well
+known, curve very much in their flight, and especially in a wind. It
+is utterly impossible for the best golfer in the world to say within
+twenty yards as regards direction, and that, of course, means much
+more than twenty yards--in fact, practically double that--where the
+ball will come to rest; but this is not so with the wind-cheater, for
+although the ball has been sent on its way with a very heavy
+back-spin, so much of it has been exhausted in lifting the ball at the
+end of its flight, that by the time the ball strikes the earth there
+is little, if any, retarding power in the back-spin, so that the ball
+is frequently a very good runner. I must, however, devote a little
+attention here to the method of production of the pull and the slice.
+
+There is a wonderful amount of misconception about these strokes, even
+in the minds of the greatest golfers. Let me, before I proceed to
+examine what Harry Vardon has to say about the production of the pull,
+state the general principles upon which the production of all spin is
+produced. Spin is imparted to a golf ball, as we shall see more
+clearly later on, merely by the fact that the face of the club,
+instead of following through after the ball in the intended line of
+flight, crosses the line of flight at a more or less acute angle; for
+the slice the club head comes from the far side of the line of flight
+across towards the player's side of the line of flight; for the pull
+the process is reversed, and the club head, coming from the player's
+side, swings right out across the line of flight; in the wind-cheater
+the club passes downwards along the intended line of flight. There is,
+of course, no such thing in practical golf as top-spin, so we need not
+consider that.
+
+There is one other important point which I must mention here. At the
+moment of impact the face of the club must be, to all intents and
+purposes, at a right angle to the intended line of flight. For
+instance, in a slice, any attempt to produce the slice by laying back
+the toe of the club, or any tricks of this nature, must result in
+disaster. It is impossible for the person playing the stroke _to time_
+anything to be done by him _during impact_, and it stands to reason
+that nothing will affect the ball except what takes place during
+impact. This, then, resolves the stroke into the fact that the contact
+between the ball and the club is, as I have frequently insisted, and,
+as we have seen, James Braid declares, merely an incident in the
+travel of the club's head in the arc which it is describing.
+
+Although I have said that the face of the club must be at a right
+angle to the line of flight of the ball, this is not exactly correct,
+although it is so for all purposes of practical golf. The reason I say
+that it is not correct, is that practically every well played slice
+starts off on the line to the hole a little to the left of the true
+line of flight, so that it is probable that at the moment of impact
+the face of the club is not at a dead right angle to the initial
+portion of the flight of the ball. However, it is unquestionably
+necessary that the face of the club should be as nearly as possible at
+a right angle to the intended line of flight at the moment that the
+impact takes place. If this point is not attended to as carefully in
+the pull and the slice as it is in other strokes, the result must be
+inaccuracy of direction, and very pronounced inaccuracy too.
+
+Let us now turn to Harry Vardon's directions as to how to play the
+pull. He says:
+
+     Now there is the pulled ball to consider, for surely there
+     are times when the making of such a shot is eminently
+     desirable. Resort to a slice may be unsatisfactory, or it may
+     be entirely impossible, and one important factor in this
+     question is that the pulled ball is always much longer than
+     the other--in fact, it has always so much length in it that
+     many players in driving in the ordinary way from the tee, and
+     desiring only to go straight down the course, systematically
+     play for a pull and make allowances for it in their
+     direction.
+
+He then gives instructions for the stance, and proceeds:
+
+     The obvious result of this stance is that the handle of the
+     club is in front of the ball, and this circumstance must be
+     accentuated by the hands being held even slightly more
+     forward than for an ordinary drive. Now they are held forward
+     in front of the head of the club. In the grip there is
+     another point of difference. It is necessary that in the
+     making of this stroke the right hand should do more work than
+     the left, and therefore the club should be held rather more
+     loosely by the left hand than by its partner.
+
+We may pause for a moment here to remark that this is another one of
+those very noticeable instances wherein Vardon infers that it is usual
+for the left to do more work than the right, and we may also note that
+he here gives advice which he has in other portions of his book
+condemned--that is, attempting to hold more loosely with one hand than
+with the other, for it is obvious that if, as he has told us will be
+the case, we attempt to give the right hand a watching brief over the
+left, the right will come in too suddenly at some portion of the
+swing, and it is also equally obvious that if we follow out Vardon's
+advice here and allow the left to hold the watching brief, it will
+similarly misconduct itself.
+
+I must emphasise again, before I pass on, the very pronounced
+inference which Vardon here makes that, generally speaking, the left
+is the dominant partner. Vardon then continues: "The latter," that is
+the right hand, "will duly take advantage of this slackness," that is
+the slackness of the left hand, "and will get in just the little extra
+work that is wanted of it. In the upward swing carry the club head
+just along the line which it would take for an ordinary drive."
+
+This, I may say, is remarkable advice, for it is well known that in
+playing the pull the club head begins to move away from the ball,
+inwards, the moment it is lifted from the ground. This, of course, is
+natural, for generally speaking, the club goes back to the ball in the
+way in which it comes up, and as the ball is played by an outward
+glancing blow, it stands to reason that it will not be taken back
+straight from the ball as Vardon states here. That, however, is by the
+way.
+
+Let us now continue with what Vardon has to say:
+
+     The result of all this arrangement, and particularly of the
+     slackness of the left hand and comparative tightness of the
+     right, is that there is a tendency in the downward swing for
+     the face of the club to turn over to some extent, that is,
+     for the top edge of it to be overlapping the bottom edge.
+     This is exactly what is wanted, for, in fact, it is quite
+     necessary that at the moment of impact the right hand should
+     be beginning to turn over in this manner, and if the stroke
+     is to be a success the golfer must see that it does so, but
+     the movement must be made quite smoothly and naturally, for
+     anything in the nature of a jab, such as is common when too
+     desperate efforts are made to turn over an unwilling club,
+     would certainly prove fatal.
+
+We have here Vardon's description of how to obtain a pulled ball which
+he regards as one of the master strokes of the game, but his
+conception of this stroke is absolutely erroneous. We are told by
+Vardon that in making this stroke "in the upward swing" we are to
+carry the club head just along the line which it would take for an
+ordinary drive. Now, at page 88, Vardon refers to "the inflexible rule
+that as the club head goes up so will it come down."
+
+It is now established beyond any doubt whatever that the pull is
+played by an outwardly glancing blow, the converse of the inwardly
+glancing blow of the slice, but if to obtain a pull we are to follow
+Vardon's advice and take the club straight back away from the ball,
+how are we going to come back by the same track as we went up, which
+is straight down the line of flight, and at the same time to obtain an
+outwardly glancing blow? The thing is a manifest impossibility, and,
+as a matter of fact, is not practical golf. This idea of turning over
+the wrists at the moment of impact is an utterly erroneous notion
+which I must deal with somewhat more fully. I shall show that James
+Braid originally had this idea himself, but that he has now, in all
+probability, abandoned it.
+
+It is evident that Vardon has but a hazy idea of the correct method of
+production of the pull, although, as we well know, he is a master of
+the art of producing this stroke. At page 92 of _The Complete Golfer_
+he gives his description of the manner in which he thinks one of the
+master strokes of the game is produced. I must quote him again fully,
+for it is necessary to do this in order that my readers may follow the
+trend of his mind:
+
+     It is necessary that in the making of this stroke the right
+     hand should do more work than the left, and therefore the
+     club should be held rather more loosely by the left hand than
+     by its partner. The latter will duly take advantage of this
+     slackness, and will get in just the little extra work that is
+     wanted of it. In the upward swing carry the club head just
+     along the line which it would take for an ordinary drive. The
+     result of all this arrangement, and particularly the
+     slackness of the left hand and comparative tightness of the
+     right is, that there is a tendency in the downward swing for
+     the face of the club to turn over to some extent, that is for
+     the top edge of it to be overlapping the bottom edge. This is
+     exactly what is wanted, for, in fact, it is quite necessary
+     that at the moment of impact the right hand should be
+     beginning to turn over in this manner, and if the stroke is
+     to be a success the golfer must see that it does so.
+
+It will be seen from this quotation that Vardon is under the
+impression that in playing the pull the club goes straight back from
+the ball in the same manner as it would be taken were one playing an
+ordinary drive. We notice, too, that he commits himself to the
+statement, that it is necessary that the top edge of the face of the
+club should be practically overlapping the bottom at the moment of
+impact. This, in effect, means that the club is actually deprived of
+its loft at the moment of impact.
+
+It will be apparent to anyone who understands very little about the
+ordinary principles of mechanics that it would be an impossibility to
+play an effective shot in this manner. Indeed it would be impossible
+to raise the ball from the ground, and any attempt whatever to give
+this turn over of the wrists at the moment of impact would inevitably
+result in a very large proportion of foundered balls.
+
+It must be remembered that Vardon is advising the player to
+consciously attempt to regulate the loft of his club during an impact
+which lasts for no more than the ten-thousandth of a second. Golf is
+at all times a game calling for a remarkable degree of mechanical
+accuracy, but it is obviously asking, even of the most perfect player,
+far too much when we request that he shall, by the action of his hands
+and wrists, regulate the loft of his club in an impact which lasts for
+such an extremely short time. We must remember that if the shot were
+played as Vardon describes it, the loft of the club face is
+continually changing during, let us say, the foot before it gets to
+the ball and the foot after it has passed it.
+
+The whole idea of the stroke in golf, in so far as regards loft, ought
+to be that at the moment of impact the player has nothing whatever to
+do with the loft, his duty being confined to hitting the ball in a
+certain way and allowing the loft to do its own work, and to take the
+angle at which it will naturally come down, but any attempt
+consciously to regulate the loft of the club during impact, especially
+on the lines laid down by Vardon, must inevitably result in disaster.
+Vardon tells us that at the moment of impact it is necessary that the
+club face should be turning so that it will be practically overlapping
+at least the moment after the ball is struck.
+
+His error is by no means an uncommon one. The same thing exists in
+lawn-tennis in the lifting drive, where about ninety per cent of the
+players who try the lifting drive under the impression that it is got
+by a turn over of the wrist, do the turn too soon and founder the
+ball--in other words, put it into the net. If the pull were to be
+played in the way Vardon describes it, the result would be exactly the
+same. The ball would simply be topped or absolutely foundered.
+
+I cannot emphasise too strongly the fact that this turn over of the
+wrists in the pull has nothing whatever to do with the production of
+the stroke, although Vardon says that it has. This turn over of the
+wrists will, if it precedes the moment of impact, ruin the stroke. It
+must come naturally long after the ball has gone on its way, and it
+must come not by any voluntary or conscious effort on the part of the
+player, but as the natural result of the correctly played first
+portion of the stroke.
+
+In my chapter on "The Flight of the Ball," I shall go more fully into
+the mechanical principles of the production of the pull. It will be
+sufficient for me to say here that the pull is produced by an upward,
+outward, glancing blow, but there must be no attempt whatever to alter
+the loft of the club at the moment of impact.
+
+In so flatly contradicting such a master of stroke play as Harry
+Vardon, it may be as well for me to fortify myself by evidence taken
+from the work and photographs of another famous golfer who was himself
+originally under the impression that the pull was obtained in this
+manner, but who has apparently since abandoned this idea. I feel sure
+that for the great majority of players who know anything whatever of
+elementary mechanics, it will be unnecessary for me to do this, but
+there is a vast number of players who are not well acquainted with
+even simple mechanical problems, and it is for these that I take the
+trouble to bring forward James Braid to give evidence against this
+idea of turning over the wrist at the moment of impact.
+
+We must remember that Braid himself has stated in _How to Play Golf_
+that the striking of the ball is merely an incident in the travel of
+the club's head, and we must remember that this book _How to Play
+Golf_ was written long after the quotation which I am now about to
+give from _Great Golfers_ at page 175. There James Braid tells us
+that "in playing for a _pulled ball_ the right wrist turns over at the
+moment of impact." This is emphatic enough, and Braid here commits
+himself to the same statement as Vardon does, that is to say, that the
+right wrist turns over _at the moment of impact_. This is what I
+absolutely deny.
+
+It is natural to suppose that Braid's book, _Advanced Golf_, contains
+the author's last word with regard to the science of playing the
+pulled ball, one of the balls, let us remember, which Harry Vardon
+considers the master stroke in the game. Let us therefore turn to
+Braid's illustration of playing for a pull in the four photographs
+following page 78. Braid here fortunately illustrates the actual
+moment of impact in the pull, and it will be seen on examining his
+club that it is apparently perfectly soled, that is to say that the
+club is lying as truly and flatly as it is at the moment of address.
+This is very important and quite incontrovertible as being Braid's
+considered opinion, because this stroke is a posed photograph for the
+purpose of illustrating the impact in the pull. We see quite clearly
+from this photograph that there is absolutely no turning over of the
+wrists, but that on the contrary, the right hand is, if anything, well
+back on the shaft, and showing no sign whatever, as I have already
+said--not even a symptom--of beginning to turn over. Nor, as a matter
+of fact, should it do so. The club does not begin to turn over in the
+manner described until it has reached practically the full extent of
+its outward swing on the far side of the line of flight.
+
+This photograph is, in itself, quite sufficient evidence to show us
+that Braid has abandoned his idea with regard to the necessity for
+turning over the right wrist at the moment of impact in the pull, but
+it is instructive to note that there is in the whole of _Advanced
+Golf_ not one word about turning over the wrists at the moment, of
+impact in the pull, so that we may take it as definitely settled that
+James Braid has, since the publication of _Great Golfers_, found out
+his error in this matter, for, against his one sentence in _Great
+Golfers_ that "in playing for a _pulled ball_ the right wrist turns
+over at the moment of impact," we have not only his statement in _How
+to Play Golf_ that the impact is a mere incident in the travel of the
+club head, but the still more eloquent fact that in _Advanced Golf_ he
+says no word whatever in support of this theory, and that he most
+expressly and emphatically by his own photographs contradicts the
+idea.
+
+We need not consider what Taylor has to say in connection with the
+production of the pull, for we see clearly that his idea of both the
+slice and the pull is that they are merely errors in golf and not to
+be encouraged.
+
+Let us turn now to a consideration of the slice. The same
+misconception which is so prominently shown by nearly every writer
+about golf with regard to the pull obtains also in connection with the
+slice. This is clearly shown by James Braid in _Great Golfers_, for
+following the quotation which I have already given with regard to the
+pulled ball, he says: "But for a sliced ball I cut a little across the
+ball, the wrist action being the reverse of that for a pull, viz., the
+right hand is rather under than over."
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE IX. JAMES BRAID
+
+    Here, in spite of what Braid says, it will be seen that his
+    weight at the finish goes almost entirely on to the left
+    foot.]
+
+Braid tells us that for a pulled ball he turns his right wrist over
+_at the moment of impact_. Well, as the wrist action for the slice is
+the reverse of this, it follows that _at the moment of impact_ he
+turns his right wrist under. This is a very common misconception. It
+is one which is held by an astonishing number of practical players.
+Mr. Walter J. Travis in his book on _Practical Golf_ repeatedly makes
+the error of thinking that this turn under of the wrist has any
+effect whatever on the stroke, but it is just as great an error to
+think that this turn under of the wrist has anything to do with the
+production of the slice, as it is to think that the turning over of
+the wrist has anything whatever to do with the pull. Both of these
+actions quite naturally _follow_ the correct production of the strokes
+referred to.
+
+The slice is an inwardly glancing blow, if anything, with a suspicion
+of downward action, whereas, as I have already explained, the pull is
+an outward, upward, glancing blow. There must be no attempt whatever
+to turn the right wrist under or downward at the moment of playing the
+slice, as Braid says he does in _Great Golfers_, although I have not
+been able to find the same statement in _Advanced Golf_, where we
+should naturally expect to see it if Braid still has this idea. The
+curious thing is that in James Braid's illustrations in _Advanced
+Golf_ for playing a slice the right hand is much further forward on
+the club than it is in those showing the grip for the pull; in fact
+were it not that the stance shows clearly that the photographs are
+correctly marked, one would be much inclined to think that they had
+been wrongly entitled. In playing for the slice, Braid's hand is well
+over the club, whereas in the pull it is almost underneath it. In
+_Advanced Golf_ this grip for a slice is extremely pronounced, in fact
+very much more so than in his illustrations of the stance and address
+for this stroke which he gives in his book _How to Play Golf_.
+
+The popular misconception about the slice is well instanced by what
+Harry Vardon has to say in connection with the cut mashie approach. He
+says at page 129 of _The Complete Golfer_:
+
+     It is also most important that at the instant when ball and
+     club come into contact the blade should be drawn quickly
+     towards the left foot. To do this properly requires not only
+     much dexterity, but most accurate timing, and first attempts
+     are likely to be very clumsy and disappointing, but many of
+     the difficulties will disappear with practice, and when at
+     last some kind of proficiency has been obtained, it will be
+     found that the ball answers in the most obedient manner to
+     the call that is made upon it. It will come down so dead upon
+     the green that it may be chipped up in the air until it is
+     almost directly over the spot at which it is desired to place
+     it.
+
+I have no hesitation whatever in saying that this is absolutely bad
+golf. In all cases where cut is applied to the golf ball there must be
+no attempt whatever to introduce anything into the stroke during the
+period of contact between the ball and the club. I am here dealing
+with Vardon's statement with regard to the mashie approach, but it is
+apparent that all cut shots are, in effect, slices, and if one gets
+the idea into one's mind that the slice is obtained by anything which
+is done consciously during impact and timed by the player to be done
+in that space of time, it must militate severely against one's chance
+of producing a successful shot.
+
+A little farther down on the same page Vardon says:
+
+     At the moment of impact the arms should be nearly full length
+     and stiff, and the wrists as stiff as it is possible to make
+     them. I said that the drawing of the blade towards the left
+     foot would have to be done quickly because obviously there is
+     very little time to lose; but it must be done smoothly and
+     evenly, without a jerk, which would upset the whole swing,
+     and if it is begun the smallest fraction of a second too soon
+     the ball will be taken by the toe of the club, and the
+     consequences will not be satisfactory. I have returned to
+     make this the last word about the cut, because it is the
+     essence of the stroke and it calls for what a young player
+     might well regard as an almost hopeless nicety of perfection.
+
+Here it is quite evident that Vardon thinks that the cut on a mashie
+approach is played by something imported into the stroke _during
+impact_, whereas the truth is that the club in a good shot properly
+played never alters from the line of the arc mapped out by the mind
+from the very beginning of the stroke. Vardon says that the cut "must
+be applied smoothly and evenly without a jerk, which would upset the
+whole swing." It is obvious that if the head of the club has travelled
+in a certain line down to within a fraction of an inch of the ball,
+and is then suddenly pulled across the ball, _there must be a jerk_.
+
+This, however, is not what happens when the stroke is well played. The
+club face simply passes across the intended line of flight of the ball
+with the front edge of the sole approximately at a right angle to such
+intended line of flight, but the club head proceeds across the line in
+an uninterrupted arc. If what Vardon, Mr. Travis, and many other
+people lay down, were correct, a drawing of the stroke would show the
+club head proceeding to the ball in a curve, then a sudden jump
+inwards towards the player with a continuation approximating to the
+follow-through of the first half of the stroke, but it is almost
+needless to say that nothing of this kind takes place either in this
+modified slice or the true slice at golf, which we shall have to deal
+with more particularly later on.
+
+Speaking of this shot--the cut mashie stroke--Vardon says: "It will
+come so dead upon the green that it may be chipped up into the air
+until it is almost perfectly over the spot at which it is desired to
+place it."
+
+This may be so. I have played the shot myself repeatedly, and I have
+repeatedly seen perhaps the greatest master in the world of the cut
+mashie approach, to wit J. H. Taylor, playing this shot, and there
+cannot be any doubt whatever that this particular class of mashie
+approach nearly always gives the ball a considerable run from left to
+right. This, indeed, is perfectly natural, for one goes right in
+underneath the ball and gives it a tremendous side roll tending to
+make it swerve in the air from left to right, and when it strikes the
+green, to run in the same direction. So pronounced indeed is the
+swerve and run of this ball that I have seen J. H. Taylor playing at
+Mid-Surrey when the green was practically completely obstructed by a
+large tree, play this shot so that it curved round the tree on to the
+edge of the green and then ran in almost to the pin.
+
+The shot which stops so dead at the hole, as Harry Vardon mentions,
+must of necessity have much more in the nature of back cut which
+produces back-spin than has the ball played by the stroke which he
+describes.
+
+Vardon refers to the pull and the slice as being the master strokes in
+golf. I have already said that if I had to pick any one stroke which
+could be called the master stroke in golf, it would be the
+wind-cheater, and it is open to question if the long plain drive is
+not entitled to greater respect than either the pull or the slice. Be
+that as it may, there is in my mind very little doubt about the
+respective merits of the wind-cheater and the other strokes referred
+to. The wind-cheater is the ball which is produced with a large amount
+of back-spin. Harry Vardon describes it at page 105, and he explains
+that in order to make the push shot perfectly "the sight should be
+directed to the centre of the ball, and the club should be brought
+directly on to it (exactly on the spot marked on the diagram, page
+170)." I may remark here that the spot shown on the ball at page 170
+of _The Complete Golfer_ for a push shot is absolutely above the
+centre of mass of the ball, and that at page 106 Harry Vardon gives a
+diagram of "The push shot with the cleek." In this diagram he shows
+that the face of the cleek at the moment of impact is perpendicular.
+
+It is quite certain that even if one could hit the ball above the
+centre of its mass with a perpendicular face, it would be impossible
+to get the ball off the ground in this manner. The push shot with the
+cleek must be played with loft on the club, and indeed it does not
+matter what club is used for this shot, there must be _loft_ on the
+face of the club _at the moment of impact_ if one is to obtain a
+satisfactory result, and not only must there be loft on the face of
+the club, but it is a certainty that the impact of the club with the
+ball must be _below_ the centre of the ball's mass, and not as Vardon
+shows it at page 170 of _The Complete Golfer_, above it.
+
+Vardon, for playing this push shot, uses a cleek with a shorter handle
+and with more loft than his ordinary cleek. This, indeed, is quite
+natural, for the shot is, in the nature of it, a very straight up and
+down shot in the line to the hole, and also as it is desirable that
+the ball shall be hit by the club before the club head has reached the
+lowest point in its swing, Vardon naturally has his hands forward of
+the ball at the moment of impact. This, of course, to a certain
+extent, counteracts the loft of the cleek, but in no case does it
+counteract it to the extent shown by Vardon in the diagram at page 106
+of _The Complete Golfer_, for were the blow made as shown by these
+diagrams, it would be a mechanical impossibility to obtain the result
+described by Vardon.
+
+The reason for keeping the hands forward of the ball is, as I have
+indicated, that the club head may make impact with the ball before it
+has reached the bottom of its swing, and Vardon's reason for playing
+with a club of greater loft than is usually employed is that this
+greater loft helps to make up for the fact that his hands are forward
+of the ball at the moment of impact. Playing this stroke with an
+ordinary cleek would rob the cleek of so much of its loft that the
+probability is that the flight of the ball would in its initial stages
+be too low to give a satisfactory result.
+
+Vardon says at page 106: "The diagram on this page shows the passage
+of the club through the ball as it were, exactly," but the trouble is
+that it does not show the passage of the club through the ball "as it
+were, exactly," because at the moment of impact with the ball the club
+must have sufficient loft on its face to lift the ball, and, moreover,
+the face of the club must make its first contact at a point at most as
+high as the centre of the ball, but preferably much lower, so that the
+force of the blow has an opportunity of exerting itself upwardly
+through the centre of the ball's mass. Vardon plays this shot
+perfectly, but he does not describe it as well as he plays it. He says
+at page 106 of _The Complete Golfer_:
+
+     I may remark that personally I play not only my half cleek
+     stroke, but all my cleek strokes in this way, so much am I
+     devoted to the qualities of flight which are thereby imparted
+     to the ball, and though I do not insist that others should do
+     likewise in all cases, I am certainly of opinion that they
+     are missing something when they do not learn to play the half
+     shot in this manner. The greatest danger they have to fear is
+     that in their too conscious efforts to keep the club clear of
+     the ground until after impact, they will overdo it and simply
+     top the ball, when, of course, there will be no flight at
+     all.
+
+There can be no doubt that this stroke is an extremely valuable one,
+particularly with the cleek, and it is a stroke which will well repay
+anyone for the time spent in practising it. There is, indeed, as
+Vardon says, a great danger of the player topping the ball if he tries
+to keep too far away from the ground until after the impact, but he
+must at all costs get out of his mind the idea of hitting the ball
+where Vardon says it should be hit, viz. above the centre of the
+ball's mass. This never was golf. It is not golf now, and it never
+will be golf.
+
+It is almost incredible, but is a fact, that a golf journalist who
+presumed to say that he knew what was "at the back of his (Harry
+Vardon's) head" stated in an article in a sporting magazine in London,
+that this push shot, one of Vardon's most beautiful and accurate
+strokes, is obtained by thumping the ball on to the earth--in fact
+that the stroke is almost what one might term a "bump ball," to use
+the cricket term. Any idea more abhorrent to the true golfer than the
+notion of producing his finest cleek shots and approach shots by
+banging the ball on to the earth can hardly be imagined, nor anything
+more incorrect.
+
+The wind-cheater is an invaluable stroke, but there can be no doubt
+that it is a stroke calling for a very considerable degree of skill in
+order to play it perfectly, or indeed very well, and in connection
+with this matter there was a very peculiar but entirely mistaken idea
+that for the production of this stroke it was necessary at the moment
+of impact to turn over both wrists. This idea obtained for years, and
+notwithstanding my repeated explanations, the deeply rooted notion was
+persevered in and used in such a manner by many players that it
+seriously interfered with their game.
+
+Some of the criticism which I had to put up with at the time that I
+was instructing golfers in these matters was very remarkable. I must
+give one instance which seems almost incredible. I had explained in
+the pages of _Golf Illustrated_, the leading golfing journal of
+London, how the pull is produced, and I had therein indicated as
+clearly and decidedly as I now do that it was impossible to produce
+the pull by the method indicated by Harry Vardon. Mr. A. C. M. Croome,
+the well-known international player, solemnly asserted in the _Morning
+Post_ that he had himself seen Harry Vardon produce the shot in the
+manner which I said was an impossibility, and that in effect an ounce
+of practice was worth a pound of theory.
+
+I took the trouble to explain that a cinematograph with about 400
+pictures, or perhaps a good many less per second, was sufficient to
+deceive an ordinary man into thinking that he saw a continuous picture.
+I explained that the camera which took the photographs for my purpose
+was timed to give an exposure of one twelve-hundred-and-fiftieth of a
+second, and that this was, therefore, at least three times as rapid as
+the machine which deceives an ordinary man into thinking that he sees a
+single picture, but notwithstanding that the camera was so tremendously
+rapid in its exposure, the golf club beats it to such an extent that at
+the moment of impact the club is represented by a swish of light or
+movement on the plate, and the ball immediately after impact is
+represented by something resembling a section of a sperm candle. So
+extremely rapid is its flight that it is impossible to obtain even by so
+short an exposure anything resembling clear definition.
+
+I showed clearly that an implement which was moving so fast as to
+absolutely beat the machine which was three times as fast as the
+machine which deceived the human being, was not likely to be able to
+be followed accurately by the human eye unaided in any way whatever.
+Still, that was the kind of criticism which I had to undergo.
+
+I was told exactly the same thing when I explained that in the push
+shot there must be no attempt whatever to turn over the wrists at the
+moment of impact, that in this shot as in all other strokes at golf,
+there must be no attempt whatever made to interfere with, or alter,
+during impact, the angle of the loft taken at the time of address, for
+any such attempt as this must end in trouble.
+
+It was some years after this controversy that Mr. A. C. M. Croome
+produced a column in the _Morning Post_ entitled "Justice," in which
+he referred to the matter as follows:
+
+
+     MR. VAILE RIGHT
+
+     It is common talk that Sherlock has improved a great deal
+     since he migrated from Oxford to Stoke Poges, and for once
+     common talk is right. His driving, at least when the ground
+     is hard, is distinctly longer than it used to be, but the
+     increased length has not been purchased at the expense of
+     steadiness. The ball still flies from his wooden clubs along
+     a line ruled straight to the hole. Even more valuable to him
+     than the gain in length is the acquisition of all that range
+     of shots which, if correctly played, leave the striker posed
+     with his arms straight out and the back of his right hand
+     uppermost.
+
+     A few years ago I, in common with many other misguided
+     golfers, believed that the movement of the right hand was the
+     cause, not the consequence, of correct execution.
+     Consequently a large percentage of the shots attempted to be
+     played in this way went anywhere but to the desired place. We
+     turned the key in the lock too soon. So far as I know Mr. P.
+     A. Vaile was the first publicist to set forth the truth. I
+     have differed from him on many points and found myself unable
+     to follow the more abstruse of his treatises. It is a
+     pleasure to acknowledge a debt to him, and it is a heavy
+     debt, for a misconception of the work done by the right hand
+     in holding the ball up against a left hand wind is fraught
+     with disastrous consequences. Sherlock was performing this
+     feat most exactly on Tuesday and hitting the ball monstrous
+     far with his irons forbye.
+
+I was very pleased to see this statement by Mr. Croome, for several
+reasons. It was a sportsmanlike acknowledgment of error, and a fine
+instance of what I call "the detached mind," which is extremely rare
+in England. The majority of controversialists are too much taken up
+with the personal aspect of the controversy, to remember that the
+controversy if it is worth entering upon, must always be of more
+importance than the controversialists, but beyond this, it is always
+of importance, especially for one who is in the habit of writing golf,
+to know the game to the core, for such an one can do much to spread a
+correct knowledge of the game, and this misconception of the action of
+the wrists has been responsible for millions of foundered shots.
+
+I cannot help thinking, however, that in Mr. Croome's generous
+acknowledgment of error, he was, to a certain extent, committing
+another error, for when he spoke of "all that range of shots, which if
+correctly played, leave the striker posed with his arms right out and
+the back of his right hand uppermost" he referred naturally to balls
+which have been played in the main with back-spin, but a little later
+on he proceeded to say:
+
+     It is a pleasure to acknowledge a debt to him, and it is a
+     heavy debt, for a misconception of the work done by the right
+     hand in holding the ball up against a left hand wind is
+     fraught with disastrous consequences.
+
+Here it will be evident that Mr. Croome is referring to a pulled ball,
+but at no time when one has obtained a pulled ball by a stroke
+properly played, will the finish be such as that described by Mr.
+Croome. The finish described by him is the characteristic finish of
+the wind-cheater type of ball, but, notwithstanding this, the point is
+that Mr. Croome has acknowledged the error with regard to the turn
+over of the wrists; as he very well puts it, "we turned the key in the
+lock too soon." That very succinctly summarises the matter, and it
+will be sufficient for our purpose in this chapter.
+
+I must quote again a passage in Mr. Croome's article. He says: "Even
+more valuable to him than the gain in length is the acquisition of all
+that range of shots which, if correctly played, leave the striker
+posed with his arms straight out and the back of the right hand
+uppermost." This is a somewhat curious sentence. As a matter of fact,
+anyone who acquires this range of shots will acquire with it extra
+distance, for the finish, as I have already stated, but cannot state
+too often or too emphatically, is the characteristic finish of the
+wind-cheater--a ball which carries the beneficial back-spin of golf,
+the secret at once of length and direction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE ACTION OF THE WRISTS
+
+
+There is no doubt that a proper wrist action in the drive is of very
+great importance, and it is just as undoubted that the real secret of
+wrist action has been enshrouded in mystery by anyone who has in any
+way attempted to deal with it. Indeed, so great a master of the game
+as James Braid, absolutely confesses that he does not know where the
+wrists come in during the drive. As Braid has already stated that it
+is almost impossible to teach putting, it really looks as though there
+is quite a considerable gap in golf which must be left to his pupils'
+imagination, but this is not really so. These great golfers really
+know golf and teach it much better than their published works would
+lead one to believe, and as a matter of fact in very many instances
+the matter which I am criticising so plainly is, I believe, not their
+own. I cannot believe that much of the ridiculous nonsense which is
+published in association with the greatest names of the world would be
+upheld by them in an ordinary lesson--in other words, I am firmly
+convinced that they suffer in the interpretation by persons whose
+knowledge of golf is extremely limited.
+
+It will, however, be interesting to see what the great golfers have to
+say with regard to wrist work. Let us turn first to Harry Vardon at
+page 70 of _The Complete Golfer_. There he says:
+
+     Now pay attention to the wrists. They should be held fairly
+     tightly. If the club is held tightly the wrists will be
+     tight, and _vice versa_. When the wrists are tight there is
+     little play in them and more is demanded of the arms. I do
+     not believe in the long ball coming from the wrists. In
+     defiance of principles which are accepted in many quarters, I
+     will go so far as to say that, except in putting, there is no
+     pure wrist shot in golf. Some players attempt to play their
+     short approach with their wrists as they have been told to
+     do. These men are likely to remain at long handicaps for a
+     long time. Similarly there is a kind of superstition that the
+     elect among drivers get in some peculiar kind of "snap"--a
+     momentary forward pushing movement--with their wrists at the
+     time of impact, and that it is this wrist work at the
+     critical period which gives the grand length to their drives,
+     those extra twenty or thirty yards which make the stroke look
+     so splendid, so uncommon, and which make the next shot so
+     much easier. Generally speaking, the wrists, when held
+     firmly, will take very good care of themselves; but there is
+     a tendency, particularly when the two V-grip is used to allow
+     the right hand to take charge of affairs at the time the ball
+     is struck, and the result is that the right wrist, as the
+     swing is completed, gradually gets on to the top of the shaft
+     instead of remaining in its proper place.
+
+There are several important statements in this paragraph. Vardon says,
+"I do not believe in the long ball coming from the wrists," and I say
+that there is no doubt whatever that in the ordinary acceptation of
+the term the long ball no more comes from the wrists than it does from
+the feet, for as Vardon indicates here, in a drive of perfect rhythm
+there is no such thing as getting the wrists into the work at, or
+about, the moment of impact, as is so frequently advocated by authors
+who preach what they do not themselves practise.
+
+Vardon says that "except in putting there is no pure wrist shot in
+golf." I have already shown that not even in putting is there such a
+thing as a pure wrist shot in golf, unless, indeed, the player should
+be playing with a putter which has an absolutely perpendicular shaft.
+In this case, and in this only, is it possible to play a pure wrist
+shot in golf if one follows out correctly the instructions which are
+recognised as being the soundest guide in good putting.
+
+Before quoting from James Braid in _Advanced Golf_ I must draw
+particular attention to what Vardon has said about the "snap" of the
+wrists at the moment of impact. He says that "there is a kind of
+superstition that the elect among drivers get in some peculiar kind of
+'snap'--a momentary forward pushing movement--with their wrists at the
+time of impact, and that it is this wrist work at the critical period
+which gives the grand length to their drives." It is surely not to be
+wondered at that this, as Vardon terms it, "superstition" exists, when
+we read in a book such as _Advanced Golf_, which was published several
+years after Vardon's _Complete Golfer_, statements to this effect:
+
+     Then comes the moment of impact. Crack! Everything is let
+     loose, and round comes the body immediately the ball is
+     struck, and goes slightly forward until the player is facing
+     the line of flight. The right shoulder must not come round
+     too soon in the downward swing but must go fairly well
+     forward after the ball is hit. If the tension has been
+     properly held all this will come quite easily and naturally;
+     the time for the tension is over and now it is allowed its
+     sudden and complete expansion and quick collapse. That is the
+     whole secret of the thing--the bursting of the tension at the
+     proper moment--and really there is very little to be said in
+     enlargement of the idea. At this moment the action of the
+     wrists is all-important, but it cannot be described. Where
+     exactly the wrists begin to do their proper work I have never
+     been able to determine exactly, for the work is almost
+     instantaneously brief. Neither can one say precisely how they
+     work except for the suggestion that has already been made. It
+     seems, however, that they start when the club head is a
+     matter of some eighteen inches from the ball, and that for a
+     distance of a yard in the arc that it is describing they have
+     it almost to themselves, and impart a whip-like snap to the
+     movement, not only giving a great extra force to the stroke,
+     but, by keeping the club head for a moment in the straight
+     line of the intended flight of the ball, doing much towards
+     the ensuring of the proper direction. It seems to be a sort
+     of flick--in some respects very much the same kind of action
+     as when a man is boring a corkscrew into the cork of a
+     bottle. He turns his right wrist back; for a moment it is
+     under high tension, and then he lets it loose with a short,
+     sudden snap. Unless the wrists are in their proper place as
+     described, at the top of the swing, it is impossible to get
+     them to do this work when the time comes. There is nowhere
+     for them to spring back from.
+
+Here it will be seen that in a work of James Braid which is entitled
+_Advanced Golf_ and which was published several years after Harry
+Vardon's _Complete Golfer_ and by the same firm, we have advice and
+information given to us which is diametrically opposed to the ideas of
+Harry Vardon. There can be no doubt whatever that Vardon's opinion
+with regard to this matter is much sounder than Braid's, and in order
+that I may assist anybody who is in doubt as to which opinion to be
+influenced by, I shall analyse Braid's statement.
+
+We must, before we begin to consider Braid's advice, remember that he
+himself admits that he does not know where the wrists come in.
+
+This reminds me of an incident which occurred a short time ago. An
+unfortunate golfer who had an idea that a golf ball should be hit in
+much the same manner as a cricket ball, or any other common sort of
+ball, came to me in my office one day and asked me to show him what
+was wrong with his swing. I put down a ball for him on a captive
+machine, handed him a golf club and said: "Let me see you hit it?" He
+proceeded to hit it, but the instant his club head moved away from the
+ball it was apparent to me that he had not a rudimentary idea of the
+golf stroke. His left wrist began to turn outwards instead of inwards
+and downwards. I showed him at once how wrong he was in the
+fundamental principles of the golfing stroke, for, as is quite usual,
+he had no idea whatever of the proper distribution of his weight,
+having been taught by his professional that it must, at the top of the
+swing, be on his right leg. But the main point to which I want to draw
+attention is contained in his plaintive remark to me:
+
+"Yes, that is all right now you show it to me, and I can feel that it
+is better, but it is when I come to play the ball and have to remember
+all these things that I make a mess of it."
+
+My reply to him was: "My dear fellow, the man who understands how to
+teach golf does not teach you how to remember all these things. He
+teaches you how to forget them--in other words, he so instructs you
+that everything you do between the moment that you address the ball
+and the time that you hit it, is done practically without any strain
+on your mind whatever. It is done by habit or second nature. Anyone
+who teaches you in such a manner that you have to remember each of the
+things which you think go to make up a perfect drive _while you are
+making that drive_ is no use whatever to you as a teacher," and he was
+immensely relieved even at the bare idea of this revolutionary
+teaching.
+
+Nevertheless, in effect, this is the only true and scientific tuition
+for the golfing drive. We want to make the golfer handle his club in
+such a manner that all these things which the ordinary book tells him
+about as being necessary to be done and to be considered seriatim,
+fall into their places as naturally as one foot comes after another in
+a walk. To do this we have, unquestionably, to go through an enormous
+amount of elimination of utterly false doctrine, and the quotation I
+have just given from _Advanced Golf_ is an excellent illustration of
+what a true teacher has to do in the way of beating down and clearing
+away harmful doctrine.
+
+Here we have published with the authority of a great player like James
+Braid, and in absolute opposition to the advice of an equally great
+player, Harry Vardon, a statement to the effect that the wrists come
+into the drive and influence the stroke for eighteen inches before and
+after impact. We are told that "at this moment the motion of the
+wrists is all-important, but it cannot be described." We need not
+wonder that the action of the wrists cannot be described, for at the
+moment referred to by James Braid, there is, as a matter of practical
+golf and undoubted fact, no wrist action whatever. If one had any
+doubt whatever about this, one would only have to look at Braid's
+photographs in _Advanced Golf_ showing how he plays for a pull and a
+slice respectively.
+
+In both of these strokes Braid uses identically similar photographs to
+show his stance and address. Personally, as I have already stated, I
+consider that he is, from a golfing point of view, utterly wrong in
+doing such a thing, for there can be no doubt that the positions are
+extremely different. Indeed, it would be quite ridiculous to suppose
+that they were not so, but taking these photographs as Braid's mental
+picture of what he does at the moment of impact, we see there clearly
+that the wrists are, at the moment of impact, in exactly the same
+position as they were at the moment of address.
+
+Taking this in conjunction with the fact that Braid says in the
+extract which I have just quoted "Where exactly the wrists begin to do
+their proper work I have never been able to determine exactly, for the
+work is almost instantaneously brief," we are quite justified in
+coming to the conclusion that Braid himself does not, in this critical
+portion of the swing, use any wrist work whatever.
+
+Now Braid says that he has never been able to determine exactly where
+the wrists begin to do their proper work, so I must explain for his
+benefit, and for the benefit of the great body of golfers, where the
+wrists really begin to do their work, and where they do the most
+important part of their work, and that is absolutely at the beginning
+of the downward stroke. It is here that the wrists have the greatest
+life and "snap" in them, for the weight of the club and the strain of
+the development of the initial velocity fall across the wrist-joints
+in that position which gives them their greatest resistance--that is,
+in the way in which the wrists bend least; but it must not be
+forgotten that although the wrist bends least sideways, still, the
+bend that the wrist is capable of in that direction provides a
+tremendous amount of strength. This is particularly evident in all
+games which are played with rackets.
+
+I must here give an illustration of the power that is obtained in this
+position. I have before referred to Mr. Horace Hutchinson's
+illustration of the proper position at the top of the drive which he
+gives in the Badminton volume on _Golf_. Here the player is shown with
+the right elbow pointing skywards, and the left, if anything, too much
+out the other way.
+
+An unfortunate golfer who had tried to put these principles into
+execution came into my office one day, and told me that he could get
+no length whatever in his drive. I handed him a club and said: "Let me
+see you swing?" At the top of his swing he got into this position
+which is now considered the classical illustration of how it should
+not be done, and after I had allowed him to swing several times from
+this position I said to him: "Now swing again, but stop at the top of
+your swing." He stopped at the top of his swing, and I then went and
+stood behind him almost in a line with his right shoulder and the hole
+and about a club's length from him, and I addressed him as follows:
+"Will you kindly forget for the moment that that thing which you have
+in your hands is a golf club, and will you also consider, ridiculous
+as it may seem, that for the nonce my head is a block of wood, and
+that you have in your hands now an axe instead of a golf club, with
+which you desire to split my head in two. Would you now, if you had to
+strike this block of wood, use your arms as you are doing?"
+
+"Why, no," came the answer instantly. "I should do this," and down
+dropped both elbows underneath the club. Then I said to this searcher
+after the truth:
+
+"I do not think I shall ever again have to tell you where to put your
+elbows," and he answered, apparently overwhelmed by my supernatural
+cleverness:
+
+"That is a wonderful illustration. I never thought of it like that
+before."
+
+I am giving this as an illustration of the vagueness with which people
+treat an utterly simple proposition such as this. This man was a
+chartered accountant, and really, in his way, a particularly clever
+fellow, but he was overwhelmed with admiration because I was able to
+show him that with his golfing club he was doing, or trying to do, a
+thing which no one but an idiot would have dreamed of trying to do
+with a hammer or an axe. This is the kind of thing for which we have
+to thank the people who write vague generalities about things which
+they do not understand.
+
+Let us analyse this most important pronouncement of Braid's a little
+further. He continues:
+
+     Neither can one say precisely how they work, except for the
+     suggestion that has already been made. It seems, however,
+     that they start when the club head is a matter of some
+     eighteen inches from the ball, and that for a distance of a
+     yard in the arc that it is describing they have it almost to
+     themselves and impart a whip-like snap to the movement, not
+     only giving a great extra force to the stroke, but, by
+     keeping the club head for a moment in the straight line of
+     the intended flight of the ball, doing much towards the
+     ensuring of the proper direction.
+
+The real truth of this matter is that there is no portion of the arc
+of the drive wherein the wrists exert less influence, or are _so
+completely out of business_ as they are in that portion of the drive
+wherein James Braid _says they are predominant_.
+
+The wrists have a tremendous amount to do with the development of the
+speed of the stroke, but particularly in the initial stage of the
+downward stroke. This will be most clearly seen by a study of George
+Duncan's wrist action at plate 64 of _Modern Golf_, wherein the wrists
+are shown turning over when the club has gone about half-way on its
+downward swing. Of course, they begin to turn over much sooner than
+this, but the truth is that the turn-over of the wrist or, more
+correctly speaking, the roll of the forearms in the downward swing is
+such a wonderfully gradual and natural process that it would be
+utterly impossible for anyone to say at what particular period in the
+downward swing it happens, and if anyone can say, or, rather, does
+say, at what particular period the wrists come in to the downward
+stroke, he is not only an ignorant golfer, but an enemy to golf, for
+it is a matter which cannot be described except to say that the wrist
+action begins absolutely with the beginning of the stroke, and is then
+a continuous and natural turn until the club gets very close to the
+ball, by which time there is practically nothing left for the wrists
+to do, as the club has reverted to the position in which it was at the
+moment of address, or perhaps I should say that it ought to have
+reverted to that position, as indeed, in so far as regards the club
+itself, is properly shown by James Braid in his photographs of stance
+and address and impact.
+
+We have now to deal with the space of eighteen inches in the
+follow-through, wherein James Braid asserts the wrists still have it
+all to themselves. This eighteen inches is in all properly executed
+straight drives, and by straight drives, I mean drives which are not
+intentionally pulled or sliced, taken up by a clean follow-through
+down the line of flight after the ball, and this follow-through is, of
+course, associated with the forward movement of the body on to the
+left leg which is so well and clearly shown in the instantaneous
+photographs of James Braid and Harry Vardon, but is, by Braid in
+_Advanced Golf_, stated to be inadvisable in his text, but clearly
+shown as advisable in his photographs.
+
+There can be no doubt whatever that any attempt to introduce into the
+drive for eighteen inches before and after impact, anything whatever
+in the nature of a "whip-like snap" would absolutely ruin the rhythm
+of the swing, for it is evident that the introduction of a "whip-like
+snap" into something which we have been told is "a sweep," would
+absolutely upset the general character of that "sweep." It is
+impossible to have a sweep, and in that sweep to sweep the ball away
+and at the same time to get the ball away by a "whip-like snap."
+Either we have the sweep or we have the whip-like snap, admitting for
+the sake of argument that either of these statements is correct, which
+is not the fact, as the ball is hit away and neither "swept" nor got
+away with a "whip-like snap," but the would-be learner is presented
+with this mass of confused thought, instead of having nothing whatever
+to think of with regard to hitting the ball more than he would have in
+his mind if he stood still in the road and tried to smite an acorn
+with his walking-stick.
+
+Let me make this matter perfectly plain. We will consider that the
+beginner has taken his stance and addressed his ball perfectly. Let
+him now take his club back from the ball in the manner which the
+text-books describe for an ordinary drive. Let him swing it thus back
+from the ball for a foot and let him swing it back against that ball
+and for a foot on the way to the hole. Let him do this once, twice,
+ten times, a hundred times, aye a thousand times, if so many be
+necessary for him to get absolutely and firmly settled in his mind the
+fact that this swing of one foot back and one foot forward is almost
+an exact replica of what happens every time he hits a good straight
+drive in actual play; that it is approximately a correct sample of the
+club action in that section of the swing back, downward swing, impact,
+and follow-through. This idea, and this idea only, is what the golfer
+must have in his mind, and when he has got this into his mind he will
+see clearly that the whole importance of using the wrists properly in
+golf is to get them to do their chief work in the early development of
+the power of the golf drive, but that by the time the ball is reached
+by the club head they have absolutely gone out of business and do not
+again come into operation until in the natural order of things they
+turn the club over, and pull it off the line of flight to the hole in
+the follow-through.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE X. HARRY VARDON
+
+    Finish of a drive, showing Vardon's perfect management of his
+    weight.]
+
+Braid is wonderfully hazy in this matter. He continues: "It seems to
+be a sort of flick, in some respects very much the same kind of action
+as when a man is boring a corkscrew into the cork of a bottle. He
+turns his right wrist back; for a moment it is under high tension and
+then he lets it loose with a short sudden snap." This really is very
+sad. We are repeatedly told that the golf stroke is a swing or a
+sweep, and that it must be of an even character from beginning to end,
+and yet we have James Braid in _Advanced Golf_ telling us that the
+impact in the drive "seems to be a sort of flick." Well, all I can say
+is that I wish any golfer who goes into the flicking business much joy
+and great improvement, but I have not much hope that he will get it
+until he finds out that flicking is no portion of the game of golf.
+
+Braid's idea of this most important portion of the drive is most
+remarkable. His haziness in connection with the matter extends even to
+his illustration. He says that this wrist action is "in some respects
+very much the same kind of action as when a man is boring a corkscrew
+into the cork of a bottle. He turns his wrist right back; for a moment
+it is under high tension and then he lets it loose with a short sudden
+snap."
+
+This is, mechanically, a marvellous statement. I do not profess to be
+a great authority on the subject of corkscrews, bottles--or their
+contents, but even in this respect I may confess to being a trifle
+more than theoretical, and I may say that I have inserted many a
+corkscrew into many a cork, but I have never yet used a corkscrew
+wherein I turned my wrist over as the right wrist turns over in the
+downward swing of the golf club. As a matter of fact, I never inserted
+a corkscrew into a cork where I did not turn my wrist from left to
+right. All the tension in putting a corkscrew into a cork is on the
+backward journey, or that which corresponds to the upward swing in
+golf. There is no tension whatever on the return, or that portion of
+the screwing process which corresponds to the downward swing in golf,
+whereas in golf the main portion of tension is in the downward swing;
+but I believe Braid is a teetotaller, so we may forgive him if in this
+respect his theory is unsound, and I think we can say that although he
+may be entirely theoretical in this, his theory is, in this instance,
+not more unsound than it is in regard to what he professes to describe
+as the wrist action in the golf drive.
+
+Braid says that "unless the wrists are in their proper place, as
+described, at the top of the swing, it is impossible to get them to do
+this work when the time comes. There is nowhere for them to spring
+back from." This is correct and absolutely sound; the wrists must,
+unquestionably, be in their right place at the top of the swing, the
+right place being, as I have already indicated, and as indeed
+practically every respectable book on golf, with the exception of the
+Badminton volume, shows, underneath the shaft of the club at the top
+of the swing, but it is quite wrong to speak of any such thing as
+there being no place "for them to spring back from."
+
+There must be no "spring." It is more a question of swinging than
+springing, although, as my readers know, I am opposed even to the idea
+of a swing in the golfing stroke. The stroke in golf is one of the
+finest hits in the whole realm of athletics, and I object entirely to
+it being called a swing or a sweep, or anything but that which it is
+legitimately entitled to be called.
+
+Braid says at page 62: "After impact and the release of all tension,
+body and arms are allowed to swing forward in the direction of the
+flight of the ball." This sentence gives us pause. We have seen,
+according to Braid, that for the space of a yard, that is for eighteen
+inches before and after impact in the drive, the wrists come into the
+swing and do something with a "whip-like snap"--something that is a
+sort of a "flick." We see that this "whip-like snap," and this "sort
+of a flick," are kept up for eighteen inches after impact, but we are
+told a little farther on that at the moment of impact "everything is
+let loose, and round comes the body immediately the ball is struck."
+
+How is it possible to imagine this kind of thing taking place within a
+swing of perfect rhythm? It is evident that Braid has a very rooted
+notion about this wrist movement. I must quote again from him, this
+time from _How to Play Golf_. On page 54 he says:
+
+     The initiative in bringing down the club is taken by the left
+     wrist, and the club is then brought forward rapidly and with
+     an even acceleration of pace until the club head is about a
+     couple of feet from the ball. So far the movement will
+     largely have been an arm movement, but at this point there
+     should be some tightening-up of the wrists, and the club will
+     be gripped a little more tightly. This will probably come
+     about naturally, and though some authorities have expressed
+     different opinions, I am certainly one of those who believe
+     that the work done by the wrists at this point has a lot to
+     do with the making of the drive.
+
+Personally, I believe that Braid is wrong in speaking about the
+initiative in bringing down the club being taken by the left wrist. I
+believe that the left wrist has no more to do with it than the right
+wrist, and I do not believe that one practical golfer in a hundred
+could tell which wrist he uses, and the chances are that if he could
+tell he would not be a very good golfer, for these are things with
+which a golfer has no right to cumber his mind. They are things which
+can quite well be left to Nature. It is an act of supreme folly for
+the ordinary man to think in the slightest degree of apportioning to
+either hand the share of its work in the drive. That absolutely must
+never be on his mind when beginning his stroke.
+
+Braid here emphasises his idea that the wrists come into the golf
+drive at about two feet from the ball. In _Advanced Golf_ he says
+eighteen inches. In this matter I must unhesitatingly be with Harry
+Vardon, and if I had not Harry Vardon's support,--if I stood against
+the authority of the world of golfers--I should still be just as
+positive as I am with the important corroboration which Vardon gives
+me, for there can be no doubt that as a matter of practical golf,
+there is no portion of the stroke in golf wherein the wrists are more
+quiescent than in the impact. I must not be misunderstood when I say
+this. It is obvious that the wrists at the moment of impact will be
+braced to receive the shock of the blow, but the speed of the blow has
+been developed long before impact, and the wrists have approximately
+resumed their normal position as at the moment of address.
+
+Although Harry Vardon is so positive in combating the notion of the
+wrists coming into the drive at the moment of impact, I find him at
+page 53 of _Great Golfers_ saying, when writing of the downward swing
+with the driver and brassy:
+
+     In commencing the downward swing I try to feel that both
+     hands and wrists are still working together. The wrists start
+     bringing the club down, and, at the same moment, the left
+     knee commences to resume its original position. The head
+     during this time has been kept quite still, the body alone
+     pivoting from the hips. When the left knee has turned, I find
+     I am standing firmly on both feet and the arms are in
+     position as in the upward swing, before the left knee started
+     to bend. From this point the speed of the wrists seems to
+     increase, and the impact is thus made with the club head
+     travelling at its highest velocity.
+
+I would here draw attention to the fact that Harry Vardon says: "The
+wrists start bringing the club down." This, I consider, is very
+important. I have already referred to Braid's statement about the left
+wrist taking the initiative. It is of very great importance for the
+golfer or would-be golfer to know that the left wrist has not any
+right whatever to claim precedence of the right wrist at this critical
+moment in the development of the power in the drive.
+
+The other point in this extract to which I desire to draw attention is
+that Vardon says, speaking of a point in the swing which he describes,
+and which is practically the same spot wherein Braid says the wrists
+exert their influence, that is to say, two feet from the ball: "From
+this point the speed of the wrists seems to increase, and the impact
+is thus made with the club travelling at its highest velocity." It is
+quite possible--in fact, it is nearly certain that the speed of the
+wrists will increase from that point, and that the impact will be made
+with the club travelling at its highest velocity, but in describing it
+in this manner Vardon is very nearly guilty of falling into the same
+error as James Braid has; for this reason, that he is directing the
+mind to the speed of the wrists at a critical portion of the stroke,
+whereas there is only one point whose speed has to be considered, and
+that is the point that does the business, which is the centre, if one
+may call it so, of the face of the golf club, and it stands to reason
+that if this is coming down at an ever-increasing speed, what Vardon
+says of this point would be as true of any other point in the downward
+swing, but it is bad golf to direct the attention of the student or
+the golfer to the speed of his connecting link instead of to the
+business end of the club, at any period during his swing. The golfer's
+mind must be centred on his ball and his club head.
+
+Taylor, so far as I remember, does not fall into this very grave
+error, but he, in common with most of the great professionals, is
+under the impression that the wrists are largely used at the moment of
+impact to influence the stroke. This is one of the gravest errors in
+golf. Speaking of lofting a stymie Taylor says: "Then, exactly as the
+club strikes the ball, the wrists must be turned in an upward
+direction smartly. The result of this is that the ball is lofted over
+the other, and if hit properly it will run on and go out of sight as
+intended." It is a very curious thing that nearly every author or
+great golfer thinks that in lofting a stymie the best way is to turn
+the wrists upwards, whereas in fact, and in practical golf, absolutely
+the best and most certain way of lofting a stymie is to turn neither
+the wrists, nor, as naturally follows, the face of the club, upwards,
+at the moment of impact. That must always tend, in a stroke of very
+great delicacy, which is a natural characteristic of many stymies, to
+put too much power into propulsion instead of elevation. The best
+stymie stroke which can be played, is played without lifting the
+mashie or the niblick by so much as a fraction of an inch after the
+ball has been hit. I have illustrated this stroke very fully, both by
+diagram and photograph in _Modern Golf_, and it is unquestionably
+superior in every way to the ordinary method of playing a stymie.
+
+Let us now glance at the Badminton _Golf_ and see what Mr. Horace
+Hutchinson has to say with regard to this wrist action. At page 90 we
+read:
+
+     Now as the club comes near the ball, the wrists, which were
+     turned upward when the club was raised, will need to be
+     brought back, down again. It is a perfectly natural movement,
+     but where many beginners go wrong with it is that they are
+     too apt to make this wrist-turn too soon in the swing, and
+     thereby lose its force altogether. The wrists should be
+     turned again, just as the club is meeting the ball--otherwise
+     the stroke, to all seeming perhaps a fairly hit one, will
+     have very little power.
+
+It is quite evident that Mr. Hutchinson is an adherent of the
+"whip-like snap" and the "flick" theory at the moment of impact, for
+he tells us that the wrists must be turned again just as the club is
+meeting the ball.
+
+I need not deal fully with this statement, for I have already
+sufficiently analysed the same idea which is held by James Braid. The
+only difference is that Mr. Horace Hutchinson's is very much worse
+than Braid's, in that he thinks the turn-over of the wrists should be
+executed at the moment of impact, which of course would import into
+the golf stroke a very much greater risk of error than already does
+exist in it, and it is unnecessary for me to assure golfers that there
+is already quite sufficient chance of error without our endeavouring
+to add to it in any way whatever. But I should like to pause to raise
+one question.
+
+Mr. Hutchinson, like nearly every other writer on golf, is a disciple
+of one of the most pronounced fallacies in the game, viz.: "As you go
+up, so you come down," naturally, of course, all things being
+reversed. Let us then consider this point. We are informed by Mr.
+Horace Hutchinson that the wrists should be turned again just as the
+club is meeting the ball. Following our hoary fallacy of "As you go
+up, so you come down" I presume from this that immediately the club
+leaves the ball, the wrists begin to turn backwards. This would indeed
+give us a peculiar start for our drive.
+
+From an anatomical point of view I think there is very little doubt
+whatever that the wrists have finished their distinctive function much
+earlier in the production of the golf stroke than is generally thought
+to be the case, and what is commonly miscalled wrist action is, in
+effect, merely the natural roll of the forearm, as it is, I believe,
+called, at any rate in the case of the left arm, its supination. There
+can be no doubt that in the majority of cases where writers refer to
+wrist action, they are confusing the natural turn of the forearms with
+wrist action.
+
+Before closing this chapter I may perhaps be excused if I refer again
+to that remarkable volume _The Mystery of Golf_. At page 167 we are
+told:
+
+     At the bottom of the swing, therefore, the club head is, or
+     should be, moving in a straight line. Probably it is when the
+     greatest acceleration in the velocity of the club, and the
+     strongest wrist action in the swing of the arms occur in this
+     straight portion of the stroke, that the follow-through is
+     most efficacious.
+
+For one who essays to explain the mystery of golf, this is a very
+marvellous statement. Probably at no portion whatever of the golf
+stroke is the club head proceeding in a straight line. It may be taken
+for an absolutely settled fact that it is always proceeding in an arc.
+Also it is quite clear that the author is making the sad mistake,
+which has been made by so many other people, of thinking that the
+wrist action is most in evidence immediately before and after the
+period of impact. Most of the leading golfers fall into the error of
+stating that cut is obtained by something which is done by the wrists
+at the moment of impact, but this is unquestionably an error. I have
+dealt with that already in other places so fully that I think that it
+will not be necessary for me to do more here than to state that in all
+good shots the cut is decided upon practically the moment the club
+begins its downward journey, for the amount of cut which is
+administered to any ball depends entirely upon the speed, and the
+angle at which the club head passes across the intended line of flight
+of the ball, provided always, of course, that the club is properly
+applied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE FLIGHT OF THE GOLF BALL
+
+
+The flight of the ball, and particularly of the golf ball, exercises a
+strange fascination for many people to whom the phenomena of flight
+exhibited by a spinning ball travelling through the air, are not of
+the slightest practical importance. That is to say, there is an
+immense number of people who take merely a scientific, and one might
+almost say an artistic interest in the effects produced by the
+combined influence of spin and propulsion. Scientific men have been
+for many years well aware of the causes which produce the swerve of a
+ball in the air. By swerve I mean, of course, a curve in the flight of
+the ball which is due to other causes than gravitation, and in the
+word swerve I do not include the drift of a ball which has been
+perfectly cleanly hit, but which, in the course of its carry, has been
+influenced by a cross wind. This does not legitimately come under the
+heading of swerve. It is more correctly described as drift, and will
+be dealt with in due course.
+
+In the _Badminton Magazine_ of March 1896, the late Professor Tait
+published an article on "Long Driving." Professor Tait was a practical
+golfer and a very learned and scientific man. He proved most clearly
+that a golf ball could not be driven beyond a certain distance. He
+proved this absolutely and conclusively by mathematics, but, so the
+story runs, his son, the famous Freddie Tait, proved next day with his
+driver, that his father's calculations were entirely wrong, for he is
+alleged to have driven a golf ball over thirty yards farther than the
+limit which his learned parent had shown to be obtainable. Naturally,
+Professor Tait had to reconsider his statements, and he then arrived
+at the conclusion that there must have been in the drive of his son,
+which had upset his calculations, some force which he had not taken
+into consideration. He soon came to the conclusion that this was
+back-spin, and he dealt with this matter of back-spin, which is a
+matter of extreme importance to golf, in a most erudite article, which
+is much too advanced for the ordinary golfer, so I shall content
+myself here with referring to just a few of the most important points
+in connection with it. It is necessary that I should, in dealing with
+the flight of the ball, give those of my readers who are not already
+acquainted with the simple principles of swerve, some idea of what it
+is which causes the spinning ball to leave the line of flight that it
+would have taken if it had been driven practically without spin.
+
+The explanation is very simple. If a ball is proceeding through the
+air, and spinning, the side which is spinning _towards the hole_ gets
+more friction than the other side which is spinning _away from the
+hole_. It is well known that a projectile seeks the line of least
+resistance in its passage through the air. It follows that the greater
+friction on the _forward spinning_ half causes the ball to edge over
+towards the side which is spinning away from the hole. This, in a very
+few words, is the whole secret of swerve.
+
+Professor Tait stated in his article that Newton was well aware of
+this fact some 230 years before the publication of the professor's
+article, and that he remarked when speaking of a spinning tennis ball
+with a circular as well as a progressive motion communicated to it by
+the stroke, "that the parts on that side where the motions conspire
+must press and beat the contiguous air more violently, and there
+excite a reluctancy and reaction of the air proportionately greater."
+
+This really is an extremely simple matter and a very simple
+explanation. I have taken care to explain it so simply, for swerve is,
+by a very great number of people, looked upon as an abstruse
+problem--in fact, my book on _Swerve, or the Flight of the Ball_, is
+catalogued as a treatise on applied mathematics, instead of, as I
+intended it to be, simply a practical application of the ascertained
+facts to the behaviour of the ball in the air.
+
+Professor Tait's article has enjoyed a wonderful vogue. Although it
+was published nearly twenty years ago it is quite frequently quoted at
+the present time. There are, however, in it some errors which one
+would not have expected to have found in such a scientific article.
+Speaking of the golf ball shortly after it has left the club,
+Professor Tait said:
+
+     It has a definite speed, in a definite direction, and it
+     _may_ have also a definite amount of rotation about some
+     definite axis. The existence of rotation is manifested at
+     once by the strange effects it produces on the curvature of
+     the path so that the ball may skew to right or left; soar
+     upwards as if in defiance of gravity, or plunge headlong
+     downwards instead of slowly and reluctantly yielding to that
+     steady and persistent pull.
+
+There is, in this statement of Professor Tait's, a fundamental error
+in so far as regards the flight of the ball. He said: "The existence
+of rotation is manifested at once by the strange effects it produces
+on the curvature of the path." This is incorrect from a scientific
+point of view, and it is also badly stated. The existence of rotation
+is not manifested "at once"; in very many cases, practically in all,
+the ball proceeds for quite a long distance before the effect of
+rotation is seen. This is more particularly so when it is a matter of
+back-spin, but it is equally true of the pulled ball or the sliced
+ball. Both of these proceed for a considerable distance before the
+effect of spin is noticeable. In fact it is well known to all golfers
+that the spin begins to get to work as the velocity of the ball
+decreases. Also it seems as though it is incorrect to refer to the
+strange effects it (rotation) produces on the curvature of the path,
+for it is the rotation itself which produces the curvature.
+
+Professor Tait then said:
+
+     The most cursory observation shows that a ball is hardly ever
+     sent on its course without some spin, so that we may take the
+     fact for granted, even if we cannot fully explain the mode of
+     its production. And the main object of this article is to
+     show that long carry essentially involves under-spin.
+
+I shall deal with these two statements later on.
+
+Professor Tait said:
+
+     To find that his magnificent carry was due merely to what is
+     virtually a toeing operation--performed no doubt in a
+     vertical and not in a horizontal plane, is too much for the
+     self-exalting golfer!
+
+     The fact, however, is indisputable. When we fasten one end of
+     a long untwisted tape to the ball and the other to the ground
+     and then induce a good player to drive the ball
+     (perpendicularly to the tape) into a stiff clay face a yard
+     or two off, we find that the tape is _always_ twisted in such
+     a way as to show under-spin; no doubt to different amounts by
+     different players, but proving that the ball makes usually
+     from about one to three turns in six feet, say from forty to
+     a hundred and twenty turns per second, this is clearly a
+     circumstance not to be overlooked.
+
+It is wonderful how easily a scientific man, as Professor Tait was,
+can be led astray when he sets out to find the thing he has imagined.
+Professor Tait, by a footnote to his article in the _Badminton
+Magazine_, to my mind entirely discounts the value of his experiments.
+His footnote is so important that I must quote it fully. He says:
+
+     In my laboratory experiments, players could not be expected
+     to do _full_ justice to their powers. They had to strike as
+     nearly as possible in the centre, a ten-inch disc of clay,
+     the ball being teed about six feet in front of it. Besides
+     this pre-occupation, there was always more or less concern
+     about the possible consequence of rebound, should the small
+     target be altogether missed.
+
+It will be apparent even to anyone who is not possessed of a
+scientific or analytical mind that Professor Tait _compelled_ his
+players to endeavour to play their strokes in such a manner that the
+ball had to travel down a line decided on by Professor Tait. I do not
+know at what height Professor Tait placed his clay disc from the
+earth, but it is evident that if he put it very low down it would
+involve the playing by the golfer of a stroke which would naturally
+produce back-spin, and in any case the trajectory was arbitrarily
+fixed. In experimenting with such a stroke as this, and in such a
+manner as this, it should be evident that there should have been no
+restriction whatever as to the player's trajectory. If it was decided
+that it was necessary to catch the ball in a clay disc, that disc
+should have been so large that it was impossible for the golfer's ball
+to escape it. It should not have been necessary for the golfer _to
+aim_ at the disc. The mere fact of his aiming at the disc and the
+ball being teed so near as six feet to the disc, all tended to produce
+the shot which would give the results which Professor Tait was looking
+for, but that does not prove that the ordinary stroke at golf is
+produced in a similar manner, and I do not for one moment believe that
+it is.
+
+In speaking of _the stroke proper_ Professor Tait said:
+
+     The club and the ball practically share this scene between
+     them; but the player's right hand, and the resistance of the
+     air, take _some_ little part in it. It is a very brief one,
+     lasting for an instant only, in the sense of something like
+     one ten-thousandth of a second.
+
+We may note here that Professor Tait said: "_The right hand and the
+resistance of the air_ take _some_ little part in it." One would be
+inclined to think from this that Professor Tait was, as indeed was
+probably the case, an adherent of the fetich of the left, for there
+can be no doubt that in "the stroke proper" the right hand does much
+more than take "_some_" little part in it.
+
+I think that Professor Tait is wrong in his idea that under-spin, or,
+as I prefer to call it, back-spin, is essential to a long carry. I
+firmly believe that a ball which is hit with practically no spin
+whatever, can have a very long carry. However, as the paper which I am
+now about to consider follows in many ways very closely on the lines
+of Professor Tait's article, I shall leave this matter for
+consideration when I am dealing with that paper.
+
+The paper which I am now referring to is one which was read at the
+weekly evening meeting of the Royal Institution of Great Britain on
+Friday, 18th March 1910, by Professor Sir J. J. Thomson, M.A., LL.D.,
+D.S.C., F.R.S., M.R.I., O.M.; Cavendish Professor of Experimental
+Physics, Cambridge; Professor of Physics, Royal Institution, London;
+Professor of Natural Philosophy, Royal Institution, and winner of the
+Nobel Prize for Physics, 1906. The title of this paper was "The
+Dynamics of a Golf Ball." It will be observed that neither the
+Institution under the auspices of which this lecture was delivered,
+nor the lecturer, is inconsiderable. Professor Thomson is, without
+doubt, a very distinguished physicist, and we must therefore receive
+anything he writes with a certain amount of respect. There are,
+however, in this paper, so many remarkable statements that it is
+necessary for me to deal with it quite fully.
+
+Professor Thomson tells us very early in the lecture that Newton was
+well aware of the cause of swerve which I have already set out, some
+250 years ago, and that he remarked that in a spinning tennis ball the
+"parts on that side where the motions conspire, must press and beat
+the contiguous air more violently, and there excite a reluctancy and
+reaction of the air proportionately greater."
+
+Professor Thomson says at the beginning of his lecture:
+
+     There are so many dynamical problems connected with golf that
+     a discussion of the whole of them would occupy far more time
+     than is at my disposal this evening. I shall not attempt to
+     deal with the many important questions which arise when we
+     consider the impact of the club with the ball, but shall
+     confine myself to the consideration of the flight of the ball
+     after it has left the club.
+
+I may say here that Professor Thomson, although he announces his
+intention of doing this, is later on in his paper, as we shall see,
+tempted into considering the questions of impact, and, in my opinion,
+making several grave errors therein. We may, however, in the meantime,
+pass this by.
+
+Professor Thomson continues:
+
+     This problem is in any case a very interesting one, which
+     would be even more interesting if we could accept the
+     explanations of the behaviour of the ball given by some
+     contributors to the very voluminous literature which has
+     collected around the game. If this were correct, I should
+     have to bring before you this evening a new dynamics and
+     announce that matter when made up into golf balls obeys laws
+     of an entirely different character from those governing its
+     action when in any other condition.
+
+This, at the outset, is an extremely remarkable statement to come from
+so eminent a physicist, for I may say that Professor Thomson, after
+making a remark of this nature, proceeds to explain the phenomena of
+swerve on exactly the same links which I have set out fully and
+explicitly in my book _Swerve, or the Flight of the Ball_. That,
+however, is a matter of small importance. It may be that Professor
+Thomson has not had the opportunity of perusing this book. It may
+indeed be that Professor Thomson has been unfortunate enough only to
+have read articles wherein an erroneous explanation of the well-known
+phenomena of the flight of the ball is given. Be that as it may, there
+can be no doubt that the explanation which has been given of the
+causes of swerve has been adequate and accurate, and there would not
+have been any necessity whatever for Professor Thomson to bring before
+the learned Institution whose fellows listened to his address "a new
+dynamics." It would have been sufficient if he had correctly explained
+the phenomena of the flight and run of a golf ball according to the
+well-recognised laws which govern the flight and run of all balls.
+This, however, he quite failed to do.
+
+Professor Thomson says: "If we could send off the ball from the club
+as we might from a catapult, without spin, its behaviour would be
+regular, but uninteresting." It is quite possible to send a golf ball
+off a club without spin. It is just as possible, from a practical
+point of view, to send a golf ball away without spin from the face of
+a driver as it is from the pouch of a catapult. The catapult is a
+machine, and it is a certainty that it can be made to propel a golf
+ball without any initial spin whatever. A machine can be made to drive
+a golf ball with just as little spin, and as a matter of practical
+golf, by far the greater number of golf balls are driven without
+appreciable spin--that is to say, without spin which has any definite
+action on the flight of the ball.
+
+The learned lecturer says: "A golf ball when it leaves a club is only
+in rare cases devoid of spin." It is impossible to prove or disprove
+this statement, for practically no ball goes through the air with the
+same point always in front. We may see this quite clearly if we care
+to mark a lawn-tennis ball, and to hit it perfectly truly, and slowly,
+so that it goes almost as a lob across the net. We shall see even then
+that the marked part of the ball moves from one place to another. In
+fact, even if a golf ball were driven by a machine which did not
+impart to it any initial spin, it is almost a certainty that that ball
+would not have proceeded far before it had acquired sufficient motion
+to justify one in technically calling it spin. Spin, however, is a
+delightfully indefinite word, but this much one may at least say, and
+it is, in effect, a contradiction of Sir J. J. Thomson's assertion,
+namely that in the vast majority of balls hit with golf clubs,
+especially by skilled players, the effect of spin on the stroke
+_unless designedly applied_, which is comparatively rare, is
+practically negligible.
+
+Professor Thomson says that
+
+     ... a golf ball, when it leaves the club, is only in rare
+     cases devoid of spin, and it is spin which gives the
+     interest, variety, and vivacity to the flight of the ball;
+     it is spin which accounts for the behaviour of a sliced or
+     pulled ball; it is spin which makes the ball soar or "douk,"
+     or execute those wild flourishes which give the impression
+     that the ball is endowed with an artistic temperament and
+     performs these eccentricities, as an acrobat might throw in
+     an extra somersault or two for the fun of the thing. This
+     view, however, gives an entirely wrong impression of the
+     temperament of a golf ball, which is, in reality, the most
+     prosaic of things, knowing while in the air only one rule of
+     conduct which it obeys with an intelligent conscientiousness,
+     that of always following its nose. This rule is the key to
+     the behaviour of all balls when in the air, whether they are
+     golf balls, base-balls, cricket balls, or tennis balls.
+
+The idea of a spherical object having a nose is so unscientific and so
+inexact that it is not necessary for me to dwell very strongly on it
+here, and I should not do so were it not that this looseness of
+description is of considerable importance in dealing with Professor
+Thomson's ideas. He continues:
+
+     Let us, before entering into the reasons for this rule, trace
+     out some of its consequences. By the nose on the ball we mean
+     the point on the ball furthest in front.
+
+It will be obvious to my readers that this description is
+scientifically extremely inaccurate, for if we take a line through the
+ball from the point of contact with the club to the point on the ball
+farthest in front, which Professor Thomson calls its nose, we shall
+find that the flight of that ball will always be in that same line
+produced, whereas in the spinning ball it is nothing of the sort. The
+whole trouble here is that Professor Thomson wants to have the "nose,"
+as he calls it, of the ball, both a fixed and a moving point. This,
+obviously, is most unscientific. If the nose of the ball is the point
+that is farthest in front, I cannot say too emphatically that it
+stands to reason that the ball in flight will go straight out after
+that point, but the fact is that the point in front is continually
+changing; moreover, the fact that the ball goes the way it is spinning
+is not explained by any tendency of the ball to wander that way on
+account of the spin irrespective of the friction of the air.
+
+It will thus be seen that Professor Thomson's explanation in this
+matter is incorrect and misleading. This is about the most
+unscientific explanation which could be given of this matter, and it
+is one which is calculated to mislead people who would otherwise
+understand the matter quite clearly, so we shall drop Professor
+Thomson's idea of giving the ball a "nose" which is always in the
+front of it, but which is also supposed to be continually travelling
+sideways. It is obvious that Professor Thomson cannot have it both
+ways.
+
+It is very clear indeed that Professor Thomson is not well acquainted
+with the method of applying spin to balls which are used in playing
+games. He says:
+
+     A lawn-tennis player avails himself of the effect of spin
+     when he puts "top-spin" on his drives, _i.e._ hits the ball
+     on the top so as to make it spin about a horizontal axis, the
+     nose of the ball travelling downwards as in figure 4; this
+     makes the ball fall more quickly than it otherwise would, and
+     thus tends to prevent it going out of the court.
+
+I have played lawn-tennis for more than twenty years, and I am the
+author of three books on the game, one of which is supposed to be the
+standard work on the subject, and I can assure Professor Thomson that
+no lawn-tennis player would dream of doing anything so silly as to hit
+a lawn-tennis ball "on the top" in an attempt to obtain "top-spin."
+
+The scientific method of obtaining top-spin is to hit the lawn-tennis
+ball on what Professor Thomson, if he were driving the ball over the
+net to me, would call its nose--that is to say, I should hit the ball
+on the spot which was farthest from Professor Thomson. I should hit it
+there with a racket whose face was practically vertical, but I should
+hit it an upward, forwardly glancing blow which would impart, as
+Professor Thomson expresses it, "spin about a horizontal axis to the
+ball."
+
+Professor Thomson goes so far as to show by diagram the travel of a
+ball which has been hit so as to impart top-spin to it, but even in
+this diagram he is absolutely wrong, for he shows that immediately the
+ball has been hit with top-spin it begins to fall, but this is not so.
+In lawn-tennis the ball travels for a long distance before the spin
+begins to assert itself, and to overcome the force of the blow which
+set up the spin.
+
+Professor Tait makes this same error in his article on "Long Driving,"
+and it is quite evident to me that Professor Thomson is following, in
+many respects, the errors of his eminent predecessor.
+
+Professor Thomson also says:
+
+     Excellent examples of the effect of spin on the flight of a
+     ball in the air are afforded in the game of base-ball. An
+     expert pitcher, by putting on the proper spin, can make the
+     ball curve either to the right or the left, upwards or
+     downwards; for the side-way curves the spin must be about a
+     vertical axis; for the upward or downward ones, about a
+     horizontal axis.
+
+There are no particular laws with regard to the curves of a base-ball.
+The same laws regulate the curves in the air of every ball from a
+ping-pong ball to a cricket ball, and Professor Thomson, in saying
+that "for the side-way curves the spin must be about a vertical axis,"
+is absolutely wrong. Every lawn-tennis player who knows anything
+whatever about the American service, will know that Professor Thomson
+is utterly wrong in this respect, for the whole essence of the swerve
+and break of the American service, which has a large amount of
+side-swerve, is that the axis of rotation shall be approximately at an
+angle of fifty degrees, and any expert base-ball pitcher will know
+quite well that he can get his side-curve much better if he will,
+instead of keeping his axis of rotation perfectly vertical, tilt it a
+little so that it will have the assistance of gravitation at the end
+of its flight instead of fighting gravitation, as it must do if he
+trusts entirely to horizontal spin about a vertical axis for his
+swerve.
+
+Professor Thomson says:
+
+     If the ball were spinning about an axis along the line of
+     flight, the axis of spin would pass through the nose of the
+     ball, and the spin would not affect the motion of the nose;
+     the ball, following its nose, would thus move on without
+     deviation.
+
+The spin which Professor Thomson is describing here is that which a
+rifle bullet has during its flight, for it is obvious that the rifle
+bullet is spinning "about an axis along the line of flight," and that
+the axis of spin does pass through the nose of the bullet, but we know
+quite well that in the flight of a rifle bullet there is a very
+considerable amount of what is called drift. It is, of course, an
+impossibility to impart to a golf ball during the drive any such spin
+as that of the rifle bullet, although in cut mashie strokes, and in
+cutting round a stymie, we do produce a spin which is, in effect, the
+same spin, but this is the question which Professor Thomson should set
+himself to answer. He states distinctly that a ball with this spin
+would not swerve. If this is so, can Professor Thomson explain to
+us why the rifle bullet drifts? As a matter of fact, a ball with this
+spin _would_ swerve, but not to anything like the same extent as would
+a ball with one of the well-recognised spins which are used for the
+purpose of obtaining swerve.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE XI. JAMES BRAID
+
+    Finish of drive, showing clearly how Braid's weight goes on to
+    the left leg.]
+
+Professor Thomson proceeded to prove by the most elaborate experiments
+the truth of those matters stated by Newton centuries ago, but it will
+not be necessary for me to follow him in these, because these
+principles have been recognised for ages past.
+
+It is curious to note that in the reference to Newton, who was aware
+of this principle of swerve so long ago, we are shown that Newton
+himself did not quite grasp the method of production of the stroke,
+although he analysed the result in a perfectly sound manner. Writing
+to Oldenburg in 1671 about the Dispersion of Light, he said in the
+course of his letter: "I remembered that I had often seen a tennis
+ball struck with an oblique racket describe such a curved line." The
+effect of striking a tennis ball with an oblique racket is, generally
+speaking, to push it away to one side. The curve, to be of a
+sufficiently pronounced nature to be visible, must be produced by the
+passage of the racket across the intended line of flight of the ball.
+
+This matter of the different pressure on one side of the ball from
+that on the other is very simple when one thoroughly grasps it.
+Professor Thomson gives in his paper an illustration which may perhaps
+make the matter clearer to some people than the explanation which is
+generally given. He says:
+
+     It may perhaps make the explanation of this difference of
+     pressure easier if we take a somewhat commonplace example of
+     a similar fact. Instead of a golf ball let us consider the
+     case of an Atlantic liner, and, to imitate the rotation of
+     the ball, let us suppose that the passengers are taking their
+     morning walk on the promenade deck, all circulating round the
+     same way. When they are on one side of the boat they have to
+     face the wind, on the other side they have the wind at their
+     backs. Now, when they face the wind, the pressure of the wind
+     against them is greater than if they were at rest, and this
+     increased pressure is exerted in all directions and so acts
+     against the part of the ship adjacent to the deck; when they
+     are moving with their backs to the wind, the pressure against
+     their backs is not so great as when they were still, so the
+     pressure acting against this side of the ship will not be so
+     great. Thus the rotation of the passengers will increase the
+     pressure on the side of the ship when they are facing the
+     wind, and diminish it on the other side. This case is quite
+     analogous to that of the golf ball.
+
+Even in this simple illustration it seems to me that Professor Thomson
+is wrong, for he is pre-supposing that which he does not state--a head
+wind. It is quite obvious that these passengers might have to face a
+wind coming from the stern of the ship, and in this case the analogy
+between the passengers circulating round the deck of a ship, and his
+golf ball would receive a serious blow. In stating a matter which is
+of sufficient importance to be dealt with before such a learned body
+as the Royal Institution of Great Britain, it is well to be accurate.
+If Professor Thomson had stated that his Atlantic liner was going into
+a head wind, or, for the matter of that, even proceeding in a dead
+calm, his analogy might have been correct, but it is obvious that he
+has left out of consideration a following wind of greater speed than
+that at which the liner is travelling.
+
+Professor Thomson has not added anything to the information which we
+already possessed with regard to the effect of back-spin on a ball;
+rather has he, as I shall show when dealing with the question of
+impact with the ball, clouded the issue. At page 12 of his remarkable
+lecture he says: "So far I have been considering under-spin. Let us
+now illustrate slicing and pulling; in these cases the ball is
+spinning about a vertical axis." We here have a very definite
+statement that in slicing and pulling the ball is spinning about a
+vertical axis, but it is not doing so.
+
+Professor Thomson has "an electromagnet and a red hot piece of
+platinum with a spot of barium oxide upon it. The platinum is
+connected with an electric battery which causes negatively electrified
+particles to fly off the barium and travel down the glass tube in
+which the platinum strip is contained; nearly all the air has been
+exhausted from this tube. These particles are luminous, so that the
+path they take is very easily observed."
+
+These particles, I may explain, take, in Professor Thomson's mind, the
+place of golf balls, and by an electromagnet he shows us exactly what
+golf balls do, but it seems to me that if Professor Thomson is not
+absolutely clear what is happening to the sliced ball and the pulled
+ball, there is a very great chance that, like Professor Tait, he may
+induce his particles to do the thing that he wishes them to do, and
+not the thing that a real golf ball with a real pull or a real slice
+would do. This, as a matter of fact, is exactly what Professor Thomson
+does, for, as I shall show quite simply and in such a manner as
+absolutely to convince the merest tyro at golf, Professor Thomson is
+utterly wrong when he states that in the slice and the pull the ball
+is spinning about a vertical axis.
+
+I shall not need any diagrams or figures to bring this home to anyone
+who is possessed of the most rudimentary knowledge of mechanics. It
+should be quite evident to anyone that to produce spin about a
+vertical axis it would be necessary to have a club with a vertical
+face, or to strike a blow with the face of the club so held that at
+the moment of impact the face of the club was vertical. Now this does
+not happen with the slice at golf, for the very good reason that if
+one so applied one's club, the ball would not rise from the earth. The
+club which produces the slice is always lofted in a greater or less
+degree, and quite often the natural loft is increased by the player
+designedly laying the face back during the stroke. It is evident that
+in the impact with the driver or brassy, the ball, especially the
+modern rubber-cored ball, flattens on to the face of the club and
+remains there whilst the club is travelling across the line of flight.
+This naturally imparts to the ball a roll--in other words, as the club
+cuts across the ball it rolls it for a short distance on its face.
+
+It is obvious that this rolling process will, to a greater or less
+extent, give to the ball a spin about an axis which is approximately
+the same as that of the loft on the face of the club. Therefore, it is
+clear that in all sliced balls the axis of spin will be inclined
+backward. It seems likely, also, that as the axis of spin is inclined
+backward and the ball is rising, there will be some additional
+friction at the bottom of it which would not be there in the case of a
+ball without spin. This probably helps to produce the sudden rise of
+the slice. In all good cut shots with lofted clubs, the angle of the
+axis of spin is to a very great extent regulated by the amount of loft
+on the face of the club.
+
+Professor Thomson's error with regard to the slice being about a
+vertical axis is beyond question, but his error in saying that the
+axis of rotation of the pull and the slice is identical, is, from a
+golfing point of view, simply irretrievable. Print is a very awkward
+thing--_it stays_. The merest tyro at golf knows quite well that the
+pulled ball and the sliced ball behave during flight and after landing
+on the ground in a totally different manner from each other. If
+Professor Thomson knows so much, it should unquestionably be evident
+to so distinguished a scientist that there must be a very considerable
+difference in the rotation of these balls. The slice, as is well
+known, rises quickly from the ground, flies high, and is not,
+generally speaking, a good runner. The pull, on the other hand, flies
+low and runs well on landing.
+
+It is not merely sufficient to contradict Professor Sir J. J. Thomson
+in these matters, so I shall explain fully the reason for the
+difference in the flight and run of the slice and the pull. The slice
+is played as the club head is returning across the line of flight, and
+therefore is more in the nature of a chop than is the pull. Frequently
+the spin that is imparted to the ball is the resultant of the downward
+and inwardly glancing blow. This not only leaves the axis of rotation
+inclined backward, but sometimes inclined also slightly away from the
+player, but it is obvious that even if the ball had, as Professor
+Thomson thinks it has, rotation about a vertical axis, which is the
+rotation of a top, such rotation would, on landing, tend to prevent
+the ball running, for, as is well known, every spinning thing strives
+hard to remain in the plane of its rotation, but the slice is more
+obstinate still than this, for the axis of rotation being inclined
+backward, frequently at the end of the flight, coincides with the line
+of flight of the ball, so that the ball is spinning about an axis
+which, to adopt Professor Thomson's term, runs through its "nose."
+This means that the slice frequently pitches in the same manner as
+might a rifle bullet if falling on its "nose," and the effect is, to
+a very great extent, the same. The ball tries to stay where it lands.
+
+Let us now consider the flight and run of the pull. The pull is played
+by an upward, outward, glancing blow. The ball is hit by the club as
+it is going across the line of flight away from the player and this
+imparts to the ball a spin around an axis which lies inward towards
+the player. This means that the pull goes away to the right, and then
+swerves back again towards the middle of the course if properly
+played, and upon landing runs very freely. The reason for this run has
+not been clearly understood by many, and it is quite evident that
+Professor Thomson does not know of it, so I shall give an extremely
+plain illustration.
+
+Nearly every boy has at some time played with a chameleon top, or some
+other top of the same species, that is to say, a disc top. Every boy
+who has played with such a top will be familiar with the fact that
+when the spin is dying away from the top, it rolls about until one
+edge of it touches the earth or whatever it is spinning on.
+Immediately this happens the top runs away as carried by the spin.
+
+That is about the simplest illustration which it is possible to give
+of the plane of spin of the pulled ball during its flight and of its
+run after it has touched the earth, but from this very simple
+explanation it will be perfectly obvious to anyone who gives the
+matter the least consideration that not only is the axis of rotation
+of the pull and the slice dissimilar, but as a matter of fact the
+rotation of the pull and the slice is almost diametrically opposed the
+one to the other.
+
+Professor Thomson says:
+
+     Let us now consider the effect of a cross wind. Suppose the
+     wind is blowing from left to right, then, if the ball is
+     pulled, it will be rotating in the direction shown in figure
+     26 (from right to left); the rules we found for the effect of
+     rotation on the difference of pressure on the two sides of a
+     ball in a blast of air show that in this case the pressure on
+     the front half of the ball will be greater than that on the
+     rear half, and thus tend to stop the flight of the ball. If,
+     however, the spin was that for a slice, the pressure on the
+     rear half would be greater than the pressure in front, so
+     that the difference in pressure would tend to push on the
+     ball and make it travel further than it otherwise would.
+
+I have not given this aspect of the question a great amount of
+thought, but it seems obvious that in playing for a slice in the
+circumstances mentioned by Professor Thomson, it is extremely unlikely
+that the greater pressure would be, as he says, on the rear half. If,
+indeed, this were so the slice would, in my opinion, not take effect;
+also on account of the tremendous speed of the golf ball it seems to
+me utterly improbable that in any ordinary wind which one encounters
+on a golf links it would be possible to obtain on the rear half of a
+golf ball a greater pressure than that on the forward spinning half,
+or, to be more accurate, quarter of the ball. I cannot help thinking
+that Professor Thomson in saying that in such a case as this the
+greater pressure would be on the rear half of the ball is falling into
+an error, for it seems to me that he is overlooking the tendency of
+the ball to set up for itself something in the nature of a vacuum
+which will undoubtedly tend to protect the rear portion of the ball
+from the force which must assail it in front during its passage
+through the air.
+
+Professor Thomson says that "the moral of this is that if the wind is
+coming from the left we should play up into the wind and slice the
+ball, while if it is coming from the right we should play up into it
+and pull the ball."
+
+That is Professor Thomson's theory. I shall give my readers the
+benefit of my practice, which is that whenever there is a cross wind
+of any description whatever, hit the ball as straight as it is
+possible for you to do it, right down the middle of the course from
+the tee to the hole, and forget all about pulls or slices. On a windy
+day avoid anything whatever in the nature of side-spin because once
+you have applied it to a ball you never know where that ball is going
+to end, and if you want any confirmation for this practice you may get
+it from Harry Vardon in _The Complete Golfer_, for there can be very
+little doubt that a side wind has nothing like the effect on the ball
+that golfers seem to imagine, provided always, of course, that the
+ball be hit cleanly and without appreciable spin. It is not given to
+one golfer in a thousand to know how to use the pull and slice to
+obtain assistance from the wind and also to be capable of executing
+the strokes. As a matter of practical golf these strokes should, for
+at least ninety-five per cent of golfers, be rigidly eschewed.
+
+At the beginning of Professor Thomson's article he said:
+
+     I shall not attempt to deal with the many important questions
+     which arise when we consider the impact of the club with the
+     ball, but confine myself to the consideration of the flight
+     of the ball after it has left the club.
+
+It would, indeed, have been well if Professor Thomson had carried out
+his expressed intention of leaving this matter alone, for in dealing
+with it he has shown most conclusively that he has no practical grip
+of the question which he has attempted to deal with. At page 15 of his
+article he says:
+
+     I have not time for more than a few words as to how the ball
+     acquires the spin from the club, but if you grasp the
+     principle that the action between the club and the ball
+     depends only on their _relative_ motion, and that it is the
+     same whether we have the ball fixed and move the club, or
+     have the club fixed and project the ball against it, the main
+     features are very easily understood.
+
+I can readily believe that this statement of Professor Thomson's is
+absolutely accurate. The only thing which troubles me about it is that
+I think the person of ordinary intellect will find it absolutely
+impossible to "grasp the principle" which Professor Thomson lays down.
+If we have the club fixed and project the ball against it, we know
+quite well that the ball will rebound from the club, but if we are to
+have the ball fixed and move the club against it, nothing will happen
+unless we move the club fast enough, in which case we should simply
+smash the club.
+
+This is a most amazing illustration of looseness of thought--such an
+astonishing illustration that I should not have believed Professor
+Thomson capable of it if it had not been published broadcast to the
+world with his authority. Of course, I know perfectly well what
+Professor Thomson means to say, but I have not to deal with that, and
+as a matter of fact what he means to say is quite wrong, but it will
+be sufficient for me to show that what he _does_ say is wrong.
+
+Professor Thomson then goes on to say:
+
+     Suppose Fig. 27 represents the section of the head of a
+     lofted club moving horizontally forward from right to left,
+     the effect of the impact will be the same as if the club were
+     at rest and the ball were shot against it horizontally from
+     left to right.
+
+Here Professor Thomson shows that he is quite under a misapprehension
+as to the production of the golf stroke. He pre-supposes that the
+club is moving in a horizontal direction at the moment it hits the
+ball. In a vast majority of instances, probably in about ninety per
+cent of cases, the club is not moving in a horizontal direction--in
+fact, it would be hardly too much to say that it never moves in a
+horizontal direction. It is nearly always moving either upwards or
+downwards in a curve at the moment it strikes the ball, so that it
+stands to reason, especially when the club face is travelling upwards,
+which is what it does in the great majority of cases, that the blow is
+never delivered horizontally, but is always struck more or less upward
+through the ball's centre of mass.
+
+Practical teachers of golf know how extremely hard it is to induce the
+beginner, and for the matter of that many people who are far beyond
+beginners, to trust the loft of the club to raise the ball from the
+earth; so many players never get out of the habit of attempting to hit
+upwards.
+
+It stands to reason that if the blow in golf were delivered as with a
+billiard cue, any blow struck in that manner, provided the face of the
+club had sufficient loft, would tend to produce back-spin, but
+practically no blow in golf is struck in the manner described by
+Professor Thomson; nor is the beneficial back-spin of golf obtained in
+this manner, in fact the loft of the club has comparatively little to
+do with producing the back-spin which so materially assists the length
+of the carry. There can, of course, be no doubt that loft does assist
+a person in producing this back-spin, or, as Professor Thomson calls
+it, under-spin, but to nothing like the extent which is imagined by
+the worthy Professor. The beneficial back-spin of golf is obtained by
+striking the golf ball before the head of the club has reached the
+lowest point in its swing; in other words, the back-spin is put on a
+golf ball by downward cut--by the very reverse to that cut which is
+put on a ball when a man tops it badly. In the one case it is up cut,
+or, as it is called in lawn-tennis, top, which is a misleading term
+which has led many people, besides Sir J. J. Thomson, astray, and in
+the other case it is downward cut, which is exactly similar in its
+effect to the chop at lawn-tennis.
+
+Professor Thomson, for the purpose of illustrating the fact that the
+golf ball obtains the beneficial spin, which influences its carry so
+materially, from the loft of the club, shows us a club face with a
+loft much greater than that of a niblick, and proceeds to demonstrate
+from this loft, which it is unnecessary to tell a golfer does not
+exist on any club which is used for driving, that the ball acquires
+its back-spin from the loft of the face of the club.
+
+I have already referred to the Professor's fundamental fallacy that
+the golf stroke is delivered in a horizontal line--in effect that the
+force of the blow proceeds horizontally, but he is guilty of another
+very great error from the point of view of practical golf when he
+shows a club such as he has done, in order to explain how the
+beneficial back-spin of golf is obtained. Such a club as he shows
+might be useful for getting out of a bunker, but it certainly would be
+of no use whatever in practical golf for driving. As every golfer
+knows, the face of the driver is, comparatively speaking, very
+upright, and firing a ball at a wall built at the same angle as the
+loft of a driver would certainly not produce on that ball much in the
+way of back-spin. The idea of a modern golf ball which flattens very
+considerably on the face of the club, rolling up the face of a driver
+on account of its loft, is too ridiculous to be considered seriously
+by a practical golfer.
+
+The trouble is that Professor Thomson always takes for his hypothesis
+something which does not exist in golf, so that in the great majority
+of cases it does not really matter to us what he proves. As a matter
+of fact, there is in golf only one horizontal stroke, and that is the
+stymie stroke introduced into the game by me, and which I have
+hereinbefore fully described. This stroke shows us conclusively how
+the power goes mostly into elevation instead of into propulsion. It is
+an absolute answer, if one were required, to Professor Thomson's
+theories. Professor Thomson's error is of such a fundamental nature
+that I must quote his sentence again in giving my readers the full
+paragraph wherein he exposes the delusion under which he is suffering.
+He says:
+
+     Suppose Fig. 27 represents the section of the head of a
+     lofted club moving horizontally forward from right to left,
+     the effect of the impact will be the same as if the club were
+     at rest and the ball were shot against it horizontally from
+     left to right. Evidently, however, in this case the ball
+     would tend to roll up the face, and would thus get spin about
+     a horizontal axis in the direction shown in the figure; this
+     is under-spin and produces the upward force which tends to
+     increase the carry of the ball.
+
+This is the rock upon which Professor Thomson has split. He is under
+the impression that the beneficial back-spin of golf is obtained by
+loft, whereas it is perfectly possible to obtain the beneficial
+back-spin of golf with a club having a vertical face, and being at the
+moment of impact in a vertical plane, but in order to do this it would
+be necessary that the ball should be teed very high, as indeed one of
+the most famous professionals in the world is in the habit of doing
+when he is playing for a low ball against the wind.
+
+When in _Modern Golf_ I stated that a high tee for a low ball was
+practical golf, it was considered revolutionary, if not incorrect,
+doctrine, but players now understand that by using the high tee for a
+low ball they are enabled to cut down beyond the ball more than they
+could do if the ball were lying on the earth, and that they are, in
+this manner, enabled to obtain much more of the back-spin which gives
+the ball its extra carry, and also to play it with less loft.
+
+This is a very serious error for a man of Professor Thomson's
+attainments to make, and indeed it is to me a wonder how he could
+possibly make the mistake of thinking that the force in the blow at
+golf is administered horizontally. This is one of the worst errors
+which he has made, but the idea that the back-spin of golf is obtained
+mainly by the loft of the club is utterly unsound and pernicious. It
+is so unsound, and the correct understanding of the method of
+producing this stroke is so important to golf, especially to the golf
+of the future, that I must explain fully how this stroke is obtained.
+
+I have already shown that it is played by a downward glancing blow
+which hits the ball before the club reaches the lowest point in its
+swing, and I have already shown the delusion under which many players
+labour, even including so eminent a player as Harry Vardon, that the
+ball is struck down on to the earth. Although the ball is struck a
+descending blow, there is in the blow much more of the forward motion
+than the downward, so that all the ordinary principles with regard to
+getting the ball up into the air, apply with equal force to this
+stroke as to any other, and it is a matter of prime importance that
+the ball must be struck below the centre of its mass--that the loft of
+the club must get in underneath what is popularly called the middle of
+the ball. If this does not take place the ball will not rise from the
+earth, and to show as Harry Vardon does, at page 170 of _The Complete
+Golfer_, that the ball must be struck at or above the centre of its
+mass, and with, as he indicates at page 106, a vertical face, is
+utterly unsound golf.
+
+I cannot emphasise too strongly that in this miscalled push shot,
+which is answerable for all back-spin, the loft must be allowed to do
+its work in the ordinary manner, otherwise the stroke will be a
+failure.
+
+Having now made it perfectly clear how this stroke is obtained, I must
+explain a little more clearly the wonderful character of this ball
+which is without any doubt whatever, in my mind, the king of golf
+strokes in so far as regards obtaining distance and accuracy and
+direction. On account of the downward glancing blow the ball has been
+struck, it leaves the club with a very great amount of back-spin. The
+hands are always forward of the ball at the moment of impact in this
+stroke when it is properly played. It stands to reason that this, to a
+certain extent, decreases the loft of the club with which the stroke
+is played. The result is that the ball goes away on the first portion
+of its journey with a very low flight, keeping very close indeed to
+the earth. All the time it is doing this, however, the ball, as we
+know, is spinning backwards, which means that the lower portion of the
+ball is spinning towards the hole, and that it is on the lower portion
+of the ball that the motions of progression and revolution conspire.
+
+It is equally obvious that on the upper portion of the ball the
+progression through the air is at the same rate, but in so far as
+regards its frictional-producing result on the air, it is lessened by
+the fact that the upper portion of the ball is revolving or spinning
+backwardly towards the player. The result of this is that the ball is
+getting much more friction on the lower portion than it is on the
+top, but as speed can always dominate spin, this is not very apparent
+until about two-thirds of the carry.
+
+As the speed of the ball begins to decrease, the friction of the spin
+gets a better grip on the air, and the result is that with the
+continual rubbing of the air on the lower portion of the ball, it is
+forced upward and so it continues until the lifting power of the
+combined propulsion and revolution is exhausted. By this time the ball
+has arrived at the highest point of its trajectory and it then begins
+in the natural order of things to fall towards the earth.
+
+It is obvious that by this time much of the back-spin will have been
+exhausted, but there still remains a considerable amount of rotation,
+and as the ball begins to fall towards the earth this back-spin which
+has hitherto been used for forcing the ball upwards into the air,
+still exerts its influence, and as it is travelling towards the earth
+the remnant of the back-spin exerts its influence to extend the carry
+of the ball, because the main frictional portion of the ball has, to a
+certain extent, on account of the dropping of the ball, been altered
+and shifted probably a little more towards the lower side of the ball.
+
+The result of all this is that by the time this ball, in a well played
+drive, comes to earth, most of the beneficial back-spin which obtained
+for it its long flight, will have been exhausted, and that portion
+which remains and has not been exhausted will, in all probability, be
+killed on impact, for the ball pitches on one point, and naturally the
+top portion tends to throw forward so that the ball will run along the
+course. It stands to reason that it would require an enormous amount
+of back-spin to stay with the ball during the period of its low
+flight, to lift the ball then to the highest point in its trajectory
+near the end of its carry, to stay with it still in its descent, and
+then to be strong enough to resist the shock of landing so as to check
+the run of the ball. The result is that on account of the low
+trajectory of this ball and of the phenomena explained by me, it is
+frequently, when well played, and particularly in dry weather, a good
+runner, so that we see that in this ball we have practically the ideal
+golf drive; a drive with which no other can compare; a drive which is
+as good, although it is called the wind-cheater, for a still day as in
+a gale.
+
+From this explanation it will be seen what a poor chance anyone would
+have who follows Professor Thomson's ideas of obtaining the beneficial
+back-spin of golf from the loft of the club and a horizontal blow.
+
+Professor Thomson gives some illustrations of the pull and the slice.
+In two of his figures he shows horizontal blows being produced in a
+straight line with the line of flight. Both of these, I may say, are
+absolutely impossible in golf. He shows a slice in Fig. 29 which would
+be much more likely to result in a pull, and he shows a pull in Fig.
+31 which would almost certainly result in a slice even if the shots
+were possible, which, as he shows them, they are not.
+
+Professor Thomson shows by diagram an ordinary slice which he says is
+produced by "such a motion as would be produced if the arms were
+pulled in at the end of the stroke." This in itself is an utterly
+loose definition. What Professor Thomson evidently means is if the
+arms were pulled in during the stroke or at the moment of impact, but
+as I have shown the slice is not produced by the arms being pulled in
+at the moment of impact. It is produced by the club head travelling
+across the ball at an angle to the intended line of flight of the
+ball. Professor Thomson shows the slice in this case by diagram, and
+correctly, but he says that if the club were fixed rigidly and the
+ball were fired at the club down the same line as the club made in its
+previous stroke, the ball would come off the club in exactly the same
+manner as when it was hit by the club, but in this he is making a very
+grave error, as I think I shall be able to show.
+
+I shall quote Professor Thomson with regard to this matter. His
+proposition is so simple that although I give his indicating letters
+it will not be necessary for me to reproduce his diagram. He says:
+
+     Suppose, now, the face of the club is not square to its
+     direction of motion, but that looking down on the club its
+     line of motion when it strikes the ball is along P Q (Fig.
+     28), such a motion as would be produced if the arms were
+     pulled in at the end of the stroke, the effect of the impact
+     now will be the same as if the club were at rest and the ball
+     projected along R S, the ball will endeavour to roll along
+     the face away from the striker; it will spin in the direction
+     shown in the figure about a vertical axis. This, as we have
+     seen, is the spin which produces a slice.
+
+This, as we have already seen, is not the spin which produces a slice,
+but we need not waste any further time going into that matter. We can,
+however, deal with what Professor Thomson meant to say when he wrote
+
+     ... but if you grasp the principle that the action between
+     the club and the ball depends only on their _relative_
+     motion, and that it is the same whether we have the ball
+     fixed and move the club or have the club fixed and project
+     the ball against it, the main features are very easily
+     understood.
+
+For the purpose of analysing what Professor Thomson evidently meant
+when he wrote this, let us take the ordinary case of a slice. We all
+know now quite well that a slice is produced by a glancing blow
+coming inwardly across the intended line of flight, and Professor
+Thomson tells us it is exactly the same thing whether we hit the ball
+with the club or fire the ball against the club. Let us see how this
+works out in the slice.
+
+We will consider, for the sake of argument, that the slice has been
+produced by a stroke which has come across the intended line of flight
+at an angle of 30 degrees. We shall now fasten our club rigidly and
+fire the golf ball out of a catapult against its face so that it hits
+it dead in the centre, and so that it travels down a line at an angle
+of 30 degrees to the face. Now most of us know enough elementary
+mechanics to know that in hitting a still object such as the face of
+the golf club, the ball will come off it at the same angle at which it
+hit it--in other words that the angle of reflection is the same as the
+angle of incidence, allowing always, of course, for the slight
+alteration which will be made by the loft of the club. In this case,
+of course, we have one object which is absolutely still, and all the
+motion during impact is confined to the ball.
+
+Now let us consider the impact in the slice. In this case the club
+strikes the ball a violent blow. The ball, to a very great extent,
+flattens on the face of the club, and both the ball and the club
+travel together for a certain distance across the direct line of
+flight to the hole, and during the time that they are thus travelling
+together the club is imparting spin to the ball and influencing its
+direction, so that instead of the ball doing anything whatever in the
+nature of spinning off the face of the club at a natural angle, it is
+driving, during its initial stages, very straightly for a long
+distance before the spin begins to take effect.
+
+It seems to me that the slice may be taken as a very good illustration
+showing that what Professor Thomson meant to explain is quite
+incorrect from a golfing point of view. It is quite evident that
+before we could accept as authoritative the explanations which have
+been given by Professor Thomson of these somewhat abstruse problems,
+it would be necessary for us to have, as he puts it, "a new dynamics."
+
+I have already dealt very fully both in England and America with this
+remarkable lecture by Professor Thomson. I have criticised it in the
+leading reviews and magazines of the world, and the authoritative
+golfing paper of England--_Golf Illustrated_--in a leader, invited
+Professor Thomson to make good his assertions, but he has not been
+able to do so. One can understand fallacious matter being published
+under the names of professional golfers when one knows quite well that
+the majority of the work is done by journalists hired for the purpose,
+but it is almost impossible to understand how such utterly false
+doctrine could be put out by so eminent a man, and under the auspices
+of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
+
+The flight of the ball has always been a fascinating and for most
+people a very mysterious subject, but except in one or two matters
+there is no mystery whatever about the flight of the golf ball, but
+even amongst practical golfers there is an amazing lack of accurate
+information. For instance, we find Mr. Walter J. Travis, in _Practical
+Golf_ at page 139, saying:
+
+     With a very rapid swing, the force or energy stored up in the
+     gutta ball is greater than in the Haskell. The latter, by
+     reason of its greater comparative resiliency does not remain
+     in contact with the club head quite so long, and therefore
+     does not receive the full benefit of the greater velocity of
+     the stroke in the same proportion as the less resilient
+     gutta. It flies off the face too quickly to get the full
+     measure of energy imparted by a very swift stroke. This
+     responsiveness or resiliency, however, asserts itself in a
+     greater and more compensating degree in the case of the
+     shorter driver. It makes up, in his case, for the lack of
+     speed, and he finds his distance very sensibly increased.
+
+This is a remarkable error for a golfer like Mr. Travis to make. It is
+abundantly plain that the rubber-cored ball stays on the face of the
+club much longer than the old gutta-percha ball did. Provided that
+there were such things in the world as incompressible balls, the
+impact in the drive would be of the least possible duration with them,
+but the more compressible the ball becomes the longer it will dwell on
+the face of the golf club.
+
+That the rubber-cored ball does dwell for a greater period on the face
+of the club is responsible, to a great extent, for the fact that the
+modern ball swerves much more when sliced or pulled than did the old
+guttie in similar circumstances, and the reason seems to be that on
+account of the fact that the ball stays longer on the face of the club
+during the time that the club is going across the intended line of
+flight, it is able to impart to the ball a much greater spin. This
+spin, as we know, exerts its influence principally towards the end of
+the ball's flight, and in all probability it gets to work now
+approximately at the same place where the spin in the old gutta-percha
+ball began to assert itself, but probably a little further in the
+carry.
+
+We all know that once the spin has begun to assert itself so as to
+make the ball swerve, its deflection from the line, particularly with
+a suitable wind, is extremely rapid, and we all know equally well that
+the carry of the rubber-cored ball is much longer than that of the old
+gutta-percha. It stands to reason that the ball having a much greater
+distance wherein to swerve will execute a correspondingly larger
+swerve than it would if its carry were shorter.
+
+We find some amazing statements made by authors who profess to deal
+with golf. For instance at page 167 of _The Mystery of Golf_, we are
+informed that
+
+     ... another important thing about the follow-through, surely,
+     is this. As Mr. Travis has pointed out, such is the
+     resiliency of the rubber ball that club and ball are in
+     contact for an appreciable period of time--the impact, that
+     is, is not instantaneous. It is highly probable that the
+     trajectory of the ball is largely influenced by this period
+     of contact. If you follow through your club head travels in
+     precisely the same line as the ball, and the flight of the
+     ball is by this rendered straighter, steadier, and longer.
+
+This, truly, is a wonderful instance of analytical thought by one who
+is attempting to explain the mystery of golf. He has come to the
+conclusion that "it is highly probable that the trajectory of the ball
+is largely influenced by this period of contact."
+
+I have seen many goals kicked at Rugby football, and have kicked a few
+myself, and I am almost sure that in every case when a goal was scored
+the boot had a good deal to do with the direction. Marvellous
+_analysis_ this!
+
+We may, however, discard these wonderful efforts of analysis and deal
+with the remark made by the author that "if you follow through, your
+club head travels in precisely the same line as the ball," for this is
+absolutely incorrect in the case of many strokes wherein one desires
+to influence the flight of the ball by applying spin. For instance, at
+practically no time of its travel, no matter how good the stroke is
+and how perfect one's follow-through, is the club head in the slice or
+the pull "in precisely the same line as the ball." This is merely one
+of hundreds of instances of confused thought for which the poor golfer
+has to suffer.
+
+I have before referred to the idea of pulling and slicing to
+counteract wind. It is astonishing how deeply rooted this idea is. At
+page 53 of _Concerning Golf_ Mr. John L. Low says: "There is no shot
+which produces such straight results as the sliced shot against a
+right hand breeze," to which I reply that there is no shot which gives
+such straight results as the straight shot in itself without slice or
+pull of any description whatever, and that as a matter of fact it is
+practically impossible to calculate within twenty yards, and that
+means double the distance, where one will land if one starts pulling
+and slicing in a cross wind.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE XII. GEORGE DUNCAN
+
+    A characteristic stroke, showing Duncan's perfect finish in
+    the drive.]
+
+This is a matter of such importance that I must quote Harry Vardon in
+support of my statement. He says at page 92 of _The Complete Golfer_:
+
+     Now, however, that this question is raised, I feel it
+     desirable to say, without any hesitation, that the majority
+     of golfers possess vastly exaggerated notions of the effect
+     of strong cross winds on the flight of their ball. They
+     greatly over-estimate the capabilities of a breeze. To judge
+     by their observations on the tee, one concludes that a wind
+     from the left is often sufficient to carry the ball away at
+     an angle of 45 degrees, and indeed sometimes when it does
+     take such an exasperating course and finishes on the journey
+     some fifty yards away from the point from which it was
+     desired to despatch it, there is an impatient exclamation
+     from the disappointed golfer, "Confound this wind! Who on
+     earth can play in a hurricane!" or words to that effect. Now
+     I have quite satisfied myself that only a very strong wind
+     indeed will carry a properly driven ball more than a very few
+     yards out of its course, and in proof of this I may say that
+     it is very seldom when I have to deal with a cross wind that
+     I do anything but play straight at the hole without any
+     pulling or slicing or making allowances in any way.
+
+     If golfers will only bring themselves to ignore the wind,
+     then it, in turn, will almost entirely ignore their straight
+     ball. When you find your ball at rest the afore-mentioned
+     forty or fifty yards from the point which you desired to send
+     it, make up your mind, however unpleasant it may be to do so,
+     that the trouble is due to an unintentional pull or slice,
+     and you may get what consolation you can from the fact that
+     the slightest of these variations from the ordinary drive is
+     seized upon with delight by any wind, and its features
+     exaggerated to an enormous extent. It is quite possible
+     therefore that a slice which would have taken the ball only
+     twenty yards from the line when there was no wind, will take
+     it forty yards away with the kind assistance of its friend
+     and ally.
+
+These are, unquestionably, words of wisdom. There can be no doubt
+whatever that the straight ball is the ball all the time in golf, and
+it is absolutely certain that what Vardon says about the effect of the
+wind on the golf ball is true. Wind has remarkably little effect on
+the golf ball which is driven without spin. I have had no doubt on
+this subject for at least seventeen years. I had my lesson in one ball
+during the course of a match played over my home links in New Zealand.
+One of the holes was on top of a volcanic mountain at a place where
+New Zealand is only a few miles wide, and there was a howling gale
+raging from ocean to ocean right across the island. I can remember as
+if it were yesterday, the champion of New Zealand, as he was then,
+playing this hole. He drove a very high and perfectly straight ball
+from tee to green, and the ball travelled to all appearances as
+directly as if there had been no wind whatever, whereas had there been
+the least slice on the ball it would have been picked up by the wind
+and carried away into the crater which lay sixty or a hundred yards
+off the course.
+
+Speaking of Mr. Low reminds me that he makes some extraordinary
+statements with regard to spin. At page 35 of _Concerning Golf_ he
+says: "I have said that a ball with left to right spin swings in the
+air towards the left in exactly the opposite direction from a sliced
+ball and from contrary causes." It is obvious that this is wrong, for
+the spin of the slice is from left to right, and of course, as every
+one knows, that spin makes the ball swerve towards the right, which is
+the swerve of the slice.
+
+At page 32 Mr. Low makes the same error. He says there: "Now a pulled
+ball comes round to the left because the sphere is rotating from left
+to right, or in the direction contrary to the hands of a watch." This,
+of course, is a contradiction, for the hands of a watch as we look at
+them do rotate from left to right, but in any case Mr. Low's
+explanation is quite incorrect, because the spin of the ball is not in
+a direction contrary to the hands of a watch laid face upwards on the
+ground, as Mr. Low affirms.
+
+Mr. Low says at page 31:
+
+     Every child nowadays seems to know how to slice a ball; you
+     have only to ask the question and the answer will come
+     quickly enough, "Oh, draw the hands in when you are hitting,"
+     or, in other words, spin the ball in the direction of the
+     hands of a watch laid face upwards on the ground. The ball
+     advancing with this spin finds it is resisted most strongly
+     by the atmosphere on its left side, and therefore goes
+     towards the right in the direction of least resistance. The
+     converse is the case with a pulled ball in the sense of a
+     ball which curves in the air from right to left.
+
+We have already shown in dealing with Professor Thomson's article that
+this statement is quite incorrect. In passing I may also refer to the
+fact that Mr. Low's idea of the production of the slice, viz. by
+drawing the hands in when one is hitting, is also wrong. There is no
+drawing in of the hands at the moment of impact in the properly
+played slice. It is the drawing in, if we may use the term, of the
+head of the club in its travel across the intended line of flight, but
+not anything which is done intentionally during impact. However, that
+is by the way.
+
+Mr. Low is evidently under the impression, as was Professor Thomson,
+that the spin of the ball in the slice is about a vertical axis. This
+is an error in itself, as we have shown, but it is not nearly so bad
+an error as it is to say that the pull is the converse of the slice in
+this respect, for, as we have seen, if the ball were merely spinning
+about a vertical axis it could not possibly have the running powers
+which it possesses, to say nothing of its low flight. Although Mr. Low
+has got somewhat mixed in describing his rotation, it is evident from
+his reference to the hands of the clock that his ideas are correct in
+so far as regards the general direction of spin, but where he is at
+fault is in stating the axis of rotation of his ball.
+
+If we accept Mr. Low's statement about the axis of rotation we shall
+have the pulled ball, when it lands, striking the earth with a spin
+equivalent to a sleeping top, but that is not what we want in the
+pulled ball, for neither would it give us the low trajectory which we
+desire so much, nor would it give us, on landing, the running which we
+desire, if anything, still more. The spin which we desire to produce
+and which we must have in our minds to produce when we are playing the
+stroke, is such a spin as will give us, when the ball lands,
+approximately the spin of a disc top as it falls to earth when its
+spin is nearly exhausted. I am speaking now, of course, not of the
+question of degree, but of the plane of spin. We must have our ball
+spinning in such a plane that when it touches the earth it will behave
+in the same manner as the disc top does when its side comes into
+contact with the floor.
+
+In dealing with "The Science of the Stroke," James Braid in _Advanced
+Golf_ goes into an analysis of the effect of spin on flight. He says
+early in the chapter:
+
+     At the present time most players know how they ought to be
+     standing, and what the exact movements of their arms, wrists,
+     and body should be in order to swing the club in the right
+     way and make the ball travel as far as possible, but they do
+     not all know, and in few cases one suspects have ever
+     troubled to think, what is the process by which these
+     movements, when properly executed, bring about the desired
+     effect.
+
+I do not know how Braid can truthfully say that at the present time
+most players know how they ought to be standing, when we are
+confronted with the fact that his own book, _Advanced Golf_, and
+practically every book which has been published on the game, tells the
+unfortunate golfer to stand as he ought not to be standing instead of
+giving him the simple truth and sound golf, and it is incomprehensible
+to me how Braid can say that they know "what the exact movements of
+their arms, wrists, and body should be in order to swing the club in
+the right way," when he himself has confessed in _Advanced Golf_ that,
+particularly with regard to the wrists, which unquestionably have a
+most important function to fulfil in the golf drive, he absolutely
+does not know where they come in. It is useless in a work on _Advanced
+Golf_ to assume on the part of one's readers a knowledge superior to
+that which the author of the book himself has given as his own
+limitations. Braid says:
+
+     They have the cause and also the effect, but they do not
+     often see the connection between the two. Of course, the ball
+     in a ball game moves always according to scientific laws, but
+     it has seemed to those who have studied these matters that
+     the scientific problems involved in the flight of the golf
+     ball are more intricate, but at the same time more
+     interesting, than in many other cases.
+
+Of course this is quite stupid, because, as I have frequently
+explained, there is no special set of mechanical laws for golf--or the
+golf ball.
+
+The golf ball follows in all respects exactly the same laws as those
+which govern the flight and run of any other ball. The only difference
+in connection with the golf ball is that it is probably the most
+unscientifically constructed ball in the world of sport. Braid
+continues:
+
+     The chief matter of this kind that it is desirable the golfer
+     should understand is that concerning the character and effect
+     of the spin that is given to the golf ball when it leaves the
+     club. This spin is at the root of all the difficulties and
+     all the delights of the game, and yet there are some
+     players--one might even say many--who do not even know that
+     their ball spins at all as they hit it from the tee.
+
+I may pause here to note that James Braid says that spin is at the
+root of all the difficulties and all the delights of golf. This is in
+many respects quite an exaggeration, but I am giving it exactly as he
+says it, for the simple reason that it emphasises the fact which I
+have always insisted on, that a proper knowledge of the application of
+spin to the golf ball is essential for one who would attain to the
+greatest success or who would obtain the greatest enjoyment from the
+game.
+
+Braid quotes the work of the late Professor Tait very extensively.
+Referring to the most important subject of back-spin, he says:
+
+     It appears to be the proper regulation of the under-spin
+     given to the ball when applying it from the tee and through
+     the green, at all events when length is what is most
+     required, that makes success, and it is in this way that
+     players of inferior physical power must make up for their
+     deficiency and drive long balls.
+
+I may say at once that any idea whatever of the proper regulation of
+back-spin in the drive is, from the point of view of practical golf,
+merely nonsense. In so far as regards obtaining extra distance by
+driving a low ball with back-spin, whose properties I have already
+fully described, there is nothing whatever to be done but to get
+back-spin and as much of it as one possibly can. The golfer has yet to
+be born who in driving can obtain too much back-spin. Braid says:
+
+     It is in the long drive that the principles of spin are most
+     interesting and important, but it must be remembered also
+     that they are very prominent in their action upon the flight
+     of the ball in the case of many other shots, and the
+     peculiarities of different trajectories can generally be
+     traced to this cause after a very little thought by one who
+     has a knowledge of the scientific side of the matter, as
+     explained by Professor Tait. This is particularly the case
+     with high lofted approach shots.
+
+One may remark here, perhaps, that there is no more unsuitable stroke
+in which to study the peculiarity of the application of back-spin to
+the trajectory of the ball than in the high lofted approach shots, for
+it is in such shots as these practically an impossibility, if one may
+so express it, to locate the influence of the spin on the flight of
+the ball. It is quite a different thing in the wind-cheater class of
+stroke where one sees the ball travelling low across the turf and can
+absolutely mark the place where the back-spin begins to get to work
+and give the ball its upward tendency towards the end of the drive,
+and, when the velocity of the ball has become sufficiently reduced, to
+allow the back-spin to exert its lifting power.
+
+I now come to a matter which is of very great importance in the
+application of back-spin to the ball. It is quite evident to me that
+Braid is falling into the same error as that which was originally made
+by Professor Tait, and followed fifteen years later by Professor Sir
+J. J. Thomson. On page 226 he says:
+
+     Therefore the great authority concluded that good driving
+     lies not merely in powerful hitting, but "in the proper
+     apportionment of quite good hitting with such a knack as
+     gives the right amount of under-spin to the ball"; and one of
+     his calculations was to the effect that, in certain
+     circumstances, a man who imparted under-spin to his ball when
+     driving it might get a carry of about thirty yards more than
+     that obtained by another man who hit as hard but made no
+     under-spin. There would, of course, be a great difference in
+     the comparative trajectories of the two balls. In the case of
+     the short one there is no resistance to gravity, and
+     consequently, in order to get any sort of flight at all, the
+     ball must be directed upwards when it is hit from the tee,
+     or, to use a scientific term, there must be "initial
+     elevation." This may be only very slight, but it is quite
+     distinguishable, and in fact a player, who is only at the
+     beginning of his practice, and has little knowledge of the
+     principles of the game, will generally be found trying to hit
+     his ball in an upward direction, and by that means will make
+     it travel farther than it would have done otherwise. On the
+     other hand, the ball that is properly driven by a good player
+     is not only not consciously aimed upwards, but, according to
+     Professor Tait, is not hit upwards. For some distance after
+     it has left the tee it follows a line nearly parallel with
+     the ground, and eventually rises as the result of the
+     under-spin which is forcing it upwards all the time.
+
+We may pause here to consider a few of the statements in this
+remarkable passage. I may say again that the idea of driving a ball
+with the "proper apportionment of quite good hitting with such a knack
+as gives the right amount of under-spin to the ball" is simply a wild
+guess at what takes place during the execution of a correct drive with
+back-spin. The proper playing of this stroke is a matter of very
+considerable difficulty, and it is practically a certainty that no
+golfer has ever lived or ever will live who could regulate his
+back-spin in the drive to any appreciable extent; all that he ever
+thinks of doing--all that he is ever likely to do--is to obtain his
+back-spin, _and as much of it as he can_.
+
+It is, of course, quite wrong to say that in the ball hit without
+back-spin there is "no resistance to gravity," for if there were no
+resistance to gravity the ball would be on the earth. However, we know
+quite well what is meant, although, when we are dealing with a matter
+which is absolutely a matter of science, we do not expect such loose
+statements as these. I should probably have passed this remark, but
+for the fact that it is emphasised by the statement that in order to
+get any sort of flight at all the ball must be directed upwards when
+it is hit from the tee, which again, as a matter of practical golf, is
+what nine of ten golfers do, although we are told that "a player who
+is only at the beginning of his practice, and has little knowledge of
+the principles of the game, will generally be found trying to hit his
+ball in an upward direction."
+
+It is astonishing how few players, even of quite a good class, are
+content to leave the question of elevation entirely to the club. It
+probably would be no exaggeration to say that quite ninety per cent of
+the players make an attempt, however extremely slight it may be, to
+assist the club in lifting the ball from the earth. According to the
+best theory in golf, this is quite wrong, for the blow should be at
+least in a horizontal direction, which practically it never is, and
+preferably in the line of the arc formed by the club head in its
+travel through the air on its downward path. The latter case, of
+course, would produce back-spin, and a considerable amount of it. The
+former would probably produce slight back-spin, but a very slight
+amount. However, the very great majority of golfing hits are at the
+moment of impact proceeding upwardly, and it is this fact which puts
+any idea whatever of the unconscious application of back-spin by the
+ordinary golfer quite beyond serious consideration. The amount of
+back-spin which is unconsciously applied to the golf ball is
+practically negligible.
+
+We see that, according to Professor Tait, the ball which is properly
+driven by a good player is not only not consciously aimed upwards, but
+that it is actually not hit upwards. Indeed we are told that for some
+distance after it has left the tee it follows a line nearly parallel
+with the ground and eventually rises as the result of the under-spin
+that is forcing it upwards all the time. This statement is not in
+accordance with the experience of practical golfers. It is evident
+that Professor Tait was under the impression, in which, as I have
+stated before and now emphasise, he has been followed by Professor Sir
+J. J. Thomson, that the beneficial back-spin in golf is obtained by
+the loft of the club. There can be no doubt whatever that if a golf
+ball were struck a blow by a golf club having any considerable degree
+of loft and proceeding at the moment of impact in a straight line, the
+result would be to impart some degree of back-spin, but this is not
+what happens in practical golf. At no portion of the travel of the
+head of the club in the golf drive is it proceeding in a horizontal
+direction, and in the vast majority of cases, at the moment of impact,
+even with the very best of stroke players, the club is going upward.
+If this were not so it would be impossible for many of our greatest
+drivers to get the trajectories they do with the comparatively
+straight-faced clubs which they use.
+
+Braid quotes an experiment which was made by Professor Tait in the
+course of his investigations with regard to the qualities of
+under-spin. It appears that the Professor laid a ball to the string of
+a crossbow, the string being just below the middle of the ball, so
+that when it was let go it would impart a certain amount of under-spin
+to it. When he shot the ball in this way he made it fly straight to a
+mark that was thirty yards distant; but when he shot it a second time,
+pulling the string to the same extent and laying it to the middle of
+the ball so that no under-spin would be given to it, the ball fell
+eight feet short of the same mark.
+
+It is impossible to accept such a rough and crude experiment as this
+as evidence in any way whatever of the influence of back-spin in the
+drive; rather it would seem to show beyond a shadow of doubt that the
+extra carry was obtained because the power of propulsion was applied
+to the ball at a lower portion, and therefore tended to give it a
+greater trajectory. It should be obvious that this result would be
+obtained even disregarding the question of back-spin, which in such an
+extremely short flight as thirty yards would certainly not have any
+opportunity whatever to make such a difference in the length of carry
+as that suggested.
+
+It is, however, when we come to deal with questions of practical golf
+that we find that the ideas of the late Professor Tait will not bear
+looking into.
+
+Braid says:
+
+     However, it is well to bear in mind one thing that the
+     Professor said, "The pace which the player can give the club
+     head at the moment of impact depends to a very considerable
+     extent on the relative motion of his two hands (to which is
+     due the 'nip') during the immediately preceding two-hundredth
+     of a second, while the amount of beneficial spin is seriously
+     diminished by even a trifling upward concavity of the path of
+     the head during the ten-thousandth of a second occupied by
+     the blow."
+
+Here we have plain evidence of the fact that Professor Tait is under
+the impression that there is some particular snap which he calls "nip"
+imported into the stroke immediately before impact. We have already
+dealt fully with this matter. We remember what Vardon has said in
+condemning the idea, and we know that Braid himself has confessed that
+he knows nothing about the matter, so it will not seem disrespectful
+if we come to the conclusion that we can disregard this vague
+statement about the "nip" in the blow. We can then proceed to notice
+the really important remark made that "the amount of beneficial spin
+is seriously diminished by even a trifling upward concavity of the
+path of the head during the ten-thousandth of a second occupied by the
+blow." It seems to me that this last statement is absolutely accurate,
+and it is the thing which I have always contended for in dealing with
+the practical side of golf driving, as contradistinguished from the
+purely theoretical, which has been put before us by Professor Tait,
+and following him, by Professor Sir J. J. Thomson. It will be observed
+that Professor Tait said that the amount of beneficial spin is
+"seriously diminished by even a trifling upward concavity of the path
+of the head during the ten-thousandth of a second occupied by the
+blow."
+
+Some of my readers may remember that when I was dealing with Professor
+Sir J. J. Thomson's lecture before the Royal Society in an article
+which appeared in _The English Review_ in February 1911, I stated that
+what actually did happen was that there took place in practically
+every drive at golf exactly this "trifling upward concavity of the
+path of the head during the ten-thousandth of a second occupied by the
+blow," and that therefore the amount of beneficial back-spin obtained
+from the loft of the club was practically negligible.
+
+It is quite clear that Professor Tait was under the impression that
+back-spin was got from the loft of the club proceeding in a horizontal
+direction, but it is well known now to golfers who give the science of
+the game any attention whatever, that back-spin is not obtained in
+this manner, and that back-spin so obtained would be practically
+ineffectual as an aid to distance, for the loft of the driver and the
+brassy is not sufficient, even if the golf drive were played in the
+manner suggested, to produce any considerable amount of back-spin. As
+we have already seen, the beneficial back-spin in the golf drive is
+obtained by the club striking the ball _long before the beginning_ of
+the "upward concavity of the path of the head," that is to say, in its
+arc _as it is proceeding downwards_ to the lowest point in the swing
+from which it then starts that "upward concavity."
+
+I have emphasised and re-emphasised this matter, for it is evident
+that when famous men like Professors Tait and Thomson start out with
+an absolutely erroneous idea, an idea which is _fundamentally_ wrong,
+it is quite natural for less gifted men to be led astray. Braid says,
+and it must be remembered that this is in _Advanced Golf_ (page 229):
+"So far as I know, it cannot be stated in accurate scientific terms
+and figures, and by lines drawn on paper, what is the proper
+scientific swing in order to get the best drive." This seems to me,
+especially in a book like this, to be a wonderful statement,
+particularly when we are dealing with the scientific results arrived
+at by men of the greatest eminence, results which I may say have been
+known for more than two hundred and fifty years.
+
+There is no doubt whatever which is the best way to swing in order to
+get the best drive, and it can be explained in scientific language
+and shown by diagram and by figures, and in fact it has been so shown
+again and again.
+
+Braid says:
+
+     What golfers have done, therefore, in the past has been to
+     find out gradually which is the best way in which to hit the
+     ball in order to make it travel far, and thus they have
+     groped their way to the stances and swings which, if the
+     truth were known, would probably be set out by science as the
+     best possible ones for the purpose.
+
+This very well expresses what has taken place. The golfers have
+"groped their way" to what they have found out, without a glimmering
+of the scientific reasons for doing it, and the consequence is that,
+as they got their practice first, and were not informed of what they
+were doing by that theory which is the best of all theory, the
+concentrated essence of the practice of experts, they have signally
+failed to impart their science to those who have come after them.
+
+At page 229 Braid says:
+
+     However, there are certain things that the player should know
+     about his drive when it is right, and which he should aim at
+     producing, and they have been very well set forth by
+     Professor Tait as the result of his investigations into the
+     trajectories of golf balls hit under varying conditions of
+     club-force, wind, and so forth. One of the first things to
+     say, and this is really important in estimating their chances
+     of making certain carries that are constantly set to them in
+     the course of their play, is that some golfers have a
+     delusion to the effect that the ball is at its highest point
+     in the middle of its flight--that is to say, they think that
+     just about half-way between the point from which it was hit
+     and the point at which it will touch the ground again, the
+     ball is at its highest, and after that commences to fall
+     again. In this belief when they have, say, a 140 yards' carry
+     to make, they will reckon that their ball must then be coming
+     down very fast towards the turf, having been at its highest,
+     some 50 or 60 yards before. They may think in such
+     circumstances that they ought to hit up a little more and try
+     to hit harder to make up for doing so. They would be wrong
+     entirely, and that because they did not know what the
+     under-spin was that they gave to the ball, or what effect it
+     had on its flight. Thus in the case just quoted, assuming
+     that the ball had a total carry of from 150 to 160 yards, it
+     would be at its highest point when it had travelled about 130
+     yards, and there would be no occasion to hit up, unless the
+     object to be carried were very high.
+
+It is obvious that in such a case as that given no practical golfer
+would in any way whatever consider the question of the _amount_ of
+back-spin on his ball, for he would know that he has no possibility
+whatever of gauging its effect in the air in such a shot, and he will
+leave that to regulate itself and to act when the ball strikes the
+earth.
+
+It is unquestionable that theoretically this may be done, and it is
+well known that I am a strong advocate of the use of back-spin, but in
+the case quoted by Braid there is nothing whatever to show that the
+ball has been played in such a manner as to produce an appreciable
+quantity of serviceable back-spin, or that such a method of play is
+necessary or advisable.
+
+Braid continues:
+
+     The fact is that a well-driven ball that has a total
+     carry--that is, from the tee to the point where it touches
+     the turf again, and not the distance of the obstacle that it
+     clears--of about 165 yards, under normal conditions of wind
+     and weather, is at its highest about 135 yards from the point
+     where it was struck, and after that it begins to fall
+     rapidly. This is chiefly the result of the under-spin which
+     is given to it when it is struck by the driver in the proper
+     way, and it shows the importance of under-spin to the golfer,
+     for if there were none, then all our courses would have to be
+     shortened, hazards brought closer to the tee, and the
+     principles upon which the game is played would have to be
+     altered in many respects. If there were no under-spin, then
+     the ball would have no help against the force of gravity, and
+     the result would be that the highest point of its flight
+     would be half-way between the point from which it was driven
+     and that at which it alighted.
+
+We see here again strong evidence of the fact that Braid is under the
+same impression as Professor Tait, and that is that the back-spin of
+golf is obtained from the loft of the club, whereas the loft of the
+club has one function, and that is to raise the ball from the earth,
+and there will be no particular necessity to alter our courses, for in
+ordinary every-day golf, back-spin is practically not used, except
+when it is intentionally applied by the golfer by means of the stroke
+suitable for its production.
+
+Braid gives a series of diagrams taken from Professor Tait's lecture
+which illustrate various trajectories of golf balls driven in varying
+circumstances. Many of these are so entirely theoretical that I need
+not consider them, but in referring to one of them Braid says:
+
+     The ball which has travelled farthest, or rather the one that
+     has been given most carry, is that which has been hit in the
+     right way, and to which has therefore been imparted the right
+     amount of under-spin. This is, in fact, the ideal trajectory
+     of a well-driven ball. It starts low, rises very slowly and
+     gradually, the line of flight bending upwards slightly, and
+     does not come down too quickly after the vertex has been
+     reached.
+
+This is, on the whole, a sound but very general description of an
+accurately played wind-cheater, but the remarkable thing is that
+although Braid expresses himself in such terms of admiration for this
+particular ball he does not anywhere in _Advanced Golf_ show us how to
+produce the stroke which gives this beneficial back-spin. This surely
+is a very great oversight. Nor so far as I have been able to see does
+he explain clearly how the beneficial back-spin of golf is obtained.
+
+Braid shows clearly by his quotation from Professor Tait's article
+that in the Professor's mind was the deep-rooted idea that it was
+possible to drive golf balls by a stroke delivered at the moment of
+impact in the same manner as is a blow from a billiard cue, but,
+needless to say, this is in the golf drive utterly impracticable.
+Professor Tait, in his paper, used a considerable number of diagrams
+to show that too much back-spin is bad in the drive, but as I have
+already pointed out, although this is very well in mere theory, it
+does not work out in the slightest degree in golf. It is easy to take
+light balloons and give them back-spin and show that it influences
+their trajectories to such an extent that they will go behind the
+point where they were struck, but a golf ball is a very small, hard,
+and heavy thing, and by the time that its back-spin begins to exert
+its influence in a marked manner on its flight it has travelled a
+considerable distance and the rate of spin will have materially
+diminished, so that no golfer need ever be afraid of applying too much
+back-spin to his drive.
+
+Braid proceeds:
+
+     Of course, as already indicated, the golfer does not know,
+     and in one sense does not care exactly how much under-spin he
+     gives to his ball when he drives it, only being aware that he
+     has given too much or too little according to results, and
+     knowing also that in either case excess or otherwise was due
+     to faulty stance or swing--most frequently this--or both. In
+     the present case of this high trajectory, the exact amount of
+     under-spin given to the ball is half as much again as that
+     given to the properly driven ball, and under the same normal
+     conditions these would be the relative flights of the two
+     balls.
+
+Now it is obvious that if Professor Tait was under the impression
+that the beneficial back-spin of golf was obtained merely from the
+horizontal blow delivered through the centre of the ball's mass, so
+that the ball took some slight spin by its roll up the face of the
+club, he had no very accurate idea of the rate of spin of that ball at
+the moment it left the face of the club, so that any attempt whatever
+on his part to measure the respective rates of spin of the different
+flight of these balls must be received with very great caution. As a
+matter of fact the rate of spin of the golf ball at the moment it
+leaves the club in a well-played drive with back-spin would be
+immeasurably faster than anything supposed by Professor Tait, who
+based his calculations on the ball obtaining this back-spin _from the
+loft of the club_, which is undoubtedly a grave error, and Braid
+wholly subscribes to this error, which is not to be wondered at, for
+Professor Sir J. J. Thomson, one of the most eminent scientists, has
+fallen into the same trap.
+
+Professors Tait and Thomson and James Braid talk much about the
+possibility of obtaining too much back-spin in the drive. This is
+scarcely theoretically possible in golf, and it is practically
+impossible. I will give an example taken from practical golf which
+will, I believe, quite convince any golfer that the possibility of
+obtaining too much back-spin in the drive need never be considered.
+
+Let us imagine a very badly sliced ball. By a badly sliced ball I do
+not necessarily mean an extremely quick slice where the ball leaves
+the line of flight to the hole quite suddenly, nor do I mean a ball
+pushed away to the right of the line to the hole; what I do mean is a
+ball which has been so sliced that it takes a tremendous curve from
+left to right, beginning to develop that slice in a pronounced manner
+at, say, half to two-thirds of its carry, which is quite bad enough
+for a slice. We frequently see in such a case, particularly on a windy
+day, and even on a still one, the great power which the spin has to
+deflect the ball from the line to the hole. It must be remembered that
+in this curve the spin is assisted by gravity--the ball is falling
+much of the time as it is being edged away--and even then it will be
+apparent that it is easy to get much greater spin in the slice than it
+is in the wind-cheater, for the simple reason that in the slice one
+has an unrestricted cut across the ball, whereas one has not this
+opportunity with the wind-cheater, for one hits the ground immediately
+one passes the ball.
+
+Now although it is possible to apply an infinitely greater cut to the
+slice than one can possibly do to the wind-cheater, the deflection
+from the line, except on a very windy day, is, comparatively speaking,
+gradual. That is to say that if, for the sake of argument, the
+trajectory of the slice could be turned upwards there would be no
+possibility whatever of the ball showing such a thing as a curl
+backwards towards the hole, which is shown by Professor Tait and,
+following him, by Professor Thomson. This is clearly so in any slice
+which is not an extremely exaggerated specimen, so it stands to reason
+that in the wind-cheater, where one's opportunity for applying cut is
+so restricted, and where the ball in its effort to climb upwards has
+to fight the direct pull of gravity, there is no possible chance of
+applying too much back-spin to the ball.
+
+At page 239 Braid says: "It may be of interest to mention that
+Professor Tait found that a well-driven ball turns once in every 2-1/2
+feet at the beginning of its journey." If Professor Tait found that a
+golf ball, obtaining this back-spin in the way in which he thought it
+did, turns "once in every 2-1/2 feet at the beginning of its
+journey," he would probably have found, if he had realised how
+back-spin really is obtained, that the number of revolutions at the
+moment that the ball is leaving the club are at least three or four
+times as many as he asserted. It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the
+fact that this would mean a lifting capacity infinitely beyond
+anything that Professors Tait and Thomson ever ascribed to back-spin
+in the drive.
+
+Braid continues:
+
+     We have so far only been considering the effect of the
+     spinning of the ball in the case of long shots with wooden
+     clubs. As a matter of fact, and as suggested at the outset,
+     it has also very great influence on the play in the case of
+     the shorter shots with iron clubs, as may be understood after
+     a very little consideration of the circumstances. It is the
+     excessive under-spin that is given to the ball by the angle
+     at which the face of the club is laid back, and the peculiar
+     way in which the stroke is played, that make the ball rise so
+     quickly and so high in the case of a short pitched approach,
+     and then make it stop comparatively dead when it comes to the
+     ground again.
+
+It is obvious here that Braid is under the impression that the loft of
+the club is largely responsible for the back-spin in the approach
+shots, but this is quite an error, for not one player in a hundred
+does apply back-spin to his lofted approaches unless he has been
+specially taught how to do it, for, curiously enough, the more lofted
+the club is, the greater chance is there that the player will at the
+moment of impact impart into his stroke that little bit of "upward
+concavity" which Professor Tait says, and truly says, is the enemy of
+back-spin. The fact is that very little under-spin, or, as I always
+prefer to call it, back-spin, is obtained from the loft of the club
+unless the blow is delivered as the club is travelling downward. That
+is the whole essence of the secret of back-spin, but it is not
+mentioned by Professors Tait or Thomson, or by James Braid. Any
+attempt whatever to obtain back-spin from the loft of the club will be
+practically useless. It must be obtained by the method of playing the
+shot, and the only way to obtain it effectually is to hit the ball
+before the club has arrived at the lowest point in its swing. By this
+means, and this means alone, is it possible to obtain the beneficial
+back-spin of golf, and I cannot say too often or too emphatically that
+anyone who trusts to the loft of the club to produce back-spin will be
+disappointed.
+
+Braid seems to have a glimmering of this, for he says:
+
+     However much a club were laid back it would be impossible to
+     play these shots properly if no under-spin were given to the
+     ball, and it seems to be a great advantage of having the
+     faces of iron clubs grooved or dotted that it helps the club
+     to grasp the ball thoroughly while this under-spin is being
+     imparted to it, so that the full amount is given to it, and
+     none is wasted through the ball slipping on the face.
+
+This is unquestionably sound mechanics. But even here, although Braid
+is so close to the heart of the matter--although he says, as I have
+shown repeatedly in many places, that "however much a club were laid
+back it would be impossible to play these shots properly if no
+under-spin were given to the ball," thus stating explicitly that
+something more remains to be done to produce back-spin than merely to
+hit the ball with a lofted club,--he does not get really to the
+essence of the stroke and show that it must be played by the club _as
+it is descending_.
+
+There is a very important matter which Braid refers to in this chapter
+on the science of the stroke. Speaking of the follow-through and the
+impact, he says:
+
+     One or two other calculations that were made by Professor
+     Tait may be briefly mentioned at the close of this chapter,
+     each of them seeming to convey an idea to the golfer. The
+     first is, that owing to the speed at which the ball leaves
+     the club, the total length of time during which ball and club
+     are in contact with each other is between one five thousandth
+     and one ten thousandth of a second, and the total length of
+     that part of the swing when the two are together--the length
+     of impact--is half an inch. It has been pointed out that it
+     by no means follows from this that because the time and space
+     of impact are so short that follow-through is of no real
+     account, after all, in the making of the drive. When the
+     follow-through is properly performed it shows that the work
+     was properly done during that half an inch of the swing that
+     was all-important. If the follow-through were short and wrong
+     it would indicate that the work during the impact was wrong
+     too. What it comes to is this, that it is impossible for any
+     man to swing his club round with so much force and regulate
+     exactly what he will do, and be conscious of the fact that he
+     is doing it as he regulated, during such a short space of
+     time as from one five thousandth to one ten thousandth of a
+     second. That is quite clear. What the golfer has to do, then,
+     is to make sure that his swing is right at the beginning,
+     that is, in the back-swing and the down-swing, and also in
+     the follow-through. He knows from instruction and experience
+     that if all these things are properly done the ball will go
+     off well; and what it amounts to is that the beginning being
+     right and the end being right, control being exercised over
+     each, the middle is right also, though in this case there is
+     no control over it.
+
+This quotation emphasises strongly the fact which I have always
+insisted on, that the matter of impact with the golf ball is an
+incident in the travel of the head of the club, and that it is
+practically impossible for the player to consciously perform anything
+which will affect the flight of the golf ball during impact. Braid has
+insisted upon this in other places, and it should quite settle any
+idea which many people have, of juggling with the golf ball during
+impact, but it is a remarkable thing to see James Braid claiming that
+at the moment of impact there is "no control over" the swing although
+there is both in the downward swing and the follow-through! I need not
+criticise this.
+
+The point, however, which I wish to refer to here specifically is in
+connection with the follow-through. Braid says, finally:
+
+     What the golfer has to do, then, is to make sure that his
+     swing is right at the beginning, that is, in the back-swing
+     and the down-swing, and also in the follow-through. He knows
+     from instruction and experience that if all these things are
+     properly done the ball will go off well; and what it amounts
+     to is that the beginning being right and the end being right,
+     control being exercised over each, the middle is right also,
+     though in this case there is no control over it.
+
+This, it seems to me, is a very bad presentment of the case. Although
+we admit that the impact is merely an incident in the travel of the
+club head, it is the most important incident, and it is on that
+incident that the mind should be concentrated, so that the idea of
+cumbering one's mind with any thought of the follow-through is very
+bad golf. The only portion of the stroke which should be on the
+player's mind at all is that which leads up to impact, for it is
+obvious that if that has been correctly performed, one need not
+trouble much about the follow-through, as that will come quite
+naturally. Also we will observe that Braid says here "control being
+exercised over each." This, of course, includes the follow-through
+over which Braid now speaks of exercising control, but it will be
+fresh in our minds that in describing the moment of impact, he says
+"Crack! everything is let go," and that really is what should happen
+after impact has taken place. There should be no thought whatever of
+the follow-through. That should produce itself, if one may so
+express it, and the player who encumbers his mind by any thought
+whatever as to how his club is going to end is simply adding another
+anxiety to his game.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE XIII. J. SHERLOCK
+
+    This plate shows Sherlock's stance and address in his
+    favourite iron-shot. He addresses the ball so that it is
+    nearly opposite his right heel.]
+
+Braid explained most graphically how the follow-through should be
+allowed to take care of itself, so that I cannot understand why he
+should now endeavour to split his pupils' mental idea of the golf
+stroke into halves with the golf ball in between. This is surely a bad
+conception of the stroke, and one which is likely to lead the pupil
+into grave error, for it shifts his mind forward on to the finish of
+the stroke, whereas it has no business to be anywhere else but on the
+ball.
+
+Before concluding this chapter I must refer to what Braid has to say
+with regard to a topped stroke. At page 238 he says:
+
+     A final thing to remember in connection with this question of
+     the rotation of the ball is, that when the ball is what we
+     call topped, the stroke is applied in such a way that a
+     motion exactly the reverse of under-spin is applied to it,
+     that is to say, the front part of the ball is made to move in
+     a downward direction. On the principle already explained,
+     there is then an extra air-pressure upon that ball from the
+     top, pressing it down, so that even if the ball that is
+     topped is somehow got up into the air from the tee, as
+     happens, it cannot stay there long, but comes down very
+     suddenly--"ducks," as it is called. However, a ball that
+     ducks for this reason nevertheless gets some benefit from
+     this over-spin when it does come down, for the spin acts in
+     just the same way as "top" does in the case of a billiard
+     stroke, that is to say, it makes the ball run more. If there
+     were no rough grass and no bunkers between the tee and the
+     hole this over-spin might be an exceedingly useful thing, and
+     the principles upon which the game of golf is played might be
+     entirely different from what they are; but as there is rough
+     in front of the tee, and generally a bunker at no great
+     distance from it, topping and over-spin are more frequently
+     fatal than not, the ball coming to grief either in the rough
+     or the bunker.
+
+This quotation makes it quite evident, I think, that James Braid is
+not very well acquainted with the principles which govern the flight
+and run of the golf ball. If this were his "knowledge" which we are
+considering, I should be more loath to deal with it so plainly as I am
+doing, but as he expressly states that he is indebted to another for
+much of his "knowledge" on this subject I have no hesitation whatever
+in criticising it and showing that it is absolutely impracticable from
+a golfing point of view.
+
+It is not too much to say that top-spin has absolutely no place in
+golf, for it is there utterly useless, and would be so were golf links
+like billiard tables, for no ball with top on it can travel any
+appreciable distance through the air, and to speak of a ball being
+driven with top is simply to show one's utter ignorance of the game,
+for even if there were no rough grass and no bunkers between the tee
+and the hole, this over-spin could never be "an exceedingly useful
+thing," nor could it ever, by the greatest stretch of one's
+imagination, alter the principles upon which the game of golf is
+played, for no stroke in golf could ever supplant the drive with
+back-spin.
+
+It is nonsense such as this which does much harm to the game. To speak
+of the possibility of over-spin being such that the "principles upon
+which the game of golf is played might be entirely different from what
+they are if the course had no rough grass and no bunkers" is one of
+the greatest absurdities which I have ever seen put in any book, and
+when one finds matter of this sort in a book called _Advanced Golf_,
+it calls for the severest possible criticism.
+
+The nearest approach to top-spin which exists in golf is the spin of
+the pull, and there because the axis of spin is turned over to a
+certain extent, we get the beneficial run at the end of the drive,
+but anyone who knows the first principles of the flight and run of the
+ball would know that if the golfer in his drive obtained pure top
+instead of this much modified over-spin, his drive would be entirely
+ruined, for the thing which produces the low flight of the ball is
+that the ball does its ducking sideways, if we may so express it, and
+the chances are that quite frequently the shock of landing alters the
+plane of its spin, so that it is converted into pure running, but this
+latter point, of course, is a matter which we can only theorise about
+and regard as almost proved from the nature of the run of the ball on
+many occasions.
+
+We need not here bother about top-spin. The only place where top (not
+top-spin) is of any use in golf, so far as I can remember, is on the
+putting-green, and there it is unquestionably useful, and it is not
+used so much as it should be. The point of outstanding importance,
+which I venture to think is made fairly clear by this chapter on the
+flight of the ball, is that the beneficial back-spin of golf is by far
+the most important spin which it is possible for a golfer to apply to
+his ball, and that that spin is not obtained in the manner stated by
+Professor Tait and, after him, by Professor Thomson, but is obtained
+by the method which I have indicated, viz. by a downward glancing
+blow, and, so far as regards this statement, we have the corroboration
+of James Braid to the extent that he says that "no matter what the
+loft is upon the club, it is impossible to obtain by loft alone the
+back-spin which one requires in golf."
+
+It may seem that I have been unnecessarily emphatic in dealing with
+this question, but as a matter of practical golf it is absolutely
+impossible to lay too much stress upon the value of a complete
+understanding of the method of obtaining this most valuable and
+serviceable spin, and unless a player most perfectly understands the
+theory of the stroke, it is the greatest certainty possible that he
+will waste many years of his life endeavouring to acquire the
+practice, whereas if he knows perfectly well what he is trying to do,
+he may acquire it in as many months as he would otherwise waste years
+in not getting it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE GOLF BALL
+
+
+It is remarkable, when one considers the vast number of scientific men
+who play golf, how little attention has been directed by them to the
+form and make of the golf ball. Many golfers are under the impression
+that the golf ball which is now used represents the limit of man's
+inventive genius. Probably the leading maker of the best feather ball
+in the days before the gutta-percha ball was known would have thought
+the same. As a matter of ascertained fact the vast majority of golf
+balls which are made to-day are imperfect in a variety of ways. There
+can be no doubt whatever that the ball which is marked by what are
+commonly called pimples, or bramble marking, is a most imperfect
+production.
+
+If one were to suggest to a billiard player that it would improve the
+run of the balls if they were covered with little excrescences similar
+to those which are on many golf balls, he would be pitied or
+maltreated, yet Mid-Surrey greens are not many removes from a billiard
+table, and putting is quite half the game of golf, as I think has been
+remarked by a great number of people, but is nevertheless not
+sufficiently considered by golfers, especially in the matter of
+choosing golf balls.
+
+It is not necessary, in considering the question of the golf ball, to
+bore people, as is usually done, with the history of the evolution of
+the golf ball, from the time when prehistoric men used a knuckle bone
+or something like that, right down through the feather ball period up
+to the present time. It will not be necessary for me to go back any
+further than the period of the gutta-percha ball. Most golfers will
+remember that the guttie was not a perfectly smooth ball; it was
+marked with grooved lines running round it. These crossed each other
+at various angles, producing, generally speaking, squares, although,
+naturally, some of the markings, where the lines did not cross at
+right angles, were irregular, but the principle of the marking was by
+indentation.
+
+The bramble marking, or marking by excrescence, is an idea which has
+obtained a hold more recently, and it is certain, from a practical and
+scientific point of view, that it is a very imperfect marking.
+
+It is a curious thing that in golf, where a very great amount of
+accuracy is demanded, particularly when one is playing a short put on
+a fiery green, the ball should be, so far as I am aware, the only ball
+which is deliberately constructed on principles which if applied to a
+billiard ball would make the ball what billiard players call "foul,"
+that is, a ball which runs untruly.
+
+It is unquestionable that sufficient thought has not been given to
+this matter. Very few people understand that it is practically
+impossible to place a ball with bramble markings on a perfectly true
+surface so that it will remain in the exact place where it was put,
+even if it were deposited on this spot by mechanical means. It is not
+hard to understand that this is natural when we remember that a golf
+ball which is marked by the excrescences called pimples or brambles
+comes to rest on a tripod of excrescences, and indeed it sometimes
+requires to find a base of four of these excrescences before it
+settles down.
+
+Any thinking golfer will be able to understand very easily that this
+must make for instability, and he will see clearly what it means when
+a ball is rolling very slowly. Let us imagine, for instance, that a
+golfer is playing an approach put of twenty yards. It is evident that
+while the main force of the blow is behind the ball it will enable it
+to overcome much of the untrueness of the ball, but it is equally
+apparent that as the force is dying away at the critical time when one
+wishes the ball to run truly on its course to the hole, it is most
+prone to waver. It is at times like this that the golfer blames the
+"beastly green," whereas if he knew as much as he should about the
+make of a golf ball he would know that he had only himself to thank
+for playing with such an extremely imperfect thing as the golf ball
+which is marked by excrescences.
+
+It is of course clear that on a putting-green the ball with
+excrescences sinks into the turf, and whilst it is running with any
+considerable force behind it, it makes for itself what may be termed a
+trough to run in, which is equivalent in depth practically to the hole
+which the ball would make when lying at rest on the green. This is the
+only thing which saves the ball marked with excrescences from being a
+much worse failure than it is. It is, however, when one comes to put
+with it over a hard, keen, or bare green that its wonderful
+imperfection is shown.
+
+Many golfers, on account of the fact that an ordinary putting-green
+does assist this imperfect ball to this extent, are inclined to
+maintain that the ball is sufficient for the needs of golf. They
+forget, of course, that a ball with these excrescences must
+necessarily be more inaccurate off the face of the putter than would
+be a ball marked by indentation, for when a ball is marked by
+indentation, either of the dimple pattern, which has come into vogue
+more recently, or of the lines which were used in the old days, it
+undoubtedly will run more truly than if marked by excrescences, for
+the reason that the indentation is bridged in such a manner that it is
+not felt to the same extent as is an excrescence.
+
+I may illustrate this by applying the marking of an old guttie to a
+billiard ball. Let us consider for a moment that the billiard ball has
+been marked by having lines sawn in it similar to those on a
+gutta-percha ball; these lines would not affect the trueness of the
+running of a billiard ball to a very great extent. But let us, on the
+other hand, imagine that instead of lines being sunk in the ball,
+these lines had been put in a network on the ball, so that they were
+raised from the surface of the billiard ball. It is obvious that such
+a ball would be absolutely impossible, and it would be an extremely
+foul-running ball.
+
+There is another point to be considered in connection with this matter
+of marking by indentation or by excrescences. It would be almost a
+matter of impossibility to stand a ball marked by excrescences so that
+it balanced on the point of one of the pimples. On the other hand it
+would be perfectly natural for a ball marked by a dimple of
+corresponding diameter to the base of the pimple, to come to rest on
+the "ring" formed by that dimple. We have already seen that the ball
+marked by excrescences requires three or four of those excrescences to
+rest on before it becomes stationary. Roughly, therefore, the
+instability of the ball marked by excrescences is at least three times
+as great as that of the ball marked by indentation, and if we
+contrast the ball marked by excrescences with the ball marked by the
+old gutta-percha marking, the difference would probably be very much
+greater against the bramble marking.
+
+We have already seen that the putting-green assists, to a certain
+extent, to make up for the defects of the ball with bramble marking,
+but it must not be forgotten that although the putting-green does
+this, the greater tendency to instability is there the whole time, and
+must put the golfer who uses the bramble-marked ball at a
+disadvantage.
+
+Putting, especially near the hole, is a very delicate operation, and
+it is apparent that in many cases the blow will be delivered on the
+point of one of these excrescences. It is equally apparent that in
+many cases that excrescence will not be in such a line with regard to
+the putter that the force of the blow will pass clean through the
+centre thereof, and also through the centre of the ball's mass in a
+line to the hole. When it does not do this it is certain that there is
+an element of inaccuracy introduced into the put (particularly the
+short put) which the wise golfer will not have in his stroke, for not
+only is the ball with excrescences more inaccurate off the face of the
+putter, but it is, particularly for short puts and on keen greens,
+much more inaccurate in its run than is the ball which is marked by
+indentations.
+
+This question of hitting one of the pimples of the golf ball might be
+considered to be theoretical, but it is a matter of the most
+absolutely practical golf, and I have seen the force of it exemplified
+not only in golf, but in lawn-tennis. I must give here a very
+interesting illustration of the point which I am making.
+
+Some time ago a lawn-tennis racket was produced which had a knot at
+the intersection of the strings. The idea of this knot was that it
+would enable the racket to get a better grip on the ball, and so to
+produce a much greater spin. This, to a certain extent, was correct.
+There was no doubt that the racket did get a very good grip on the
+ball, although personally, as a matter of practical lawn-tennis, I
+never regarded the invention very seriously; but it was useful in
+emphasising the point which I am now making with regard to the marking
+by excrescences of the golf ball. It was found that when one attempted
+to play delicate volleys with this racket that it was impossible to
+regulate the direction, for the simple reason that the ball, on many
+occasions, was struck by one of the knots on the racket, and this
+frequently spoilt the direction of the stroke.
+
+What happened with that racket and the lawn-tennis ball is what is
+happening every day on hundreds of greens with the golf balls which
+are marked by excrescences, and the golfer who is wise will have
+nothing whatever to do with any ball which is marked otherwise than by
+indentations.
+
+It was in the year 1908 that I first put forward these ideas in an
+article in _The Evening Standard and St. James's Gazette_. I had
+written many articles which were of much greater importance to the
+game from the scientific point of view, but this particular article
+eclipsed them all in interest. I had started the idea that the golf
+ball should be made much smoother than it was at that time, and for
+four months the controversy as to the merits of the rough ball or the
+smoother raged. I caused the leading manufacturers of golf balls to be
+interviewed. The manager of Messrs. A. G. Spalding & Bros., the
+well-known manufacturers, gave it as his opinion that the idea was
+perfectly ridiculous. He was quite convinced that the rough ball was
+the better ball. The manager of another company was of opinion that
+the smoother ball would not drive straight. Many of them traced this
+to the fact that a smooth ball would not fly straight, but we were not
+concerned with the question as to whether the smooth ball would fly
+straight or not; golfers, generally, are well aware of the fact, and
+even in 1908 were well aware of the fact, that a perfectly smooth ball
+will not fly straight. The whole point of the discussion was to
+ascertain if it would not be better to have a much smoother ball than
+that with the bramble marking.
+
+I was interested in having the opinion of the golf ball manufacturers,
+for I have never thought that they have dealt with the matter in a
+scientific manner. It seemed to me that the evolution of the marking
+of the golf ball had been entirely haphazard, and it is, I believe,
+still in the same condition, but it certainly shows some signs of
+improving.
+
+In order to put the matter beyond doubt I asked Mr. Rupert Ayres, of
+the famous firm of F. H. Ayres, Ltd., to have made for me a golf ball
+with an extremely fine marking; in fact I gave instructions for the
+ball to be marked with what I considered the least possible
+indentations which were likely to be serviceable. Mr. Ayres took a
+very great amount of trouble in connection with this matter, and he
+produced for me a ball similar, in all respects, to that which I
+wanted, with the slight exception that the marking was finer than I
+had desired. The result was that when the ball was painted the
+interstices were filled up to a very considerable extent, so much so
+indeed that I doubted if the ball was sufficiently marked to ensure
+its flying correctly. I tried this ball at Hanger Hill, both
+personally and by submitting it to a considerable number of drives by
+George Duncan, and it always gave unsatisfactory results--indeed its
+flight was so remarkable that it might well have been christened "the
+butterfly." It zigzagged and soared and ducked in a most remarkable,
+and to a very great extent, inexplicable manner.
+
+I knew, of course, that what I had to do was to increase the
+indentations a little in depth, for my object was to obtain the mean
+between no marking whatever and the ridiculously exaggerated marking
+by excrescences which is now so common, and my experiments were not in
+the direction of obtaining any marking whatever by excrescences, for I
+was following on the lines which were accidentally discovered by those
+who found that the old feather balls, and particularly the
+gutta-percha balls, flew better after they had been indented by the
+golf clubs. My idea, therefore, was, starting from the least possible
+indentation, to proceed by marking the ball more deeply and yet more
+deeply until I found that it would fly as accurately as a ball marked
+by excrescences.
+
+Mr. Ayres helped me in my experiments with remarkable patience and
+ability. I found that there are a hundred and one different markings,
+all of which are practically of equal service in so far as regards
+affecting the flight of the ball, but in every case I came to the
+conclusion that the marking by indentation is the best. This led me to
+get Mr. Ayres to produce for me a ball which he ultimately put on the
+market under my name, which was marked in identically the same manner
+as the old guttie. I believe "The Vaile" was the first rubber-cored
+ball with the old guttie marking to be placed on the market, and this
+marking was found to be satisfactory in every respect. The ball, as
+indeed one might imagine, both flew and ran perfectly, but it was met
+by golfers with a strange objection. They said it was too much like
+the old guttie. Personally, I did not care what they said about it. I
+had not caused the ball to be made from any commercial interest I had
+in the matter.
+
+It had been stated that a ball marked like this would not be so good
+for golf as a ball marked with excrescences. I had proved beyond a
+shadow of doubt that the ball was better for golf than the ball which
+was marked by excrescences, and I was content to leave it at that,
+although as a matter of fact later on Messrs. Ayres did produce for me
+a ball with a more distinctive marking which gave us equally good
+results in so far as regards flight and run, but which I did not like
+nearly so well as the old guttie marking.
+
+At the time this ball was produced I stated emphatically that I
+believed that the result of the agitation and discussion would be to
+knock the pimples off the golf ball. This statement was, of course,
+ridiculed by the makers of golf balls, and quite wisely too, for they
+had tens of thousands of pimply golf balls which they had to dispose
+of, and it was not their business to agree with my ideas of altering
+the make of the golf ball until they had disposed of their stock. They
+have, however, now no prejudice whatever in the matter, and the
+leading manufacturers both here and in America are pushing balls which
+are marked by indentation. They certainly were a long time after my
+manufacturers in realising the importance of the principle, but they
+are now endeavouring to make up for lost time. One firm, Messrs. A. G.
+Spalding & Bros., is pushing three balls as their leading lines. These
+are the Glory Dimple, the Midget Dimple, and the Domino Dimple. All
+these balls are what are now called dimple balls, and they meet with
+great favour in many quarters, although there are still a number of
+golfers who swear by the bramble-marking.
+
+During the course of this long controversy I suggested that it would
+be a good idea if the balls which were marked by excrescences and
+those which were marked by indentations were subjected to a test by
+being mechanically propelled. Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, the famous
+wild-fowler and author of _The Projectile Throwing Engines of the
+Ancients_, wrote to me and very kindly volunteered to carry out the
+experiment if I would send him the balls I wished him to test. I
+naturally accepted his very kind offer, and sent him a variety of golf
+balls to be tested. Sir Ralph is the possessor of some very remarkable
+catapults built on the principles of the old Roman engines of war, and
+with these he conducted a series of experiments, which were so
+interesting that they deserve to be permanently recorded for the
+benefit of future generations. His conclusions were published in two
+articles which occupied about three columns of _The Times_, and they
+are of such an instructive nature that I propose to quote somewhat
+fully from them.
+
+Sir Ralph showed quite clearly that in a very great number of cases
+the centre of gravity of the ball is untrue. Quite a number of golfers
+would think that it is not a matter of very great importance if the
+centre of gravity of a golf ball is untrue. Anyone who thinks this may
+speedily undeceive himself by a small experiment suggested by Sir
+Ralph. Let him cut a hole in the side of a golf ball, insert a piece
+of lead or half a dozen shot and fill the hole up with wax or soap and
+then put with that ball. He will be astonished to find what a peculiar
+course it takes.
+
+Of course, not many golf balls are loaded like this, but it is beyond
+any doubt whatever that in many cases the gutta-percha covering of
+the rubber-core is of very uneven thickness. This in itself and quite
+apart from the defect of marking by excrescences which I have already
+referred to, is sufficient to account for the very bad running of many
+golf balls.
+
+I may say, too, that I believe this untrueness of the centre of
+gravity is responsible for the double swerve which one frequently sees
+in a truly hit golf ball. A swerve which is obtained from the
+application of spin to the golf ball, almost invariably is continuous
+and in the one direction, but I have frequently seen well-hit drives
+by the most famous players swerve to the right, back again to the left
+and resume their original course. This has happened with such perfect
+regularity in many cases that there must unquestionably be a definite
+reason for it, apart from rotation applied by contact with the club,
+and the only explanation which I can give of it in any way at all is
+that it is caused by an untrue centre.
+
+The shape, resiliency, and centre of gravity of the golf ball are of
+vital importance to the player, but the golfer accepts all these
+matters with a blind faith which is touching in the extreme. A golfer
+should not accept from a golf ball manufacturer a ball which is not
+truly spherical, or one which does not fly truly when truly hit, but
+as a matter of fact almost fifty per cent of the golf balls supplied
+by the leading makers come within this category. One may take fifty
+golf balls of any specific sort, and test these for shape, centre of
+gravity, and weight, and it is an even chance that twenty-five of them
+will be quite different from the other twenty-five.
+
+It is very easy indeed to test the rubber-cored balls as regards the
+correctness of their centre of gravity. Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey found
+that none of the rubber-cored balls was correct as to its centre of
+gravity, though some were much more incorrect than others, and he
+found that not one of them was truly spherical in shape. I may say
+that in a large number of cases I have verified his experiments. Sir
+Ralph Payne-Gallwey's method of testing them for correctness of centre
+of gravity is so simple that I may give it here for the benefit of any
+player who desires to see that he is getting a ball which will serve
+him truly in so far as regards this important particular.
+
+Sir Ralph placed the ball which he desired to test in a basin of water
+and waited until it came to rest. When the ball had come to rest,
+there was naturally a small portion of it protruding from the water.
+Sir Ralph marked the centre of this spot with a pencil dot and he
+found that however carelessly he put the same ball into the water,
+however much it was rolled about, that the portion of the ball marked
+with the pencil dot always came upwards out of the water again, and
+that the actual spot with the pencil mark on it always came to exactly
+the same place. It was evident from this that the centre of gravity of
+the balls tested in this manner was considerably untrue.
+
+Sir Ralph found, as might be expected, that the old guttie ball was
+much truer as regards its centre of gravity than the rubber-cored
+balls. He tested the gutta-percha ball and the miniature ball which
+would not float in plain water, in a solution of salt and water.
+
+The experiments which he conducted in connection with these balls were
+really quite exhaustive. He found that with some of the balls,
+especially the smaller ones, the dot appeared in two seconds, while
+some of the others took from four to six seconds to come upward. He
+arrived at a comparative idea of the error in centre of gravity by
+placing the dot downwards in the water, and then noting with a
+stop-watch the time occupied by it in appearing out of the water on
+top of the ball. He thus took the time in each case from the moment of
+release to the moment that the pencil dot again came uppermost, and by
+these means he obtained as accurately as he could with a stop-watch
+the comparative error of one ball with another in regard to its centre
+of gravity.
+
+The testing of the balls for true spherical shape was, of course,
+easy, and was done by means of callipers. It can be done either by
+callipers or by a parallel vice which may be opened just wide enough
+to allow a ball to be passed between its jaws. If one has not a vice
+or callipers available, it is, of course, easy to cut a circle in a
+piece of cardboard and gradually increase the size of the circle until
+a ball will just get through. The circle, of course, must be made
+truly, but this can easily be done by a pin and a string if compasses
+are not available.
+
+Of course, it would be advisable in testing a golf ball through a ring
+such as this to obtain in the first case a ball which is as near a
+true sphere as any rubber-cored ball can be. This may be done by
+fixing any two objects in a similar position to that suggested for the
+jaws of a vice, as for instance the opening of a drawer. One may open
+a drawer and fix the drawer firmly so that the ball can just pass in
+at the opening. Once this is done, it is almost as effectual as either
+callipers or the jaws of a vice.
+
+Sir Ralph found that the gutties were as near true spheres as
+possible, and also that these balls showed very slight error in centre
+of gravity. This, of course, from the solidity of the matter and their
+original formation in the mould might naturally have been expected,
+for in the nature of the modern ball it stands to reason that its
+centre of gravity could never be so consistent as that of a ball which
+is made entirely in the one piece as was the old gutta-percha ball.
+
+Sir Ralph has some remarkable projectile engines which gave him
+exceptional facilities for testing the flight of the golf balls which
+I sent him. He has one engine which weighs about two tons and is
+capable of casting a stone ball of twelve pounds a distance of a
+quarter of a mile. The catapult which he used for the purpose is a
+small reproduction of this big engine. His small model of this engine
+weighs about forty pounds and will pitch a golf ball from 180 to 200
+yards, the distance of course depending upon the amount of tension
+used and the angle of elevation.
+
+The power of the engine is obtained from twisted cord, and the arm of
+the machine used by Sir Ralph is two feet eight inches long, and is
+provided with a cup at its upper end to hold the ball. It is so
+arranged that the balls can be thrown any intermediate distance
+required up to 200 yards, and at any elevation. Sir Ralph conducted
+experiments with balls thrown by the catapult, and also with balls hit
+away by it in a manner similar to a golf club, and, as might be
+expected, no spin whatever was imparted to the ball. It was thrown in
+a straight line every time with unvarying accuracy, and there was not
+the slightest sign whatever of slice, pull, or cut. This, of course,
+is exactly what one who knows the principle of the catapult would
+expect.
+
+Sir Ralph found, however, that the accuracy of flight of the ball was
+very remarkable, and he gives as an instance the fact that a ball
+which had been marked as having a particularly accurate flight was
+pitched twenty times in succession within a few feet of a stick stuck
+in the ground 180 yards from the machine.
+
+It is interesting to note the weights of the balls used in these
+experiments. They varied from 22 drachms to 23 drachms avoirdupois,
+and their diameters from 53 to 54 thirty-seconds of an inch. The
+guttie ball used by Sir Ralph weighed 24-1/2 drachms, and one of the
+miniature balls 24 drachms 6 grains. Sir Ralph threw a dozen balls of
+various makes from his small engine at a mark 160 yards distant, and
+he threw each ball twenty times before another was tried. He employed
+a fore-caddie to mark the indentations each ball made where it fell. A
+peg was put in at the spot where each ball landed, and these distances
+were all subsequently measured, and the records kept for purposes of
+comparison.
+
+After this had been done with one ball the same was done with another,
+and it is almost unnecessary to say that the angle of elevation and
+the force used in each case was the same. Sir Ralph found that in
+propelling the balls with the wind there was very little difference in
+the length of carry or the steadiness of the flight, though, as might
+have been expected, the guttie beat all of them in distance, being six
+times in its first series of twenty throws a few yards farther than
+the longest carry made by any of the other balls. This, of course, was
+quite natural, for the old guttie was heavier, harder, a more correct
+sphere and more correctly marked than the ball which is now in common
+use. Therefore it was quite reasonable to expect that it would go
+farther when propelled from the catapult. It is, of course, just as
+easy to understand that this superiority would not exist when the
+ball was struck with a golf club, for then the question of resiliency
+comes into the matter.
+
+It is interesting to note that Sir Ralph found that the miniature golf
+ball more nearly approximated to the guttie than to the rubber-cored
+balls. The miniature being harder and heavier than the other
+rubber-cores, when thrown by the engine gave the longest flight of all
+the rubber-cores, although it did not get so far as the guttie. Its
+superiority, however, when struck from the engine in a manner as
+nearly as possible resembling the blow with a golf club, was
+non-existent, and its carry was then found to be the shortest of all
+the rubber-cores, and the guttie ball was, when hit away by the
+machine, shorter yet than the miniature golf ball.
+
+Sir Ralph found, as I had confidently asserted would be the case, that
+against the wind the balls with the roughest markings always carried
+the shortest distance, and that they tended to rise too much in their
+flight. This was most apparent at about two-thirds of the carry. Sir
+Ralph found that there was a distinct difference in this matter of
+soaring between the very roughly marked balls and those which were a
+little less so. He proved to demonstration the fact which I had
+confidently maintained, that the less roughly marked balls, owing to
+the small amount of air friction which they set up, and naturally in
+consequence thereof, their lower parabola, always carried farther
+against the wind.
+
+I have referred elsewhere to Harry Vardon's remark about not
+attempting to regulate the flight of the ball in a cross wind, or
+indeed, for the matter of that, in any other wind by applying spin to
+it. Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey's experiment put this matter beyond a
+shadow of doubt, so that we may be absolutely certain that the idea of
+trying to slice against a wind to get a straight ball, or to pull into
+a wind to get an extra run, is for ninety-five per cent of players not
+practical golf. Sir Ralph found that with a fresh side wind from the
+left, all the balls, except the guttie, landed from eight to twelve
+yards to the right of the mark at a range of 130 yards. He states
+emphatically that in this case it was clearly shown that the more
+roughly marked balls consistently showed the greatest deviation from
+the correct line of flight. We have, however, gained a very strong
+argument in favour of the ball with the less pronounced marking.
+
+Sir Ralph also discovered another thing which is of very great
+importance indeed to the practical golfer, but a thing which is not
+considered in the slightest degree by one golfer in ten thousand, and
+that is that the balls which were most untrue in regard to their
+centre of gravity, not only always dropped the farthest to the right,
+that is, were most affected by the cross wind, but that they also ran
+at a more acute angle in the same direction after contact with the
+ground. Thus we see that in 130 yards the most roughly-marked ball in
+a cross wind is deflected twelve yards. We see also that this ball was
+the one which was most incorrect as regards its centre of gravity. We
+therefore have a specimen of the worst ball which could be used for
+this purpose being carried twelve yards off its line, and we may
+reasonably take this to be the extreme of error for that distance.
+
+It is easy to understand when we consider such an illustration as this
+what a tremendous handicap the golfer is suffering from when he uses
+the ball which allows the wind to get such a grip of it as the
+bramble-marked ball does, and moreover one with a centre of gravity
+which is so bad that it assists the work of the wind in carrying the
+ball away as it does, and not only assists the wind to this extent,
+but even carries its vices to the extent of still further fighting
+against the player by exaggerating its error when it lands by running
+away from the line.
+
+These are all bad enough, but we must remember that there is also to
+be considered the error which is unquestionably a matter to be
+reckoned with, which inevitably takes place when the ball marked by
+excrescences is struck by a club.
+
+I had sent Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey the ball which I had had made for
+experimental purposes with very slight marking, and he was good enough
+to experiment with this for me. He says of it: "This ball was quite
+smooth, as smooth indeed as a billiard ball, the idea being that
+having no markings on its outside it would not present so frictional a
+surface to the air in its flight, as a ball with markings, and that
+being without this it would also be very accurate from the putter. I
+tried this smooth ball from the engine, and it 'ducked' every time in
+an extraordinary manner, its length of carry being seldom more than
+eighty yards."
+
+Sir Ralph is most accurate, generally speaking, but he is in error by
+stating that this ball is as smooth as a billiard ball. The ball which
+I sent Sir Ralph was called by me "The Ruff," merely as a distinctive
+name, for it was the nearest approach to a perfectly smooth ball that
+I could make. It is evident from Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey's description
+of it that it is, as compared with the golf balls now in use, very
+smooth, but it is pitted all over with remarkably small indentations
+so that it appears to be chased, but, as I explained, the paint to a
+certain extent covered up the interstices so as to prevent the ball
+giving me the test which I expected to get from it. It is, however,
+not accurate to say that this ball is perfectly smooth.
+
+It is obvious that from this I was trying to work to the mean which I
+felt perfectly certain existed between the old golf ball, whose
+erratic flight was well known, and the modern golf ball with its
+exaggerated marking.
+
+Sir Ralph thought that the form of this ball might not, for some
+unknown reason, suit a projectile engine. He continues:
+
+     ... and as I could not drive it further than about eighty
+     yards with a golf club, I engaged the well-known
+     professional, Edward Ray, to play a round of the green with
+     this ball at Ganton. As Ray is an exceptionally long and
+     accurate player with driver and cleek I felt the ball would
+     have a fair chance of going, if it could go. From the first
+     tee the ball did not carry a hundred yards, though, to all
+     appearances, struck clean and hard. I thought that for once
+     in a way Ray had missed his drive, but as the same thing
+     occurred from every tee and through the green for the next
+     six holes, there was no disputing that a smooth ball was
+     quite useless for golf.
+
+     I then proceeded to nick the ball slightly with the point of
+     a knife, spacing the small raised nicks about one-third of an
+     inch apart, the ball being still a very smooth one in
+     comparison to any of the usual kinds. After this slight
+     alteration the ball flew splendidly, whether off wood or iron
+     clubs, neither too high nor too low, but quite straight, and
+     with the very slight rise towards the end of its carry that
+     is the essence of perfect flight in a golf ball, some of the
+     carries when measured from the tee being well over two
+     hundred yards.
+
+Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey continues that when he returned home he shot
+this ball from the small engine, and it then several times
+out-distanced the best records made by any of the balls previously
+tested. After this he chipped up many more little raised nicks on the
+same smooth ball as a further experiment, but he then found that this
+not only reduced its length of flight by several yards, but also
+caused it to soar too much upwards when projected against a head wind
+as is the case with the ordinary rough-marked golf ball.
+
+It will be seen here that Sir Ralph continued with the ball sent by me
+to him, the experiment, which I had started, as it was my intention to
+proceed from a ball as nearly as could be, smooth, towards the present
+exaggerated ball, by the least possible steps, so that the moment that
+I had arrived at a ball so marked that it would not give me any extra
+carry, I should desist at once.
+
+Sir Ralph's summing up is as follows. He says: "From such practical
+tests it is evident that the surface of a golf ball is far too rough,
+and that it would fly with more accuracy and farther, especially with
+a head or a side wind, had it much less numerous and prominent
+markings on its cover." This is exactly what I contended for in my
+original article on the subject, and it is exactly what has to be
+realised by the makers of the golf ball of the future. Many of the
+balls which are now being produced with the dimple marking are moving
+in the right direction, but they still have the grave errors of bad
+centre of gravity and excessive marking. When these two matters have
+been adjusted we shall have a very much better ball.
+
+It will be interesting now to refer to the results which Sir Ralph
+Payne-Gallwey obtained when he fitted his catapult with an arm
+provided with an enlarged head similar in shape to the head of a golf
+driver. Sir Ralph says:
+
+     This striking arm hit the ball away just as it is hit by a
+     golf club. The ball I suspended by gossamer silk from the
+     projecting beam of a little gallows fixed over the engine,
+     and so positioned that the enlarged upper end of the arm
+     struck the ball fair and true and with its full force and at
+     the same angle every time.
+
+I was not present when Sir Ralph made these experiments. He, however,
+was kind enough to send me a copy of his most interesting work
+entitled _The Projectile Throwing Engines of the Ancients_. This book
+gives many illustrations of the catapults used by the Romans and
+others.
+
+I find it somewhat difficult to follow Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey when he
+says: "This striking arm hit the ball away just as it is hit by a golf
+club," for it seems to me that as the ball was suspended above the
+striking face of the club which was fixed to the upper end of the arm,
+that the arc described by the arm of the catapult would be exactly
+opposite to that described by the head of the golf club, and it is of
+course conceivable that this would in some way affect the carry of
+golf balls struck by the machine in this manner.
+
+I need not, however, go into that here, for whatever the results
+obtained by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey were each ball was hit in exactly
+the same manner, and therefore we have, in so far as regards distance
+and the effect of the side wind, fairly accurate comparative tests.
+Sir Ralph says: "Though I could not obtain the same length of carry by
+making the engine strike the ball as I could when the ball was thrown
+by it--not by about fifteen yards--yet the individual results in
+distance and in deviation with a side wind exactly corresponded with
+the behaviour of the various balls when they were thrown and when
+carries of from 180 to 200 yards were obtained from them."
+
+Sir Ralph found that in this experiment the carry of the guttie was
+invariably about eighteen yards shorter than that of the ordinary
+rubber-cored balls. He therefore carried out an interesting experiment
+by fixing a pad of rubber on the face of the head of the arm, and the
+guttie, when struck by this, travelled as far as any of the balls. He
+found, as I have previously indicated, that of the rubber-cored balls
+the small one carried the shortest distance when struck by the engine,
+and he found also that its length of flight was not increased by using
+the rubber pad. This, of course, is what we might have expected.
+
+There is one very interesting matter which Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey
+notes. He says: "Another curious thing, the ball with the most untrue
+centre of gravity usually made one, and occasionally even two, swerves
+in the air when hit against the wind, though this eccentricity in its
+line of flight was less noticeable when it was thrown from the
+engine." This is a very interesting statement to anyone who devotes
+attention to the flight of the ball, and it goes very far indeed to
+confirm my own impression that the double swerve of the golf ball
+which I have noticed so frequently, is produced by defective centre of
+gravity.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE XIV. J. SHERLOCK
+
+    Top of swing in iron-shot. Note the position of the ball, and
+    the upright swing of the club.]
+
+These experiments are of very great value, and should be carefully
+noted by golf ball makers, but Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey was not content
+with testing the golf balls for their flight. After having put in
+several days doing this, and having fired fully 500 shots, he
+continued his experiments with these balls with the object of
+ascertaining their relative merits on the putting-green. He says:
+
+     I obtained a piece of lead three-quarters of an inch thick,
+     two inches wide, and three feet long, in which I cut a
+     straight and smooth groove one inch wide. One end of this
+     piece of lead I rested on the cushion at the baulk end of a
+     billiard table, and directed its other end towards the spot
+     on which the red ball is placed in the game of billiards.
+     The forward end of the grooved lead I tapered off so that a
+     ball ran evenly and smoothly from the groove on to the table
+     without any drop or deviation as it left the piece of lead,
+     which from its weight, when once set, could not change its
+     position. I now placed a thimble on the spot at the far end
+     of the table and rolled an accurately-turned wooden ball the
+     same size as a golf ball down the sloping groove. After a
+     little adjustment of the lead piece its line of fire was
+     correct, and I was able to knock the thimble off the spot
+     fifty times in succession. The ball travelled with sufficient
+     speed just to reach the cushion beyond the thimble when the
+     latter was moved aside, and the shot at the thimble nicely
+     represented a slow put of eight feet in length.
+
+This is a most interesting way of testing the golf ball. I may say
+that I have myself carried out experiments on similar lines, and that
+the results which I obtained practically confirm the accuracy of those
+which Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey got. He found that on testing various
+golf balls the results were widely different. He tried each ball
+several times in a series of twenty tries at the thimble. He found
+that individually they seldom hit it more than three or four times in
+a series, and that some of the balls, particularly those which he had
+found to be incorrect so far as regards their centre of gravity,
+rolled away from the thimble as much as two feet to the right or left,
+and that they sometimes actually went into the corner pockets of the
+table. This would seem to be incredible, but I can vouch for the
+accuracy of Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey's statements.
+
+It is an amazing thing to think of, but it is perfectly true, that the
+modern golf ball is so badly constructed that in a straight roll down
+the middle of the table such as that described by Sir Ralph
+Payne-Gallwey, the ball will absolutely roll as far off the line as
+the corner pockets, and indeed sometimes farther even than this. That
+is what the golfer has to contend with when he tries to put with a
+bramble ball on a golf green, but, of course, as he does not know it,
+he blames himself for an off day, or the green for being "beastly,"
+but he never by any chance whatever gives a thought to his horribly
+defective golf ball.
+
+Sir Ralph says that the guttie was a notable exception to the
+inaccuracy of the rubber cores. He found that in its different series
+of twenty tries it often struck the thimble from fourteen to fifteen
+times, and when it missed was usually within an inch of the mark. This
+shows clearly the wonderful difference which I have already emphasised
+between marking by indentation and marking by excrescence. Sir Ralph
+also emphasises a point to which I had already directed attention as
+to the ball marked by excrescences running truly when hit hard. It is
+when the ball has no great propulsive force behind it that its
+inherent vice is most surely shown. Sir Ralph says:
+
+     Any of the balls if played fairly hard from a cue could be
+     made to strike the thimble every time; but then such a hard
+     hit ball would go far beyond the hole in golf, and probably
+     overrun the putting green! The smooth billiard-table cloth
+     may be taken to represent the hard, bare and fast putting
+     green of a dry summer.
+
+That is a very fair comparison, with the exception that the hard, bare
+and fast putting-green of a dry summer would present infinitely
+greater inaccuracies to the already sufficiently inaccurate golf ball
+than would the billiard table. Let the unthinking golfer ruminate a
+little on this subject, and the day is not far distant when we shall
+never see such a thing as an excrescence on a golf ball.
+
+Sir Ralph was very ingenious and thorough in his experiments. He
+desired to obtain the nearest possible approximation which he could to
+a natural putting-green, so he stretched a strip of rough green baize
+on the billiard table and tested the balls on this. He made a chalk
+mark on which to place the thimble, and its distance from the lead
+gutter was the same as in his other experiments. He then found that
+the balls, with the exception of those which had been marked as having
+their centre of gravity much out of place, ran with far greater
+accuracy. Most of them hit the thimble from eight to ten times in
+their individual series of twenty shots, but the guttie was, as usual,
+an easy winner. Sir Ralph found that on the billiard table if the
+balls were played fairly hard from a cue, although too hard for golf,
+the thimble could be knocked over every time.
+
+I consider that these experiments prove beyond a shadow of doubt, as I
+personally never doubted, that the ordinary bramble-marked golf ball
+will not run truly unless it has a considerable amount of force behind
+it, and that for short puts, and particularly on anything like a fast
+green, it is a most treacherous ball. Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey says:
+
+     All this goes to prove that, although a ball may be of
+     inaccurate make, it keeps its line to near the end of its
+     course when hit hard along the ground, as for instance, in a
+     long running up approach to the hole from the edge of a
+     putting green. It is also clear that a ball with an incorrect
+     centre of gravity will very seldom run true off the putter if
+     the ground is hard, fast and smooth and the distance it is
+     required to travel is only a few feet. For this reason
+     manufacturers should consider the accuracy of a ball for
+     short puts--accuracy that can only be gained by making it a
+     perfect sphere with its centre of gravity in the exact centre
+     of the ball; for short puts must lose many more matches than
+     short drives.
+
+As Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey truly says, with a badly balanced ball the
+easiest of short puts may fail, especially on a downward slope, though
+the player rarely suspects that his ball and not his skill is to
+blame.
+
+It is not, as I have already pointed out, only the question of the
+badly balanced ball which is of such vital importance in short puts,
+but it is the question of the untrue running of the ball marked by
+excrescences; also there is the equally important matter, which I have
+referred to, of the untrueness of the ball marked by excrescences in
+coming off the face of the putter. I am firmly convinced that there is
+no more perfect marking for a golf ball than that used for the old
+guttie ball, that is a marking by indented lines, but even here I
+believe that equally good results, both in flight and run, would be
+obtained if the gutta-percha ball were marked in a similar manner but
+with fewer lines.
+
+Some of Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey's conclusions are important. He
+suggests that a golfer should carefully test a ball before using it in
+an important match, and this is, unquestionably, from a scientific
+point of view, a very sound and good suggestion. I have already
+indicated his method of testing a ball for its centre of gravity, and
+I have shown how the ball may be tested for its spherical shape. There
+is no necessity to apply any test whatever to the ball in so far as
+regards its marking. There is one maxim with regard to that--avoid
+anything in the shape of a golf ball marked by excrescences.
+
+Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey's advice to golfers with regard to the balls
+need not be given here in full, valuable as I believe it to be in the
+main. But there is one matter which is worth repeating. He says:
+
+     Select a ball with as smooth a cover as you can find, for
+     though all golf balls require to be roughened in order to
+     steady their flight, those most deeply scored travel the
+     shortest distance, and are most affected by a head or side
+     wind.
+
+This is very sound and important advice, and it should receive the
+attention not only of golfers, but of the golf ball manufacturers, for
+even those balls which are now marked by indentation are, in my
+opinion, too freely marked, and I am inclined to think that the
+dimples on the golf balls which are so marked, are, if anything, too
+large and too frequent. I think it is extremely probable that the
+balls which are so marked would fly and run better than they do now if
+they were marked by lines as the old guttie was marked, but with fewer
+of these lines. Probably if they were marked with one-third of the
+number of lines which were used on the old guttie, we should have a
+perfect flying and running ball.
+
+Before closing this chapter on the make of the golf ball, it will be
+interesting to refer once again to the results obtained by Sir Ralph
+Payne-Gallwey when throwing the smooth ball from his machine and also
+when having it driven by Edward Ray. He obtained results similar in
+all respects to those which George Duncan and I obtained when trying
+"The Ruff." It is very curious indeed that so far there have not been
+any definite scientific experiments made to show exactly where the
+serviceable degree of roughness ends and the prejudicial begins,
+though much has certainly been done since I started the controversy
+about the relative merits of a smoother ball.
+
+Some golf ball makers have gone so far as to produce a dimple ball
+with a small pimple in the dimple. This, in effect, reduced the dimple
+to a ring, and these balls have been found to fly and run very well,
+but all that has been so far done has been a matter of experiment, of
+rule of thumb work. I do not think that there is a firm of golf ball
+makers in England which is in possession of a proper mechanical
+driver. We are assured that at least one firm in America is in
+possession of such a machine, but so far as I am aware there is no
+efficient machine of such a nature in England. This is very
+remarkable, as with such a machine a firm of golf ball manufacturers
+could obtain results which would probably give them a big advantage
+over their competitors.
+
+I was quite astonished to see it stated by a firm of golf ball makers
+the other day that, although they were making a ball marked by
+indentations, they had come to the conclusion after much experimenting
+that the bramble pattern was the best for all-round excellence. In the
+face of the remarkably conclusive experiments conducted by Sir Ralph
+Payne-Gallwey, whose results I may say bore out up to the hilt
+everything which I had said about the defective construction of the
+golf ball, I should like to know how this manufacturer comes to the
+conclusion that the bramble marking is the best.
+
+One point which has not been made very strongly is that it was not
+necessary for the old balls to be badly knocked about before they
+would fly well. Comparatively little damage improved the flight of the
+ball. This, in itself, should be sufficient to convince manufacturers
+that they are still in many ways marking their balls excessively. It
+is quite evident that no particular kind of marking is required on the
+golf ball, although it is conceivable that a certain kind of marking
+might possess some slight advantage over another. It would be
+interesting if an exhaustive set of experiments on the lines of those
+already conducted by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey could be carried out
+under proper supervision by some eminent scientist or by a leading
+firm of golf ball makers, or by some prominent paper interested in
+golf. The matter would undoubtedly be of very great interest to
+golfers generally, and would probably result in a great improvement of
+the balls at present on the market.
+
+The phenomenon of the uneven flight of the smooth golf ball has never,
+so far as I am aware, been satisfactorily explained. We all know, of
+course, that practically nothing which has not a tail flies well. A
+tail is necessary for an arrow, for an aeroplane, for a bird to steer
+itself with, and even the rifle bullet would not fly well until it
+was, in effect, provided with a tail. It has always seemed to me that
+there was a possibility of an explanation of the defective flight of
+the smooth golf ball in this fact. It stands to reason that in the
+passage of the ball through the atmosphere there is a considerable
+compression of the air in front of the ball, and it is equally obvious
+that this compressed air is, if we may so express it, flowing
+backwards over the ball, and therefore running between the bramble
+markings. Of course, we are aware that it is not really a question of
+the air flowing backwards, but of the ball driving through the
+atmosphere, but we have merely to consider what may possibly be the
+effect of this action.
+
+It seems to me that the air, in passing back and round the ball in the
+manner described, is also in a state of compression until it has
+passed backwards and, to a slight extent, behind the golf ball, so
+that we have, if we may so express it, attached to the ball a tail of
+compressed air which is constantly striving to resume its normal
+density at a slightly varying distance behind the ball in its passage
+through the air.
+
+If my idea, which is expressed now in an extremely unscientific and
+popular form, is correct, it would seem that the roughened ball holds
+more straightly into this tail of compressed air than it would be
+possible for a smooth ball to do; in other words, it seems to me that
+there would be a greater possibility of the smooth ball slipping the
+pressure which would be accentuated on that portion of the ball which
+Professor Thomson describes as its nose, and it seems feasible,
+although I do not care to be dogmatic on this point, that if the
+centre of gravity of the smooth ball were untrue, as indeed the centre
+of gravity of nearly every smooth ball is, the effect of the pressure
+of the condensed air on the front of the ball would be much more
+pronounced with the smooth ball than it would in the case of the ball
+marked by excrescences or indentations.
+
+I am aware that this idea of mine is open to argument, and I do not
+say for one moment that it is absolutely correct. It is undoubted that
+there is much uncertainty in the minds of extremely scientific men as
+to the cause for the uncertain flight of the smooth golf ball. Even so
+distinguished a scientific inquirer as Professor Sir J. J. Thomson
+assured me that he did not understand the reason for the erratic
+behaviour of the smooth ball. There is possibly another explanation,
+but again I put this forward tentatively. Even when a ball is driven
+by a golf club without appreciable spin, as indeed most golf balls
+are, it seems to me quite possible, especially in the case of the
+balls with defective centres, that before they have gone far on their
+journey they will proceed to acquire spin on account of the tendency
+of one side to lag more than the other.
+
+It seems, then, that if this spin is set up in the manner which I
+described, it may, and indeed quite likely will, influence the path of
+the ball sufficiently to deflect it from the original line of flight,
+but as this spin has no very great power behind it, it seems quite
+likely that when it has deflected the ball from the line of flight it
+may be checked to such an extent that the atmosphere has a chance to
+get to work on the ball again and produce that which is practically a
+reverse spin. In this way, and in this way alone, can I see any reason
+for the double swerve which I have already referred to, in the carry
+of the golf ball. It must be understood that in the case of double
+swerve which I am referring to, the deflection from the straight line
+has always occurred at a point in the carry where one would not expect
+to see it if it had been occasioned by spin administered by the club,
+and it is always very much less indeed than the swerve would be if it
+had been obtained by spin produced by the club.
+
+Also there is this other fact against the hypothesis that the swerve
+is produced by spin imparted at the moment of impact. In the swerve
+which I am referring to, both the first swerve and the return swerve
+which takes the ball back again into the line of flight are very
+slight, and in most cases practically of the same length and degree.
+If the original deflection from the straight line were due to rotation
+of the ball acquired at the moment of impact, the swerve and return to
+the straight line, if there were any such return, would never be so
+symmetrical as they are.
+
+I can quite easily understand the double swerve of a golf ball from
+spin produced by the contact between the club and the ball, although I
+must admit that I have never seen a swerve of this nature in golf
+which I could put down unhesitatingly to spin acquired at the moment
+of impact. I must, however, when I say this, except one instance. This
+was in the case of a ball hit with back-spin, and although it is in a
+sense improper to refer to it as double swerve because it only
+affected the trajectory and did not alter the plane of the ball's
+flight in any way, it was, in a sense, a case of double swerve. It was
+a wind-cheater struck by a very good player at Hanger Hill. The ball
+flew very low and looked as though it was about to hit a bunker, when
+suddenly, on account of the tremendous amount of back-spin which the
+player had put on his ball, it rose with the ordinary rise of the
+wind-cheater and soared straight away for thirty or forty yards, when
+it began to tower in the ordinary manner of the wind-cheater. This was
+such an extraordinary shot that I illustrated it in _Modern Golf_, but
+I have never, in the course of fifteen years' acquaintance with the
+game, seen another shot of the same description.
+
+There is no doubt whatever that double swerves may be obtained by the
+axis of rotation of the ball altering during the flight of the ball. I
+can remember quite clearly at a meeting of the All-England Lawn-tennis
+Club at Wimbledon, a player informing me quite seriously that a
+lawn-tennis ball would swerve two ways in the air. At that time I was
+under the impression that I knew all there was to be known about the
+flight of the ball. I did not contradict him, but inwardly I pitied
+him; but at the same time I made up my mind to watch for this
+phenomenon, little as I expected to see it, for in the course of at
+least seventeen years' practical acquaintance with the game of
+lawn-tennis wherein one has a splendid opportunity of observing the
+action of spin on the ball, I had never seen, or perhaps it would be
+more correct to say I had never observed, any ball swerve two ways.
+
+It was not many days after this that I distinctly saw an American
+service, delivered by one of the players in the All-England
+Lawn-tennis Championship, swerve two ways. Since then I have looked
+for this phenomenon, and I have seen it happen both in lawn-tennis and
+golf, but I am satisfied that in golf it is not due to spin acquired
+at the moment of impact, as undoubtedly it is in lawn-tennis. It seems
+to me that with the lawn-tennis ball, which offers a very large
+frictional area in proportion to its weight, that it is quite feasible
+that during its travel, particularly in the American service, it may
+alter its axis of rotation on account of encountering a heavier bank
+of air, or for some other reason. It naturally follows that
+immediately this takes place the arc of the original swerve is
+interfered with, but in no case have I seen in lawn-tennis, as I have
+in golf, the original swerve of the ball exactly compensated for by
+the swerve back into the straight line, which is the peculiarity of
+the double swerve at golf.
+
+There is no doubt that there is a considerable amount of mystery in
+this matter. It may appear that it is not of much importance to
+golfers, from a practical point of view, whether it is solved or not,
+but it is hard indeed to say how useful a proper understanding of the
+higher science of the game may be in the practice of it; and in the
+experiments carried out by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey with so much
+patience and ability we have a very good example of the value to
+golfers of the scientific investigation and consideration of matters
+appertaining to the various implements of the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE CONSTRUCTION OF CLUBS
+
+
+In my last chapter I dealt with the construction of the golf ball. In
+many respects the golf club is more perfectly made than the golf ball,
+although it is, of course, hard to compare two objects so entirely
+dissimilar. In making the comparison I am, however, thinking mainly of
+the amount of exactness which has been brought to bear on the
+manufacture of the respective articles in so far as they have
+developed in accordance with the best of modern thought. It cannot be
+denied, however, that from a mechanical point of view, the golf club
+is still a very imperfect implement, for the simple reason that the
+striking point of the club is not in a line with the handle. This, of
+course, is, from the point of view of one who desires to obtain the
+maximum of strength and accuracy, a glaring fault. It has been
+remedied to a very considerable extent in the Schenectady putter, to
+which I shall have occasion again to refer.
+
+Golf is a very old game, and, as I have shown, it has been simply
+festooned with the cobwebs of tradition, and in no respect, probably,
+is this truer than it is in regard to the golf club. Originally,
+almost every implement made for playing a game by striking a ball was
+curved or so crooked that the ball was struck off the line of the
+shaft. The cricket bat was originally a crooked implement, so was the
+lawn-tennis racket, lacrosse, and even the billiard cue, but these
+have all been straightened, so that at the moment of impact the ball
+is in a straight line with the handle or shaft of the striking
+implement. It would indeed seem exceedingly strange to see a batsman
+furnished now with a curved bat, but that, in effect, is what we have
+in golf. It is certain that to obtain the best result from one's
+strength, it is necessary that the forearm, the ball, and the shaft of
+the striking implement shall be, at the moment of impact, in one and
+the same straight line or plane. This is a fundamental rule in
+athletics which is too much ignored by many players, both at
+lawn-tennis and in golf.
+
+Ignoring this principle in lawn-tennis has cost England her
+supremacy--not only, indeed, has it cost her her supremacy, but it has
+relegated her to the back ranks of the world's lawn-tennis players;
+for instead of having the handle of the racket and the forearm in one
+and the same straight line at the moment of impact, the English
+player, both with the forehand and the backhand, introduces between
+his racket and his forearm a considerable angle. He thus, instead of
+confining his force to one line, diffuses it over a triangle, and
+causes the weight of the blow to fall on his wrist in such a way that
+it offers least resistance.
+
+The golf club, although naturally to a less extent, embodies this
+fundamental error in mechanics, for instead of hitting the ball dead
+in a line with the shaft, it gets it in the middle of the face which
+projects from one side of the shaft. A moment's reflection will show
+that this is a very imperfect method of striking the ball.
+
+It will, of course, be said by the slaves of tradition that it is a
+horribly revolutionary thing to suggest any alteration in the shaft of
+the golf club, but it must be borne in mind that the golf club has to
+go through a process of evolution before it will become perfect, also
+that it has for generations past been going through a process of
+evolution which has materially altered its structure. Originally the
+head of the golf club was much longer than it is now. Gradually the
+head has been shortened so that the point of impact has come nearer to
+the shaft, and no less an authority than Harry Vardon has said that
+this tendency is well justified, for one can undoubtedly obtain
+greater power and accuracy the nearer the blow is brought to the
+shaft.
+
+Following Vardon's reasoning to its logical conclusion, we have very
+little difficulty in arriving at a decision that we could undoubtedly
+obtain better results if we struck the ball in a line with the shaft.
+This seems at first glance a revolutionary idea, but, as a matter of
+fact, it is nothing new in the game of golf. The old St. Andrews
+putter, which had a pronounced curve in its shaft, was so built that
+if the line of the upper half of the shaft were continued it would run
+practically on to the centre of the face of the club. The lower
+portion of the shaft curved very considerably. Sometimes, indeed, this
+curve was spread over almost the full length of the shaft. The object
+of this curve, which I may say is even now in the handle of all
+scientifically constructed wooden putters, is to bring the hands in a
+line with the point of impact at the moment of striking, but in this
+year of grace, 1912, we find the Royal and Ancient Golf Club barring
+on its own links, but, as it states now, _nowhere else_, such a well
+known and proved club as the Schenectady putter.
+
+The Schenectady putter is not a centre shafted putter, and in my
+opinion is open to several grave objections, for it is made with a
+head shaped on the general principle of the wooden putter, which it
+resembles more than it does the ordinary metal putter. I have a rooted
+objection to any putter which has a broad sole, for it is simply
+importing into the stroke an unnecessary element of error. If the
+swing is untrue, there is much greater risk of soling with a
+broad-soled putter than there is when one is using one of the metal
+putters.
+
+I have besides this two other objections to the Schenectady putter. It
+does not go far enough, in that it is not a centre shafted putter, and
+therefore the point of impact and the shaft are not in the same
+straight line; and thirdly, the shaft enters the head of the club some
+distance back from the face of the club.
+
+Some years ago, when in America, I invented and patented the "Vaile"
+clubs. These are centre shafted clubs and they are built exactly on
+the principle of the time-hallowed St. Andrews putter. For example,
+the only difference between the "Vaile" putter and the revered St.
+Andrews putter in principle is that in my club, instead of spreading
+the curve over the full length of the handle, I have gathered it all
+at the neck, and instead of allowing the shaft to run into the head of
+the club, as in the Schenectady, some distance from the face of the
+club, I have turned the neck away in a curve to the heel of the club,
+so that the club is much more like the ordinary golf club than is a
+putter built on the lines of the Schenectady. The same principle is
+used in the wooden clubs.
+
+Now it is absolutely incontestable that this principle is
+scientifically more accurate and will deliver a stronger blow than the
+golf clubs which are at present used. James Braid in 1901 said of this
+putter:
+
+     I consider this putter very good for direction, as, the shaft
+     being practically centred, you get the effect of the driver
+     headed putters with inserted shafts, without losing the
+     advantages which the ordinary putter head possesses over the
+     large headed clubs. The principle, from a scientific point of
+     view, is certainly right, and I have no doubt that any player
+     who suffers from bad direction will find this a valuable
+     club.
+
+In passing, I may draw attention to the fact that James Braid himself
+considers that the ordinary putter possesses advantages over the large
+headed clubs, and I think myself that there is very little doubt that
+this is so for the vast majority of golfers. Arnaud Massy, in his
+recent book _Le Golf_, says of my clubs: "Certes, au point de vue
+scientifique, cette théorie est inattaquable." Notwithstanding the
+opinion of three such men as Vardon, Braid, and Massy on a matter of
+practical golf like this, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St.
+Andrews has declared that my clubs are illegal on their links, but in
+response to questions which they have been asked with regard to this
+matter they assert that the club is barred only on the links of the
+Royal and Ancient Club!
+
+It seems a very great pity that this famous Club should have taken
+this action with the Schenectady and the Vaile, for it has undoubtedly
+led, as I pointed out in _The Contemporary Review_ for August 1910,
+would be the case, to the passing of the great Club as a world power
+in golf. It is impossible for any club or body of persons to stand in
+the way of the progress of a great game such as golf, and anybody or
+any club endeavouring to do so must inevitably, as I clearly indicated
+at the time, pay the penalty for doing so.
+
+I have very little doubt that in the future, and at a by no means
+distant date, golf will be played with clubs constructed on an
+infinitely more scientific principle than those which are now used.
+It is quite plain to anyone who gives the matter a little thought that
+the longer the head of the club the greater must be the inaccuracy in
+the stroke. It stands to reason that the inertia at the toe of the
+club is greater than at the heel, and every fraction of an inch which
+one goes farther from the shaft must increase the inertia in the head
+of the club. It follows quite naturally that if one is using a whippy
+shaft, the tendency must be for the head of the club, especially if it
+is at all long, to exert a very considerable amount of torsional or
+twisting strain on the shaft of the club in the downward swing. It has
+been asserted that this torsional strain, by reason of the recovery of
+the shaft at the moment of impact, adds something to the force of the
+drive in golf, but this is quite an error, as at the moment of impact
+the club is travelling at its fastest. It follows, therefore, that if
+there is any inertia in the toe of the club, it will be very apparent
+at the time when the club is travelling at its fastest, and the result
+is that the torsional strain, instead of providing any beneficial
+spring at the moment of impact, only tends to lay back the face of the
+club and contribute materially towards slicing. It will, therefore, be
+seen that it is very inadvisable to have a long head when one is using
+a whippy shaft.
+
+I may, perhaps, illustrate this question of keeping the impact in a
+line with the striking implement by instancing the sword cut. Most
+people have seen at military tournaments the competition known as
+lemon-cutting. In this event a mounted man gallops past a certain
+number of lemons suspended on strings, and as he passes he endeavours
+to sever them with his sword. It will be seen that at the moment when
+his sword enters the lemons his forearm and the sword are, in both
+cuts, in the same plane, and it seems so obvious as to need no
+emphasising that if the line of his blade were even an inch or two off
+the line of his forearm there would be introduced into his stroke a
+very great degree of inaccuracy, but although this may be so obvious,
+it is practically what we are doing every day in golf.
+
+If the golf club were made in such a manner that the point of impact
+was absolutely in a line with the forearms at the moment of impact,
+tradition, instead of being outraged, would really be honoured. Not
+long ago a friend of mine came to me and showed me an old driver,
+saying, "I cannot understand how it is, but I can always get twenty or
+thirty yards farther with this driver than I can with any other." I
+took the club and ran my eye down the shaft. I noticed at once that it
+was warped considerably so that it threw the shaft inwards in such a
+manner that it resembled very much the shaft of an old St. Andrews
+putter--in other words, it put the golfer's hands and forearms in a
+line with the shaft of his club and the shaft of his club in a line
+with the point of impact at the moment the stroke was played. I
+pointed out to him that his club was, in effect, a centre-shafted
+club, and that this was the reason why he was getting a longer and, as
+he stated, a straighter ball with this club than with any other club
+he used.
+
+While I am on this question of the construction of clubs, I may as
+well state that under the recent ruling of the Royal and Ancient Golf
+Club there is not a legal golf club in use in England to-day, for one
+of the essentials of a legal club now is that the head must be all on
+one side of the shaft of the club. Passing by, as too technical an
+objection, the question as to whether a circular object may be said to
+have a side, we are confronted with the fact that many of the
+best-known clubs have the shaft inserted in the head. All the socketed
+clubs technically are illegal, because the head is certainly not all
+on one side of the shaft. Many cleeks are illegal because the shaft
+goes through the socket and right through the heel of the club to the
+sole thereof, so that a considerable portion of the head of the club
+is on the hither side of the shaft, and every ordinary golf club is so
+constructed that it is more correct to say that the head of the club,
+instead of being all on one side of the shaft, is either at the foot
+of the shaft, or at least that there is, without any doubt, a
+considerable portion of the head which goes beyond the one side of the
+club whereon the head is supposed to be.
+
+It is a very great mistake indeed to attempt to introduce any standard
+golf club or to lay down any regulation whatever as to how the golf
+club shall be made. The good sense and sportsmanlike instincts of the
+golfer should be sufficient to govern the question of what may and
+what may not be used. It is an absolute certainty that if any man were
+to endeavour to use an implement which was not in accordance with the
+best spirit of the game, he would speedily provide his own punishment,
+but it is a wonderful thing to find the greatest Club in the world
+barring on its own links clubs which embody in their formation the
+well-recognised principles of the most revered implements of the game.
+
+The principle which I have referred to of endeavouring to get the
+point of impact as near to the shaft as possible is being shown also
+in the hockey stick, which has not now anything like so great a curve
+in it as it originally had, and the striking-point has been brought
+much nearer to the shaft. The tennis racket, as distinct from the
+lawn-tennis racket, has stood for many years as a lob-sided
+instrument, but about eighteen months ago I was with a tennis player
+who ordered from Messrs. F. H. Ayres, Ltd., six straight tennis
+rackets, saying that he believed the soundness of the principle which
+I am now advocating to be absolutely incontestable and of universal
+application in ball games.
+
+I mention this matter because I believe it is of historical interest,
+for I do not think that prior to the time mentioned by me, tennis
+rackets were ever made straight. We all know how, when aiming a stone,
+playing a billiard ball, firing a gun, shooting an arrow, or pulling a
+catapult, one instinctively tries to get one's eye into the line of
+flight of the object to be propelled. It is evident that one can aim
+better thus. This is denied one in golf, where the ball is practically
+the smallest played with, to a greater extent than in any other game.
+It follows that a greater degree of mechanical accuracy is called for
+in golf than is required in other games. Very few golfers realise that
+they are deliberately handicapping themselves by playing with the
+clubs at present used. The weight and leverage of the head of the club
+is on one side of the shaft, and the angle of error is there. True, it
+is small, but a very slight initial error in the flight of a golf ball
+becomes in 200 yards serious, perhaps fatal. The golf club of the
+future will inevitably follow the march of scientific construction,
+and fall into line with the straight-handled implements wherewith the
+ball is struck in a line with the shaft.
+
+It is clear that at the moment of impact with a golf club, as they are
+now constructed, there is a very great tendency for the club to turn
+in the hands. This is shown very clearly when one happens to hit with
+the toe of the club a little lower than it ought to be, so that the
+toe strikes the earth. This is absolutely fatal for the club will be
+turned in the hand, but it is otherwise if by chance one happens to
+strike the ground with the heel, for as the force of the club is
+transmitted in a straight line down the shaft, the blow is very
+frequently, particularly with iron clubs, not interfered with to any
+very great extent. It is clear that if the club is centre shafted,
+greater strength and accuracy are obtained, for the club has an equal
+weight on each side of the shaft. There is thus no torsional or
+twisting strain on the shaft as there is at present with every golf
+club, and, as I have already shown, this torsional strain cannot be
+considered as a negligible factor in a club. I must repeat, however,
+that it is an error to think that this torsional strain can, by its
+recovery, contribute anything to the length of the drive, for the
+recovery from the torsional strain does not take place until long
+after the impact has ceased and the ball has gone on its way. This, it
+seems to me, even from a theoretical point of view, is undoubted, but
+I have proved by practical experiment that one can obtain a longer
+ball with a centre-shafted club than one can with an ordinary golf
+club.
+
+There is another matter in connection with the construction of clubs
+which should receive the attention of manufacturers. We know that the
+clubs are of varying lengths, descending from the driver to the putter
+according to the length of the shot which is required of them. The
+difference between a driver and a mashie is frequently as much as six
+inches. The difference between a mashie and a putter is roughly, say,
+three inches. It has always seemed to me that in proportion to the
+work demanded of it the putter does not continue in the decreasing
+scale of length as it should, particularly for short puts. Many very
+fine putters get quite low down to their put and grip the putter a
+long way down the shaft. It is undeniable that for short puts there
+is some advantage in this method, but it is open to the objection that
+it leaves too much of the shaft free above the hands, thus not only
+destroying the balance of the putter, but risking striking some
+portion of the player's body with the free end of the shaft.
+
+I believe that the putter should, generally speaking, be made much
+shorter, but, if this is not done for approach puts, I am sure that it
+would be worth one's while to experiment with a short putter for short
+puts. I have had such a putter made for me, and I have no hesitation
+whatever in saying that it is a very valuable club and one that should
+be better known than it is. It is necessary, of course, to readjust
+the balance in such a club, but when that has been done, I firmly
+believe that one is very much more accurate with this club than with
+an ordinary putter when playing short puts. The putter which I am
+referring to is, if I remember, little, if any, more than twenty-six
+inches.
+
+While I am on the question of the construction of putters, I may say
+that I am inclined to think that all these putters which are made with
+heads such as the Schenectady, the ordinary wooden putter, or those
+putters with aluminium heads, are a mistake. The sole of the club is
+too broad, and to use such clubs as these is simply providing a
+greater chance of error. There is nothing which can be done with one
+of these large-headed putters which cannot be done as well, or better,
+by an ordinary metal putter.
+
+There are many fearful and wonderful putters on the market at the
+present time. Lately there has been produced a putter with a very
+shallow face, which is now being largely used because a man who has
+won the open championship frequently is using it. For ninety per cent
+of golfers a putter with a narrow face is a very great mistake, and I
+believe that in saying ninety per cent I am fixing the percentage low.
+I do not think that any putter should be built whose face is so narrow
+that at the moment of striking the ball properly with the putter the
+top edge of the putter is below the top of the ball. I am firmly of
+opinion that a putter which is so built that it delivers the main
+portion of its force below the centre of the ball's mass is absolutely
+defective. I go even so far as to say that I believe that in a
+scientifically constructed putter the face should be made much broader
+than the face of the average putter, and that the weight, instead of
+being massed at or near the bottom of the putter, should be reversed,
+and put, if anything, nearer the top. The whole essence of true
+putting is that the ball shall be rolled up to the hole, and not at
+any portion of its journey played with drag, or as one is sometimes
+told to do, slid along the green. Any attempt whatever to put with
+drag, or by tapping the ball, must cause inaccuracy.
+
+I saw, a short time ago, one of the finest golfers in England, Mr. A.
+Mitchell, lose an important match on the putting-green, or, to be a
+little more accurate, on quite a number of putting-greens. He was
+then, and I believe still is, making the same mistake as James Braid
+made when he was such a bad putter, viz. tapping his puts, and
+finishing low down on the line after the ball. It is almost impossible
+for anyone to be a good putter with this stroke, and his chance of
+being a good putter is rendered remoter still if he attempts to do
+putting of this nature with a shallow-faced putter.
+
+A putter should have very little loft indeed, if any. It is
+questionable, from a scientific point of view, if the putter should be
+lofted at all, but in practice a very slight degree of loft is
+generally used, and there may be something to be said in favour of
+this slight loft if one is playing the put as it should be played, as
+nearly as possible by the wrists, for if that is done it stands to
+reason that the putter with a very slight loft will tend, in, of
+course, an extremely small degree, but still to such a degree as to be
+perceptible, to deliver its blow upwardly through the ball's mass, and
+this naturally tends to give the ball a truer roll off the club than
+would be the case if the putter were perfectly vertical.
+
+If one were using a putter with a vertical face, it seems fairly clear
+that at the moment of impact, when one is endeavouring to roll the
+ball forward, it is held simultaneously at two points. There must
+then, it seems, be some slight dragging on the face of the club and
+also on the green, but when the putter has some small loft on it and
+the blow is delivered, to a certain extent, upwardly, the ball will
+naturally get a truer roll from it, and for this reason perhaps the
+smallest degree of loft on a putter is advisable.
+
+Shallow faces and broad soles in putters have nothing whatever to
+recommend them, and there is very little doubt that golfers will, in
+due course, find this out, and will use a putter so made that it will
+carry the weight where it is most wanted, and that certainly is not at
+the base of the ball, for, unnecessary as it may seem to mention the
+fact, the put is the one stroke in golf which we always desire to keep
+as close to the green as possible. We know quite well that in all
+other clubs, when we want to get the ball off the ground quickly, we
+take a club which has its weight thrown into the sole, but as we want
+exactly the opposite thing on the putting-green, it seems reasonable
+to think that we should alter the adjustment of our weight when
+constructing a putter which has any claim whatever to being
+considered a scientifically made club.
+
+I have referred to the defect of the broad sole, and I have in a
+previous chapter of this book indicated that the perfect put should
+bear as close a resemblance to the swing of a pendulum as the player
+can give it. Let us now for a moment imagine that we have as the
+weight on the pendulum the head of an ordinary metal putter, and let
+us so adjust this metal head that in the swing of the pendulum it will
+barely clear a marble slab placed underneath it. Let us now remove the
+metal putter and substitute in its place such a club as one of the
+ordinary aluminium-headed clubs, or a Schenectady, and hang this club
+on the end of the pendulum so that when the pendulum is absolutely
+vertical the front edge of the sole of the club clears the slab by
+exactly the same space as the metal putter did when at rest. We shall
+now find that this club will swing freely back in the same manner as
+the metal putter did, but we shall get a very striking exemplification
+of the fact that the breadth of the sole of this club will prevent it
+swinging forward at all, for the rear portion of the sole will foul
+the marble slab. This, of course, is sufficient to absolutely prevent
+a proper follow-through, for even when this happens on a good green
+the delicacy of the put is such that it is more than likely the stroke
+will be ruined.
+
+This is an illustration of what I mean when I say that the golfer is
+importing into his game an unnecessary risk when he uses a broad-soled
+club. It will be seen from the example which I have given that there
+is an infinitely greater danger of soling with such a club than there
+is when one is playing with an ordinary metal putter.
+
+The same error with regard to breadth of sole is very frequently seen
+in the mashie. Indeed, the sole of the mashie is so broad and taken
+back at such an unscientific angle that very frequently the player
+strikes with the back edge of the sole before the front. It stands to
+reason that when he does this he is cocking up the front edge of his
+club, and so robbing himself of a great portion of the loft of the
+club. Many players lay the face of the mashie back in order to
+increase the natural loft of the club. In nine cases of ten when they
+do this, instead of increasing the usefulness of their clubs they
+diminish it, for they insist then upon the front edge of the face of
+the mashie striking the ball higher up than would be the case if they
+played with the club in the ordinary way.
+
+    [Illustration: PLATE XV. J. SHERLOCK
+
+    Finish of iron-shot. Note carefully the upright finish
+    following the swing back, and the position of the hands, a
+    characteristic of the finish of this shot. Sherlock gets a
+    lower ball than the ordinary iron-shot.]
+
+Most mashies are constructed in a very unscientific manner. It is the
+function of the mashie to get as far underneath the ball as possible.
+To do this a mashie should always have its front edge very clearly
+defined, and almost immediately the sole leaves the front edge it
+should begin to curve upwardly--in other words, a mashie should
+practically never have a sole. When the mashie is made like this it is
+astonishing how much easier and more accurate it makes one's work with
+the club. Not only does the curving sole to the mashie allow one to
+get more in underneath the ball and prevent any jar of a square edge
+behind the front edge of the sole, but if it is a question of taking
+turf, which involves cutting down behind the ball, one is able to do
+this with a mashie having the sharp edge and the curved sole such as I
+describe, much more easily than one could with the flat sole, for the
+simple reason that one is enabled to pass the ball on the downward
+stroke much more rapidly than one could possibly do with the
+broad-soled mashie. It is obvious that in playing a ball with heavy
+back cut, the essence of obtaining that cut must be the speed at
+which the mashie passes down behind the ball, and it must be also
+equally apparent that if one is playing that shot with a club whose
+sole is as broad as is that of the ordinary mashie, that the pace of
+the blow must be arrested to a very great extent long before the club
+has had an opportunity of absolutely clearing the ball. This means
+that the club is hampered in the execution of its natural duty.
+
+While I am on the subject of the construction of the mashie, and
+particularly with regard to the curving sole, I may mention that I
+have such a club. It was made for me in accordance with a
+specification which I furnished, but it did not in any way carry out
+what I wanted; in fact, my instructions were very much exaggerated,
+but the moment I saw that club I knew that it would be, for short
+approaches and for playing stymies, a wonderful club; and so it has
+proved. It would take a good deal more than its weight in silver to
+induce me to part with it, for that club led to the making of history
+in golf--in other words, its construction caused me to see the great
+advantage which could be got by using it in playing the stymie shot
+which I have described in a previous chapter, and it was while playing
+this particular stymie shot that I came to the conclusion that for the
+usual stymie shot at or about the hole the ordinary mashie is far too
+long, as in the case of the short putter, because when one tries to
+get down on the club as low as one really ought to do for playing a
+shot of the delicacy required in these strokes, one finds that one has
+too much free shaft above one's hands. If I had any doubt whatever as
+to the advisability of having a short putter for short puts, I have
+absolutely none with regard to the benefits which are to be obtained
+from having a short mashie for playing close stymies, and I may say
+that at the time of writing I have never handled such a club--I have
+never seen such a club, nor have I ever heard of such a club, but
+before this book is published I shall have one.
+
+Stymies were once upon a time a perfect terror to me, but with the
+club which I have referred to, and whose construction was practically
+an accident, they are no trouble, and I firmly believe that nine
+stymies of ten would be no trouble to a golfer of ordinary skill if he
+had the proper club with which to play them, but it seems not
+unreasonable, when we consider the descending scale of the clubs which
+I have before referred to, to think that a club which we use
+frequently to get eighty yards with should not be the most suitable
+implement for playing a stroke of nine inches to a foot.
+
+While I am on the subject of iron clubs, there is another matter which
+I should like to refer to, and that is that, in my opinion, the
+communion, if I may use the word, between the club and the ball is not
+as intimate as it should be. In the lawn-tennis ball and racket one
+gets a wonderfully firm grip, and it is astonishing with what accuracy
+one can place a lawn-tennis ball by means of cut, but the vast
+majority of iron clubs which are used are insufficiently and
+unscientifically marked. I can remember the time when iron clubs,
+generally speaking, were innocent of any indentation whatever on their
+faces. Marking is fairly general now on iron clubs, but it is done in
+an utterly unscientific manner. It is frequently done by great deep
+straight lines, and, particularly in the mashie, nearly always by
+lines which run from heel to toe. Now in the great majority of mashie
+shots when one is putting on cut one requires lines running in an
+exactly opposite direction. We do sometimes see, of course, lines on
+these iron clubs running at right angles to each other, but in nearly
+every case the marking is too large and too coarse to be of the
+practical benefit which it ought to be.
+
+Quite recently I saw a very skilful golfer playing with rusty clubs,
+and somebody who did not understand what it meant commented rather
+strongly on his untidiness. He did not understand until he was told
+that the idea of the man who was using these clubs in keeping them
+rusty was that he got a better grip on his ball, and there can be no
+doubt whatever that this is the case, but a scientific maker of iron
+clubs would not be satisfied to leave it to his customer to make up
+for his deficiency by allowing his clubs to become unsightly. He would
+produce a club marked as nearly as might be in a similar manner to a
+club which was heavily rusted.
+
+I have experimented with various means for establishing a better grip
+between the club and the ball, and I have, I believe, found an almost
+perfect medium for establishing effective contact. Let us consider for
+a moment how little use the cue would be to us at billiards were it
+not for the medium of contact which is commonly used; to wit, the
+chalk. Now it is inconvenient, and, moreover, would be ineffective to
+a great extent, to chalk one's iron clubs in golf, but it is an
+absolute certainty that something which answers to the chalk should be
+on the face of every iron used in golf. What that is to be we must
+leave to the ingenuity of our scientific club makers, but it is an
+absolute certainty that we shall see a very great improvement in this
+particular matter within quite a short time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE LITERATURE OF GOLF
+
+
+It will be readily understood by those who have followed me that I
+consider that golf has been badly served by those who have essayed to
+teach it by books. The main, if not indeed the whole, cause of the
+trouble is the manner in which writer after writer has allowed himself
+to be influenced by the work of those who have preceded him. This is
+neither amusing nor instructive. The essence of progress is research.
+We cannot progress in anything by repeating parrot-like the fallacies
+of those who have preceded us.
+
+I want to make it particularly plain that this book aims at absolutely
+dispelling the fog and mist, the obscurity and the falseness which now
+clusters about the game of golf. One dear old chap was explaining to
+me how he tries to drive. He said, "When I get to the top of the swing
+I have so many things to remember that I get all of a dither and mess
+it up hopelessly." Could anyone express it better?
+
+About seventy-five per cent of the golfers who follow the usual
+tuition are "all of a dither." The whole trouble is that they are
+given too much to think of _during the stroke_. I am certain that the
+secret of success in golf is to eliminate the necessity for thinking
+_and theorising_ on the links. This, I contend, can be done by
+_knowing_, not merely by _reading_, the contents of this book.
+
+So strongly do I feel in this matter that I consider that every
+beginner who desires to succeed at golf should know what is here set
+out, while every misguided golfer who has been jumping from his right
+leg to his left, and putting his left hand in command instead of his
+right, should lose no time in getting the truth and so revolutionising
+his game.
+
+I have stated in my Preface that this book is a challenge. So, in
+effect, it is. It stands for truth and practical golf, instead of the
+nonsense which is generally published about one of the greatest and
+simplest of games.
+
+I must here refer to a book entitled _Practical Golf_, published by
+Mr. Walter J. Travis, the Australian who perfected his golf in America
+and won the Amateur Championship of England.
+
+Mr. Travis' book is very interesting in many ways. He calls it
+_Practical Golf_, and it ought to be, coming from him, but Mr. Travis
+falls into nearly all the mistakes of those who have followed the
+time-worn fetiches of the people who handed down to us "the traditions
+of golf." I was much astonished at this, for Mr. Travis tells us
+himself that he worked out his own salvation, at the same time as he
+remarks that "as a general rule the average professional, while he may
+be a good player, lacks the faculty of imparting proper information to
+beginners."
+
+This, unquestionably, is true, but one cannot expect too much theory
+from the professional, who is not, generally speaking, a very well
+educated man, but from a man in Mr. Travis' position one has a right
+to expect a fairly good grip of fundamental principles. He says that
+"All good players work practically on the same basic principles." This
+is, of course, right. The trouble is that most good golfers, like Mr.
+Travis, work on the same correct basic principles, but advertise to
+their unfortunate readers and pupils those which are utterly opposed
+to their practice.
+
+Mr. Travis absolutely subscribes to the fundamental but common error
+with regard to the distribution of weight. He says at page 30: "In the
+upward swing it will be noticed that the body has been turned very
+freely, with the natural transference of weight almost entirely to the
+right foot." At page 7 he says: "The ease and rapidity with which the
+weight of the body and arms is transferred from the left leg to the
+right and back again, joined to wrist action--concerning which
+reference will later be made--are largely, if not wholly, responsible
+for long driving."
+
+It is obvious from this that Mr. Travis thinks that one's weight ought
+to be on one's right leg at the top of the swing. It is also obvious
+that he thinks he throws his weight about from one leg to another when
+he is playing. It is, notwithstanding this, certain that he tells us,
+as does every man who writes a book about golf, that the head must be
+immovable during the operation of driving. We must wait for Mr. Travis
+to tell us how this conundrum can be solved, as none of the famous
+golfers of the world have yet been able to do it. If the stance has
+once been taken with the weight equally distributed between the legs,
+it is impossible, if the head be kept still, as Mr. Travis and
+everybody else says it should be, to get the weight on to the right
+leg at the top of the swing, but it is not impossible to get it on to
+the left leg, where it should be, and where, indeed, it goes quite
+naturally.
+
+In speaking about the palm grip Mr. Travis says: "This style is more
+affected by cricketers and base ballers, but it is open to the
+objection that it introduces a tendency to hit the ball with tautened
+muscles, and discourages the proper follow-through."
+
+Personally, I cannot see that there is any objection whatever to
+hitting the ball with tautened muscles--in fact, it absolutely must be
+done in that way, and in no other, or the result will be dire failure.
+James Braid himself says that at the moment of impact the muscles are
+in a state of supreme tension, and as a matter of practical golf there
+can be no doubt whatever that this is so. Mr. Travis also comes into
+line with the general body of golfing opinion with regard to the
+fetich of the left. He says on page 14: "As a general rule the left
+hand should grip somewhat more firmly than the right." I may say that
+Vardon and Taylor do not agree with Mr. Travis, and the mere idea of
+putting the left to exert a firmer hold on the shaft is a reversion to
+primeval fables.
+
+Mr. Travis tells us, speaking about the waggle: "Do not on any account
+in this preliminary address _lift_ the club up. Lifting the club
+pre-supposes stiffness and rigidity of muscles and the resultant
+stroke cannot be thoroughly satisfactory."
+
+It will be obvious that as the club is at the lowest portion of its
+arc it is necessary to lift the club. This is done by an easy action
+of the wrists, and the waggle, of course, then becomes a swing worked
+almost entirely from the wrists, but it is absolutely essential to
+lift the club for the ordinary waggle.
+
+At page 19 Mr. Travis says: "When the top of the swing is reached,
+without pausing, bring the arms and body around as swiftly as possible
+and _swish_ the ball away." We see here that Mr. Travis is also an
+adherent of the fetich of the sweep, but we must in his case call it
+the fetich of the "swish." In golf it is now realised that the golf
+drive is a hit of the very finest order.
+
+Mr. Travis says at the same page "Do not seek to artificially raise
+the left foot on the toe. Strive rather to keep it rooted--the natural
+turn of the shoulders and body rotating to the right will bring it up
+and around. Keep the right leg as stiff and as straight as possible.
+And whatever you do, do not move the head." If one is going to pivot
+on the left toe in any way whatever, it is fatal to the rhythm of the
+swing to wait until the arms pull the left heel off the earth. The
+left heel should leave the earth almost simultaneously with the club
+leaving the ball. If this is not done it will be impossible to
+maintain the rhythm of the swing. Mr. Travis shows himself in nearly
+every case pivoted on the _point_ of his left toe at the top of the
+swing. This is now universally admitted to be bad form, as one should
+put the weight on the ball of the toe, and forward from that at the
+side of the shoe.
+
+It is, of course, possible to play the drive practically flat-footed,
+in which case one's swing will naturally be much flatter than the
+ordinary swing, but this is not generally done. For those who pivot on
+the left toe, Mr. Travis' advice to wait for the arms to pull the heel
+up is, I think, absolutely bad. His advice to keep the right leg stiff
+and straight is quite good, and, of course, there can be no doubt of
+the correctness of his advice when he says "do not move the head," but
+will he tell us how, with a perfectly stiff and straight right leg,
+and no movement whatever of the head, he is going to transfer his
+weight to his right leg? for, as he truly says on page 20, "If the
+head is kept still, no swaying of the body can be indulged in."
+
+There is a very remarkable statement on page 20. Mr. Travis says: "Any
+doubt as to whether the head is moved may easily be satisfied by the
+player assuming a position with the sun immediately at the back of
+him, and watching the shadow of the head during the swing. If the
+head is shown to move, the swing should be persistently practised
+until this fault is remedied." If I were not now writing practical
+golf myself, I might suggest putting in a peg on the ground to watch
+whether one's shadow impinged on this peg or not, but as a matter of
+practical golf if I considered anything of this nature necessary, I
+should prefer a string stretched across by my right ear so that
+swaying would be bound to make me touch it, but as a matter of
+_intensely practical golf_ neither of these expedients is in the least
+degree necessary if the player will only get it firmly rooted in his
+mind that his weight must be on his left leg at the top of his swing,
+and he will then find that he has no temptation whatever to sway.
+
+On page 23 Mr. Travis says: "It is not really the length alone of the
+downward swing that contributes distance so much as the rapidity with
+which the club head is moving at, and just after the moment of
+impact." It is almost unnecessary to draw attention to the fact that
+what happens "just after the moment of impact" does not much matter to
+the ball. It is what happens during the impact which is of importance,
+although it stands to reason that if the speed during impact has been
+sufficient, just after impact it will still be the same, minus the
+force expended on the golf ball.
+
+Mr. Travis makes a terrible error in _Practical Golf_ when he says,
+speaking of the downward swing: "Let him resolve to centralise the
+power of the stroke immediately the ball is reached."
+
+This is an idea fatal to good golf. As I have frequently pointed out,
+and as James Braid in _How to Play Golf_ also emphasises, the meeting
+between the ball and the club should be _merely an incident_. Any
+attempt to try to do anything during impact in the drive is futile.
+
+Mr. Travis at page 24 makes the same error with regard to the speed of
+the club after the ball has been hit. He says: "A great deal more
+depends upon the maintenance of speed after the ball is struck than is
+commonly supposed. This part of the stroke is known as the
+follow-through, and plays a very important part in the length of the
+drive as in straightness." Mr. Travis evidently does not perfectly
+realise that the follow-through is of no importance whatever except as
+the natural result of the correctly played first part of the stroke,
+and the maintenance of speed after the ball has been struck is of no
+importance provided that the first portion of the stroke has been
+properly executed and at a sufficient pace. The only importance of the
+maintenance of speed in any way whatever is that this indicates that
+the first half has been correctly performed.
+
+Mr. Travis seems to be very hazy as to the causes of slicing and
+pulling. A ball being hit slightly to the right of its centre would
+not necessarily produce a slice, although it would probably deflect it
+from its intended line of flight. A slice is produced by the amount of
+rotation which is imparted to the ball by the glancing blow. He says:
+"With a pulled ball it is just the opposite--the ball is hit to the
+left of its centre, that is, nearer the player, producing a spin from
+right to left." This is not in any way necessary. The ball may be hit
+absolutely at the point farthest from the hole, and with the club at a
+perfect right angle to the intended line of flight, but the point
+which Mr. Travis does not mention is that the club is travelling
+upward across the intended line of flight and outward from the player.
+This it is which produces the beneficial spin of the ball in the
+pull.
+
+At page 31, Mr. Travis says: "Every golfing stroke describes a circle,
+or a segment of a circle." This is an egregious error, for the golf
+stroke, quite naturally from the method of its production, bears a far
+greater likeness to an oval than to a circle. Anyone endeavouring to
+produce the golf stroke as a circle would certainly not get either a
+very graceful or a very accurate result. Mr. Travis falls into the
+astonishing error for a man who plays golf so well as he does, of
+thinking that it is possible to juggle with the golf ball by means of
+a golf club during impact. Speaking of brassy play, he says: "The
+lofted face, joined to the slight whipping up of the hands at the
+proper time--that is after the club meets the ball--will produce the
+desired result. Don't on any account seek to bring the hands up too
+quickly, otherwise a top will assuredly result."
+
+Mr. Travis here falls into the common error with regard to using the
+wrists during impact. It will be observed that he avoided it in
+dealing with the follow-through, but in this matter he makes the usual
+error. This turning up of the wrists which he refers to comes long
+after the ball has been hit, and is the natural turn up which follows
+any slice or any cut played to raise a ball suddenly.
+
+At page 41 he makes the same error, for he says: "By striking the ball
+slightly towards the heel of the club, and immediately after bringing
+the arms somewhat in and finishing well out, a slight spin is imparted
+to the ball which causes it to rise more quickly." Here it is clear
+that he thinks that one may, after impact, do something with the hands
+to affect the manner in which the ball leaves the club. There could
+not possibly be any greater fallacy in golf than this. That this is a
+rooted fallacy of Mr. Travis I shall show later on when I deal with
+his remarks about bunker play.
+
+Mr. Travis says at page 49: "Hitting with the heel of the club meeting
+the ground after the ball is struck will cause the ball to rise more,
+and, joined to the spin imparted by drawing in the arms and turning
+the wrists upward, will produce a very dead ball with hardly any run.
+The science of the stroke consists in hitting very sharply, and
+turning the wrists upward immediately after the ball is struck."
+
+Here we see the same delusion. The essence of this stroke is purely a
+matter of practical golf which I have not seen mentioned in any book
+or essay on golf. When one plays a ball off the heel of one's mashie,
+it stands to reason that one gets the ball on the very narrowest
+portion of the blade, and that therefore one hits the ball as far
+beneath the centre of the ball's mass as it is possible to do--so much
+so, in fact, that a very considerable portion of the ball overlaps the
+top of the face of the club. This puts a tremendous amount of undercut
+or stop on the ball. This is the practical golf of the shot which Mr.
+Travis is attempting to describe, but his idea of putting cut on it by
+juggling with it during impact is fatal.
+
+In speaking of approach puts, Mr. Travis gives some wonderful advice.
+He says: "You should aim to hit the ball as if it were your intention
+to drive it into the ground.... This will cause the ball to jump, due
+to its contact with the ground immediately after being struck." This
+is practical golf of a nature which we may very well pass without
+discussion. I think that there are very few golfers who will desire to
+bounce the ball off the earth when they can play it off the face of
+the club.
+
+This is Mr. Travis' advice as to how to cut the put. At page 65 he
+says: "Put cut on the ball by drawing the arms in a trifle just at the
+moment of striking." The drawing of the arms across the ball is not to
+be done at the moment of striking. It starts at the beginning of the
+swing and finishes at the end thereof. This is how cut is put on a put
+by practical golf. Mr. Travis advises for putting that people should
+select "a particular blade of grass" on the line to the hole. He then
+says: "Take your stance and square the face of the putter at perfect
+right angles to the blade of grass you have picked out." As a matter
+of practical golf I may remark that blades of grass have a remarkable
+family likeness.
+
+Mr. Travis says: "Close observation of all missed puts discloses the
+interesting fact that by far the large majority go to the left of the
+hole, thereby indicating the presence of the pull, due to the arms
+being slightly drawn in just after striking." This is what is called a
+sliced put in England, but again as a matter of practical golf I may
+say that many of these puts are simply misdirected, such misdirection
+being due to the turning over of the wrists _too soon_ in the action
+of striking the ball. Unless one determinedly follows through well
+down the line the natural tendency is to hook one's put across the
+line, but this does not indicate any pull. It merely indicates, if of
+frequent occurrence, ignorance or carelessness.
+
+Speaking of stymies, Mr. Travis says: "Occasionally you will be
+confronted with an absolutely dead stymie by having your opponent's
+ball just on the edge of the cup, your own being so close, say seven
+inches to a foot away, that it is impossible to negotiate the stroke
+by either curling around or lofting. In such extremity there is only
+one way of getting your ball in the hole unaccompanied by your
+opponent's, and that is by what is technically known in billiards as
+the follow shot." As a matter of practical golf the stymie stroke
+introduced by me is far more likely to prove successful in this case
+than the follow shot, for we are dealing with very tricky things when
+we try to play billiards with golf balls covered with numerous
+excrescences or dimples. If the stymie described by Mr. Travis is
+played by my stroke, it should be got five times out of six, and I
+very much doubt if Mr. Travis or anybody else could get anything like
+this with the run through stroke.
+
+Writing of "Playing out of hazards," Mr. Travis says: "Then bring it
+down again on the same line with all the force you can controllably
+command, consistent with accuracy. As it sinks into the sand its
+course may then, but not until then, be slightly directed towards the
+ball."
+
+Coming from a practical golfer this is an absolutely amazing
+statement. The idea of attempting to deflect one's niblick from the
+line originally mapped out for it as it enters the sand is too amazing
+and too utterly unsound to merit any further comment or notice, except
+to say that it would be impossible to deflect the club head from the
+line of travel mapped out for it at this moment without materially
+reducing the force of the blow, and when one is hitting into heavy
+sand, to get underneath the ball and in many cases to get it out of
+the bunker without even touching it with the club, every pound of
+force that can be put into the club is necessary.
+
+There is another thing which Mr. Travis tells us that certainly is not
+practical golf, and it does not seem to me to be practical carpentry,
+but he says at page 126, speaking of the brassy: "The screws which
+hold the blade sometimes work loose. This trouble may easily be
+remedied by putting glue in the holes before inserting the screws."
+One is never too old to learn, and I think that in any future efforts
+I may make at amateur carpentry, I shall glue my nails!
+
+Mr. Travis makes a very remarkable statement at page 139, speaking of
+the guttie ball as opposed to the Haskell: "The latter, by reason of
+its greater comparative resiliency does not remain in contact with the
+club head quite so long, and therefore does not receive the full
+benefit of the greater velocity of the stroke in the same proportion
+as the less resilient guttie"; but surely the greater the resiliency
+of the ball the longer it will remain in contact with the club. It
+should be obvious that one of the reasons for the greater swerve in
+the sliced or pulled rubber-cored ball as compared with the guttie, is
+that on account of the longer period of impact the ball acquires a
+greater amount of spin.
+
+Speaking of the waggle, Mr. Travis is delightfully indefinite. He says
+"With the club gripped pretty firmly with both hands in the manner
+already described, it is well to see that the whole machinery is in
+good working order by waggling the club a few times over the ball,
+allowing the wrists to turn freely, without, however, relaxing the
+grip. The waggle should be entirely free from any stiffness, which
+simply means that the wrists should be brought into active play."
+
+This is certainly delightfully vague, and is not, I am afraid, of much
+use to anyone as a matter of practical golf. The waggle is
+unquestionably of importance in the game of golf, otherwise it is
+quite improbable that we should see it employed by so many of the
+famous players. The curious thing about this waggle is that it seems
+to be confined to games wherein one plays a stationary ball. The same
+operation is gone through at billiards with the cue, but is there
+known as cueing at the ball. With a very great number of players the
+waggle may be described as moral cowardice--an excuse for putting off
+the evil moment. Many players convert the waggle into a performance
+which is both tedious and stupid, and which instead of giving them a
+better chance of hitting the ball, has a very great chance of
+absolutely putting them off their stroke.
+
+I do not know that I have ever seen the necessity for the waggle
+explained, nor have I seen the waggle of any of the famous players
+illustrated. There can, however, be very little question that in the
+majority of cases the address and waggle is unnecessarily exaggerated
+and prolonged.
+
+In _Modern Golf_ I have illustrated George Duncan's waggle. So far as
+I am aware, this is the only time that such a thing has been done.
+Duncan is probably the quickest player living, so that it will not be
+necessary for us to assume that every one will be satisfied with so
+little preliminary work as Duncan puts in before hitting the ball. His
+method of playing is to take his line to the hole as much as he can as
+he approaches the ball. He then marches straight up to it and takes
+his stance, at the same time swinging his club head out so that it is
+roughly on a level with his waist and pointing towards the hole, but
+being at the same time almost above the line of flight to the hole. He
+then brings his club back to the ball, and addresses it in the usual
+way, soling his club close behind the ball. Now he lifts the club
+practically straight up for six or nine inches and carries it forward
+of the ball in a gentle curve for about six inches. From here he
+carries the club head back along the plane of flight produced through
+the ball as far as it will go without turning his wrists over. The
+club then is swung easily and naturally back to the ball almost in the
+same manner as it would come to it in the drive, until it arrives
+close behind the ball, but about two inches from the turf, when it
+sinks to rest by dropping straight down behind the ball. It is now
+soled again as in the original address.
+
+This sounds like a somewhat lengthy process, but as a matter of fact
+it is probably the shortest waggle used by any golf player who is in
+the front rank. In fact, so rapid is Duncan in his play, that very
+frequently spectators who are not accustomed to his methods, do not
+see him play the ball, as they allow for the more deliberate style
+generally followed by the other leading professionals. In Duncan we
+have a player who in my opinion is as good a golfer as anyone in the
+world. We see clearly that he wastes very little time in addressing
+his ball, either through the green or on the putting-green. On the
+other hand, we see some men of greater fame than Duncan whose
+deliberation is tedious in the extreme, although it must be admitted
+that in so far as regards the waggle in the drive, the great players
+do not overdo this nearly so much as do amateurs of an inferior class.
+
+I am not aware that anybody has yet explained the reason for the
+waggle. It seems that it is a natural movement, or in some cases a
+very unnatural movement, which players fall into in endeavouring to
+readjust their distance from the ball and their position with regard
+to the line of flight. Very many players who waggle, produce most
+remarkable flourishes with their club. The club is made to describe
+curves in the air which it could not possibly do in any other
+operation at golf than the waggle. The whole object of the waggle
+seems to be to allow the player to get his eye in, as it is commonly
+called, at the ball, to loosen his joints, and, which is a point that
+I have not seen previously made, in a measure to produce in
+anticipation the motions of his wrists and club immediately before,
+at, and after impact with the ball.
+
+If this view of the object of the waggle be accepted as correct, it is
+obvious that in nine cases of ten the attempted waggle is force
+hopelessly wasted--in fact, worse than wasted, for it has been
+occupied in describing weird geometrical figures in the air, figures
+which can have no possible reference whatever to the work which the
+club is expected to do. In Duncan's waggle it will be observed that
+firstly he swings his club head out down the line towards the hole,
+and secondly that he carries it back for a considerable distance from
+the ball in the plane of flight produced through the ball. It will be
+seen from this that to a great extent he produces in the waggle the
+same motions as his forearms and wrists go through immediately before,
+at, and after impact with the ball. On examining the photographs of
+Duncan's hands in the drive, we find that for the space of nearly two
+feet before he reaches the ball, and probably for quite that distance
+after the ball has been struck and he has continued the
+follow-through, there is no turning over of the wrists--that during
+this space of roughly three feet, the space wherein James Braid says
+that the wrists _have it all their own way_, Duncan's wrists are
+practically quiescent, and that during the whole of this time the club
+is travelling at almost its maximum speed, but the arms and wrists are
+doing very little more to it than to withstand the centrifugal force
+developed in the earlier part of the swing and to keep themselves
+braced to withstand the shock of impact.
+
+These are merely a few instances taken haphazard from a book called
+_Practical Golf_ by one who is, undoubtedly, in so far as regards his
+own play, a practical golfer. This does not, however, prevent him from
+furnishing another and a very striking example of the curious fact
+that nearly all good golfers teach the game in a manner entirely
+different from that in which they play it, and that their tuition, if
+followed out, must result in their followers learning to play in very
+bad form, and probably also learning much which has to be painfully
+unlearnt later on when they have discovered the truth.
+
+
+
+
+AFTERWORD
+
+
+It would be very easy for me now to begin to explain in the ordinary
+manner of golf books how the game is played, but to do so would be
+going outside the scope of this work, and interfering either with the
+proper functions of the professional, or the proper practice of the
+intelligent golfer.
+
+I have, in this book, taken my readers through all those matters which
+are of the most vital importance to the game, and practically
+everything which is contained between the covers of this book may be
+better studied and digested by the golfer, be he a champion or a
+beginner, in his arm-chair than on the links. He who wishes to know
+golf to the core, must know what is in this book, all of which he can
+thoroughly understand without taking a club in his hands.
+
+The whole fault of the false doctrine which has been so plentifully
+published about golf in the past, is that it has given the unfortunate
+people who have taken notice of it an incalculable number of things to
+think about. The truest and best tuition in golf is that which
+advances by a process of elimination and so proceeds that it gives the
+learner a minimum number of separate circumstances to think about
+during his game; in fact, if the tuition has been properly carried out
+the golfer will have astonishingly little to think of at the moment
+when he is making his stroke. This is the ideal condition of mind.
+The remark which the puzzled golfer made to me that when he started on
+his downward swing he had so many things to think of that he was "all
+of a dither" expresses marvellously accurately the condition of mind
+of about ninety per cent of golfers who think they have studied golf.
+
+The golfer who studies this book soundly and intelligently will learn
+what he will learn from no other book on golf, and that is what a vast
+number of things there are in connection with the golf stroke which it
+is expedient to forget at the moment one is making it.
+
+Let me give an illustration of what I mean. The golfer is told now
+that at the top of his swing he must get his weight on to his right
+foot, and that he must keep his head still. The merest attempt to do
+this produces a conflict at once. Then he is told that his left hand
+must dominate the right: here is conflict again. But when he learns
+that in order to keep his head still he must put his weight at the top
+of his swing on his left foot, the conflict vanishes, he finds that it
+is natural and easy to do; and he forgets to encumber his mind with
+the fact that it has to be done, so that it becomes just as habitual
+with him to put his weight in the right place as it is when he is
+walking. The same thing applies with regard to the instructions which
+he has always had drilled into him to allow the left hand and arm to
+usurp the position of the right. Here again he is distinctly exhorted
+to encourage these two members to enter into conflict during the
+stroke. Although I explained to him most clearly that this idea about
+the left being the more important member of the two is utterly wrong,
+and that the right is, and always must be, the dominant member in the
+golf swing, I did not tell him to remember this during the golf swing,
+and he is indeed a very foolish person if he attempts to remember it.
+All he has to do is to cut the false doctrine out of his mind, and
+nature will attend to the rest. So it will be seen that when one has
+grasped the truth in connection with golf one has advanced by such a
+process of elimination that there is left for the happy golfer when he
+addresses his ball very little to think of but hitting that ball.
+
+Golf in the past has suffered from the multiplicity of false
+directions. It is by recognising these for what they are, and by
+forgetting them that the golfer will ultimately arrive at _The Soul of
+Golf_.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+    Accelerating speed, Vardon on, 104
+
+    Address and impact similar, Braid on, 137
+
+    Address, Braid on, 133
+
+    Apportionment of back-spin, 263, 270, 271
+
+    Arm roll in stroke, 210
+
+    Arms measure distance, 46, 174
+
+    As you go up so you come down, 97, 219
+
+    Ayres, F. H., Ltd., 289, 324
+
+    Ayres, Mr. Rupert, 289-291
+
+
+    Back-spin at impact, rate of, 272
+      how obtained, 247
+      Professor Tait's experiment, 225
+      Professor Thomson's error, 246
+
+    Badminton _Golf_, 120, 158, 214, 218
+
+    _Badminton Magazine_, 222, 226
+
+    Ball, Mr. John, 153, 157
+
+    Ball, action of, during impact, 237
+      brambly, inaccuracy off putter, 287
+      centre of gravity, 292
+      centre of gravity, test for, 294
+      effect of marking, 302
+      effect of untrue centre, 299
+      flight parallel with earth, 265
+      guttie, truth of, 294
+      Haskell, 253
+      indented or dimpled, 286
+      instability of the golf, 284
+      smooth, flight of, 289, 311
+      tests, 296
+      the golf, 283
+      track of, on green, 286
+      unscientifically made, 261
+
+    Balls, dimpled, 291
+
+    Base ball, spin in, 233
+
+    Beauty of flight, 3
+
+    Billiard balls, excrescences on, 283
+
+    Billiards, blind spot in, 175
+
+    Blackwell, Mr. Edward, 153
+
+    Blindfold golf, 164
+
+    Blind spot, 168, 169, 173
+
+    Blow in golf horizontal, Professor Tait, 265
+      upward, 265
+
+    Body movement after impact, 167
+
+    Braid on distribution of weight, 119, 135
+      on influence of club after impact, 101
+      on putting, 50, 55, 58, 77
+
+    Braid's putting, 75, 76
+      uncertainty about wrist work, 208
+
+    Bullet, drift of, 235
+
+
+    Catapults, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey's, 296
+
+    Cleek, push stroke with, 194
+      Vardon's push shot with, 194
+
+    Clubs, all illegal, 322
+      construction of, 316
+      rusty, 333
+
+    _Contemporary Review_, 320
+
+    Corkscrew action in stroke, Braid on, 213
+
+    Croome, Mr. A. C. M., 198, 199
+
+    Cross-bow, Professor Tait's experiment, 266
+
+    Cross wind, Professor Thomson on, 240
+      Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey on, 298
+      Vardon on, 256
+
+    Cut, principles of, 89
+
+    Cutting round a stymie, 73
+
+
+    Direction, demand for, 3
+
+    Downward swing, control of, 133, 278
+
+    Downward swing, Duncan and Vardon, 130
+
+    Drag for bolting puts, 62, 63
+      in putting, 60
+
+    Drive, tension of muscles during, 38
+
+    Duncan, George, 7, 82
+      and mashie stroke, 72, 82
+      and smooth ball, 289, 309
+
+    Dynamical problems, Professor Thomson on, 228
+
+
+    Elimination the secret of coaching, 352
+
+    English mental attitude towards games, 4
+
+    _English Review, The_, 267
+
+    _Evening Standard and St. James's Gazette_, 288
+
+    Eye, lifting the, 34, 35
+
+    Eyes, effect of, on weight, 167
+      function of, 162, 163
+      movement of, 166
+      Vardon on movement of, 168
+
+
+    Fallacies of golf, 95
+
+    Feet, movement of, Duncan, Vardon, and Braid, 134
+
+    "Flick" in golf stroke, 213
+
+    Flight of ball, 222
+
+    Follow-through, 128, 129
+      control of, 278
+
+    Forearms, action of Duncan's, 210
+      in stroke, roll of, 210
+
+    Freemasonry of golf, 6
+
+    _Fry's Magazine_, photographs in, 125, 138
+
+
+    Golf books, unscrupulous practices, 10
+
+    _Golf Illustrated_, 197
+      and Professor Thomson, 253
+
+    Golfers groping their way, Braid, 269
+
+    Grip, apportionment of power in, 150
+      old, 152, 153
+      overlapping, 152
+      suggested new, 151
+
+    Gutta ball, Walter J. Travis on, 253
+
+
+    Haskell ball, 253
+
+    Head, keeping still, 162, 163
+      Taylor on position of, 171
+
+    High tee for low ball, 246
+
+    Hilton, Mr. H. H., 153
+
+    Hilton, Mr. H. H., in _Concerning Golf_, 160
+
+    Horizontal stroke, Professor Thomson's idea, 244
+
+    Hutchinson, Mr. Horace G., on distribution of weight, 120
+      on top of swing, 158
+
+
+    Impact, action during, 182
+      and address similar, Braid on, 137, 277
+      an incident of stroke, 45, 99, 100
+      arc during, 244
+      duration of, 165
+      length of, 277
+      muscles at time of, 30, 31
+      "no control over," Braid, 278
+      Professor Thomson on, 242
+      Walter J. Travis on, 253
+
+    Impatience to play, 5
+
+    Instruction by elimination, 352
+
+
+    Knee, left, Braid's action, 137
+      left, not loose, 127
+      right, and Vardon, 131
+
+
+    Laws of swerve of universal application, 234
+
+    Left and right wrists together, Vardon, 216
+
+    Left arm, power of, 12, 140
+      Braid on, 142, 143, 148
+      Mr. Hutchinson on, 146
+      Taylor on, 144, 145, 148
+      Vardon on, 140, 141, 148, 149
+
+    Left hand, regulating grip, Vardon on, 150
+
+    Left wrist starts club down, Braid, 215
+
+    _Le Golf_, Arnaud Massy, 320
+
+    Literature of golf, 10, 334
+
+    Low, Mr. John L., _Concerning Golf_, 159, 256, 257
+
+    Low ball, high tee for, 246
+
+
+    Mashie, cut shot, 26
+      cut stroke, Vardon on, 191
+      for stymies, 70
+      stroke, Taylor's cut, 193
+
+    Mashies, short, for stymies, 330
+
+    Massy, Arnaud, 320
+
+    Master stroke, the, 178
+
+    Matter, definition of, 41
+
+    Mechanical accuracy demanded, 2
+
+    Mechanics of golf, 3
+
+    Mitchell, A., 327
+
+    _Modern Golf_, 59, 73, 83, 133, 210, 246
+
+    _Morning Post_, 198
+
+    Mystery, none in other games, 16
+
+    _Mystery of Golf_, 15, 125, 220
+
+
+    Newton, on principles of swerve, 223, 235, 228
+
+    "Nip" at impact, Professor Tait, 266
+
+    "Nose" of golf ball, 231
+
+
+    Palm grip, Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson on, 159
+
+    Payne-Gallwey, Sir Ralph, 292
+      tests, 296
+
+    _Practical Golf_, 120, 335 _et seq._
+
+    Press, influence of, 33
+
+    Professionals and journalists, 10
+      lacking in theory, 9
+
+    _Projectile Throwing Engines of the Ancients_, 292
+
+    Pull, the, 179
+      axis of vertical, Professor Thomson on, 237
+      Braid on, 188
+      explanation of spin, 240
+      Mr. John L. Low on, 258
+      true axis of, 240
+      Vardon on, 183
+
+    Push stroke, Vardon's, 194
+
+    Put, Braid on cutting the, 83
+      not a wrist stroke, 67
+      position of ball, 67
+      run on, 69
+      short grip for, 84
+      Vardon on cutting the, 87
+
+    Put, short, the easiest stroke, 48
+      Braid on the, 50
+      should be taught first, 48
+      Taylor on the, 50
+      Vardon on the, 49
+
+    Putter, short, 326
+
+    Putting, 11, 47
+      chief point in, 64
+      fundamental principles of, 53
+      importance of address in, 65
+      mechanically simple, 57
+      most important factor, 52
+      off heel or toe, 64
+      pendulum action in, 66
+      tests, 304
+      with drag, 60
+
+
+    Ray, Edward, 301, 309
+
+    Roll of ball on club, 238, 245
+
+    "Ruff," the, golf ball, 300, 309
+
+
+    St. Andrews, Royal and Ancient Golf Club of, 322
+
+    Schenectady putter, 320, 326
+
+    Self-consciousness, 20
+
+    Shaft, torsional strain of, 321
+
+    Simplicity of golf, 2
+
+    Slice, the, 179
+      axis of, vertical, Professor Thomson, 237
+      impact in, 252
+      Mr. John L. Low on, 258
+      pressure on rear of ball, Professor Thomson, 241
+      Professor Thomson on, 250
+      true axis of, 238
+      Walter J. Travis on, 190
+
+    Slow back, 96
+
+    Smooth ball, uneven flight of, 311
+
+    Snap of wrists in drive, 205
+
+    Soles, broad, of clubs, 328
+
+    Spalding, A. G., & Bros., 291
+
+    Speed, gradually increasing, 29
+
+    Spin, 181
+      effect on flight, Braid on, 260
+
+    Spread of golf, 6
+
+    Style, 19
+
+    Stymie, cutting round, 73
+      run-through, 343
+
+    "Sweep," a hit with iron clubs, 109
+
+    Sweep, the, 12, 98
+
+    _Swerve, or the Flight of the Ball_, 224
+
+    Swerve, principles of, 223, 233
+
+    Swerve, double, 293
+      Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey on, 305
+
+    Swing, premature teaching of, 5
+      the short, 110
+      top of, Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson on, 158
+
+
+    Tait, late Professor, 223
+
+    Taylor on distribution of weight, 120, 171
+      on putting, 50
+      on the sweep, 103
+
+    Teaching by elimination, 352
+      of golf unsound, 43
+
+    Temperament, golf the test of, 7
+
+    Tension during stroke, Braid on, 133
+      of muscles during stroke, 38
+
+    Thomson, Professor, and smooth ball, 312
+
+    Thomson, Professor Sir J. J., 227
+
+    _Times, The_, 292
+
+    Topped ball, 279
+
+    Top-spin, alleged possibilities of, 280
+      how obtained, 233
+      in lawn-tennis, Professor Thomson on, 232
+      nearest approach to, 280
+      not used in golf, 280
+
+    Travis, Walter J., fallacies of, 335 _et seq._
+      on distribution of weight, 120
+
+
+    Under-spin not essential to long carry, 227
+      Professor Thomson's error, 246
+      properties of, 248
+
+    Upward concavity against back-spin, 267, 275
+
+
+    Vaile golf ball, 290
+      putter, 55
+      stymie stroke, 70
+
+    Vardon and blind spot, 169
+      on cross wind, 256
+      on cutting a put, 87
+
+    Vardon on distribution of weight, 118, 124
+      on follow-through, 131
+      on putting, 50, 75
+
+    Vardon's weight in follow-through, 131
+
+    Vertical axis of slice and pull, Professor Thomson on, 237
+
+
+    Waggle, the, 346
+      Duncan's, 346
+
+    Waist, pivoting from, 122
+
+    Weight, distribution of, 13, 25, 27, 97, 117, 171
+
+    Weight distribution, Vardon on, 118, 124
+      Braid on, 119, 121
+      fallacy, origin explained, 138
+      Horace Hutchinson on, 120
+      Mr. Haultain's explanation, 125
+      Taylor on, 120
+      W. J. Travis on, 120
+
+    Weight on right leg, test for, 122
+
+    Wind-cheater, 3, 179
+
+    Wind, cross, 242, 256, 257
+
+    Wrists, action of, 202
+      Mr. Horace Hutchinson on, 219
+      speed of, 217
+      turn over of, 107
+      Vardon on action of, 203
+
+
+    _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                       THE MYSTERY OF GOLF
+
+                       BY ARNOLD HAULTAIN
+
+        Second and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. net.
+
+
+    Mr. HENRY LEACH in the _EVENING NEWS_.--"Mr. Haultain's book
+    answers to all the tests to which it may be submitted, and I
+    am strongly disposed to regard it as the best book of its kind
+    that has ever been written."
+
+    Mr. J. SUTHERLAND in the _DAILY NEWS_.--"A short time ago I
+    was asked by a young aspirant ... to point out the book I
+    liked best. 'That wee one?' he inquired, and on my nodding
+    assent he ... took the book down and read ... _The Mystery of
+    Golf_ (Haultain)."
+
+    _THE PROFESSIONAL AND GREENKEEPER._--"The book is undoubtedly
+    one of the best ever written dealing with the Royal and
+    Ancient Game."
+
+    "LOOKER-ON" in _GOLF ILLUSTRATED_.--"In my opinion, the best
+    book that has ever been written on golf.... On every page
+    there scintillates a jewel of golfing wisdom."
+
+    _GOLFING._--"A book in which every golfer must delight....
+    There is not a stale word in the book from beginning to end."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+    THE ART OF PUTTING. By W. J. TRAVIS and JACK WHITE. Crown 8vo.
+    1s.
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+
+    GREAT BOWLERS AND FIELDERS: THEIR METHODS AT A GLANCE. By G.
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+    SPOFFORTH, B. J. T. BOSANQUET, R. O. SCHWARZ, and G. L.
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+    A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS IN AFRICA. Nine Years amongst the Game
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+                MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious printer errors were repaired.
+
+Hyphenation variants retained as in original.
+
+Copyright page showed no date.
+
+Both "putts" (in quoted material) and "puts" (in author's voice) were
+present in the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Soul of Golf, by Percy Adolphus Vaile
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41149 ***