Golf Museum NSTEAD GEORGE ORV1S Prints, When I the Motor Rr United States Golf Association Proves the Course the Links with a HOUSE COLD VERMONT Combinat
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I I ce 25c. Qg A Year Fifth Ave. at 45th Street New York Jlpartmenis and T^ooms with [Bath, Unfurnished ACold-wtll Valor 1/ wer in Hdgewatcr Par*-, Cleveland and Furnished, by the Rollers A. msiently. Than The Golf Museum NSTEAD GEORGE ORV1S prints, when I the motor rr United States Golf Association proves the course the links with a HOUSE COLD VERMONT Combinat >•• and Mote " irons it out" perfectly. The Coldwell wi IRATE" —it climbs 25 per tandardized? It does the work o ers on a gallon ot :es as used by The best courses in / atest Golfers well. The New Y. has a fleet of eightei Donated through the kindness of our motor mower bo ARDON scribing 150 differen Sherrill Sherman motor, horse and har D COLE Utica, N.Y. autograph of these LAWN MOW seless experiments. Manufacturers of ;lub stamped with Motor Poiver 1947 antee that it is the Office and Factory at these great golfers. Warehouses, Phila Braid $2.50 "Autograph" Irons Each Taylor, Vardon U3.00 "Autograph" Drivers and Brassies ) Each Send for Golf Catalogue Von LENGERKE & DETMOLD FIFTH AVENUE BUILDING LDWELL LAWN MOWERS 200 Fifth Avenue •>«» 23d st. New York City In answering advertisements please mention GOLF fcfc* A Beautiful Xmas Present v e. at 45th Stt No Golf, Country or Social Club, and in fact New York NO GOLFER should be without a set of the noted ana Furm urn GOLF CARTOONS By C. R. MACAULEY ocawn SETS NOW READY: 1—A-Head of the Game 4—Peace Hath Her Victories 2—Thankful for Small Favors 5—On the Home Green i 3—Clearing the Bunkers 6—Liked by All Golfers Size 10x14 Price *2:™ the Set of Six Charges prepaid to any address • I Year's Subscription to Golf and Set of Cartoons $5^00 NOTE PAGE 389 To all renewals and new subscribers we offer one Tait"s Table Golf Game with subscription, for $4.00. Address GOLF, Inc. 286 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY . ALEX SMITH ' • GOLF WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "GOLFING," ESTABLISHED 1894 VOL. XXXV DECEMBER, 191 I Xo. 6 LESSONS IN GOLF BY ALEX SMITH INTRODUCTION ET me begin by assuming that the theory upon which his own game is _J readers of these words have never based; otherwise it is obviously impos- veLt taken club in hand. He desires to sible to make the pupil understand what become a golfer; how must he set about is required of him. A professional golf- it? The obvious answer is that he er who has developed his game accord- should take lessons from a good, pro- ing to the instinctive or natural method, fessional instructor. That is undoubt- may play very well without taking any edly the surest and best method for thought of it whatever. His muscles do arriving at results really satisfactory. their work automatically, and so long as A competent coach quickly sizes up his the results are satisfactory, the player man; he discerns his natural capacity of this class does not need to bother for the game, and by the aid of precept himself about the whys and wherefores. and example soon has him started on He has formed his style imitatively, as the right road. The novice has the in- does a boy, and the less he thinks about estimable advantage of actually seeing it the better. If he should go off his how the different strokes are played, game in any particular he is necessarily and. provided that he is mentally and at a loss, and his only remedy is to physically sound, there is no reason keep on playing until a kind Providence why he should not develop an effective ordains that the lost magic shall return. game. But this rule of thumb business is not But if this statement is true, why going to help the pupil, because the lat- am I writing? If the practical meth- ter has never had any game to start od is so much the preferable one. why with. In such case the difficulties sim- am I putting these lessons down upon ply multiply until both teacher and paper? This is a fair question, and scholar find themselves floundering; in one that I am bound to answer in the an impassable "slough of despond." same spirit. In the second place, the instructor I did advise professional instruction, may be a fine player, with a definite but you will note that I qualified the idea of the theory of his art, and yet words by the adjective, good. Indeed, he may be quite unable to impart his that makes all the difference between knowledge to another. He cannot pick success and failure. There are plenty out the faults into which his pupil is of professionals who play a good game sure to fall, much less apply the neces- themselves, who are utterly incompetent sary remedies. In a word, he has not to teach anyone else. In the first place, the gift of teaching (for it is a gift), a coach should thoroughly know the and without it failure and disappoint- Copyrlght 1014, by OUFFOKD I,. TCBNKII. MI rights reserved 356 LESSONS IN GOLF ment are certain. So I say that the ing the horizontal. Both players get professional instruction must be good the ball away in masterful style and to be of value. are ranked as class men. Again, take Now, a boy picks up things, includ- the question of stance, by which is ing golf, imitatively, just as monkeys meant the position of the player's feet do. If the child has a good model he in reference to the ball. Mr. Horace will instinctively form his own style up- Hutehinson draws back his right foot on it, and the results will be satisfac- and stands with the ball nearly op- tory. But in the case of our imaginary posite the left heel. This is a position beginner at golf we must assume that recommended in Badminton, and is the he has passed beyond the imitative pe- stance used almost universally by the riod of boyhood. His intelligence has older school of golfers, both profes- awakened; he has begun to think, and, sional and amateur. One cannot say above all, self-consciousness has devel- that the position is unsound, and yet oped. Under these circumstances the nearly all of the leaders nowadays, in- appeal must be to his mind and not cluding Vardon. Taylor, and Braid, to his muscles. He must understand stand with the right foot advanced, the the theory of what he is trying to do open position. The 'obvious conclusion if he is going to accomplish anything would seem to be that the extreme in at all. either direction should be avoided. Granting, for the sake of argument, Go to a championship meeting and that the novice is in the adult stage of you will see golfers playing in what existence, and living in a place where seems to be an infinite diversity of he cannot obtain the aid of a competent form. One player swings back with instructor, what is he to do? Certainly, painstaking deliberation, another like a he cannot learn golf by the light of his flash of lightning; one man gets his dis- own reason. He may buy a set of clubs tance by means of his arms and body, and set himself to whacking a ball about another through perfect wrist action. a ten-acre lot. but the chances are not Here is a player who comes down on one in a thousand that he will hit upon the ball with the force of a pile-driver, the right way of playing golf. Here while his partner has the careless little and there a genius may work out his Hick of a man cutting off a daisy head own salvation, but I am speaking of with a riding switch. And yet they all the ordinary man; he must have some accomplish about the same results: one sort of guide if he is ever going to find after another, the balls leave the tee the right path. It is for him. then, and come to rest two hundred or more that these articles are written; a state- yards away straight down the fair ment as straightforward and practical green. as I know how to make it. of the es- Well, what is the conclusion at which sentials underlying the art of golf. I we must arrive? Is it that golf may be don't pretend to say that the student and is played in any old way? By no will be able to make a finished golfer manner of means. We must look deep- out of himself by means of these les- er, and then we shall see that in spite sons, but he may reasonably expect that of apparent differences all these styles by following them he can lay the foun- possess certain similarities—the essen- dations of a sound game. There is tials of good golf. Granted these es- everything in beginning right. sentials, and golf is possible under many By way of further explanation I must different applications of the basic prin- point out that golf, and good golf, is ciples; ignore them, and no golf what- possible under conditions that super- ever is the result. ficially seem quite at variance. For ex- And so in preparing these lesson ample, one man plays wit') an upright articles I have tried to lay down the swing and another in a style approach- cardinal, the universal, the indispens- "t, tl, y , M.T,,,, is -••••• • 0 • i R I • • • who <M • - ALEX SMITH'S CLUBS Riglit to left—Driver, 14 oz., 4iiVi in.; Braasie, 15 oz., 45% in.; Spoon, 14V4 oz., 46 in.; Cleek, 14% oz,, 4L'% in.; Driving Iron, l."> nz., 41 in.; Midiron, Hi oz., 40% in.; Mashie, 15% oz., 39% in.; Mashie Niblick, 17V4 oz., 3» in.; Putter, 16% o«., 38 in.