GOLFING TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 165, 27 May 1940, Page 8

GOLFING TOPICS

MENTALITY IN SPORT SEVEREST PUNISHMENT Which sport inflicts the severest punishment? Tommy Armour, past winner of the American and the British Open championships, who is a Great War veteran antl a keen follower of boxing and baseball, hasno doubt. "There is not even aw argument," be said to a representative of an English paper. "The amswer is golf.. "Someone fights Joe Louis and Is probabl3 r knocked out in a few" rounds. He has only to absorb physical punishment for a short whiles Physical punishment is one of the minor ailments. Fiipo was knocked down seven or eight times by JackDempsey and less than an hour later was the same as ever, having a. big night in a cafe. "Golf is different. The physical part is a minor matler. The suffering in golf belongs to nerves—and also to the brain, attempting to concentrate. It is like having a nervejpulled from a tooth. In golf yotfc take this beating from four to eight hours a day during a big tournament . "This is actual suffering, when things are not breaking correctly.) Anj r ox can take a physical beating/ That is no test of courage. Couragehas little to do with the physical side. It has almost everything to dowitli the nerves and the mental sideNervous Punishment., y "It takes no bravery or reaWcourage to be knocked down and get up« again. But to force yourself to bat-<-,tle against jumpy nerves in golf calls for real courage. Golf calls for the courage of the civilised human being— not the human animal." Tommy Armour is 100 per cent, right in his diagnosis, commerits the writer. I have seen Christy Mathew— son, one of the gamest baseball pitchers who ever lived, and Gene Tun— ncy, one of the gamest fighters of all time, not only blow up completely in a golf game, but also refuseto accept the nervous and mental punishment. "I remember more than one golf' tournament," Armour told me, where I would rather have slapped' Joe Louis or Dempsev across themouth than tackle a 3ft putt when-' I was nervous and knew what that putt meant to me. I have seen Bobby Jones suffer far more than Jess Wiliard ever suffered against Dempsev (Conthaiod foot of previous column)-"