GOLF.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17127, 23 April 1921, Page 5

GOLF.

VARIOUS STYLES. WHO OBIGINATED THE OVERLAPPING GRIP? (SPECIAL TO "THE PRESS.") (Bt Abe Mitchell.) Bight down through all the generations of goif the instinct of the player has had a potent influence, and even to-day it is"not possible-to. draw any definite lines and say "this method is right and that method is wrong." Possibly one way of making a shot gives better results than another, but even this is Hot certain, for always has the human factor to be taken into consideration. To me it is one of the mysteries of the game that we can hold.the club in, more than one manner and yet succeed. Why do I hold it in the palms of the hands and why do Vardon, Duncan, ' ar.d the others overlap? Imagine that i I was just beginning to, play, and that I took hold of the club' in my present style. Instantly the professional coach would say: "That is wrong; you will never pipy properly if you hold the club "in that way." Ninety-nine out of every hundred golfers, too, would agree with him, but—well, I never came under a coach. When I started to play golf I had'no ono to advise me or it is probable that I should have been more orthodox and that I should overlap. I had to rely on my own instinct, and I held the club in what to me seemed the most natural'manner.. Who invented tho overlapping grip? Even this is not certain. It bears tie name of Vardon, but I never heard him claim to be the orginator of the style. Indeed, ho did not begin to overlap until he left his village home in Jersey and came to. England. But I think it is correct to say. that he discovered the method for himself., In his early professional days, either at Ripon or Bury, he spent most of his time at practice, and it was then that, ho started to overlap. Case of J. H. Taylor. But during this time thero was a youth playing at far-off Westward Ho! named John Henry Taylor, and he also overlapped. Indeed, Taylor has told mo that he does not remember having oyer held'a club in any other way. This is perhaps a little curious, for after his historic Blackheath /the club at Westward Ho! was the first to be started in England, and in the early days it had'strong Scottish influences. In these circumstances one would have expected Taylor and tho youths of his time to have' cultivated the Scottish palm grip.' But it is. clear that "J.H." was'using the overlapping style before Vardon discovered it.' . But we must go even further back for. the. inventor, and there is evidence. to suggest that he 'is to be found in .Scotland. Duncan's first appointment■was at Timperley, and he has told how during his first, year at the club he entered for the championoship. The event happened to be at Hoylake, ana it wiis there that' he first saw Vardon, Taylor, and other leading players of the time Naturally they made a, great imEression on him, Vardon especially, and e waa surprised by the way in which' ne held his club. "I was surprised," Duncan has told me, "because; there was an old golfer of seventy at Aberdeen* who had always overlapped in the .style of Vardon. and we boys used to think he was just a crank, who had, his own- method of, gripping."; I. do not ;think there'is any; doubt that it was only , the wonderful influence of Vardon, \\hich brought the pver T lapping grip into general' haps, as is claimed for it, it is the safest of all'grips, but it .is not the only good ■ and effective one. The. other day an anonymous correspondent sent me a photograph of Alec Herd taken froih tho back at the top of the swing. It was.a most informative snapshot, and'my correspondent" had written underneath it: "This may interest you as you hold the club much in the same way as Herd. Doesn't it suggest, to you the exertjon of more power than that shown by. the golfer who overlaps?" Herd certainly seemed to have supreme control over his club, and also to be exerting great power. Hands Reversed. There is a section of players who have still another method of holding their clubs. I have heard them described as golfing heretics. These players reverse the position of the hands, putting the left below the right. The advantage claimed for this style is also that it enables more power- to be; applied. A youth who playod in thb way took: part in the Services' competition held at Sandy Hodge sOon after the armistice, and he took Lord Charles Hope to the last green. He was very surprised that anyone should think his method • unorthodox. - "Most of us at home 'play, in this style," he declared. He came from the Newcastle district. I have often noted this curiosity. If you put a club in the hands of a .child, in nine cases out Of ten he will hold the left-hand oelow the. right. It seems the natural thing for him to do. I do not know whether anything' is to be learned from this, But it is an interesting fact which makes one think and wonder.

Right, through golf you/will find trivial seeming differences in method which are. really important: In putting, for instance, no two players are really alike in their search for the infallible way to put the ball into the hole. There are those who favour "knocking"' the ball down as distinct from those who practice . the more delicate art of coaxing it to the: bottom of the ■ tin. You have Duncan putting off the heel of his club, others striking off .the middle, ..and again those who believe in hitting with the toe. . Again you have players like Ray who overlap with two fingers of the right hand for putting, and those who go to tho other far extreme, and hold the hands apart. Clearly there, is no right and wrong, style for nutting. We all rely on our.own instinct and try.to find salvation in this way. Then there is the shot up,to the hole. Some, like Vardon believe in hitting the ball high into the. air for it to fall like a poached egg on "the green with the force almo3t spent. In J. H. Taylor's shot, however, the ball is more or less moving forward all the time, and spinning against the flight. The result in one case is probably just as good as in the other, but the methods are totally different. -In driving there is the shot' winch depends on length for carry, and the shot which gives the same distance, and perhaps more, as the result of a longer run.

These strokes are different in very important details, and they are entirely a matter of choice. For instance, Vardon - has always favoured the ball with carry, and Braid the.one with run, and both at their best' are mogniiUfcnt drivers. If I may say so, however, Vardon's method appeals to' me as the safer for the ordinary player, for 'the turn of the wrist to'gct the low tra-' jectbry is always a danger. A little too much turn and the ball is smothered, and the result is an inglorious scuttle.

So one might go on right through the game, noting variations of both style and method, and though all the books which have been written have been of great help, no writer has ever dared to say that this way of playing WS3 right, and that that way was wrong. Golf to-day, as it always has been, is largely governed by instinct.