GOLF.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18407, 13 June 1925, Page 13

GOLF.

LONG DRIVERS.

SOME REFLECTIONS ON RECENT

RESULTS.

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(By Harry Vardon.)

So much is said and written nowadays about mighty driving at golf, and the person who achieves it i 3 glorified with such enthusiasm, no matter what his failings may be in the game in general, that a dispassionate consideration of the question seems appropriate. Some recent events ought to be sufficient to make people think. There were plenty of powerful hitters- in the field for English close championship on. the Koyal Liverpool links at Hoylake, including C. J. H. Tolley, who, it .appears, was driving so far as to be tempted to take a light mashie for his second shot to the fourteenth' hole, measuring 510 yards—an almost un-heard-of thing, even with the help of a stiff following -wind. Parenthetically, it appears, to have been because he was so tempted that he did not win. the hole from his rival and conqueror, S. Robinson, after out-driving, the latter by the best part of 100 yards. Tolley failed to get quite far enough with his light mashie, and could only halve the hole in 5. The men who contested the final of this tournament, T. F. . Ellison and Eobinson, drive the ball an ordinary, average . distance. They say frankly that they do not profess to-be big hitters, and everybody who. has- watched them agrees. Yet they were the most successful players among oyer 100-com-petitors, several of whom, had established reputations as giants of the longdriving game. • • An even more interesting sidelight on this question was provided during the Midland qualifying competition at Leek, in Staffordshire, for the.£l2o tournament.. Because of Ilia -hitting powers,. Michael . Binghanir—an Irishman from Tipperary, who.has beeii professional at Stourbridge during the. past few years—was regarded as the stair attraction. . ' •'. In practice, he did some things that nearly all- the..members .had considered impossible, as, for example, reaching the green at the twelfth hole (510 yards uphill) in two shots without any wind to assist him. The:two shots had to be all carry. . • ■ • ; A Strange Fata. Bingham is without doubt an extraordinarily long driver. I saw him in the opening meeting of the yearatEoehampton, London, last month. He was hitting the ball distances which - Abe Mitchell could not accomplish even with his best drives. " , ' And- yet Bingham actually failed to gain a place among the fifteen men who qualified in the Midland Section. This, form is obviously too bad to be • true, 'because the Midland Counties are. not rich in talent, and ;Bingham is unquestionably a player, with . fine natural golfing ability. Still, there is the fact; he did not qualify. It is a strange fate to overtake a man who, by virtue of his driving, has the. power to .convert 400-yard holes from difficult two-shot holes'into drive-and-chip holes.. . It ought to be a warning to those players who believe that the way to succeed at golf, is to cultivate.; the ability to, hit the ball a good deal farther than i the other., fellow. _ This, wor- . shipping at the shrine of -distance v » strong in the younger generation; and no doubt, it is in a large degreo ■ a natural impulse. On. if too,, there, seems to be much.plausipility in the theory that the best way . to. setabout the task of beating; an opponent is to outdrive him —;tho farther, the better.-' :■ . '■■ ■ / ■ - It is, indeed, obviously ( an advantage, to out-distance the other man from'.th,e tee at anv hole at'which length counts.. Why is it, then, that the exceptionally powerful few men who' are wprld;renowned for, the- distances that they ~ ob.tain-T-moet ; with only a limited, measure of successand Sometimes £ail badly ? . It is simply, -I think, that Hhey not reconcile the. mental-attitude .of the big hitter with .thementalattitude of the skilful golfer in other ; departments, of the game. They cannot havo two different constitutions of mind. Their passion- is .for full, swinging, and hardhitting, and when they ; have a .shot, to play up. to the green,, they, vrould rather attempt it in this way with a club of comparatively, light strength thai'take a-stronger club, and 1 play the shot .with a .shorter swing, and. greater control. And, , under-clubbing themselves arid trusting : to: hard hitting, they do: ildt obtain" accuracy. ! ; • History's. Evide^cd. There is also the fact that these .efforts* at: prodigious driving, are to lead occasionally to mishap. ' When the player is-all out for length,, everything ; else has to be.sacrificedV and the burden of. the sacrifice, ia often heavy. It is much the same- as if a person were always to rush straight across busy thoroughfares without controlling his movements bo as to. thread-- a : way through the traffic.) 'He might get across safely quite often, but almost, assurediy would he. bump into something hasty just as frequently, , It is a noteworthy circumstance that even in the earlier days of the game, when the gutta-percha ball was in use and an extra ten, fifteen, or twenty yiards. meant more than it does now, .the mighty hitters were not particularly successful. Mr Edward Blackwell was the longest driver amongst amateurs; everybody liked to see him, open, his broad pair of shoulders for. the address and put the whole of his fine physique into the shots. He had much skill, too, in the other parts of the game, and jet he never won the amateur championship. . Douglas Holland was the longest, driver among the professionals, and also a fine all-round player, but he could not secure the open .championship-... In. the present generation,- Abe Mitchell's poworful driving has not yet" enabled him to capture the highest, honours.. ' ' ■

To be sure, long driyers have won championships, but they have not won so many as the men who -bit the ball a'good, average Shortness from the tee is a-serious disadvantage, but the other extreme- seems often; to be just as futile. : To drive far enough without straining one's utmost to do it appears to. be the best policy in the long game.