GOLF STROKES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18479, 5 September 1925, Page 11

GOLF STROKES.

PUTTS AND OTHER SHOTS. DISCUSSION ON VALUES. (.SriCIALLT ■VTRITTES TOS "TH* TSXSS."} (By Harry Yard on. Sir Times Open Champion.) I have received a letter from a correspondent who suggests that it is high time that some influential union or flub or individual organised a protest against what, ho describes as "the absurdly big part that putting plays in golf."

Ho remarks that, when a person accomplishes a brilliant score of, say, 7:1, it may be taken for granted that the putting" greens have accounted for half of his strokes. This, he says, is ridiculous, because it means that the man who is the best gtilfer—judged by the ability shown in drives and iron shots, which represent "real golf" in this critic's estimation —is rcdaeed to tho level of other people in "one small department, of the game in which it is not necessary to play true golf shot* at all."

The best man, my correspondent contends, is therefore robbed of some of liis advantage. Ho cannot assert the samo measure of superiority as be would do if. putting were reduced to its proper proportions; that is, "if it were less tiresome and footling a business as it is now, and offered as much reward for skill as a perfectly-struck iron shot. Even may the most accomplished golfer bo deprived of his advantage altogether if lus rival happens to get down several long putts, which are always scmiilukcs." Times Have Changed. "Tho ancients," this letter concludes, "gavo an exaggerated value to patting because they did not bother to think very much about tho game, and, holding no championships and few competitions of any kind, were content to be at tho mercy of fortune in holing' out, just as one has to be satisfied with tho luck of the cards in a French baccarat rdom.

"But golf has since become an exact science, and it does not follow that what suited the players of centuries ago is acceptable to those of to-day. There ought to be as much chance for a person to got down in one putt on the green as thero is for him to lay an iron shot -within ten yards of tho pin. Champion* do the latter at hole after hole when they are in form, but they cannot koep on holing out in one pott for the reason that the putt is actually not a golf stroke at all in the trie sense of the terra, and is governed largely by influences that ought not to exist—among them being irregularities in tho surface of the ground and the cutting of holes in preposterous places. "Putting ought to have- no higher value than a good iron shot. I suppose that one way to reduce it to this would be to double the size of the hole, although there may be other means to . tho end.'' Short and Long Putts. I have quoted extensively from this communication because it indicates what a good many golfers t>,in V and say—especially when they are off their putting. Presumably it has been seat to me for the reason that my reputation as a rnisser of short potts is second to nobody's, but it has not touched quite ,so soft a spot as it might often do, for it happens that I haTe been putting rather well lately, having done scores of 67, 67, 66, 68, 67, 67, 66, 69 in eight consecutive rounds OA sty heme course »t Totteridge. , The best put of my eorrespoodeat's case is, perhaps, that in which be gofers to the "cutting of hplt» in preposterous places." There are pl<#ty of courses on which this jmlmmo «i* fairness is cwefnUy avoided, bet titans we other# at wfejob it seems to b» practwed with fiendish delight by the committee or the greenkwper qetog on his own. initiative, and there ha** been strong complaints about it ; several important during the present aegSQU. The short putt is, I suppose, as ipuch of sa Utt)e Kke a trne nlf stroke as one cares .to zssfeo it. alio late Willie Pvk slwflw played it with a perfect swing, in Bua&feti*. flatty of present day gplferi do tfeo matt', Sir Ernest flolderness oqcufs to as being a notable exaipple. .On the other hand, a >great many good players peck at their short putts in a way, that they could not adopt for any other stroke in the game, as, for instance, George Pggcan, who seems, moreover, to specialise in malting the contact between putter, and ball somewhere near tho heel of the club. * It appears tq me, however, that tho approach-putt of anything from twelve to twenty yards is. ahrays a mm) golf stroke. At least, if it is not played as a true swing of tho putter —it is seldom a success. A few well-known golfers there are who tap it mostly with the right forearm ana hand rather than swing at it by. using the two arms as a pendulum, but they are not consistently successful. A 3-Yds Sanctuary. The approach-put* is, indeed, a ittj beautiful shot, as skilful in its ova way as the iron shot up to the hole. There is JittJo ground for complaint against the part that putting Bow plays in golf except that the person who lays an iron shot or % isashie pitch within three yards of the p»» ought to be given a better chance of hoGng out in one putt th*n he obtains on most courses. To promote the desired end, I would have three yards of absolutely level, ground all round the hole, so that the player who could make his apprpech * finish within that area would have a decided advantage over the rival who finished outside it. The 099 would have a straightforward, pott, and the other a difficult pott, with slopes to ' take into account.

Reasonably undulating greens are essential to the interest of putting, but the trouble at present is that the holes are often eqi oq one of these slopes, with'other slopes surrcrtmding it, so that even the player wh® Uys an iron shot or a pitch foar or Ave feet from the pin is often deprived of an advantage over one* who ten yards away. He former very likely has a downhill putt, with the hole out. on the declivity, in which case he will be lucky not to run so far as to take three pijtts in going for the tin. The man who is ten yards away will usually get dawn carefully iaf two pnttg. Thi« scheme of the sansfSarr or three yards of level ground all roaad ihe hole wwn? to to «a mi » ' way as say of saving potting ita proper ratio witii approaching, and enabKn S tJw «pf. to '' -' ~ ' 'l'-V'd