PET GOLF-CLUBS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2613, 8 November 1915, Page 3

PET GOLF-CLUBS

PREDICTIONS OF FAMOUS PUVEIiS

"Pet clubs" play a prominent jarfc in golf, and the devotees of tho aristocratic game are apt to regard tliem with extraordinary reverence and devotion. In "The American Magazine" for October, Jerome D. Travers, present open champion of America, tells us of' the great golfers and the clubs for which they show a preference. Ouimet alone ho points out as a man to whom all clubs are alike, ono no better than another. Of the rest, most of the playens are far and away better shots with one or two of their clubs than with tho others. Walter J. Travis., for examplo, who has accomplished feats with tho putter that amount to wizardry, is no better than he should be with other clubs. Then there is the newcomer, Jesse Guilford, who beats all records with a driver, and not uncommonly drives over 300 yards—half again as far as the fairly good drive of the average player. Vardon and Evans employ the full iron to best advantage. H. D. Gillies, the English amateur, sends an extremely high mashie shot with deadly precision, and J. H. Taylor, five times British open champion, though not possessing a'remarkably long drive, sends tho ball from. tho. tee with such marvellous oontrol.tliat: it is "as accurately placed' as if he walked down and dropped the ball with his hand.!'

But there is more to the "pet club" than its shape, or a preference for wood or iron. Though all putters may look alike, there is, one-somewhere, if it can only be found, that is exactly balanced to a certain "player's hand; the same is true of every other club in tho bag; and if the right'player and the right club meet, there is no separating them thereafter. . A player's pet club is priceless, though to any other player it may be less than worthless. Says Mr. Travers:

It is hard to explain just why certain clubs appeal so strongly to certain players. In much the same way a baseball player becomes attached to a oertain bat. It may not suit another, player. But it has exactly the right feeling for him. ;

Here and there the goLfer runs across a club with a perfect balance. When he gets a club of that type money could hardly buy it. In England on my last trip I happened to pick up a oertain light iron in a professional s shop. It was rusty and several years old. Yet I knew the minute I got my hands on that club it was exactly what I wanted. The professional was glad to sell an old club cheap. So I bought it for a dollar. The next day Fred Herreshoff picked it up, and offered me live dollars for my bargain. I refused, and he offered me ten dollars. He finally offered twentyfive dollars, but I told him it was not for sale:

Some years ago "Snake" Ames, the old Princeton football star, who is also a fine golfer, had a mashie in his hag which he rarely used. One day. he handed it to Oswald Kirkby, who had been looking for a'mashie that suited him. "It's exactly tho club I've.been looking for," said Kirkby. "Please keep it, then," said Ames, "I've been, looking for a chance to get rid of it."

Within a week two golfers offered Kirkby thirty dollars for the club, but fifty dollars would not have tempted him.- And any new mashie on the market can bo bought for three dollars. The feel and balance of this club merelyhappened to have an appeal to several players beyond that of any other mashie they had ever used. Yet to its original owner it was worthless. This club is now Kirkby's prize possession, and it isn't for sale at any price. When a man gets a club of this 6ort, whether it 'be driver, brassie, iron, or putter, .he is almost "sure . to play it well; for a big :part of golf is confidence. : If a golfer believes he can make a certain shot, he can generally make it. If he has unusual confidence in a certain club, he is almost sure to use it well, and in every hard match he is equally sure to use it at every chance, even when at times the shot would naturally call for a different sort of club.

Edward Ray, ex-British champion, has a massive niblick that ho uses for every pitch shot from 150 to 50 yards. Where the average golfer would take a full mashie or perhaps a jigger, Ray takes out this niblick for a high pitch that is almost sure to fall dead.

At BaltusroV, in his match with Vardon against two American stars, he piayed a shot with this club that I 'is still the talk of the big gallery which followed the contest.

■ Coming to tho sixth hole, he -hooked his shot behind a solid fringe of tall trees. There was absolutely no way to play through these trees to the green. And he was so close in that it seemed impossible that he could pitch over them. But calling for the spade-like niblick, he shot the ball almost straight up from the turf, barely arching it

over the trees on to the green, -within 4 feet of the where he got a three, beating par by a stroke from a lie hardly another golfer conld have played at all. He simply had abounding confidence in this club, such confidenco that ho believed any miracle was possible with it.