GOLFER WHO LEARNT PUTTING

Evening Star, Issue 19800, 25 February 1928, Page 14

GOLFER WHO LEARNT PUTTING

T. D. ARMOUR’S EXAMPLE [Written by Uaiuiy Vakuon, for th* ‘Evening Star.’] In the recent tournament for £2,000 at Los Angeles, which marked tho beginning of this season’s big events in the Southern States of America, Thomas D. Armour, the former Edinburgh amateur, who now holds the open championship of. tho United States, jumped well off the mark by leading the field at the end of tho first round with a score of seventy-one. Nothing in latter-day golf has been more notable than the sustained improvement which has settled upon Armour’s game since ho turned professional two or three years ago, and took up his residence in the United States. In addition to securing the premier title of that nation last season, he won tho open championship of Canada and distinguished himself in some degree wherever he competed. And virtually the whole of his improvement since ho played in Britain as an amateur lias been achieved in his wasting strokes near the hole was almost unbelievable. Ho .must .surely have been the origin of that story about a caddie who, asked how Ins side had com'e to lose a certain match, replied: “Well we drove like a hero, and we approached like an angeh but we putted just like a—monkey. Armour seemed to have positively no idea as to how to lay a long putt j' f i or cot a short one into the hole. He would contort himself into a variety of shapes and . perform the most hair-raising eccentricities in ad dressing tho ball. When he met Air Carl Brctlierton in the final of the Irish open amateur championship, tho rocree became seriously concerned abont a singularity of method, which Armour suddenly developed in the stress of his uncertainty on the green. He sought to concentrate not merely fas many people do) by grounding the club in f>-ont of the ball and then behind it, but by pounding the turf in front with a series of nervous blows, of* 1 the Si fn b the in act‘of' addressing it.” Naturally, Armour putted worse than ever after that. THREE PUTTERS IN THE I OIliH. It was sheer nervous tension, born of an utter lack of system, and the more remarkable because, from tho time that Armour made has first appearance in important events, which was in a tournament at Montrose in 1919, his iron play stamped him“ a golfer of rare possibilities. He did not win, but tho excellence of las iron play—the very essence of control, snap, and accuracy—was unmistakab e Still having disclosed himself, it took him a long while to advance to the front of the stage, and all because he kept on tripping over hiajpmto. Seeing that even Armour has conquered this weakness—this jabbing and poking and snatching at tho ball which produces every kind of result—there surely must be hope for anybody. Not long before he turned professional he was crossing the Forth Bridge discussing his foible, when he mae suddenly from his scat, took out the three putters which his bar; contained and tossed them solemnly through the railway carriage window into the depths of the Firth below. “ Now they can’t let mo down again, he remarked complacently. Whether that is really a good way to learn putting is open to question. I remember a man. m the seclusion of a private round who, having missed four short putts in succession, swung his putter mind his body like a hammer thrower preparing lor business, and hurled it into the woods fifty yards away. Then, having walked to the next feeing ground, ho repented and told his caddie to go and fetch the discarded club. The caddie flatly declined. , , “ You threw it there; you go and find it if you want it.’ ho replied stolidly. So the player went back and recovered the club himself; holed a long putt with it on the next green; learnt to putt like a magician with it; land always after wanted the \sajne caddie as his henchman. I suppose that tho moral to this story is that throwing away a putter does not necessarily help the cause, however £Ood it may he for trade. All the evidence goes to show that it is the practice of a system that makes the putting good. ELBOWS AS THE KEY. That is how Armour has succeeded. The Americans unquestionably have a system, and its basic principle is that the elbows point more or less outwards from beginning to end of the swing, instead of being held into the sides of the body. Virtually, all their best players have that trait in some degree. It is especially marked in Air Francis Ouimot; but it exists in the methods of the other leading golfers who have cultivated the American way of pursuing golf. Dr William Tweddell, the amateur champion of Britain, has it, and is whole-hearted in his belief in it. I believe his theory is that it eliminates the danger of pushing the club head off tho line of the. putt during tho swing. It means swinging the club with the arms instead of working it with the wrists; it is the pendulum movement as distinct from the jab at the ball. We are constantly being told that before we can hope to bent America at golf we must learn to putt. We are rapidly acquiring tho desperate character of naughtv boys who simply will not do what they are told;. who will insist on getting into mischief on the putting green. Edward Ray, captain of the British team who tried to carry off last year’s United States open championship, proclaimed for all. he was worth our need to learn putting, and his colleagues supported him. But ho testimony is more convincing than the success of Armour, . The plain truth seems to be that precedent and custom make it incumbent upon, tho person who plays golf in the United States to study and practise putting. It is a positive fact that a really had putter has never been seen in the front ranks of American golfers, and I have watched all their loading men since my first tour in 1899,