GOLF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 57

GOLF.

NOTES BY BULGEP. On Saturday afternoon the Otago Club foi the first time played a foursome match President v. Captain, when the Captain's team won handsomely. The idea of this ; game was to give the younger play era a 1 chance of meeting the more experienced | men in matches. This innovation will be i of great benefit, and is a mo\ c in the right i direction, as the beginner will never improve his game so long as he just potters ; along and only plays with race of his own : calibre. The nosice is diffident about apj reaching a good platei for a game, and I in the majority of cases— there are a few I exceptions — the scratch man thinks it is waste time to play with an inferior player. But he should remember that there was once a da> when he himself was struggling j for proficiency, when he would have appreciated any assistance from men farabo^e him id the golfing world. The policy of leaving young and inexperienced players to struggle along by themselves is bad, ai'they are expected in time to uphold the honour of their club, so if they are neglected in the infancy of their game how can they be expected to become champions ? The Otago Club* committee are to be complimented on this their latest innp\ation, although it does not altogether relieve the good players from responsibihtv, as they should aleo do their share towards bunging on the younger men. J. H-erd. the Christchurch Club's nrofessioiiiil. ha* been engaged by the Otago Club for two months as coach. Ac there w practically no golf at Shirley during February and March, the Christchurch Club allowed Herd to come south. He is a decent, obliging chap, and his ability as a coach being undoubted he should have his hands full i during the short time he will be at Balmacewen. An article on the " Importance of Putting" appears in the Field, and should be of interest. The lesson driven home by nearly every important match which is played is that the wrongly supposed simple art of putting really plays the most important part in its final decision. An illustration of this too-readily-forgotten doctrine is presented by the recent important match at Deal between Massy and Braid, decided, according to the view of all close observers of the play, piincipally on the putting greens. If Biaid had putted with the same confident security with which he drove his tremendous tee the probabilities are that Ma^y could never ha\e o\ertaken the lead of four hole* which the Walton Heath professional established in the early portion of the first 18 holes. But while Braid eo\eH>tl with comparative eat>e a distance of 465 \ard« in a couple of shots, keeping the French professional always placing tlie odd, he. frequently lost the gicat advantage resulting from" his superior timing through feeble and imperfect putting at the hole side. On the othei hand, Massy, though quite eclipsed in the long game, more than compensated for his deficiency in lo=s of distance by the confidence and accuracy with which he pitched up to the flag and holed out his puts. According to all accounts the verdict of "Braid beaten on the greens'' is the simple summary of the play, and the history of the match in its curiously irregular development towards the eventual vioterr -of Ma«f is one more illustration of the homely but true dictum of Willie Park, that " the man who can put ie a match for anybody." | Though all golfers rawgoie* the import-

[ ' ance of putting, even in the most unim- ; portant of their matches, actual experience in play proves that no one can communii cate the underlying secret of the difficult art. 1 The anomaly always seems to force itself to I the front that the worst pjayer is somej times a far more skilful putter than either , the professional or the amateur who has served a long and troublesome apprenticeship in the game. The golfer of a. few weeks' practice will hole long and difficult puts with a. bold and consistent accuracy which i 6 at once the despair and envy of ■ the old and experienced player. It is quite certain aleo that Braid, oue of the best teachers of the game, was quite conscious 1 of his infirmity on the putting greens during his match with Massy, and that he tried his best to carry in the memory the putting precepts he had so often impressed upon the notice of learners and others. It is not, therefore, want of knowledge of the real defect which neutralised putting accuracy that leads any great player to miss shots or to play them imperfectly when his ball is lying within easy radius of the hole. But when one contrasts the putting excellence of one player with the persistent defects o r an equally brilliant opponent, it is needful to look below th<» surface of the apparent weakness, and to see whether or not there ought to be something like a governing principle in putting. Assuredly the whole secret of uniformly good putting has been expressed with admirable correctness in the statement of Vardon, that putting is largely a matter of confidence, that there is no rule to be adopted, no best way to secure the end aimed at, and that in effect good putting is more a matter of nature and instinct in the player himself than in the form of the club with which he strikes the ball. If experience and Qractice were the sole elements in making a good putter, then Braid ought to be by this time irreproachable, but results of many matches prove that occasions frequently arise, as at Deal, when the most experienced pla-yer shows sometimes a worse putting form than the amateur who has played the game for a few brief months. How- is the falling away of putting form in the great professional to be accounted for and remedied? The only workable theory which can be advanced is a loss of confidence in striking the ball with a trueness of judgment likely to bring to the player the best practical fruits of his efforts. Defective putting in nine cases out of 10 among: great players like Braid and other leading professionals is due more to overanxiety than co any other cause. Experience has taught these players, at any rate, a truth that the majority of amateurs either do not appreciate or but dimly tinderstand. It is that the game of golf is actually divided into the practice of two wholly distinct arts. There is the driving game off the tee, which, between first-class players, rarely decides 1 the fortunes of a match. Then there is a completely new and much more intricate and delicate game which has to be unfolded within the radius of the putting arreen. and it is within this small area that the majority of the morpimportant professional matches are lost and won. Good nutting is not so much a revelation of the temperament of the plavpr as of a boldness of inspiration which really I amounts to indifference. and sometimes | strikes the observer as bcinsr akin to recklessness. Neither does good putring depend upon the persistent error which clogs Ihe play of professional and amatetir at the hole sido as to the value of the r>ar±;cular form of the club used. One club is as cood as another for holing out the ball if the player is animated with the confident resolve that he will strike the ball firmly and truly, and give it the best chance he ran of at lea«t reaching the back of the hole. The Deal Match, moreover. vra« especially interesting in providine a further illustration of the putting problem. Braid and Massy had four stymies to contend with, and the result of being able to play them no doubt had its effect upon the players, as well as in determining the final result of the game. Could any incident in a trreat match bp morp dramatic for a golfer to read than the way in which both players proved that they were endowed with equal skill for the brilliant solution of the stymie difficulty? At the "Sandy Parlour" hole a sliced tee shot by Ma^sy landed his ball under the face of the fifth teeing ground. The position was nearly hopeless, but the Frenchman made a brilliant recovery, and placed his ball two yards from the hole, having the way blocked to it bv_ Braid's ball, which lav a foot and a-half in front. Massy did not attempt 'the loft: hp scrpwed round Braid's ball, and holed in a brilliant three, thereby securing a half. Again, at the sixth hole in the afternoon round, , Mawv was laid a 6tymie by Braid. The Frenchman played round the ball, and in turn gave a stymie to Braid, who lofted over his opnonent'« ball with his maphie. and secured a half. At the tenth hole Braid tried to hole a fhree yards' put. but his attempt fiiilod. and he gave Massy a stymie, which the Frenchman deftly lofted to secure a half. All the players who saw these scientific strokes nlayed will appreciate at a higher value the desirableness of retaining the stymie as a permanent feature of the game when an aeritation next arises on the part of some disoontened players to have this interesting- feature of the puttin " green game abolished. The following is the result of the Otago Ladies' G-olf Club monthly Bogey compettnon on Friday : — lira Mackie. 3 up Miss X Rattiay, 2 up Mrs Sargood, 2 up. Miss Graham 2 up.