ANDY SHAW TALKS GOLF FOR BEGINNERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 8, 18 August 1939, Page 51

ANDY SHAW TALKS GOLF FOR BEGINNERS

WW tree golfers ever shall recapture first fine rapture of the rabbit, when the ball first rises true and clean, and flies in something like the line he meant to take? It is the one moment in golf when golf seems really worth while. It justifies all that has gone before and all that will certainly come after. Without it golf would simply be a malignant disease. The spark of sanity which remains in a man after his first 18 holes feeds on it in anticipation, and looks back to it for mental sustenance in the succeeding years. It is almost as good as watching Andy Shaw, cigarette in hand, legs comfortably apart, toes square, talking golf into a microphone without halt or hesitation and entirely without notes or any other prompting. Near him stands a victim selected from the studio staff, club gawkishly in hand, ready to make the mistakes which Mr. Shaw hopes to correct in his broadcast talks to the fiveclub golfer. Wisdom flows unchecked from the master’s lips. On Saturday, August 26, at 9.20 p.m. he will give the fourth and last of his talks from 2YD. He started with tee shots and the use of woods in the fairway, went on to approaching with the No. 3 iron, the mashie, and the mashie niblick, and ended with the club which you can hold any way you like, so long as you hit straight with it. To Gain Confidence «™His first advice is not to start with the ai iver. It’s face is too closed, he says, and it is advisable that the tyro should first use clubs like the brassie and spoon, so that their loft will help him to get the ball in the air and so encourage himself. He should avoid the danger of forcing. The club is designed to do the work. Forcing it would be too much like hard work. The poorest players are the ones who try the mostnot necessarily the beginners, but the players

who struggle along for years on the advice and with the encouragement of friends who have never broken 100. The beginner should learn to swing the club as if it were a piece of lead on the end of a string. The swing should make a clear mental picture for him. He cannot think of the five or six points to remember. about it so he must: fix the whole general idea of it in his mind. The tendency will be for him to forget the swing as soon as he sees the ball, which he will naturally think is there to be hit. "I have to think about just the same things as he does," says Mr. Shaw. "The only difference is that I make up my mind about them before I hit the ball." His stance will probably be much too wide at first. The feet should be no further apart than the width of the shoulders. Balance is important, but a wide stance will interfere with the free movement of the hips. His grip will probably have the fault that the palm of the right hand will be facing up. This is definitely wrong. The right hand should be over the club. A Point of Difference Sarazen said when he was in New Zealand that the club should be taken back with the right hand. "I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people lifting clubs like hammers as I did after Sarazen left New Zealand. That makes you heave instead of swing. You hit the ground and bounce the club over the ball, or top the ball, or miss it altogether, and then you always say: ‘Do I have to count that one?’" The Swing Back In the swing back the hips and grip are the two main things. The hips should start the movement and bring the arms and hands naturally into play. The ball should be nearer the left foot, although it may look easier if placed nearer the right. The idea is that the weight and power of the swing should come in behind the ball. Toes should be square or they will interfere with the pivoting movement. Bobby Locke was an example of the effect of toe position on the swing. He stood slightly hen-toed,

The left hand should be watched very carefully in the swing back. If the wrists are turned instead of rolled the left hand fingers will open, giving the grip to the right hand, and spoiling every subsequent movement. If the wrists are rolled over properly the left hand will remain the master and that little finger will not loosen. The ball should be addressed in the knowledge that it has to be hit with the centre of the club face, for no grip in the world will hold the face straight if the toe or the heel hit the ball first. Mr. Shaw’s more specific observations on the use of woods and irons will have to be reserved for next week, but it should be made clear to the five-club men during the next seven days that they must play off with very low tees, or all the good advice in the world will not give them the necessary confidence when an iron, brassie, or spoon is all they have to defend themselves against the hard, hard world of the fairway. And, as it’s draughty weather, remember Mr. Shaw’s advice: that a perfectly hit golf ball- will not be affected by cross winds. Miscellany During the next two weeks Bromwich, Quist and Crawford will be deciding Australia’s ambition to bring the Davis Cup back to the home of Brookes and Wilding, who held it last for Australia _ from 1907 to 1911. The finals have created unprecedented press interest. News of the matches will come through. in the ordinary news sessions and Daventry will broadcast accounts of play during the sports bulletins. Times are listed in our overseas section. An eye-witness account of the first day’s play in the third cricket test between England and the West Indies will be rebroadcast by 2YA at 9.15 a.m. on Sunday, August 20. On the following Tuesday and Wednesday, scores will be broadcast at 10 a.m. A full list of sports fixtures and broadcast items will be found in "What Would You Like to Hear." The Auckland Trotting Club’s meeting at Alexandra Park will be broadcast first from 1YA, from midday, but the last two races will be covered by 1ZM while 1YA is busy with the football. Prominent sportsmen are being hounded down at present to take past in a general knowledge test which should be ready for broadcast shortly. No quarter is allowed them. They have no foreknowledge of the questions to be asked. Listeners will have to sharpen their wits, for the questions come from some human encyclopedias in the N.B.S.