Golf facts for young people

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I My Introduction to Golf .... 3

II Advantages of Golf as a Sport . . 19

Chapter I

BIG brothers'* have a lot of responsibility in life,, more than most of them realize. "Little brother'' is reasonably certain to follow their example, to a greater or less degree, hence the better the example set, the better for all coiicerned. My own case is just one illustration. Whether I was destined to become a golfer anyway, I cannot say ; but my first desire to hit a golf ball, as I recall, arose from, the fact that my older brother, Wilfred, became the proud possessor of a couple of golf clubs when I was five years old, and at the same time I acquired the idea that the thing I wanted most in the world was to have the privilege of using those clubs.

Thus it was that, at the age of five years my acquaintanceship with the game of golf began. To say that the game has been a wonderful source of pleasure to me might lead the reader to think that the greatest pleasure of all has been derived from winning tournaments and prizes. I can truthfully say that nothing is further from the fact. Of course, I am pleased to have won my fair share of tournaments; I appreciate the honor of having once won the national open championship ; but the winning is absolutely secondary. It is the game itself that I loVe. Of all the games that I have played and like to see played,^ including baseball, football, hockey, and tennis, no other, to my mind, has quite so many charms as golf — a clean and wholesome pastime, requiring the highest order of skill to be played successfully, and a game suitable alike for the young, the middle-aged, and the old.

The first "golf course" that I played over was laid out by my brother and Richard Kimball in the street in front of our home dn Clyde Street, Brdokline, Massachusetts, a street which forms the boundary of one side of The Country Club property. This golf course, as I call it, was provided by the town of Brookline, without the knowledge of the town's officials. In other words, my brother and Kimball simply played between two given points in the street. With the heels of their shoes they made holes in the dirt at the base of two lamp-posts about 1 20 yards apart, and that was their "course."

Nearly every afternoon they played,, while I looked on enviously. Once in a while they let me take a club and try my hand, and then was I not delighted ! It made no difference that the clubs were nearly as long as I was and too heavy for me to swing, or that the ball would only go a few yards, if it went at all. After all, as I look back, the older boys were only dealing me scanty justice when they occasionally allowed me to take a club, for when they lost a ball, I used to go searching for it, and, if successful, they always demanded its return. In the case of such a demand from two older boys, it is not always wise to refuse.

"Big brother'' was responsible for getting me interested in golf; "big brother" likewise was in great measure responsible for keeping me interested. On my seventh birthday, he made me a birthday present of a club — a short brassie. Here was joy indeed! Not only had I now a club all my own with which to practise, but I already had amassed a private stock of seven or eight golf balls. The way this came about was that the journey from my house to school (this school, by the way, had only eight pupils in it, and the school-house was built in Revolutionary days) took me past the present sixth hole of The Country Club course, and I generally managed to get a little spare time to look for lost golf balls.

Some boys do not like to get up early in the morning. Any boy or girl who becomes as interested in golf as I was at the age of seven, will have no difficulty on that score. It was my custom to go to bed at eight o'clock, and then get up by six o'clock the next morning, and go out for some golf play before time to get ready for school. The one hole in the street where my brother and Richard Kimball first played had now been superseded by a more exacting golfing layout in a bit of pasture-land in back of our house.

Here the older boys had established a hole of 6 about 130 yards that was a real test for them, and, at first, a little too much for me. On the left, going one way, the ground was soft and marshy, an easy place to lose a ball. If the ball went on a straight line from the tee, it generally went into a gravel pit, which had an arm extending out to the right. There also was a brook about a hundred yards from the tee, when the play was in this same direction. Here then, was a hoie requiring accuracy ; and I cannot but think that a measure of what accuracy my game now possesses had its foundation back in those days when I was so young and just taking up the game. I believe, moreover, that any boy or girl who becomes interested in golf should not pick out the easy places to play at the start, simply because they like the fun of seeing the ball go farther.

What bothered me most, in those days, was the fact that I could not drive over that brook going one way. The best I could do was to play short of the brook, and then try to get the second on the improvised green. Every now and then, I became bold enough to have another try to carry the brook, though each time it was with the knowledge that failure possibly meant the loss of the ball in the brook, in a time when one ball represented a small fortune. At last came the memorable morning when I did manage to hit one over the brook.

If ever in my life a golf shot gave me satisfaction, it was that one. It did more — it created ambition. I can remember thinking that if I could get over the brook once, I could do it again. And I did do it again — got so I could do it quite a fair proportion of my tries. Then the shot over the brook, coming back, began to seem too easy, for the carry one way was considerably longer than the other. Consequently I decided that for the return I would tee up on a small mound twenty-five to thirty yards in back of the spot from which we usually played, making a much harder shot. Success brought increased confidence, and confidence brought desired results, so that, in course of time., it did not seem so difficult to carry the brook playing either way.

This was done with the old, hard ball, then generally known as the "gutty," made from gutta-percha. About this time I picked up, one morning, a ball which bounced in a much more lively fashion than the kind I had found previously. Now,, of course, I know that it was one of the early makes of rubber-cored balls., but, at that time, I simply knew that it would go much farther than the others, and that, above all things,, I must not lose it. That ball was my greatest treasure. Day after day I played with it, until all the paint was worn off, and it was only after long searching that I managed always to find it after a drive.

Realizing that something must be done to retain the ball, I decided to repaint it, and did so with white lead. Next, I did something that was almost a calamity in my young life. To dry the white lead,, I put the ball in a hot oven and left it there for about an hour. I went back thinking to find a nice new ball, and found — what do you suppose ? Nothing but a soft mass of gutta-percha and elastic. The whole thing simply had melted. The loss of a brand-new sled or a new pair of skates could not have made me grieve more, and I vowed that in future, no matter how dirty a ball became, I never would put another in a hot oven to dry after repainting.

All this time I had been playing with the brassie that Brother gave me, and all my energies were devoted to trying to see how far I could hit the ball. My next educational step in play came when Wilfred made me a present of a mashie, whereupon I realized that there are other points to the game than merely getting distance. Previous practice with the brassie had taught me how to hit the ball with fair accuracy, so that learning something about mashie play came naturally. Being now possessed of two clubs, my ambitions likewise grew proportionately. The cow-pasture in back of our house was all right enough, as far as it went, but why be so limited in my surroundings? There was the beautiful course of The Country Club across the street., with lots of room and smoother ground ; nothing would do but that I should play at The Country Club. I began going over there mornings to play, but soon discovered that the grounds-keeper and I did not hold exactly the same views concerning my right to play there. Whatever argument there was in the matter was all in favor of the grounds-keeper. Of course I know now that he only did his duty when he chased me off the course.

While my brother's interest in golf began to

lO v/ane, because football and baseball became greater hobbies with him, other boys in our neighborhood began to evince an interest in it, until it became a regular thing for three or four of us to play in the cow-pasture after school hours and most of the day Saturday. We even had our matches, six holes in length, by playing back and forth over the one 130- yard hole three times, each using the same clubs. We even got to the point where we thought it would add excitement by playing for balls, and one day I found myself the richer by ten balls. But let me add that it is a bad practice for boys. There is too much hard feeling engendered.

As we became more proficient in play, we began to look over the ground with an eye to greater distance and more variety, until finally we lengthened out the original hole to what was a good drive and pitch for us,, about 230 yards ; likewise we created a new hole of about ninety yards, to play with the mashie. From the new green, back to the starting-point, under an old chestnut-tree, was about 200 yards, which gave us a triangle course of three holes. In this way we not only began gradually to increase

II the length of our game,, but also to get in a greater variety of shots.

As I look back now, I become more and more convinced that the manner in which I first took up the game was to my subsequent advantage. With the old brassie I learned the elementary lesson of swinging a club and hitting the ball squarely, so as to get all the distance possible for one of my age and physical make-up. Then, with the mashie, I learned how to hit the ball into the air, and how to drop it at a given point. I really think I could not have taken up the clubs in more satisfactory order. Even to this day, I have a feeling of confidence that I shall be sure to hit the ball cleanly when using a brassie, which feeling probably is a legacy from those old days.

And a word of caution right here to the boy or girl, man or woman, taking up the game : do not attempt at the start to try to hit the ball as far as you have seen some experienced player send it. Distance does not come all at once, and accuracy is the first thing to be acquired.

The first time that I had the pleasure of walking over a golf course without the feeling that., at any moment, I would have to take to my heels to escape an irate greens-keeper was when I was about eleven years old. I was on The Country Club links, looking for lost golf balls, when a member who had no caddy came along and asked me if I would carry his clubs. Nothing could have suited me better. As this member was coming to the first tee, I happened to be swinging a club, and he was kind enough to hand me a ball, at the same time asking me to tee up and hit it.

That was one occasion in my golfing career when I really felt nervous., though by this time I had come to the point where I felt reasonably confident of hitting the ball. But to stand up there and do it with an elderly person looking on was a different matter. It is a feeling which almost any golfer will have the first time he tries to hit a ball before some person or persons with whom he has not been in contact previously. I can remember doubting that I should hit the ball at all, hence my agreeable surprise in getting away what, for me, was a good ball.

Evidently the gentleman, who was not an especially good player himself, was satisfied with the shot, for he was kind enough to invite me to play with him, instead df merely carrying his clubs. He let me play with his clubs, too. That was the beginning of my caddy ing career. Some of the other members for whom I carried clubs occasionally made me a present of some clubs, so that it was not long before my equipment contained not only the original brassie and mashie, but also a cleek, mid-iron, and putter.

Needless to say, they were not all exactly suited to my size and style of play; yet to me each one of them was precious. I took great pride in polishing them up after every usage. The second time I played with the gentleman who first employed me as caddy, I had my own clubs. I had the pleasure of playing with him two years later, after he came home from abroad,, in which round I made an 84, despite a 9 at one hole.

All this time, my enthusiasm for the game increased, rather than diminished, so that, during the summer I was on the links every moment that I could be there until school opened in September; after which I caddied or played afternoons and Saturdays until the close of the playing season.

Somewhere along about that time I had a 14 most trying experience. My brother Wilfred, who,, being older, had become better posted on the technical side of the game, advised me to change my swing. I had been using what was more or less of a baseball stroke, a half-swing that seemed to be all right so far as accuracy went, but was not especially productive in the matter of distance. Wilfred's advice struck me as sensible — almost any golfer, young or old, thinks well of advice that bids fair to lengthen his game.

At any rate, I altered my swing, taking the club back much farther. For the succeeding two months I discovered that my game, instead of improving, gradually was getting worse. The old-time accuracy was missing. More than that, a good many golf balls also soon became missing, for in playing on my old stampinggrounds — the pasture in back of the house — I seemed to have the unhappy faculty of getting them off the line into the swamp, where to find the ball was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Being quite disgusted, I tried to go back to my old style, only to find that that, too, was impossible. Here was, indeed, a dilemma! On thinking it over^ there were only two conclusions to reach : one was that to become at all accurate in either the old style or the new, meant to make up my mind to use one of theni permanently, and then simply to keep on practising in the hope that accuracy would come ; the other was that even though the new style had impaired my old game, at the same time it was plain to be seen that, in the long run, it probably would be the better style of the two. Under the circumstances there was only one thing to do, and that was to continue with the longer swing. Perhaps then I did not realize the full significance of the choice. I do now. Had I kept on with the old swing, the result would have been that I probably would have advanced to a certain proficiency so far as accuracy goes, but my game would have been stilted, and lacking in the variety of shots which not only betters the standard of play, but which gives all the more personal satisfaction to the player. It was possibly two months after I took Brother's advice that I began to notice a gradual improvement. I began to hit the ball with the same certainty as of old, and, to my delight, found that the ball traveled farther than I ever had

i6 been able to hit it before, and also with less expenditure of effort. At first the added distance was at the expense of direction, but it was not long before my control over the new swing became nearly as good as of old.

Back in those early days of my golfing career, I can remember an incident which taught me the lesson of always being honest with myself or with an opponent in the matter of scoring. The Country Club arranged for a caddy tournament,, — I think it was the custom then to have these tournaments late in the fall, when they would not interfere with the members. At any rate, this particular tournament happened to come on a day when there was snow on the ground. The boys, however, were so keen for play that this little handicap did not bother them.

Some of them had less reason to be bothered than others. They were the ones who felt that it was much easier to leave out five or six holes in the course of the round and "guess" what they would have done at these holes. I can just remember that scores as low as jy to 80 were handed in to the officials in charge, and that soon there was a wrangle over the correctness of some of the figures returned. The upshot of it all was that, after considerable argumentation, it was decided that no prizes should be given at all.

It was a good lesson for all of the boys concerned, though a little hard on those who had tried to do what was right. The sooner a boy, or a man for that matter, learns to live up to the motto "Honesty is the best policy" in golf, as in other things, the better for him. There is no game which gives a competitor a better opportunity to cheat; but for that very reason there is no game in which the cheat,, when discovered, as he usually is sooner or later, is looked upon with greater contempt.

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Chapter II Advantages Of Golf As A Sport

GOLF is slowly, but surely, coming into its own as a great American sport. Yet less than ten years ago nearly everybody was inclined to look upon it as a game suitable only for those of ripe age. This opinion was formed because it lacked the strenuousness so noticeable in football, baseball, and tennis.

Quite evidently all this has changed. To-d^y thousands of boys and girls play the game. I take keen delight in this fact, all because I happened to be one of the first boys to adopt golf as his favorite game while attending school, instead of following the usual paths leading to diamond or gridiron. At the time I decided in favor of golf, it was no simple and easy choice to make. For one thing, I was subjected to a lot of pressure from my schoolmates to continue with the nine, and, for another, rather felt the censure they sometimes placed upon me for forsaking this sport for golf. Perhaps an incident that occurred during a recent trip to Pinehurst, where so much golf is played every winter, will best explain the position of golf among boys of to-day and among those of yesterday.

While playing there on this occasion, I had the good fortune to meet an old school-friend of mine. He had recently become an ardent golf enthusiast, one who rarely misses creating an opportunity for playing. We had both attended the Brookline High School at the time when he was the unquestioned leader in athletics. Incidentally, he was captain of our baseball nine.

I was particularly fond of baseball in those days,, although I must confess I never could play it when a golf match was in sight. Nevertheless, I was persuaded to try for a place on our school nine, and, in the course of the practice, seemed to have a fine chance of making it at second base. About this time I was elected captain of our golf team. That put the question up to me of giving up one or the other of these garner. I cduld not hbfd dbwn the two positions without making a failure of each one. After thinking the matter over for a short time, I decided in favor of golf. Immediately I was sought out by both the coach and captain of the nine,, who argued with me to change my opinion. One of their favorite points was, as I clearly reoall it now, that golf was an old man's affair and that I was somewhat silly, to put it mildly, to forsake a corking good game like baseball for it. But their entreaties and arguments failed to make me retract my first decision. This caused me to be the butt of many uncomplimentary remarks for a long time thereafter.

Now the reason why I had chosen golf was that I felt, once my school-days were over, baseball would be a thing of the past, whereas with golf I could continue to play that game long after I had set aside my books for a business career. It seemed to me that the best time to fit myself for the game that I could play during most of my life would be during these school-days I was then enjoying; and I did want to play the game well. That is the only way to play any game or do anything in this world, for that matter. Good golf meant nothing to me but keen outdoor enjoyment in the years to come. And now that I look back to the time when I made this decision, I am more than satisfied that I "guessed right."

Nothing brought this point to my attention more clearly than meeting my old school-friend at Pinehurst — ^the one who had argued so strongly with me to forget all about golf because it was an old man's game and for this reason to stay out for the ball nine. He told me that he recalled the whole incident most clearly, and could now say with all frankness that I was right in having decided as I did. Furthermore,, he was of the opinion that he had wasted golden opportunities to improve his golf game by not taking to golf, instead of to baseball, when we had been in school together.

Not long ago I talked with a Princeton graduate who was there in the days of Heyniger, their great baseball pitcher. He recounted for me a story quite similar to my own in connection with Heyniger. The latter, he said, liked golf better than any other game he had ever tried, but was unable to give much time to it while at college because he was virtually compelled by the pressure of the college to pitch on the nine. Heyniger did rank as a star boxman, but since his college days he has never risen to a very high rank in golf. Indeed, he may not be playing at all well. I am inclined to think this man misses a lot of enjoyment to-day because he did not follow his favorite game earlier in life and at the tme when he could more readily have learned to master it. But our colleges are now beginning to see matters differently, if we read aright. They are coming to realize that it is a waste of time to instruct students along Hues that are of no future value, whether the course be in athletics or in scholarship. One college that I know of in my home state is even teaching its students the art of golf-course construction. Rather a sign of progress, I should say.

Perhaps the outstanding proof that golf is at last being recognized as a sport worthy of the consideration of every boy of athletic inclination is that the list of young golfers is increasing by leaps and bounds all over America. Boys and girls are taking up the game with equal satisfaction and enjoyment. That they can boast of being equal to any competition is rather clearly proved by the careers of Bobby Jones and Miss Alexa Sterling of Atlanta, who are right at the top in amateur circles.

In 19 19, when I went to the Oakmont Country Club at Pittsburgh to play in the amateur championship, I received one of the most pleasant surprises of my life. It had been my good fortune to attend seven of the last eight of these events,, and I can say that, with an occasional exception, the favorites were always the stars of former years- — all seasoned golfers and men. Thus,, when I started for Pittsburgh, I thought that I would be one of the youngest players to enter, this in spite of the fact that I then boasted of being twenty-five years of age. But let me say I was destined to receive a great surprise, for, after looking over the field of prospective champions, I felt like a grizzled veteran. There seemed to be dozens of fine players entered not then twenty years of age.

That tournament, as you probably remember, was won by S. Davidson Herron, a youth of but twenty-two, and the runner-up was that star of stars, little Bobby Jones, of Atlanta, just seventeen years old at the time, while three of the four semi-finalists averaged twenty years.

All of which leads one to the conclusion that golf, rather than being an old man's pastime., is the game of youth. As I figure it out in my own case, I expect to play good golf for the next twenty-five seasons, but I can see no chance for any one over forty taking an American title.

A word or two about Bobby Jones, this youngest of golf stars, to illustrate how he has won such a high position in the golfing world. Perhaps you remember that in the amateur event at Merion, in 1916, he was finally defeated by Bob Gardner, of Chicago, who had several times held the title. Bobby Jones learned much of his game from Stewart Maiden, a splendid professional teacher. But with due credit to Maiden for his remarkable ability at imparting his own knowledge to others, I doubt if Jones would have been as successful had he not been a fine imitator. An imitator is usually a good player. In fact, there is scarcely an exception to this rule. I know that I picked up a lot of golf by this method., and I can remember the time when I could imitate the strokes and play of almost any golfer I saw play. And I have seen Walter Hagen, our wonderful professional, demonstrate in succession the golf swings of such stars as Barnes, Brady, Hutchinson, Mc- Namara,, and others with such exactness a to detail that, had you been far enough away to be unable to recognize him, you, would instantly have thought that the man being imitated was playing a round on your course.

There are many ways of learning golf, but the most expedient is to get in touch with a professional who knows the game and can adapt you to it. Although practice does tend to make one perfect, there are certain aids to practice which will save you time in your quest of a knowledge of this game. The professional who knows the game can give you these schemes, while quickly checking any tendencies on your part to develop bad habits, otherwise not easily eliminated, once they are allowed to go on. But under no conditions forget to watch the swings and styles of good golfers. One can get a ready, first-hand knowledge of all that goes to make up a good game by doing just that. You catch the ideas of golf and see the reasons for them by following this method, and you certainly can learn how the strokes should be played.