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Show THERE are many millions who take either a keen or a casual Interest in what happens day by day in baseball. But these have nothing like the passionate Interest some three or four million golfers have in reducing their score. Baseball's major Interest belongs to spectators. Golf's major Interest belongs to the players and competitors. com-petitors. Golf is one of the greatest health-making and training games of all time for the multitude. Baseball is one of the greatest fan games or mental relaxations for the crowd, minus any physical aid. The golfer's interest is largely personal. "How can I chop off a stroke or two," asks Bill Brown, "so I can trim that fathead. Jack Smith, who makes me play him even?" There are tilings you can do or at least try. For example here are tips that came direct from Harry Vardon: "Vardon gave me a great tip." Walter Hagen told me one day. "It was about playing shots from heavy rough or from the sand in bunkers. I used to go into the rough or walk into a bunker gripping a niblick as if it were a matter of life or death. It meant power. " 'Don't do that,' Vardon told me. 'Grip the club lightly or gently In your hands. Get the full play of your hands and wrists. Eliminate tension, as far as yon can. Most people in trouble, In the rough or the bunker, nearly always al-ways develop too much tension. This is the spot where you can't afford tension. Just ease up.'" Another Vardon tip came years ago from a British publisher whose short game was phenomenaL "I'll tell yon who helped me," he said. "It was Vardon on chip shots. Vardon showed me how to pick out a spot or a target just an inch ahead of the ball. This helped me to chip or swing through the ball. It prevented pre-vented stabbing or jabbing. "Vardon is an amazing man," the publisher said, "on the simple side of the game. He doesn't use a straight left arm. He breaks his left elbow, bends it But his left arm is straight at impact That is when it counts. That is where almost everything that counts takes place. At impact." On chip shots you might try the Vardon system picking out a spot an inch beyond the ball as the target. Golf h Personal Golf is your game. To a large degree de-gree baseball, football and boxing are someone else's game. Golf is the playing game. Tennis is a playing game. The others are spectator's spec-tator's games. How can you pare away that extra ex-tra stroke or two maybe three or four strokes? Here are just a few more tips: BEN HOGAN: "At the finish of my swing, the right hand is In control con-trol The left hand is important until the final smash. "But I can give you another good tip. It concerns putting. Most putts are missed because there is knee-and-body motion when you stroke the balL I concentrate on locking my knees so there can be no knee-or-body motion. Putting belongs entirely to the hands and wrists. Keep the body still and then stroke the ball. But concentrate on stroking strok-ing the ball." GENE SARAZEN: "The big weakness In golf Is the tension most golfers develop in being too low. They say golf Is not a game of motion. It Is with me. I hit a drive. Then as I walk up to the ball I make op my mind on the club I need. That won't take over a second or two. "It's the same way on the green. Don't hurry. But don't get tied up. Keep moving. When you've decided on the club you need, forget everything every-thing else. Concentrate on that club only. But never hurry any swing. "Here is an excellent tip. Never hurry any swing or any part of a swing. You can loaf on your back-swing. back-swing. But it is more important to loaf on your downswing." Delay in Downswing "In my opinion," Tommy Armour has told me several times, "the delay in the downswing is the most single Important feature in golf. This was a big factor in Vardon's swing, the finest swinger I ever saw play. It was a big feature in Bobby Jones' swing in his ' later campaigns, I mean after 1922. Hagen Ha-gen was never in a hurry. He was a magnificent timer. "I wonder how many golfers know they start their downswing before they finish their backswing? They simply can't wait to hit the balL They get about two-thirds back and then the downswing starts. "I would say this is the biggest common weakness in golf. The main idea is not to hurry anything. You can loaf on your backswing you can loaf on your downswing. Not too much, but enough to keep everything smooth. Don't ever rush that downswing. That even goes for chip shots." |