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Show THE SOUL OF GOLF. I By P. A. Vaile. ' Nearly every one who writes about a game essays to prove that it is similar to "the great game, the game of life." Golf has not escaped, and numberless scribes in endeavoring to account for the fascination of golf have used the old v j threadbare tale. As a matter of fact, golf is about as unlike the game of life as any game I could well be. As played now it has come to be almost an exact science, and everybody knows exactly ex-actly what one is trying to do. This would not be mistaken for a description of the game of life. In that game a man may be hopelessly "off the line," burled "in the rough," or badly "bunkered," "bunk-ered," and nobody be the wiser. It is not so in - golf. There is no double life here. All is open, and every one knows what the player is striving J for. The least deflection from his line, and the 1 onlooker knows he did not mean it. It is seen Instantly. In that other game it may remain unseen un-seen for years, forever. Explaining the fascination of anything seems to be a thankless kind of task, and in any case to be a work of supererogation. The fascinatioh should be sufficient. Explaining it seems almost like tearing a violet to pieces to admire its structure; struc-ture; but many have tried, and many have failed, and there are many who do not feel the fascination fascina-tion as they should, because they do not know the soul oLgolf. One can not appreciate the true beauty of golf unless one knows it thoroughly. Curiously enough, many of our best players are extremely mechanical in their play. They play beautiful and accurate shots, but they have no idea how or why they produce them; and the strange thing about it is that although golf is, perhaps, as mechanical a game as there is, those who play it mechanically only get the husk of it. They miss the soul of the game. Golf is really one of the simplest of outdoor games, if not, indeed, the simplest, and it does H not require much intelligence; yet it is quite one H of the most difficult to play well, for it demands H tho greatest amount of mechanical accuracy. M This, on consideration, is apparent". The ball is H the smallest ball we use, the striking face of 'H the club is the smallest thing used in field sports H forhitting a ball, and, most important, perhaps, :H of all, it is farther away from the eye than any H other ball-striking implement except perhaps the H polo stick, in which game we, of course, have a H much larger ball and striking surface. H In all games of skill, and in all sports where H the object is propelling anything to a given point, H one always tries, almost instinctively, to get the H eye as much in line with the ball or missile and H the objective point as possible. This is seen in H throwing a stone, aiming a catapult, a gun or an H arrow, in cueing at a billiard ball, and in many H other wayB, but in golf it is impracticable. The H (Continued on Pago 10.) M . THE SOUL OF GOLF. I (Continued from Page 7.) player must make his stroke with his eye any- H where from four to six feet away from his little H i club face. One may say that this is so in hockey, Hj cricket, and lawn tennis. So, in a modified de- H gree, it is, but the great difference is that in all H ' these games there is an infinitely larger margin H i of error than there is in golf. At these games a H player may be yards off his intended line and yet H play a fine stroke, to the applause of the onlook- H ers; while he alone knew that it was accident and H not design. H , The charm of golf is in part that its demand H'' is inexorable. It lays down the one path the H straight one. It must be followed every step, or H there is trouble. H Then there is in golf tue sheer beauty of the H flight of the ball, and the almost sensuous delight H that comes to the man who created that beauty, H and knowshow and why he did it. There Is al- H ' most at any time beauty in the flight of a golf H ball well and plainly driven, but for grace and the poetry of flight give me the wind-cheater that H skims away from one's club across the smooth B green sward, almost clipping the daisies in its M flight, ere it soars aloft with a swallow-like buoy- H ancy, and curving gracefully, pitches dead on the H green. H Many a man can play that stroke. Many a man M does. Not one in fifty knows how he puts the M beauty into his stroke. Not one in fifty would be m interested if you were to start telling him the M scientific reason for that ball's beautiful flight. The mechanics of golf sound hard and unroman- M tic, yet the man who does not understand them M suffers in his game, and in his enjoyment of it. H That wind-cheater was to him, during its flight M ' through the air, merely a golf ball; a golf ball M 'twas and nothing more. To the other man it is fl a faithful little friend sent out to do a certain fl thing in a certain way, and all the time it is M flying and running it is sending its message back M to the man who can take it but how few can. M They do not know what the soul of golf means. M So, when our golfer pulls or slices his ball badly, M and then does the usual thing, he can not take M the message that comes back to him. He only m knows the half of golf, and he does not care M about the other, because he does not know what H he is missing. Pie is like the man who is fond M of music, but is tone-deaf. There are many such. M He may sit and drink in sweet sounds and enjoy M thorn, but he misses the linked sweetness and M the message that comes to his more fortunate H, brother who has the ear and the knowledge. Hp There is in England a curious idea that direct- Hj' iy one acquires a scientific knowledge of a game M one must cease to have an interest in it so full H aj he who merely plays it by guesswork. There H can be no greater mistake than this. If a game is Hi worth playing - ell, it is worth knowing well, and H; knowing it well can not mean loving it less. It I, is this peculiar idea that has put England so Hi much in the background of the world's athletic H' field of late years. We have here much of the H1 best brawn and bone in the world, but we must Hi give the brain its place. Then will England come H to her own again. H England is in many ways paying now for her H lack of thoroughness id athletic sports. Time H was when it was a stock gibe at John Bull's ex- H( pense that he spent most of his time making H' muscle and washing it. Then it was, I am H afraid, sour grapes. England had all the cham- H pionships. The joke is "off" now. The grapes are H' no longer sour. The championships are well dls-I, dls-I, trlbuted throughout the world anywhere but In Hf, England; and we say it does not matter, that the H1 chief end of game is not winning them. Nor is it; H !( Dut wo did not talk like that when we were win- H ( uing'them, and the trouble is not so much that we l ft are losing, as the manner in which we are losing. los-ing. The fact is that we are losing because our players do not know the soul of the game. Where is the soul of English cricket? Ask Lilley. He was the only Englishman who had any of it about him during the last test at Lord's. As it is with cricket so it Is with many of our games. The ideal is lost in the prosaic grappling for cups or medals, in the merely vulgar idea of success. Thus.it comes to pass that many will not be content to get to the soul of a game in the natural way, by long and loving familiarity with it. Hordes of people are joining the ranks of the golfers, and their constant cry is, "Teach me the swing," and after a lesson or two at the wrong end of golf, for a beginner, they go forth and cut the country into strips and think they are playing golf. Is it any wonder that those who have the soul of golf are in imminent daily peril of losing their own? One who would know the soul of golf muBt begin be-gin even as would one who will know the soul of music. There is no more chance for one to gather up the soul of golf in a hurry than there is for that same one to understand Wagner in a week. It is this vulgar rushing impatience to be out and doing while one is still merely a nuisance to one's fellows, that causes so much irritation and unpleasantness on many links: that prevents many persons from starting properly, and becoming be-coming in due course quite good players; tor it is manifest that the "rusher" is starting to learn his game upside down, as, indeed, most professionals profes-sionals and books teach it. There can be no doubt that the right way to teach anything is to give the beginner the easiest task first. About the easiest stroke in golf is a six-inch put. That is the stroke in golf that offers the greatest possibility pos-sibility of error, so he is always started with it. It is his own fault. "Teach me the swing," is the insistent cry of the beginner, who does not know that he is losing the best part of golf by turning it upside down. He will never enjoy it. noi play so good and confident a game as he would do were he to work his way gradually and naturally from his putter to his mashie, to his niblick, ni-blick, his iron, his cleek an intimate knowledge and love of the game. The rusher may play golf, but it will be a long time before he gets to the soul of the game. A very good golfer, in reviewing a golf book some time ago, stated that he did not care in the least what happened while the ball was in the air, that all he cared about was getting it there. He has played golf since he was five years old, but he has clearly missed the soul of the game. It is not necessary to dilate upon the wonderful wonder-ful spread of golf throughout the world. An industrious in-dustrious journalist some time ago marked a map of England wherever there was a golf club. It looked as though it had been sprinkled with black pepper. It is not hard to understand this marvelous mar-velous Increase In the popularity of the great game, for golf is undoubtedly a great game. The motor has, unquestionably, played a great part in Its development. Many of the courses, particularly par-ticularly in the United Kingdom, are most beautifully beauti-fully situated. Many f the tfub-houses are models mo-dels of comfort, and some of them are castles. The game itself is suitable for the octogenarian dodderer who merely wants to Infuse a little Interest In-terest into his morning walk, or it may be turned into a severe test of endurance for the young athlete; ath-lete; so no wonder it prospers. There is a wonderful freemasonry among golfers. golf-ers. This is not the least of the many charms of the game, and to him who really knows it and loves it as it deserves to be loved, the sign of the club is a passport round the world. Fortnightly Fort-nightly Review. ' |