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Show ONE o( the most mysterious and colorful figures in this modern conglomeration ol golfing talent is Joe Kirkwood. Joe is almost complete com-plete proof as to the vital part the emotional or psychological side can play in this ancient Scottish game. When Kirkwood came to this country coun-try from Australia over 20 years ago he was even lm then the master of ': ! every shot in the f" . t game. In his exhibi- I tions Joe could call ' a low hook or a high $ slice, a low slice or v 4 a straight hook, a fade or a pull. He .': i. could even call, in iJLS advance, that hard- 0'J'j est of all shots to play a straight ball. At 200 yards away Grantland Rice he could make a caddie duck with either a slice or a hook. It was an easy game in trick shot or exhibition play. But Kirk wood could never win a big championship. cham-pionship. "Competition," he has always said, "is ah entirely different game from any exhibition stuff." lloiv It Works Years ago I followed Kirkwood in a North and South championship at Pinehurst. He wasn't scoring any too well. He was having more than his share of trouble. "What seems to be the matter?" I asked. "I've developed a fade 1 can't stop," he said. "Why don't you call for a hook, or even for a straight ball, as you do in your exhibitions?" I asked. "If I tried that," he said, "I'd be all over the course. This tournament-scoring game has nothing to do with exhibition play. The Curse of Golf "Golf would be an easy game for anyone to play," Joe continued, "except "ex-cept for one thing." "What's that?" I asked. "Tension," he said. "That's the killer the poison. "If it weren't for tension almost anyone could play golf well. But tension grabs them all by the throat or the nerves. Take the average duffer. Watch his practice swing. Watch him swinging at a dandelion or a cigar butt. You'll see an 80 swing. Then watch the difference when he has to hit a golf ball. He immediately tightens up. He plants his feet in the turf. He takes an iron grip with both hands. His legs and body promptly stiffen up. He . i i I I I nas wrecKea nis swing ueiuie uc even moves the clubhead. True of the Pro "After a fashion, this is also true of most pros. Most of the good ones can hit the ball long and straight, can play almost every club well. In practice they can give you a G7 or a 68. But when some big tournament tourna-ment starts, especially a championship, champion-ship, it is too often another story. "You can tell this in the more hurriod pace of their backswings and downswings. You can tell it in their restricted, or more restricted, body turns. The temptation in a big tournament tour-nament is to steer the ball to keep it away from trouble. "Only a few can keep their true form or their true swings working smoothly, as they do in a practice round." "Leo Diegel told me once," I said to Joe, "that the longest walk in golf was from the practice tee to the first hole of tournament play." "Leo was 100 per cent right," Kirkwood said. "It's about ten miles or ten strokes. "For those who know how-to swing a club, golf is -about 75 per cent tension, nerves and concentration. concentra-tion. It is harder on the nervous system than any other game, since it carries less physical action or motion. mo-tion. The more motion you have, the less tension there is. "Football players are always extremely ex-tremely nervous and packed with tension before the klckoff. But most of this Is removed In the first clash of bodies after the first impact. ' You don't get that In golf. "In golf tension begins to get worse especially around the greens when you find you've lost your putting putt-ing touch. I've never seen a golfer who was good enough to win a big tournament when he was putting poorly. And when you get what Tommy Armour calls 'the yips,' you are Just about through." "How can tension be cured?" "The only sure cure I know," Kirkwood said, "is to cut off your head." Foot Action Henry Picard, a master stylist, is among those who believe that good foot action is the most difficult of the golfing arts. "Only a few stars know how to use their feet properly," Picard says, referring to weight shift through the swing. Chick Evans had no superior in this respect. You had only to watch the work of his feet to get a bbj part of the answer concerning especially espe-cially his iron play. |