Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1922-11-19 | Page 27 | Tales of a Wayside Tee

1 &hles of ' q5 mM ffkgy y GRANTLAND RiCE Bl GRANTLAND RICE (Copyright. 1922, New York Tribune, Inc.) Golf is a game that reaches deep into the arts and the sciences. Apart from many scenic effects upon certain courses that surpass anything anv old master ever painted, there are many who believe that the foundation of th3 golf swing is the same as the foundation founda-tion of poetry. There Is a friend of mine, for ono example who belioves Wth passlonato confidence that golf depends upon rhythm more than anything any-thing ek;e lie Is an extremely steady golfer and a hard match player to beat and he orks upon this basis: On tho first tee he always swing easily, making no great effort to get distance. He Is content to play his second shot with a. longer club than his opponent may nse, again swinging with tho case that makes for bettor rhythm. After the second hole he gradually puts on more power, ay by th;t time he Is loosened up. with his timing under better control. Dut at no stage of tn mulch will he slash at the ball with everything he has. It Is that something in reserve, he figures, which keeps the rhythm of his swing in working order. Ho has worked upon this theory to such an extent that ono rarely sees him hit a hurried, nervous putt Tho putting l.iadi- romr:-. b.jri. ut ;i steady, uven beat and goes smoothly through, with no sign of a Jerk or jab He has thought rhythm and practiced prac-ticed rhythm to such an extent that ho has made a fine habit of tho club head sweeping on through th ball, picking up speed on Its way to the Impact and on Deyona. ac esi&DiiBnea uu puiiiu.? upon the one-two-thre count that fixed one paco for all time. INTO THE SCIENCES. Then there was Jack M Dermott ' who worked upon the idea of turning golf Into a mathematical science. Ho came as ClOSS to making good as any ono playing He tied for the open championship in 1010, won In 1911 and won again In 1912. We recall no other golfer with that three year record. And in 1913 ho beat ono of the greatest open fields ever I gathered, including Vardon and Kay ' in their prime, by over ten stroke-s before his big collapse arrived. McDermott, for example, worked his stance upon a mathematical basis, ab- i solute, and exact. For tho teo shot his feet were well apart. For the full Iron they came Just so much closer together as he moved Just so much nearer to the ball For the mashle again ho closed the space exactly so much When he came to the short chip shot his feet were only about six Inches apart, with tho 1 ball close in And at last, as he reaohed the green I the two heels came exactly together. These changes In stance In the matter mat-ter of the space between tho feet ana the closeness to tho ball, wore work 1 out with mathematical accuracy. It was not a matter of lilt and miss. There was no guessing about It He ; worked out the Idea until ho had It I all down to the fraction of an Inch. The result was that McDermott, In winning or tlelng for tho open championship cham-pionship three years in succession, has left a target to shoot at that no one since has even approached. No golfer has won tho open twlca line McDcrmotfs day. The field of course has grown much faster, but, : (or that matter, no ono has even ' :hrentened to win It twice. Those win- j ling havo rarely been among the ' first six or seven tho next year. So McDsrmott'a record for consistency is 1 the finest American golf ono has ever known, certainly in tho last fifteen years. i Mathematics and rhythm are hardly members of the sane- n.-huul, yet they can be harnessed together as a fine working team in the conquest of tho winning stroke at golf. The so-callc-d winning groove is merely a matter of getting tho rlghl arc and then swinging swing-ing along that line without leaving :tho trail- But rhythm must go with i the swlnfp or the groove effect won't amount to v'cry much The correct arc and correct timing make the golf swing, and good. golf comes only on the days v here they work ' together as a team Rhythm applies more to the mental side, for there must first be the ' mental poise, tho steady, even tempo 1 trom the Inside, before it can cvr end its messago to tho wrists, tho forearms and tho body. No man can 1 think ono way and swing another. It is almost Impossible to be mentally ! hurrying, to be mentally perky, and I then swing evenly.