The Gist of Golf

by Harry Vardon

A GREAT deal of unnecessarily bad golf is played in this world. The people who go on playing it, year in and year out, with unquenchable hope and enthusiasm, constitute the game's mainstay, for their zeal is complete, and zeal that remains unabated in the face of long-sustained adversity is the most powerful constituent in the whole fabric of a prosperous pastime. All the same, these chronic sufferers from fooling would like to play better than they do. And they could play better. There is no reason why a physically sound individual, who takes up the game before old age with the determination to succeed at it, should fail to develop form justifying a tolerably low handicap say, 5 or 6. After that, everything must depend upon the person's inborn faculties as a golfer. As a rule, it is some very error of ways that retards progress ; an error that becomes more or less perpetuated in the system. There are various theories as to the best method of learning golf. I have no hesitation in saying that the struggling player should first make himself master of the swing with the wooden clubs ie the driver or the brassie. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that, for most of the shots in golf the principles of the swing are the same. To the unpracticed eye a first-class player may seem to wield his mid-iron differently from, the manner in which he swings his driver, but the variation comes only of the fact that the former is the shorter club and that, therefore, he has to stand nearer to the ball for it. The effect of the shorter club and the position closer to the ball is to make the swing more upright, but the good golfer is not conscious of any effort to change his manner of swinging.

Genres: Sports

Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Henry William "Harry" Vardon was a professional golfer from the Bailiwick of Jersey. He was a member of the fabled Great Triumvirate of the sport in his day, along with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. Vardon won The Open Championship a record six times and also won the 1900 U.S. Open. (Source: Wikipedia)