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THE COMPLETE GOLFER
THE
COMPLETE GOLFER
BY
HARRY VARDON
OPEN CHAMPION, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903
AMERICAN CHAMPION, 1900
WITH SIXTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND EDITION
METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
_First Published June 1905_
_Second Edition June 1905_
PREFACE
Many times I have been strongly advised to write a book on golf, and now
I offer a volume to the great and increasing public who are devoted to
the game. So far as the instructional part of the book is concerned, I
may say that, while I have had the needs of the novice constantly in
mind, and have endeavoured to the best of my ability to put him on the
right road to success, I have also presented the full fruits of my
experience in regard to the fine points of the game, so that what I have
written may be of advantage to improving golfers of all degrees of
skill. There are some things in golf which cannot be explained in
writing, or for the matter of that even by practical demonstration on
the links. They come to the golfer only through instinct and experience.
But I am far from believing that, as is so often said, a player can
learn next to nothing from a book. If he goes about his golf in the
proper manner he can learn very much indeed. The services of a competent
tutor will be as necessary to him as ever, and I must not be understood
to suggest that this work can to any extent take the place of that
compulsory and most invaluable tuition. On the other hand, it is next to
impossible for a tutor to tell a pupil on the links everything about any
particular stroke while he is playing it, and if he could it would not
be remembered. Therefore I hope and think that, in conjunction with
careful coaching by those who are qualified for the task, and by
immediate and constant practice of the methods which I set forth, this
book may be of service to all who aspire to play a really good game. If
any player of the first degree of skill should take exception to any of
these methods, I have only one answer to make, and that is that, just
as they are explained in the following pages, they are precisely those
which helped me to win my five championships. These and no others I
practise every day upon the links. I attach great importance to the
photographs and the accompanying diagrams, the objects of which are
simplicity and lucidity. When a golfer is in difficulty with any
particular stroke--and the best of us are constantly in trouble with
some stroke or other--I think that a careful examination of the pictures
relating to that stroke will frequently put him right, while a glance at
the companion in the "How not to do it" series may reveal to him at once
the error into which he has fallen and which has hitherto defied
detection. All the illustrations in this volume have been prepared from
photographs of myself in the act of playing the different strokes on the
Totteridge links last autumn. Each stroke was carefully studied at the
time for absolute exactness, and the pictures now reproduced were
finally selected by me from about two hundred which were taken. In order
to obtain complete satisfaction, I found it necessary to have a few of
the negatives repeated after the winter had set in, and there was a
slight fall of snow the night before the morning appointed for the
purpose. I owe so much--everything--to the great game of golf, which I
love very dearly, and which I believe is without a superior for deep
human and sporting interest, that I shall feel very delighted if my
"Complete Golfer" is found of any benefit to others who play or are
about to play. I give my good wishes to every golfer, and express the
hope to each that he may one day regard himself as complete. I fear
that, in the playing sense, this is an impossible ideal. However, he may
in time be nearly "dead" in his "approach" to it.
I have specially to thank Mr. Henry Leach for the invaluable services he
has rendered to me in the preparation of the work
H.V.
TOTTERIDGE, _May 1905_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
GOLF AT HOME 1
The happy golfer--A beginning at Jersey--The Vardon family--An anxious
tutor--Golfers come to Grouville--A fine natural course--Initiation as a
caddie--Primitive golf--How we made our clubs--Matches in the
moonlight--Early progress--The study of methods--Not a single lesson--I
become a gardener--The advice of my employer--"Never give up golf"--A
nervous player to begin with--My first competition--My brother Tom
leaves home--He wins a prize at Musselburgh--I decide for
professionalism--An appointment at Ripon.
CHAPTER II
SOME REMINISCENCES 11
Not enough golf--"Reduced to cricket"--I move to Bury--A match with
Alexander Herd--No more nerves--Third place in an open competition--I
play for the Championship--A success at Portrush--Some conversation and
a match with Andrew Kirkaldy--Fifth for the Championship at
Sandwich--Second at the Deal tournament--Eighth in the Championship at
St. Andrews--I go to Ganton--An invitation to the south of France--The
Championship at Muirfield--An exciting finish--A stiff problem at the
last hole--I tie with Taylor--We play off, and I win the Championship--A
tale of a putter--Ben Sayers wants a "wun'"--What Andrew thought of
Muirfield--I win the Championship again at Prestwick--Willie Park as
runner-up--My great match with Park--Excellent arrangements--A welcome
victory--On money matches in general--My third Championship at
Sandwich--My fourth at Prestwick--Golf under difficulties.
CHAPTER III
THE WAY TO GOLF 25
The mistakes of the beginner--Too eager to play a round--Despair that
follows--A settling down to mediocrity--All men may excel--The sorrows
of a foozler--My advice--Three months' practice to begin with--The
makings of a player--Good golf is best--How Mr. Balfour learned the
game--A wise example--Go to the professional--The importance of
beginning well--Practise with each club separately--Driver, brassy,
cleek, iron, mashie, and putter--Into the hole at last--Master of a bag
of clubs--The first match--How long drives are made--Why few good
players are coming on--Golf is learned too casually.
CHAPTER IV
THE CHOICE AND CARE OF CLUBS 37
Difficulties of choice--A long search for the best--Experiments with
more than a hundred irons--Buy few clubs to begin with--Take the
professional's advice--A preliminary set of six--Points of the
driver--Scared wooden clubs are best--Disadvantages of the socket--Fancy
faces--Short heads--Whip in the shaft--The question of weight--Match the
brassy with the driver--Reserve clubs--Kinds of cleeks--Irons and
mashies--The niblick--The putting problem--It is the man who putts and
not the putter--Recent inventions--Short shafts for all clubs--Lengths
and weights of those I use--Be careful of your clubs--Hints for
preserving them.
CHAPTER V
DRIVING--PRELIMINARIES 52
Advantage of a good drive--And the pleasure of it--More about the
driver--Tee low--Why high tees are bad--The question of
stance--Eccentricities and bad habits--Begin in good style--Measurements
of the stance--The reason why--The grip of the club--My own method and
its advantages--Two hands like one--Comparative tightness of the
hands--Variations during the swing--Certain disadvantages of the two-V
grip--Addressing the ball--Freaks of style--How they must be compensated
for--Too much waggling--The point to look at--Not the top of the ball,
but the side of it.
CHAPTER VI
DRIVING--THE SWING OF THE CLUB 64
"Slow back"--The line of the club head in the upward swing--The golfer's
head must be kept rigid--The action of the wrists--Position at the top
of the swing--Movements of the arms--Pivoting of the body--No
swaying--Action of the feet and legs--Speed of the club during the
swing--The moment of impact--More about the wrists--No pure wrist shot
in golf--The follow-through--Timing of the body action--Arms and hands
high up at the finish--How bad drives are made--The causes of
slicing--When the ball is pulled--Misapprehensions as to slicing and
pulling--Dropping of the right shoulder--Its evil consequences--No trick
in long driving--Hit properly and hard--What is pressing and what is
not--Summary of the drive.
CHAPTER VII
BRASSY AND SPOON 78
Good strokes with the brassy--Play as with the driver--The points of the
brassy--The stance--Where and how to hit the ball--Playing from cuppy
lies--Jab strokes from badly-cupped lies--A difficult club to
master--The man with the spoon--The lie for the baffy--What it can and
cannot do--Character of the club--The stance--Tee shots with the
baffy--Iron clubs are better.
CHAPTER VIII
SPECIAL STROKES WITH WOODEN CLUBS 85
The master stroke in golf--Intentional pulling and slicing--The
contrariness of golf--When pulls and slices are needful--The stance for
the slice--The upward swing--How the slice is made--The short sliced
stroke--Great profits that result--Warnings against irregularities--How
to pull a ball--The way to stand--The work of the right hand--A feature
of the address--What makes a pull--Effect of wind on the flight of the
ball--Greatly exaggerated notions--How wind increases the effect of
slicing and pulling--Playing through a cross wind--The shot for a head
wind--A special way of hitting the ball--A long low flight--When the
wind comes from behind.
CHAPTER IX
THE CLEEK AND DRIVING MASHIE 98
A test of the golfer--The versatility of the cleek--Different kinds of
cleeks--Points of the driving mashie--Difficulty of continued success
with it--The cleek is more reliable--Ribbed faces for iron clubs--To
prevent skidding--The stance for an ordinary cleek shot--The
swing--Keeping control over the right shoulder--Advantages of the
three-quarter cleek shot--The push shot--My favourite stroke--The stance
and the swing--The way to hit the ball--Peculiar advantages of flight
from the push stroke--When it should not be attempted--The advantage of
short swings as against full swings with iron clubs--Playing for a low
ball against the wind--A particular stance--Comparisons of the different
cleek shots--General observations and recommendations--Mistakes made
with the cleek.
CHAPTER X
PLAY WITH THE IRON 112
The average player's favourite club--Fine work for the iron--Its
points--The right and the wrong time for play with it--Stance
measurements--A warning concerning the address--The cause of much bad
play with the iron--The swing--Half shots with the iron--The regulation
of power--Features of erratic play--Forced and checked swings--Common
causes of duffed strokes--Swings that are worthless.
CHAPTER XI
APPROACHING WITH THE MASHIE 118
The great advantage of good approach play--A fascinating
club--Characteristics of a good mashie--Different kinds of strokes with
it--No purely wrist shot--Stance and grip--Position of the body--No
pivoting on the left toe--The limit of distance--Avoid a full swing--The
half iron as against the full mashie--The swing--How not to loft--On
scooping the ball--Taking a divot--The running-up approach--A very
valuable stroke--The club to use--A tight grip with the right
hand--Peculiarities of the swing--The calculation of pitch and run--The
application of cut and spin--A stroke that is sometimes
necessary--Standing for a cut--Method of swinging and hitting the
ball--The chip on to the green--Points of the jigger.
CHAPTER XII
ON BEING BUNKERED 131
The philosopher in a bunker--On making certain of getting out--The folly
of trying for length--When to play back--The qualities of the
niblick--Stance and swing--How much sand to take--The time to press--No
follow-through in a bunker--Desperate cases--The brassy in a
bunker--Difficulties through prohibited grounding--Play straight when
length is imperative--Cutting with the niblick.
CHAPTER XIII
SIMPLE PUTTING 141
A game within another game--Putting is not to be taught--The advantage
of experience--Vexation of missing short putts--Some
anecdotes--Individuality in putting--The golfer's natural system--How to
find it--And when found make a note of it--The quality of instinct--All
sorts of putters--How I once putted for a Championship--The part that
the right hand plays--The manner of hitting the ball--On always being
up and "giving the hole a chance"--Easier to putt back after overrunning
than when short--The trouble of Tom Morris.
CHAPTER XIV
COMPLICATED PUTTS 150
Problems on undulating greens--The value of practice--Difficulties of
calculation--The cut stroke with the putter--How to make it--When it is
useful--Putting against a sideways slope--A straighter line for the
hole--Putting down a hill--Applying drag to the ball--The use of the
mashie on the putting-green--Stymies--When they are negotiable and when
not--The wisdom of playing for a half--Lofting over the stymie--The
run-through method--Running through the stymie--How to play the stroke,
and its advantages--Fast greens for fancy strokes--On gauging the speed
of a green.
CHAPTER XV
SOME GENERAL HINTS 160
Too much golf--Analysis of good strokes--One's attitude towards one's
opponent--Inaccurate counting of strokes--Tactics in match play--Slow
couples on the course--Asking for halves--On not holing out when the
half is given--Golfing attire--Braces better than belts--Shoes better
than boots--How the soles should be nailed--On counting your
strokes--Insisting on the rules--Play in frosty weather--Chalked faces
for wet days--Against gloves--Concerning clubs--When confidence in a
club is lost--Make up your mind about your shot--The golfer's
lunch--Keeping the eye on the ball--The life of a rubber-core--A clean
ball--The caddie's advice--Forebodings of failure--Experiments at the
wrong time--One kind of golf at a time--Bogey beaten, but how?--Tips for
tee shots--As to pressing--The short approach and the wayward
eye--Swinging too much--For those with defective sight--Your opponent's
caddie--Making holes in the bunkers--The golfer's first duty--Swinging
on the putting-greens--Practise difficult shots and not easy ones, etc.
CHAPTER XVI
COMPETITION PLAY 177
Its difficulties--Nerves are fatal--The philosophic spirit--Experience
and steadiness--The torn card--Too much hurry to give up--A story and a
moral--Indifference to your opponent's brilliance--Never slacken when
up--The best test of golf--If golf were always easy--Cautious play in
medal rounds--Risks to be taken--The bold game in match play--Studying
the course--Risks that are foolishly taken--New clubs in
competitions--On giving them a trial--No training necessary--As to the
pipe and glass--How to be at one's best and keenest--On playing in the
morning--In case of a late draw--Watch your opponents.
CHAPTER XVII
ON FOURSOMES 188
The four-ball foursome--Its inferiority to the old-fashioned game--The
case of the long-handicap man--Confusion on the greens--The man who
drives last--The old-fashioned two-ball foursome--Against too many
foursomes--Partners and each other--Fitting in their different
games--The man to oblige--The policy of the long-handicap man--How he
drove and missed in the good old days--On laying your partner a
stymie--A preliminary consideration of the round--Handicapping in
foursomes--A too delicate reckoning of strokes given and received--A
good foursome and the excitement thereof--A caddie killed and a hole
lost--A compliment to a golfer.
CHAPTER XVIII
GOLF FOR LADIES 198
As to its being a ladies' game--A sport of freedom--The lady on the
links--The American lady golfer--English ladies are improving--Where
they fail, and why--Good pupils--The same game as the man's--No short
swings for ladies--Clubs of too light weight--Their disadvantages--A
common fault with the sex--Bad backward swings--The lady who will find
out for herself--Foundations of a bad style--The way to success.
CHAPTER XIX
THE CONSTRUCTION OF COURSES 205
Necessity for thought and ingenuity--The long-handicap man's course--The
scratch player's--How good courses are made--The necessary land--A long
nine-hole course better than a short eighteen--The preliminary survey--A
patient study of possibilities--Stakes at the holes--Removal of natural
disadvantages--"Penny wise and pound foolish"--The selection of teeing
grounds--A few trial drives--The arrangement of long and short
holes--The best two-shot and three-shot holes--Bunkers and where to
place them--The class of player to cater for--The scratch man's
game--The shots to be punished--Bunkers down the sides--The best putting
greens--Two tees to each hole--Seaside courses.
CHAPTER XX
LINKS I HAVE PLAYED ON 219
Many first-class links--The best of all--Sandwich--Merits of the Royal
St. George's course--Punishments for faults and rewards for virtue--Not
a short course--The best hole--The Maiden--Other good holes--Prestwick
an excellent course--The third and the ninth holes--The finest hole
anywhere--Hoylake--Two or three tame holes--A means of improvement--Good
hazards and a premium on straight play--St. Andrews--Badly-placed
bunkers--A good second hole--The finest one-shot hole to be found
anywhere--An unfair hole--The best holes at Muirfield--Troon--North
Berwick--Cruden Bay--Dornoch--Machrihanish--A splendid course at Islay--The
most difficult hole I know--Gullane--Kilspindie--Luffness--Links in
Ireland--Portrush--Portmarnock--Dollymount--Lahinch--Newcastle--Welsh
courses--Ashburnham--Harlech--On the south and south-west coasts--The
rushes at Westward Ho!--Newquay--Good holes at Deal--Littlestone--Rye--The
advantage of Cromer--Brancaster--Hunstanton--Sheringham--Redcar--Seaton
Carew--St. Anne's--Formby--Wallasey--Inland
courses--Sunningdale--A splendid course--Another at Walton
Heath--Huntercombe--London links--Courses in the
country--Sheffield--Manchester--Huddersfield--"Inland" courses at the
seaside--A warning.
CHAPTER XXI
GOLF IN AMERICA 232
Good golf in the United States--My tour through the country--Mr.
Travis's victory in our Amateur Championship--Not a surprise--The man
who played the best golf--British amateurs must wake up--Other good
Americans will come--Our casual methods of learning golf--The American
system--My matches in the States--A good average--Driving well--Some
substantial victories--Some difficult matches--Course
records--Enthusiasm of the American crowds--The golf fever--The king of
baseball takes to golf--The American Open Championship--A hard fight
with J.H. Taylor--A welcome win--Curious experiences in Florida--Greens
without grass--The plague of locusts--Some injury to my game--"Mr.
Jones"--Fooling the caddies--Camping out on the links--Golf reporting in
America--Ingenious and good--Mistakes made by non-golfing
writers--Lipping the hole for a hundred dollars.
CHAPTER XXII
CONCERNING CADDIES 245
Varieties of caddies--Advice to a left-handed player--Cock-shots at
Ganton--Unearned increments--An offer to carry for the fun of the
thing--The caddie who knows too much--My ideal caddie--His points--The
girl caddie--A splendid type--Caddies' caustic humour--Some specimens of
it--Mr. Balfour's taste in caddies--When the caddie is too anxious--Good
human kindness--"Big Crawford"--"Lookin' aifter Maister Balfour"--An
ingenious claim--A salute for the Chief Secretary--A story of a
distressed clergyman--Sandy Smith--The clothes he wore--An excess of
zeal--The caddies' common-sense--When his lot is not a happy one.
CHAPTER XXIII
REFLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS 259
Good golf to come--Giants of the past--The amateurs of to-day--The
greatness of "Freddy" Tait--Modern professionals--Good sportsmen and
good friends--A misconception--The constant strain--How we always play
our best--Difficult tasks--No "close season" in golf--Spectators at big
matches--Certain anecdotes--Putting for applause--Shovelling from a
bunker--The greatest match I have ever played in--A curious incident--A
record in halves--A coincidence--The exasperation of Andrew--The coming
of spring--The joyful golfer.
APPENDIX (Rules of the Game) 267
INDEX 279
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT _Frontispiece_
PLATE PAGE
I. My set of clubs 48
II. The grip with the left hand 58
III. The overlapping grip 58
IV. The overlapping grip 58
V. The overlapping grip 58
VI. Driver and brassy. The stance 66
VII. Driver and brassy. Top of the swing 66
VIII. Driver and brassy. Top of the swing from behind 66
IX. Driver and brassy. Finish of the swing 66
X. How not to drive 72
XI. How not to drive 72
XII. How not to drive 72
XIII. How not to drive 72
XIV. Driver and brassy. Stance when playing for a slice 86
XV. Driver and brassy. Top of the swing when playing for a slice 86
XVI. Driver and brassy. Finish when playing for a slice 86
XVII. Driver and brassy. Playing for a pull. Stance 90
XVIII. Driver and brassy. Top of the swing when playing for a pull 90
XIX. Driver and brassy. Finish when playing for a pull 90
XX. Driver and brassy. Stance for a low ball against the wind 96
XXI. Driver and brassy. Stance for a high ball with the wind 96
XXII. Full shot with the cleek. Stance 102
XXIII. Full shot with the cleek. Top of the swing 102
XXIV. Full shot with the cleek. Finish 102
XXV. Full shot with the cleek. Finish 102
XXVI. The push shot with the cleek. Stance 106
XXVII. The push shot with the cleek. Top of the swing 106
XXVIII. The push shot with the cleek. Finish 106
XXIX. A low ball (against wind) with the cleek. Stance 106
XXX. A low ball (against wind) with the cleek. Top of the swing 106
XXXI. A low ball (against wind) with the cleek. Finish 106
XXXII. Faulty play with the cleek 110
XXXIII. Faulty play with the cleek 110
XXXIV. Faulty play with the cleek 110
XXXV. Faulty play with the cleek 110
XXXVI. Faulty play with the cleek 110
XXXVII. Full iron shot. Stance 114
XXXVIII. Full iron shot. Top of the swing 114
XXXIX. Full iron shot. Finish 114
XL. Play with the iron for a low ball (against wind). Stance 114
XLI. Play with the iron for a low ball (against wind). Top of the swing 114
XLII. Play with the iron for a low ball (against wind). Finish 114
XLIII. Mashie approach (pitch and run). Stance 122
XLIV. Mashie approach (pitch and run). Top of the swing 122
XLV. Mashie approach (pitch and run). Finish 122
XLVI. Mistakes with the mashie 122
XLVII. Mistakes with the mashie 122
XLVIII. Mistakes with the mashie 122
XLIX. Running-up approach with mashie or iron. Finish, with stance
also indicated 122
L. A cut approach with the mashie. Stance 122
LI. A cut approach with the mashie. Top of the swing 122
LII. A cut approach with the mashie. Finish 122
LIII. The niblick in a bunker. Top of an ordinary stroke when it is
intended to take much sand 136
LIV. "Well out!" Finish of an ordinary stroke in a bunker when
much sand is taken 136
LV. Another bunker stroke. Top of the swing when intending to
take the ball cleanly and with a little cut 136
LVI. Finish, after taking the ball cleanly from a bunker 136
LVII. Putting 146
LVIII. Putting 146
DIAGRAMS.
Trajectory of ball when a distant slice is required 89
Trajectory of ball in the case of a quick slice 90
Method and effect of pulling into a cross wind from the right 94
The push shot with the cleek 106
Putting with cut on a sloping green 154
Nails in golfing boots and shoes 167
Points to look at when addressing the ball 170
THE COMPLETE GOLFER
CHAPTER I
GOLF AT HOME
The happy golfer--A beginning at Jersey--The Vardon family--An
anxious tutor--Golfers come to Grouville--A fine natural
course--Initiation as a caddie--Primitive golf--How we made our
clubs--Matches in the moonlight--Early progress--The study of
methods--Not a single lesson--I become a gardener--The advice of my
employer--"Never give up golf"--A nervous player to begin with--My
first competition--My brother Tom leaves home--He wins a prize at
Musselburgh--I decide for professionalism--An appointment at Ripon.
I have sometimes heard good golfers sigh regretfully, after holing out
on the eighteenth green, that in the best of circumstances as to health
and duration of life they cannot hope for more than another twenty, or
thirty, or forty years of golf, and they are then very likely inclined
to be a little bitter about the good years of their youth that they may
have "wasted" at some other less fascinating sport. When the golfer's
mind turns to reflections such as these, you may depend upon it that it
has been one of those days when everything has gone right and nothing
wrong, and the supreme joy of life has been experienced on the links.
The little white ball has seemed possessed of a soul--a soul full of
kindness and the desire for doing good. The clubs have seemed endowed
with some subtle qualities that had rarely been discovered in them
before. Their lie, their balance, their whip, have appeared to reach the
ideal, and such command has been felt over them as over a dissecting
instrument in the hands of a skilful surgeon. The sun has been shining
and the atmosphere has sparkled when, flicked cleanly from the tee, the
rubber-cored ball has been sent singing through the air. The drives have
all been long and straight, the brassy shots well up, the approaches
mostly dead, and the putts have taken the true line to the tin. Hole
after hole has been done in bogey, and here and there the common enemy
has been beaten by a stroke. Perhaps the result is a record round, and,
so great is the enthusiasm for the game at this moment, that it is
regarded as a great misfortune that the sun has set and there is no more
light left for play. These are the times when the golfer's pulse beats
strong, and he feels the remorse of the man with the misspent youth
because he was grown up and his limbs were setting before ever he teed a
ball.
Well, at least I can say that I have not missed much of the game that I
love with a great fondness, for I played a kind of prehistoric golf when
I was a bad boy of seven, and off and on I have played it ever since. It
was fortunate for me that the common land at Jersey was years ago the
ideal thing for a golfing links, and that golfers from abroad found out
its secret, as they always do. If they had failed to do so in this case,
I might still have been spending my life in horticultural pursuits. For
I was born (on May 9, 1870) and bred in Jersey, at that little place
called Grouville, which is no more than a collection of scattered
cottages and farmhouses a few miles from St. Heliers. Both my parents
were natives of Jersey, and my father, who was seventy-four on the 5th
of last November, has been a gardener there all his life, holding the
proud record of having changed his place of employment only once during
the whole period. There was a big family of us--six boys and two
girls--and all, except one of my sisters, are still alive. My brothers
were George, Phil, Edward, Tom, and Fred, and I came fourth down the
list, after Edward. As most golfers know, my brother Tom, to whom I owe
very much, is now the professional at the Royal St. George's Club at
Sandwich, while Fred is a professional in the Isle of Man. In due course
we all went to the little village school; but I fear, from all that I
can remember, and from what I have been told, that knowledge had little
attraction for me in those days, and I know that I very often played
truant, sometimes for three weeks at a stretch. Consequently my old
schoolmaster, Mr. Boomer, had no particular reason to be proud of me at
that time, as he seems to have become since. He never enjoys a holiday
so much in these days as when he comes over from Jersey to see me play
for the Open Championship, as he does whenever the meeting is held at
Sandwich. But when I did win a Championship on that course, he was so
nervous and excited about my play and my prospects that he felt himself
unequal to watching me, and during most of the time that I was doing my
four rounds he was sitting in a fretful state upon the seashore. I was a
thin and rather delicate boy with not much physical strength, but I was
as enthusiastic as the others in the games that were played at that
time, and my first ambition was to excel at cricket. A while afterwards
I became attached to football, and I retained some fondness for this
game long after I took up golf. Even after my golfing tour in America a
few years ago, when quite at my best, I captained the Ganton football
team and played regularly in its matches.
One day, when I was about seven years of age, a very shocking thing
happened at Grouville. All the people there lived a quiet, undisturbed
life, and had a very wholesome respect for the sanctity of the Sabbath
day. But of all days of the week it was a Sunday when a small party of
strange gentlemen made their appearance on the common land, and began to
survey and to mark out places for greens and tees. Then the story went
about that they were making preparations to play a game called golf.
That was enough to excite the wrathful indignation of all the
tenant-farmers round about, and without delay they began to think out
means for expelling these trespassers from the common land. A tale of
indignation spread through Grouville, and these golfers, of whom I
remember that Mr. Brewster was one, were not at first regarded in the
light of friendship. But they soon made their position secure by
obtaining all necessary authority and permission for what they were
about to do from the constable of the parish, and from that day we had
to resign ourselves to the fact that a new feature had entered into the
quiet life of Jersey. The little party went ahead with the marking out
of their course, though indeed the natural state of the place was so
perfect from the golfer's point of view that very little work was
necessary, and no first-class golf links was ever made more easily.
There were sand and other natural hazards everywhere, the grass was
short and springy just as it is on all good sea-coast links, and all
that it was necessary to do was to put a flag down where each hole was
going to be, and run the mower and the roller over the space selected
for the putting green. Rooms were rented at a little inn hard by, which
was forthwith rechristened the Golf Inn, and the headquarters of the
Jersey golfers are still at the same place, though a large club-room has
been added. That was the beginning of the Royal Jersey Golf Club. The
links as they were when they were first completed were really
excellent--much better than they are to-day, for since then, in order to
prevent the sand being blown all over the course by the strong winds
which sweep across the island, the bunkers have in most cases been
filled with clay, which has to a great extent spoiled them.
When everything was ready, more of these golfers came across from
England to play this new game which we had never seen before, and all
the youngsters of the locality were enticed into their service to carry
their clubs. I was among the number, and that was my first introduction
to the game. We did not think much of it upon our first experience; but
after we had carried for a few rounds we came to see that it contained
more than we had imagined. Then we were seized with a desire to play it
ourselves, and discover what we could do. But we had no links to play
upon, no clubs, no balls, and no money. However, we surmounted all these
difficulties. To begin with, we laid out a special course of our very
own. It consisted of only four holes, and each one of them was only
about fifty yards long, but for boys of seven that was quite enough. We
made our teeing grounds, smoothed out the greens, and, so far as this
part of the business was concerned, we were soon ready for play. There
was no difficulty about balls, for we decided at once that the most
suitable article for us, in the absence of real gutties, was the big
white marble which we called a taw, and which was about half the size of
an ordinary golf ball, or perhaps a little less than that. But there was
some anxiety in our juvenile minds when the question of clubs came to be
considered, and I think we deserved credit for the manner in which we
disposed of it. It was apparent that nothing would be satisfactory
except a club fashioned on the lines of a real golf club, and that to
procure anything of the sort we should have to make it ourselves.
Therefore, after several experiments, we decided that we would use for
the purpose the hard wood of the tree which we called the lady oak. To
make a club we cut a thick branch from the tree, sawed off a few inches
from it, and then trimmed this piece so that it had a faint resemblance
to the heads of the drivers we had seen used on the links. Any elaborate
splicing operations were out of the question, so we agreed that we must
bore a hole in the centre of the head. The shaft sticks that we chose
and trimmed were made of good thorn, white or black, and when we had
prepared them to our satisfaction we put the poker in the fire and made
it red hot, then bored a hole with it through the head, and tightened
the shaft with wedges until the club was complete. With this primitive
driver we could get what was for our diminutive limbs a really long
ball, or a long taw as one should say. In these later days a patent has
been taken out for drivers with the shaft let into the head, which are
to all intents and purposes the same in principle as those which we used
to make at Grouville.
By and by some of us became quite expert at the making of these clubs,
and we set ourselves to discover ways and means of improving them. The
greater elaboration of such brassies as we had seen impressed us, and we
also found some trouble with our oak heads in that, being green, they
were rather inclined to chip and crack. Ultimately we decided to sheathe
the heads entirely with tin. It was not an easy thing to make a good job
of this, and we were further troubled by the circumstance that our
respective fathers had no sympathy with us, and declined upon any
account to lend us their tools. Consequently we had no option but to
wait until the coast was clear and then surreptitiously borrow the tools
for an hour or two. We called these tin-plated drivers our brassies, and
they were certainly an improvement on our original clubs. Occasionally a
club was made in this manner which exhibited properties superior to
those possessed by any other, as clubs will do even to-day. Forthwith
the reputation of the maker of this club went up by leaps and bounds,
and he was petitioned by others to make clubs for them, a heavy price in
taws and marbles being offered for the service. The club that had
created all this stir would change hands two or three times at an
increasing price until it required the payment of four or five dozen
marbles to become possessed of it. But the boy who owned the treasure
was looked upon as the lord of the manor, and odds were demanded of him
in the matches that we played.
We practised our very elementary kind of golf whenever we could, and
were soon enthusiastic. I remember particularly that many of our best
matches were played in the moonlight. The moon seemed to shine more
clearly at Jersey than in England, and we could see splendidly. Four of
us would go out together on a moonlight night to play, and our little
competition was arranged on the medal system by scores. Usually a few
marbles were at stake. To prevent the loss of taws one of us was sent
ahead to watch for their coming and listen for the faint thud of their
fall, while the other three drove from the tee. Then the three came
forward while the watcher went back to drive, and I am sorry to say that
our keenness in those days led us to disregard certain principles of the
sportsman's code of honour which we appreciated better as we grew up.
What I mean is that the watcher was often handicapped in a way that he
little suspected, for when he went back to the tee, and we went forward
and found that our balls were not always so well up as we had hoped, we
gave them a gentle kick forwards; for in the dim light we were able to
do this unknown to each other. But in legitimate play we often got a 3
at these fifty-yard holes, and with our home-made clubs, our little
white taws, our lack of knowledge, and our physical feebleness all taken
into consideration, I say we have often done less creditable things
since then.
After such beginnings, we progressed very well. We began to carry more
and more for the golfers who came to Grouville; we found or were given
real balls that took the place of the taws, and then a damaged club
occasionally came our way, and was repaired and brought into our own
service. Usually it was necessary to put in new shafts, and so we burnt
holes in the heads and put in the sticks, as we did with clubs of our
own make; but these converted clubs were disappointing in the matter of
durability. It happened once or twice that golfers for whom we had been
carrying gave us an undamaged club as a reward for our enthusiasm, and
we were greatly excited and encouraged when such a thing happened. I
used to carry clubs about twice a week. I remember that Mr. Molesworth
and Dr. Purves, both well known in the golfing world, were two players
for whom I very often carried, and only the other day when I saw the
former at the Professional Tournament at Richmond, watching the play, I
was able to remind him of those times and of a particular shot he once
played. We young caddies were very eager to learn the game thoroughly,
and we were in the habit of watching these golfers very closely,
comparing their styles, and then copying anything from them that seemed
to take our fancy. I may say at once, in reply to a question that I am
often asked, and which perhaps my present readers may themselves be
inclined to put, that I have never in my life taken a single golfing
lesson from anyone, and that whatever style I may possess is purely the
result of watching others play and copying them when I thought they made
a stroke in a particularly easy and satisfactory manner. It was my habit
for very many years after these early days, until in fact I had won the
Open Championship, to study the methods of good golfers in this way, and
there are few from whom one is not able to learn something. I cannot say
that the play of any one man particularly impressed me; I cannot point
to any player, past or present, and declare that I modelled my style on
his. It seemed to me that I took a little from one and a little from
another until my swing was a composition of the swings of several
players, and my approach shots likewise were of a very mixed parentage.
Of course when I took a hint from the play of anyone I had been watching
it required much subsequent practice properly to weld it into my own
system; but I think that this close watching of good players, and the
borrowing from their styles of all information that you think is good,
and then constantly practising the new idea yourself, is an excellent
method of improving your golf, though I do not recommend it as the sole
method of learning, despite the success which I personally have
achieved. However, this is a matter for later consideration.
As we were such a large family and my father's means were very limited,
there was the necessity which is common in such cases for all of the
boys to turn out early in life and do something towards helping the
others, and accordingly I went to work when I was thirteen. Some time
afterwards I became gardener to the late Major Spofforth of Beauview,
who was himself a very keen golfer, and who occasionally gave me some of
his old clubs. Now and then, when he was in want of a partner, he used
to take me out to play with him, and I shall never forget the words he
spoke to me one day after we had played one of these matches. "Henry, my
boy," he said, "take my advice, and never give up golf. It may be very
useful to you some day." Certainly his words came true. I can only
remember about these games that I was in the habit of getting very
nervous over them, much more so than I did later on when I played
matches of far more consequence. I joined a working men's golf club that
had been formed, and it was through this agency that I won my first
prize. A vase was offered for competition among the members, the
conditions being that six medal rounds were to be played at the rate of
one a month. When we had played five, I was leading by so very many
strokes that it was next to impossible for any of the others to catch me
up, and as just then my time came for leaving home and going out into
the greater world of golf, the committee kindly gave me permission to
play my last round two or three weeks before the proper time. It removed
all doubt as to the destination of the prize, which has still one of the
most honoured places on my mantelpiece. At that time my handicap for
this club was plus 3, but that did not mean that I would have been plus
3 anywhere else. As a matter of fact, I should think I must have been
about 8 or 10.
By this time my younger brother Tom had already gone away to learn
club-making from Lowe at St. Anne's-on-Sea. He played very much the same
game of golf as I did at that time, and it was his venture and the
success that waited upon it that made me determine to strike out. While
Tom was at St. Anne's he went on a journey north to take part in a
tournament at Musselburgh, where he captured the second prize. Thereupon
I came to the conclusion that, if Tom could do that, then I too with a
little patience might do the same. Indeed, I was a very keen golfer just
then. At last Lowe was summoned to Lord Ripon's place at Ripon, near
Harrogate, to lay out a new nine-holes course, and Tom wrote to me
saying that they would be wanting a professional there, and if I desired
such an appointment I had better apply for it without delay. I did so,
and was engaged. I was twenty years of age when I left home to assume
these duties.