THE GAME THAT WINS
by James Braid
From Advanced Golf Methuen and Co. 1908
Now as to medal play, the chief thing to remember is that one's moderate game, which might often win a match, will very seldom be good enough to win in a stroke competition. Your very best is wanted on these occasions, and that must be borne in mind from start to finish. Generally the cautious game will not pay. It is, of course, right to remember that if the ball gets into a very bad place in a bunker or elsewhere, once or twice, it may be quite enough to put the player out of the running; but risks like this must be taken if there will be any gain resulting from a successful shot. Just as in match play it is not much use going for difficult carries, and all that sort of thing, if you are not much better off for having performed them; but the case quoted in the argument for going for a bunker guarding the green when playing a match, applies with even more force to stroke play, for it is the gain of strokes like this that makes all the difference. Always keep it in mind that while your game can very easily be not good enough in stroke play, it is impossible for it to be too good. For this reason any timidity on the putting greens is sure to be fatal to one's prospects, for it is on the greens more than anywhere else that success in these competitions is gained.
The player must go for the hole every time, and should never be short; while in pitching and running up, also, it should be the rule to get to the farther side of the hole, unless there is some very good reason for stopping on the near side. You cannot afford to lose the chance of holing with your approach, even though it is such a small one. A man does not generally win in a stroke competition unless he is in the mood for winning, that is, unless his temperament is in just the right happy state. He must try to make himself feel comfortable all the time ; as soon as he gets fidgety and uneasy his prospects will begin to diminish. It is therefore the finest tonic possible to make a good start. The man who plays the first two or three holes really well has scored a great advantage, and it need not be said what a heavy handicap a bad start is, and how difficult it is to carry those lost strokes with you all the way round the course, trying to get rid of them here and there. To win in a medal competition you generally need a good start and a good finish ; but if the former is denied you it must be remembered that a brilliant ending has been the means of winning many of the most important tournaments. The player suddenly realises that if certain things happen for the best he has still a chance, and this last hope has a way of coming true oftener than one would expect. Once or twice I have been near winning a championship as the result of a strong finish, when at the beginning of the last round I had seemed to be well out of it.
I have said that a man must play the bold game in stroke competitions, with just a reasonable caution when necessary, and that his ordinary " moderate " game is no good. At the same time he must remember that he has no right to expect to be able to play better than his usual best, and that it is a mistake to attempt to force one's game with this object. One's entire golfing system is sure to go to pieces if this is done. Another hint worth remembering, is that it is not only good to try to forget one's bad holes as quickly as possible, but to take as little notice of what your partner is doing as you can. Of course, if you are out of it, and he is not, it is merely the good and proper thing to give him such encouragement (not advice) as is legal ; but, while you are both in it, do not be put off by his brilliant holes, or by the fact that he soon gets an advantage of several strokes over you, remembering that points are sometimes more quickly got back in stroke play than in matches. Remember, also, when you have made a bad hole that there never was a medal round that could not have been a stroke or two better. I realise that though stroke play is so difficult to succeed at, it is equally difficult to say anything about it that is not rather commonplace. The simple fact is that the man and his temperament, coupled with his best game and a little luck, are everything in a stroke competition. Steadiness, perfect control over the mind and the temper, and the ability to take chances when they are presented, are the best qualities, and if a man has not got them you cannot give him any set of rules for success in this branch of the game.