Why England Appears behind America.
by Cyril Tolley
Chapter XI -The Modern Golfer 1924
[Cyril Tolley wrote this in 1924 when it was clear that american golf was in the ascendancy. Best known nowdays as the golfer who took Bobby Jones to the 19th hole in the British Amateur at St. Andrews during Jones' quest for the Grand Slam, Tolley was in fact a fine golfer who won the British Amateur in 1920 and 1929. A larger than life character, a decorated war hero, he had a swash-buckling style both on and off the Golf course. What he does not mention here, but does mention elsewhere in the book is that many of Britains finer players were emigrating to the United States (Tommy Armour being the most famous). All his points are certainly very true but he also fails to mention the wrenching effect that the 1st World War had on British manhood. Among the golfing class one in three were probably killed!]
Much has been written in the press by the golf correspondents and critics as to the decadence of British Golf as compared with that of America, and it seems to be the accepted theory that this so-called weakness on this side of the world is due practically to our craving for length.. Time and time again one hears that some young player is ruining his prospects for success in the golfing world by trying to hit the cover off the ball, attempting from the tee to carry bunkers that were placed by a designing architect to catch an indifferent second, striving, so they say, to put all his weight and strength into the blow in order to tell his friends afterwards that he has driven further than more famous players drove when they played thie exhibition gameon his particular course. It is without doubt true in many respects and yet at the same time one cannot blame the aspirant, As everybody knows, young people feel that it is only the truly hit ball that flies enormous distances which gives the maximum of satisfaction, and the rest of the game is inclined to be merely an incident in the day's play, and can be dismissed as lightly as when you give your opponent a yard putt when he has two for the hole. I believe that this long driving habit is a fault that should not be too harshly condemned. It is born in our very bones that at games we must instinctivly hit our hardest, be it golf, cricket, or raquets, but we should also attempt to bear in mind that to achieve the best results we must at times curb our natural ferocity. Now at golf I sympathise with the youngster who can hit hard and far, and I know it is very difficult to hit far and still be accurate. I would recommend the fathers to let their sons hit their hardest while they are young, foras the years fraw on they will not feel so fit to lash at the ball, and alsoin gaining experience they will find it does not pay. Who would wish to have a son who at an early age of, say, seventeen plays an old mans game (do not take offence, ye men of 50). By that I meanpatting the ball sqfely down the fairway without ever taking a risk. far better to take a risk and fail, make a herculean recovery, and then try to hole the putt, than to go on mechanically playing a dull, uneventful game at that youthful age. It might suit some nations, but it is not a form of amusementthat appeals to the british mentality. I do not wish to infer that American golfers play entirely an old man's game, but I am compelled to say that in some respects they do. They doso almost completely from the tee. Theirs is not the ambitionthat strives to drive vast distances, although it may secretly pleae them to do so. Rather they prefer to be always able to have a good lie for their second shots, never trying to do more than they can comfortably accomplish, at the same time makingtheir shots up to the green as simple as possible. To British eyes, or, more correctly, to mine, from this point onwards they play the risking game. They are not content, asso many in this country are, with playing safe green finders, but they evoke admiration by their daring and skillful shots to the flag, "pinsplitters" as they are called. They will goall out for thegrand coup, and that is where I confidentlythink they leave us far behind. They believe they can go on putting their approaches by the hole side, and so they do, whereas over here, if a player does it at one hole he has not the confidence to expect he can do it again for several holes.
Americans practise, of course, more assidiously than we do, but they are helped in no small way by their climatic conditions. Their golf is comparable to billiards as played by professional billiard players. These latter always play under perfect conditions - table cushions, cloth, and pockets are perfect. the implementd they use are as near perfection as possible. American courses approach very nearly to the same conditions. They are for the most part laid out in wooded country, which tends to keep off the severity of the winds which indeed bloe but seldom. TYheir tees are perfect; so are their fairways and their greens. I know the few times I got on to the American fairway I almost always had a most magnificent lie, the ball fairly sitting up, asking to be hit. Therefore an American can nearly always play a replica of his round of the day before, being sure of his perfect lie, just as the billard player is confident of his top cushion. In this country, how frequently do we play two rounds under the same condition? To-day we play on a course that is in bad repair, consequently we suffer from attrocious lies, but as the greens are good, we putt well; to-morrow we are playing on a course that is in perfect order, except for the tees, which are bad. How can we be expected to drive well if we cannot even get a respectable lie on the tee? For the week-end we are to play by the sea, where a gale is sure to blow at least one day out of every two. Again, how can we expect to buiild any degree of confidence after battling witha forty-mile-an-hour gale?. Americans are considered better putters than we are, and it is true that they alwayshole the putts when we play against them. Here, as before, they have built up enormous confidence by always playing on slow, perfect putting surfaces, whereas oneday we play on slow, the next we play on fast greens, and on topof this, over there in America, within three yards of the hole the surface is flat, thus enabling them to strike boldly at the back of the hole. What percentage of English courses gives us a three-yard flat putt at the hole? Ninety out of every putts of three yards we get we have to allow for anything up to eighteen inches borrow.
"And yet," you ask, "why do Americans putt so well over here?". The reason, I believe, is that for years and years they have ammassed so much confidence on their own greens that it is quite impossible to destrpy their nerve during the short period they visit these shores. There are many things which tendto make an American a better player than a Briton, and the most outstanding one is the fact that whatever game they take up, they will not rest content until they havethoriughly masteredall it's principles and overcome all its difficulties. Everybody in America is a specialist, be it in athletics or in business. Very seldom do you see these combined. As a worker he puts his all into his business, and as a player he concentrates on getting and remaining fit. At school, a boy, if he wishes, plays in summer base-ball, which is a game similar to rounders; in the winter, football. Neither of these games are compulsory. How different it is in this country. At school you are made to playcricket and rugger or soccer. You have no choice in the matter; golf and tennis are tabooed - and rightly so. In the holidays you play whatever game is fashionable in the part of the world your parents take you to. You may go to one place where the chief attraction is golf; in that case, you have to garb yourself to look like a golfer, and you struggle round and round the course. If you are of a very youthful age you get little, if any, encouragement from the patriachs of the club. They see in you an object on which to vent their wrath. When you arrive at the club-house, you aretold that as you are under sixteen years of age you can only play on the men's links onWednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays; on the other days you must frequent the ladies' course, if there is one; however, if there is not one, you are probably allowed to play on the men's course all the week, but you must start before nineo'clock and after half past eleven, and in no case must you keep anyone waiting, and must give way at once to all other players. It is an absurd rule, which I think is most unfair, for the majority of boys go very much faster than many of their granfathers, who are so particular about their rights, and who rage and fume when they are respectfully asked to give way.
I believe also that over here we suffer from the disadvantage that we have no professional in the first flight of players who possesses a style that all can model their swings on. We do not appear to have, shall I call it, a standard style. To take a few examples: Duncan is very brilliant, and a most attractive player to watch, but who could attempt to imitate his style. A rush up to the ball, a hasty glanceat the ball, and then at the hole, and before you know anything has happened the shot has been played. True, his swing is true, but it has this fault, whhich is one we are having continually drilled into us, of taking back the club much too quickly. The mitchell, with his curious grip, terrific punch, and restricted follow through. A splendid match player, whose style is impossible to model. So much for the top two professionals since the war. The older school, Vardon, Taylor, Braid, Herd, and Ray all have styles that are completely different, Vardon's style being the only one that could possibly recommend itself to a beginner on which to model himself. They are all marvelous players, but none of them possess a true orthodox swing. As coaches, I have no idea how some of them instruct, but I know one or two of them are sound, and expect they all are. Certainly many of their lesser known brothersare not so sound, for instead of giving a beginner some useful hints on how to improve his game, they wish him completely to abandon any natural ability he may possess and endeavour to make him imitate their own particular style, however it may depart from orthodoxy.You must not imagine that i am trying to crab these great masters, for I believe they have past records which no one will seriously challenge, but I really believe it is our misfortune that the British do not possess in any of these professionalsa player whose style can be held up as a model for the young idea. On the other hand, America in a wayseems to have advanced more quickly than England, in spite of the fact she is a newcomer to the game. For some reason or other, she has branched off on her own into a school of free swingers who make no attempt to restrict any follow through, whether they are using their wooden clubs or their irons. It is surprising in how short a time their young players become proficient. It is nothing to hear of a fifteen-year old player defeating all the local cracks and becoming some kind of champion, and at Boston in 1922 there were several boys of seventeen and eighteen competing in the championship, a thing practically unheard of in Britain. They have at the head of their professsional golf, Walter Hagen, one of the worlds best match players, a player with a true and free swing, whose style anyone might copy. His method of hitting the ball gives confidence to the onlookers, and one has the feeling he will never make a mistake, which he seldom does. Sarazen is another free swinger whom all can copy, and a player who struck me at Troon as having extraordinary possibilities in the way of a model was Farrell. they all go up to the ball without fuss or worry, firmly plant their feet in the ground, take their clubs back smoothly and gracefully, and hit the ball without displaying any extraordinary peculiarity. The American amateur can always copy Bobby Jones, the finest hitter of the ball with one exception, but whose footwork swing and general execution is the very ideal for the beginner to model his swing on.
In conclusion, it will depend to a very great extent upon Havers and the younger professionals whether England is to hold her own in the world of golf during the next ten years. It is to them that the rising generation must turn for guiodance, and it is up to them to see that their styles are as ortodox as possible, both for their own records and for those of their pupils.