| Here are some tips to help you develop a | | | | his mind; he merely shut them out of his |
| dynamic mental approach to improve your | | | | golf. While he was playing he would talk |
| golf. When a match grows to a climax the | | | | intelligently about any subject that |
| great player is apt to become slower and | | | | cropped up, stocks and shares, eating |
| slower. It is not that the putt on the | | | | and drinking, politics or puritanism. |
| last green is more difficult than that | | | | Nothing, neither wind nor weather, bad |
| on the first; probably his experienced | | | | greens, tight corners, or unduly chatty |
| eye tells him all he needs to know about | | | | opponents, ever made the Hage tense. |
| it at first glance. But he potters | | | | Consequently golf never exhausted him; |
| about, sometimes to the annoyance of | | | | he was as fresh at the end of a |
| uninitiated spectators, until he has | | | | Championship as he was at its beginning. |
| pushed all that the putt means out of | | | | Incidentally this mental limberness was |
| his mind, until all he is conscious of | | | | not left behind on the last green. I |
| is the feel of the stroke that will hole | | | | remember talking to him at Sandwich on |
| the ball. The pupil, let us say, is | | | | the day he won the British Open. He had |
| making good progress. He is beginning to | | | | finished and we sat and chatted for a |
| co-ordinate his game and build up his | | | | long time while waiting to see if George |
| controls, when he suddenly takes himself | | | | Duncan would deprive him of the title |
| off for an afternoon in an entirely | | | | which otherwise he had won. Well George |
| different atmosphere-that of competitive | | | | very nearly did it, but Walter Hagen |
| golf, in which style means nothing and | | | | never batted an eyelid. He was as |
| immediate results everything. Of course | | | | chatty, as cheerful, and as untense as |
| his budding style and incipient control | | | | ever-at the end of a week's competitive |
| go overboard and end-gaining dominates. | | | | golf with the whole issue of a three |
| Everything is subordinate to getting the | | | | thousand mile trip in the balance. I |
| ball into the hole. It is only an | | | | suppose everyone would agree that |
| intentionally established set of | | | | "self-control" as effective as that |
| controls that can resist the temptation | | | | possessed by men like Hagen and Harry |
| to force and guide the ball when much is | | | | Vardon is a priceless quality. But how |
| at stake. The general verdict is that | | | | achieve it? It can only be done by |
| the Hage had a "marvellous temperament | | | | building one's golf into a closed, |
| for the game." And what do we mean by | | | | self-controlling circle, and then |
| that? My own interpretation is that the | | | | keeping extraneous matters outside that |
| Hage had perfect psycho-physical | | | | circle. The reason why the neophyte and |
| equilibrium, that his mind and body were | | | | the player needing re-education find |
| perfectly balanced and perfectly | | | | control so elusive is simply that their |
| correlated for the purpose of the game | | | | golf has not yet been built into ouch a |
| of golf. Walter Hagen had found by trial | | | | closed circle. And if they only knew it |
| and error, as most of us do, how he | | | | they make things far worse by trying to |
| could best hit the ball. He had got the | | | | learn golf and play golf at the same |
| feel of his shots thoroughly into his | | | | time. When that happens, pity the poor |
| system and could pull them out whenever | | | | teacher! Then, and not until then, he |
| he wanted. While he was playing he | | | | can hole it. If you want my idea of the |
| inhibited any extraneous matters in the | | | | ideal mental attitude to the game I will |
| most effective way possible he refused | | | | give it you in two words-Walter Hagen's! |
| to let them into that part of himself | | | | Walter Hagen was not only one of the |
| that was concerned with his golf. So he | | | | greatest golfers, he was one of the most |
| could play his best in circumstances | | | | buoyant. Wherever he played he simply |
| that would have turned gray the hair of | | | | oozed with the joy of life. The more he |
| any less perfectly adjusted player. | | | | was up against it the better he played. |
| Please note that the Hage did not | | | | He really enjoyed a fight and the harder |
| concentrate in the accepted sense. He | | | | it was the more superb his confidence. |
| did not shut extraneous matters out of | | | | |