Play a shorter iron, take two to reach the green instead of one. Have you the accuracy to forget about them? If you haven’t, or you are not quite sure that you have, there is only one sensible thing to do and that is to skirt trouble. Now, the only sensible thing to do is to recognise the existence of these obstacles and to compromise over them. You, on the other hand, not having the chance to play much golf, may 50 percent, or even more, of fear. I might play that shot with the element reduced to one percent – but never doubt it, I have fear in my mind, too. You look at these obstacles and whether you like it or not, an element of fear comes into your mind. There is out-of-bounds on the right, a great, deep bunker on the left. Let this be an elementary example: You are playing at a green with a medium iron. The element of fear is involved in every stroke of the game. These factors are fear, irritation and tension induced by taking too long over shots. Which brings me to the three factors which are most disturbing to the concentration which is so essential to better golf at all levels. Now you have found that that practice has gone for nothing. Insteady of having an easy three, you are struggling for a four, or even a five or six. It flies this way or that, into a bunker or just over it. The ball doesn’t fly at the pin like a rocket. Nothing about the situation is entirely to your liking. The ball is on a bit of a slope, the kind of slope you don’t very much like. It gets down to doing what comes easily and naturally.Īt the second hole, you have a No. You may be the strongest man in the world, or have hands which can tear a telephone book in two, but neither ability is going to be an asset in golf unless you can learn to utilise the effective muscles of golf in a rhythmical and harmonious way. I go out to the practice ground with the idea, first of all, of getting the right muscles to do the right things in developing my swing. There are, in my experience, two stages or stages of practice. This doesn’t happen – more’s the pity, I sometimes thing during a championship – and this brings us back to the value and importance of practice in the development of our golf. If there were, every shot we made at every green would go straight into the hole. There is no such thing as perfection in golf. Now practice isn’t at all what these people claim. I know golfers who go out to the practice ground for hour after hour, day after day, slog away at their strokes and we are told that our only possible hope of perfection is to imitate their example. There is a great deal of talk these days about the importance of practice. Their value is that they clear the mind and improve your conception of rhythm. Nevertheless, it was a fascinating experience for me to inquire into, and practise, the exercises, especially the breathing exercises, which are recommended. I would not attest that anybody who wants to play golf, or who is already a player, and wants to improve on it, should follow me in this. Some years ago, I took up a study of yoga. I would say, very seriously, that if you want to play the game with the maximum pleasure and if you want to play it well, the first thing to do is to get to know yourself. You know, the great fight in golf is not with the course, or the conditions, or your clubs. And that is why I say that the last thing to worry about in this sport is your score. Golf is my sport as much as it is my business. Sport is for pleasure, for amusement, for exercise, for fun. But, do you see, this is where golf as a game, as a recreation, has to be considered.Ī sport in not a form of income tax, a necessary but highly distasteful part of life. This may sound odd from a man in whom the score, the lowest possible score, would seem to be the most important thing in life. I offer another contention: The last thing to worry about in golf is your score. This is one of the chief contentions I make of the game which has been my livelihood for the past 15 years, which has been good to me and which I still deeply cherish as a game notwithstanding that it is my life. Photo: GettyĪnybody who can walk can play golf. Peter Thomson with the claret jug after his fourth Open win at Royal Lytham, 1958.
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