THE SOUL OF GOLF
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
GEORGE DUNCANThe famous young Hanger Hill professional, one of the finest golfers, and probably thebest golf coach, in the world.
THE SOUL OF GOLF
BY
P. A. VAILE
AUTHOR OF 'MODERN GOLF,' 'MODERN LAWN TENNIS,'
'SWERVE, OR THE FLIGHT OF THE BALL,' ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1912
COPYRIGHT
TO
PHILIP REGINALD THORNTON
MY CO-WORKER IN IMPERIAL POLITICS
PREFACE
It is frequently and emphatically asserted by reviewers of golf booksthat golf cannot be learned from a book. If they would add "in a room"they would be very near the truth—but not quite. It would be quitepossible for an intelligent man with a special faculty for games, agood book on golf, and a properly equipped practising-room to starthis golfing career with a game equal to a single figure handicap.
As a matter of fact the most important things concerning golf may bemore easily and better learned in an arm-chair than on the links. As amatter of good and scientific tuition the arm-chair is the place forthem. In both golf and lawn tennis countless players ruin their gameby thinking too much about how they are playing the stroke while theyare doing it. That is not the time to study first principles. Thoseshould have been digested in the arm-chair, where indeed, as I havealready said and now repeat with emphasis, the highest, the mostscientific, and the most important knowledge of golf must beobtained. There is no time for it on the links, and the true golferhas no time for the man[viii] who tries to get it there, for he isgenerally a dreary bore.
Moreover, the man who tries to get it on the links is in trouble fromthe outset, for in golf he is faced with a mass of false doctrineassociated with the greatest names in the history of golf, which iscalculated, an he follow it, to put him back for years, until indeedhe shall find the truth, the soul of golf.
This book is in many ways different from any book concerning golfwhich has ever been published. It assu