THE RIGHT HAND IN GOLF

Its Power Exemplified by Louis Martucci, the One-Armed Golfer

P. A. VAILE

LOUIS MARTUCCI, caddie master of the Essex County Country Club, sprang into something like national prominence and fame at the professionals' tournament held at Van Cortlandt Park this past summer.

Martucci went round the course in 68, two strokes above the record. Let it be granted that Van Cortlandt Park is not the most searching test of golf in the world, but, when it is remembered that Louis Martucci has only one arm—his right—and that he scored a round of the links only two strokes worse than the best of the professionals could do with the full use of both arms, his performance was little short of miraculous.

HIS round must make any intelligent golfer pause and consider before he accepts as gospel the hoary old tradition of golf that the left hand and left arm are the dominant partners in the golf stroke and that the function of the right is merely to act as a guide, or director of ceremonies.

As a matter of fact the left hand theory is a pernicious and unsound idea and has ruined the play of many a player who would otherwise have achieved fairly good golf. Martucci is going to help innumerable people to improve their game by the practical demonstration which he gave of the wonderful capabilities of a well-trained right hand and arm. Martucci's short game, with the irons, is remarkable. His approaching is generally deadly, while at the tournament mentioned, his work on the greens was more in the nature of legerdemain than golf. He provided a wonderful object lesson to prove what the right hand is capable of doing on the putting green and proved a truth, that every bad putter should get into his mind, that the put, of all strokes should be a right-handed stroke. Indeed, in putting, it is well to get as near to Martucci's grip as convenient without actually displacing the left hand from the shaft. In other words Martucci has shown, as I have always contended, that putting should be made, as much as possible (without actually releasing the left hand), a one-handed operation, and that hand must be, with a right-handed player, the right. Conversely, it would be, with the left-handed player, the left.

THE value of Martucci's brilliant play is more pronounced because there are still too many people who think that the left hand and arm are the important factors in all golf strokes, whereas this is absolutely fatal to good golf. Martucci's right arm and hand have developed wonderfully in strength since he lost his left arm in a trolley-car accident some years ago, so that now he would indeed be a bold man who would bet against him.

When the great controversy of "Left or Right" was raging in London, George Duncan, the famous Hanger Hill professional, was interviewed by a leading London paper, the Evening Standard, and asked for his opinions. Now Duncan is a splendid golfer. He has victories over Braid, Taylor and Vardon to his credit and he is famous for his lightning speed of stroke; also he is a most analytical fellow, and, probably the best coach in the world.

Duncan gave it as his opinion, without any qualification whatever, that the right hand and arm are the more important factors in the golf stroke, and he followed this up by a series of experiments which are of especial interest to anyone that is troubled with the fetich of the left.

Duncan took out a great number of golf balls and drove a dozen or so of them alternately, first with the right arm and then with the left. He found that driving with the right alone he could get results almost as good as when he was driving with both hands, in effect that he could drive nearly as far and straight with his right alone as he could with his left and right together; but when he came to try with his left, which, of course, he used in the normal manner of golfers—that is, on the right side—it was altogether another story. He found that he had practically no control over the ball either as to length or direction. From that day to this George Duncan has been an eloquent advocate of the power of the right.

And now we come to a singular phenomenon in golf and one that will well repay careful study and thought by lovers of the game.

It is a curious fact that there are no great left-handed golfers. I cannot call to mind any American golfer of real eminence who is a "south paw." This is very strange, for left-handers in nearly all other games are generally very skillful. This is particularly so in polo, baseball, billiards, rifle shooting, court tennis and lawn tennis. The names of two great left-handers in lawn tennis come to mind at once, Norman Brookes and Beals C. Wright. If anyone can name a better pair, right or left handed, he will beat me. Wright and Brookes were probably two of . the greatest singles players of ail time.

Cont. on page 128

Continued, from page 82

In cricket there are many fine players both with bat and .ball, while at baseball the man of the sinister hand has written much of the lurid history of the ball-fields.

WHY then is it that the left-hander is not more prominent in golf ? Nobody has given any satisfactory answer to that question. I have often wondered why it should be so. Frankly I must confess that I do not know. It may possibly be something to do with the reversing of the position of the eyes. In most men the right eye is the master eye. I do not know how this is with left-handers. If the right eye is still the master eye it follows that, facing round as he does for his hit, he puts the master eye, in the line to the hole, forward of the inferior eye. This may have an effect on the stroke that is not at present understood, for it must be remembered that in golf the ball is the smallest ball used in field sports, the striking face of the club is the smallest thing used wherewith to strike a ball, and the ball in golf is farther from the line of sight than in any other game except polo, where both ball and stick are much larger than in golf.

However, the fact cannot be gainsaid: golf is the only sport that cannot produce left-handed champions. I have said that it may be that the master eye is put in the wrong position. There is another possible reason. Left-handed people are frequently eccentric, or perhaps I may say erratic. It is possible that left-handers lapk the golf temperament. It may be so. I cannot say. I state the facts and leave the solution of the problem to the scientists.

IT has been most seriously contended for ages that the left hand of the right-handed golfer is the master hand. Now, if that is so, surely the natural left-hander has a wonderful advantage over his right-handed brother. Will ayone tell me then why the left-hander invariably sacrifies this alleged advantage, buys himself a set of left-handed clubs and puts the poor despised right in a position which he insists is that of power and command. If what one is told about the left in golf is true, then left-handers are born with a big advantage over right-handers. If so, why are they so ready to sacrifice it ?

I have never yet seen a one-armed left-handed player, but if anyone can produce such a person, who plays his game back-handed—just as the normal golfer uses his left—I shall be prepared to back Louis Martucci against him for anything that may be within my modest means.

TO misuse a word slightly, the "dexterity" of left-handers in all sports is proverbial. In many cases they seem to have an almost uncanny faculty for games. Everyone knows what Norman Brookes can do at tennis. He is also a golfer of almost championship calibre, and would no doubt have been a champion had he given it as much attention as he has tennis. He is a cricketer of such ability that some say he could have made the Australian team had he tried to do so. It is also true that he invited the Victorian croquet champion to week end with him just after he had won his tennis title and severely trounced him at that game.

In the old days the grip of the golf club was what is called the "two V" grip, in other words it was a natural, two-handed grip. The greatest golfers in the world played with this grip, and played with it right handed. Two very famous players, John Ball and Harold H. Hilton, still retain this grip, but another distinguished amateur, E. Blackwell, first introduced what is now called the overlapping grip. This consists of overlapping the first finger of the left hand with the little finger of the right hand while the thumb of the left hand nestles at the base of the ball of the right hand.

Continued on page 130

Continued from page 128

There is no doubt that this is a very good grip. Those, who can use it, will have none of the old two-handed grip, for the modern hold brings the two wrists more together and contributes more materially to the rhythm of the swing than does the old method of gripping.

It was Vardon who made this grip famous. He found that it suited him exactly, and soon the world of golf was following his lead and using the "Vardon grip." Practically all the leading professionals of the world now use it, and Braid, Taylor and Vardon have won, between them, sixteen open championships with it. But the danger of this grip is that it undoubtedly interferes with the power of the right arm and hand; indeed, those who use it claim as one of its virtues that it prevents one getting "too much right" into the stroke.

IF one is hitting correctly it is impossible to get too much right into the stroke. These great golfers forget the steel-like texture of their muscles, trained through long years of practice to one exercise of gripping and swinging the club. Vardon's hands are almost half as large again as the hands of an ordinary golfer, and probably three times as strong. What suits him may not suit a weaker man; indeed, we have the case of the famous little Stoke Pogis player, James Sherlock, who will not use the Vardon grip because he insists that his wrists, arms and hands are too small and weak.

For the same reason the Vardon grip is utterly unsuitable for ninety women out of every hundred that use it. They have not the requisite strength 10 spare—or rather to waste. There can, however, be no question of the value of making the two wrists work as much as possible as Louis Martucci's wrist works in his short game—that is, like one joint. The same thing is, of course, desirable in the long game, but there other considerations that need not now trouble us, come in.

NOW, one should not condemn existing institutions without having something better to offer. The fact that all these famous golfers use the Vardon grip and win with it does not prove that it is the best grip conceivable. Before the Vardon grip came in, all the famous golfers were using the old double V grip and winning with it. So, in due course, I believe that they will use and win with a new grip that is bound, in my opinion, to supersede the Vardon grip, at first with women, and later on with men.

The difference between this grip that I am trying to introduce and the Vardon grip is that my grip, if I may so call it, does not interfere with the power of the right. I make the overlap by allowing the forefinger of the left to ride on, or overlap, the little finger of the right. The thumb of the left hand goes into the palm of the right as in the ordinary Vardon overlap.

I AM convinced that this grip is superior to the ordinary overlap for women and for all men with small or weak hands I believe that in due course the larger and stronger players will follow the lead, for—properly used—it prevents one of the greatest vices in the game, that is overswinging, to which the Vardon grip invariably tends.

If one holds tight with the right all the time—with my new grip—one cannot overswing. If one opens up with the right at the top of the swing with the Vardon grip, as one is so often told to do, overswing is almost certain to result.

IF anyone has any lingering conviction of the correctness of easing up with the right at the top of the swing let him get Martucci to drive a few balls for him and watch the vice-like grip of the club that he persists in at that time.

There is another aspect of Martucci's game that should not be overlooked by two-handed golfers. Look at the wonderful development of his arm since the full strain of golf fell entirely on it. What, may I ask, does the ordinary golfer do to train? Practically nothing, except to play golf. I suggest that a golfer might profitably order a driver two or three times as heavy as the ordinary wooden club, and do the Louis Martucci stroke with his right arm only for ten minutes every morning, aiming at a spot on his carpet, let us say. Then he will b.e training for golf. Then he will not be -neglecting his right!