The Gist of Golf

“A great deal of unnecessarily bad golf is played in this world,” the great Harry Vardon begins this classic. “The people who go on playing it, year in and year out, with unquenchable hope and enthusiasm, constitute the game’s mainstay, for their zeal is complete, and zeal that remains unabated in the face of long-sustained adversity is the most powerful constituent in the whole fabric of a prosperous pastime. 


All the same, these chronic sufferers from foozling would like to play better than they do. And they could play better. There is no reason why a physically sound individual, who takes up the game before old age with the determination to succeed at it, should fail to develop form justifying a tolerably low handicap—say, 5 or 6. After that, everything must depend upon the person’s inborn faculties as a golfer. As a rule, it is some very simple error of ways that retards progress; an error that becomes more or less perpetuated in the system.” 


This book contains the following chapters: 


I. The Driving Swing, With Some Advice Concerning Clubs and the Grip 

II. How to Use the Cleek, With Some Advice on Alternative Clubs 

III. How to Use the Mid-Iron, With Some Hints on Different Shots for Different Lies 

IV. How to Use the Niblick, With Some Autobiographical Notes 

V. How to Use the Mashie, With Hints on Practising and Some Adventures 

VI. A Study of Putting, and the Method That Succeeds