Spirit of the links

THE ADVANTAGE OF IGNORANCE 169
and takes no count of the blades of grass or where
she ought to be looking at the much-talked-of
" moment of impact." She just putts, and down
goes the ball every time! It is wonderful, one of
the most wonderful things in sport that I have ever
seen ! Here she does that, and we others who know
so much about these things, cannot do them—at least,
not with the same certainty.
Here is another point. It may need only an
exceedingly delicate stroke to putt a ball properly,
yet if you take the clumsiest, horniest-handed labour-
ing man—say a road-mender or a railway navvy, who
had never either seen or heard of golf before—he
would never miss those three to five feet putts.
Again it is because he does not know how really
difficult they are. It is said that a mighty hunter of
great renown, a man who had bagged all the big
game of India in great variety, once declared in an
agony, " I have encountered all the manifold perils of
the jungle, I have tracked the huge elephant to his
retreat, and I have stood eye to eye with the man-
eating tiger." All of which was quite true—he had.
Then he added, "And never once have I trembled
until I came to a short putt."
I have thought the matter out, and I suggest the
reason. It is one of the prettiest points in psychology
that one will encounter in the whole of a long lifetime
of the most careful thought and study. You don't
really want any mind at all for putting purposes.
The whole thing is too simple, and instead of a mind
and brains being any use for the purpose in hand,
they are a positive disadvantage, and are continually
getting in the way.
I
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