The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Complete Golfer [1905], by Harry Vardon

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Title: The Complete Golfer [1905]

Author: Harry Vardon

Release Date: February 17, 2009 [EBook #28107]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE COMPLETE GOLFER

THE
COMPLETE GOLFER

BY
HARRY VARDON

OPEN CHAMPION, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903
AMERICAN CHAMPION, 1900

WITH SIXTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS

SECOND EDITION

METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON

_First Published June 1905_

_Second Edition June 1905_

PREFACE

Many times I have been strongly advised to write a book on golf, and now
I offer a volume to the great and increasing public who are devoted to
the game. So far as the instructional part of the book is concerned, I
may say that, while I have had the needs of the novice constantly in
mind, and have endeavoured to the best of my ability to put him on the
right road to success, I have also presented the full fruits of my
experience in regard to the fine points of the game, so that what I have
written may be of advantage to improving golfers of all degrees of
skill. There are some things in golf which cannot be explained in
writing, or for the matter of that even by practical demonstration on
the links. They come to the golfer only through instinct and experience.
But I am far from believing that, as is so often said, a player can
learn next to nothing from a book. If he goes about his golf in the
proper manner he can learn very much indeed. The services of a competent
tutor will be as necessary to him as ever, and I must not be understood
to suggest that this work can to any extent take the place of that
compulsory and most invaluable tuition. On the other hand, it is next to
impossible for a tutor to tell a pupil on the links everything about any
particular stroke while he is playing it, and if he could it would not
be remembered. Therefore I hope and think that, in conjunction with