Free advice from a golfing legend

If you want good advice about the game of golf but don't want to pay for it, you can either prowl the Interwebs for blogs that offer same, or you can wait 100 years to hear from the experts.

Note the form! The grace!
The jacket and knickers!

Harry Vardon, who won the British Open a bunch of times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, wrote a book about this exasperating sport in 1905, complete with his own tales of mastery, instructions on driving, putting, etc. and illustrations to help the novice golfer pick up the game. In the United States, the copyright has expired, so the good folks at Project Gutenberg have made "The Complete Golfer" available for free online.

As a historic tome, it's a fun read. But how useful is the advice of a long-dead golfer, even one who was the best of his time? Pretty useful, if you discount Vardon's frequent use of terms like "mashie" and "niblick," the definitions of which I have yet to divine. Golf is an old sport, and some traditions of the game stand the test of time — though thankfully not its shameful heritage of exclusivity and sexism.

So here are some tips to improve your golf game, from the immortal words of Harry Vardon, followed by some advice that's, well, a bit out of date:

"Always make an effort to improve your game, and do not content yourself with the idea that you go out on the links for the exercise only. It is no more difficult or less pleasant trying to play better than it is to go on continually in the same old way."

 "Do not be tempted to invest in a sample of each new golfing invention as soon as it makes its appearance. If you do you will only complicate and spoil your game and encumber your locker with much useless rubbish. Of course some new inventions are good, but it is usually best to wait a little while to see whether any considerable section of the golfing public approves of them before rushing to a shop to order one."

"Never hurry when playing a match or a medal round, or indeed any kind of golf. Haste will affect your nerves and spoil your play. The record for playing a round in the shortest possible space of time is not worth the holding. Take time enough, but don't be unnecessarily slow."

All solid advice. As for fashion, let's just say Harry was a product of his time:

"Always use braces in preference to a belt round the waist. I never play with a belt. Braces seem to hold the shoulders together just as they ought to be. When a man plays in a belt he has an unaccustomed sense of looseness, and his shoulders are too much beyond control. It is a mistake to imagine you can swing better with a belt than with braces. For the same reason I do not advise a golfer to play without his coat, even on the warmest day, if he wants to play his best game." 

"If your eyesight is not good and you are obliged to resort to artificial aids when playing the game, wear spectacles rather than eye-glasses, and specially made sporting spectacles in preference to any others."

 "Don't play too much golf if you want to get on in the game. Three rounds a day are too much for any man, and if he makes a practice of playing them whenever he has the opportunity, his game is sure to suffer. He often says that his third round is the best of the day. But what about the first next morning? Two rounds a day are enough, and these two rounds on three days of the week are as much golf as is good for any player who does not want to become careless and stale."

Now, can someone please explain the difference between a niblick and a mashie?