The Complete Golfer

Harry Vardon was Open champion four times over and holder of the American title when Methuen published this in June 1905, and he writes with the plain authority of a man explaining how he does it. Twenty-three chapters cover the choice and care of clubs, the grip and the swing, play with the brassy, spoon, cleek and mashie, escaping bunkers, and the difference between a simple putt and a complicated one. Sixty-six illustrations, prepared from photographs of Vardon himself on the Totteridge links, show each position. He also takes up competition play, foursomes, golf for ladies, course construction and caddies, and folds in memoir: a Grouville boyhood in Jersey, his matches with Willie Park and J.H. Taylor, and a tour of America. The overlapping grip that carries his name is still the standard hold.