Edited by Peter Ryde–a brilliant collection of Darwin
One of the inescapable charms of Darwin’s writings is his ability to see with the eyes of a child while thinking with the mind of a highly educated adult.
An Attack of Socketing is Darwin at his impish best. At worst, it is a story going nowhere; at best, it is a story that ends up where it began. Read how an attack of the “shanks” or “socketing” (when the ball goes dead right at impact for a right-handed player) can and does infect the average and best players.
Hogan at Carnoustie, the immortal James Braid, Ouimet at Brookline, Bobby Jones in quest of the Grand Slam and after his announced retirement: all are the subjects of wonderful pieces. However, the more obscure Darwin becomes in search of a topic, the better the results. Take When Slices were Slices, which contains no advice, although it is loosely about the six different types of slices Seymour Dunn describes in Standardised Golf Instruction. Sensitive of his reader’s game, Darwin avoids detailing the six slices “because to read a medical book is to invariably to believe that one has got every disease under the sun.”