In those early days when Harry Vardon was our pattern, we strove primarily for accuracy. We were content to get a hole in par, because par was usually good enough to win. Yet as the quality of opponents shifted, into the game of golf just as into baseball, came the era of sluggers . . .and the sensation boys. It's a sure bet that if enough of the sluggers are out there trying to make the longest drives and hitting every second shot directly for the flag, two or three or even four are bound to make it pay off and come up with amazingly low scores.

Shortly the entire field of golfers realized that winning a championship meant taking risks or letting the golfers who take the gamble walk off with the titles and the cash. And it's an odd fact that even though they gamble they don't always win but they force the type of play, until everybody is taking desperate chances in order to pull off a miracle. In my early competitive career a man took chances of that sort only when he was behind and the holes were disappearing fast. And believe me, even then we could string up a nice line of birdies if we were forced to do so.

Walter Hagen. From The Walter Hagen Story by The Haig Himself. Vintage Publishing Co., 2000. Reprinted without permission

The Golfer's Ten Commandments
Royal and Ancient
Into the Bear Pit