FIELD OF SPORT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 286, 14 September 1933, Page 2

FIELD OF SPORT.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. (By “Onlooker.”) ' Next Saturday the second qualifying round of the Senior and Junior Championship will be held.. There was a proposal afoot to postpone this round till the following Saturday, hut the Match Committee was quite right m adhering to the original date. The re-

suit in the Senior Championship should bo interesting, as five or six of the players to qualify look certainties, but there should be a keen contest for the , other three places. A great many players found the greens very tricky, and several experienced players took four putts on a green. . ' When fresh holes are made in a green the edges should be banged down with a fiat tool, as otherwise when the hole digger is taken out of the ground it raises the edges and a ball is liable to turn when going straight into the hole. The rain which has fallen should slow up the course a great deal and bring on the grass on the greens so that next Saturday a different style of ( golf .will be required, and players are advised to play for past the pin all the time, especially in chip shots from off the edge of tho green into the pin. The average fault lies in playing the ball short, due to the player looking lip. The head must be kept down till after the ball has left the clubhead and follow through, and this will help to keep the ball straight. On the 24th September the annual contest for the Norton .Francis Cup.' will take place at Shirley. The following will represent the Ashburton Club:—J. T. Smith, W. P. Anderson, E. A. Coekroft, and V. W. Russell. ' During the next week-end the teams from the Rakaia and Methven Clubs will play a match against the local club. Twenty-four players will be required from the local club. Rule 10—Removal of irregularities of surface: In playing through the green, irregularities of surface which could in any way affect the player's stroke shall not be removed nor pressed down by the player, his partner, or either of their caddies; a player is, > however, always entitled to place his feet firmly on. the ground when taking his stance. Penalty in stroke play—2 strokes; in match play loss of hole. A divot, if detached, may be treated as > a loose impediment, but if it-is adhering to the ground nothing may be done to improve the lie of the ball. Rule 15—Before striking at a ball in play, a player shall not move, bend, nor break anything fixed or growing, except so far as is necessary to enable: him fairly to take his stance in ad- . dressing the ball or in making his backward or forward swing. The club may only be grounded lightly, and not pressed on the ground. Penalty: Loss of hole and two strokes. If a ball lie in fog, bent bushes, long grass or the like, only so much thereof shall be , touched as will enable the player to ' ; find the ball. A player is not entitled to a sight of his ball when addressing ; it, but only to remove long grass, etc., sufficiently to enable him 'to find' it. A player whose ball lay in long grass contended that, as he could not see the ground behind the ball owing to the long grass; he had the right to feel , with his hand to ascertain what it was like,, provided that he did not improve the lie; but he was penalised under Rule 15 for doing so. If a player or his caddie when searching for an opponent's ball accidentally touch or move it, no penalty shall be incurred, and the ball it played shall be replaced. If a player or his caddie touch his ball (except in the address) or move it accidentally (except before a stroke has been played at a teeing ground) while searching for it or otherwise, the penalty is one stroke, and the ball must then be played where it lies. This applies to a ball accidentally trodden on by a player or bis caddie, whether the ball be moved or, not. The ball must not he replaced, eyen if accidentally knocked into the hole, but the movement counts as a stroke. When the ball lies in or touches a hazard, it is illegal to ground a club in any part of the hazard or to test the consistency of the sand or soil, or the strength of the grass, in the hazard, even though the player has not. taken his stance and has no intention of improving the lie of the ball. Neither I may a player touch water in a hazard in making his back swing, or press aside the branches of a bush to obtain a free shot at a ball except in the act of firmly placing his feet on the ground for the purpose of fairly taking his stance in addressing the ball or in the back or forward swing, or in searching for the ball, but if a player's club strike the side of a bunker in ascertaining whether there is room to swing he is not penalised provided the actual stroke is not thereby made easier.