GOLF.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 299, 16 December 1911, Page 16

GOLF.

Reviewing the play of the season at Home, Mr Harold HUton (amateur champion of Great Britain and America) speaks in high terms of the play of the Australian champion (the Hon. M. Scott). Mr Hilton says:—"One of the features of the autumn golfing season has been the form shown by the Hon. Michael Scott. In comparison with his two brothers, who are so well known in connection with British golf, the Australian champion has a swing which one would be inclined to term stiff and restricted, and on first sight :t docß not impress one; but he hits the ball with sufficient force to send it a very long way. His iron play >s the iorte of his game, and he has the gift of playin" a low iron shot against the wind which i» worthy of the most exalted of the worthy professors, and the distance he attains with what appears little more than a flick of the wrist is extraordinary." An opinion like this, from bo able a judge and exponent of the game as Mr Hilton, shows that Scott's " play has created a most favourable impression in England. It is stated that it is Scotts intention to stay in England for the next amateur championship. Mr H. H. HHton (Royal Liverpool.) has written his experiences while in the States in the current issue of the CkiU Monthly," of which he is the editor. "Since arriving back from America, ho saya, "1 have been regaled with various accounts of the reports which appeared at various times in the British Press, with regard to the behaviour of the crowd during the championship week in America, and I can only say that in the majority of these - cases the conduct of the gallery at the American championship has been very much maligned, as although they certainly exhibited a power of demonstration which was a little foreign to one who has been brought up in British golfing circles, still it was in no way offensive, and after all the excitement and bustle was over, they took the loss of their Championship Crip like true sportsmen. "The difficulty with the American nation in connection with sport is that they run patriotism to Birch extreme lengths, and the Press do all they can to fan the spirit of nationalism, and any One who does not 'root,' as they term it, for America, is immediately suspected of disloyalty to hJ3 country, i received fair play in America from be"inning to end of the piece, and, from my experience, a visitor may never be afraid of receiving anything else. "In the American championship," continues Mr. Hilton, "the? have a peculiar and, according to British ideas, a somewhat l*x method of conducting the match-play part of the event, as in plac* of having a stern and implacable rule as to the sime each couple have to start their match, they allow them to make their own aTransements as to commencing the battle, there being, however, an understanding that tbey must not defer their time of starting until such a time as will seriously interfere with the play for the next round.

"The use of the megaphone," he continues, "as a mean 3 by which to control the Crowd has been the cause of a pood deal of fun poked at out 'AYwerican cousins, and to British ideas the Use of the speaking instrument on « golf coutse must seem a little odd. But personally I am always willing to live a.n-3 learn, and I learned something in Amerlea. and il was that the use of a megaphone is a very uw»ful adjunct in the ma.Tifl.!rßment of a golfing crowd."

Mr. Hilton says that the maioritv of the prodti amateur platers in the States ate rety. vety young, and ft is in this the hope of American golf lies.