GOLF.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 303, 20 December 1913, Page 16

GOLF.

They have a short and sharp way in America when a number of players tie for the last place in a qualifying round, and it is called "swattest." All the players drive off in succession from the first tee, and play the first hole, those doing the lowest scores up to the number of vacant places surviving, and the others dropping out. If there are still too many, the survivors go on and play the second hole, and so on till tbe proper number of survivors is reached. The scheme has certainly much to recommend it in the way of expedition.

Tbe British open championship at Sandwich next year will be made more than usually attractive, and will assume something of an international character, by the presence of Jerome Travers, who, at the age of 20, has been four times amateur champion of the United States. He has been called "The Wizard of American Golf." He is certainly a remarkable player. In spite of his eminence in tlie game, he cannot use a wooden .club. He drives with an iron, and the shot is generally notable for its length. The iron in question is said to be "the most famous on the American continent." It is a plain, straight-faced weapon, with a round back, and it weighs as much as lOoz. It has a long shaft, with a very rough leather grip, and history has placed it on record that it was forged at St. Andrews. It is kept permanently rusty, like the rest of his clubs. lie carries very few clubs— live irons, a putter,' a driver, and a brussie; but, as one critic observes, the two wooden clubs are merely there for the sake of appearances. For the rest,

"The Wizard of American Golf" is described as "a little man, with keen, sharp, thin features." There are club quidnuncs who hold that to drive with an iron is not "golf." and they ask what a driver is made for if it is not to drive with. There is not much in the argument, anyhow, and what there is is severely discounted by the consistent success of Travels.