IS GOLF A WINTER GAME?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 201, 26 August 1935, Page 6

IS GOLF A WINTER GAME?

(By GUTTER-PERCHER.)

Living as we do in the Antipodes, we have acquired many antipodean habits. We celebrate Easter, "the festival of springtime, in the autumn. We wear heavy woollen clothes in the full heat of summer. And not the least of our eccentricities is the playing of golf in the winter time. The suggestion of golf as & winter game would astound the Englishman; and the Scotsman would need restoratives. Granted that our winter is considerably better than the European one (a difficult point to grant this winter), why is it that we do not follow the established custom of the countries where golf was born and grew up? I suspect that the explanation lies in the fact that the people who joined golf clubs in New Zealand twenty years ago (in the days when one hesitated to walk down the street in golfing clothes fear of the small boys) were mainly tennis players. In order to exist at all the golf clubs had to meet their convenience. And since it was obviously impossible to play lawn tennis in the winter months, whereas golf was at least a practical proposition, the apportionment of the seasons took place in accordance. To-day, however, the situation is different. There are so many golfers that there is no fear of the game dying out for lack of support. And one begins to wonder when some strong and original mind will take notice of our eccentricity in this matter, and lead a movement in favour of summer golf. Of all the winters in recent years, this present one would lend strongest support to his case. Now, in short, is the psychological moment. Week-end after week-end of soggy going, or "no play," have made tho players restive. Lest one should be thought to be conspiring against the happiness of people who want to play both games, let it be pointed out that there would be no need to encroach unduly on the present tennis season, were golf made an official summer game. The middle of the summer is admittedly too hot for comfortable jrolf. The season for competitions, the official season, could easily be broken into two parts; from, say, the middle of October till the end of December, and from the middle of February until the end of April. This would provide a welcome break, which would leave room for tennis for those who play both games.