Some Queer Shots From The Game Of Golf

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 99, 28 April 1945, Page 17

Some Queer Shots From The Game Of Golf

fST look at these photographs. One fellow seems to be bird nesting; another seems to have a caddie helping him to sit up the trunk of a tree; another seems to be scraping something away from the bottom of a fence—the only one who appears to be playing a real golf shot 5s Alfred Padgham, «nd he is recovering from the blooming heather which is well over ankle deep.

By HENRY COTTON

Golf balls get at times in funny places, as most of you know, and on looking at the game of golf quite objectively I- suppose there is no reason why they should not, for, after all, the country the game is played over is chosen for its broken nature. Sand dunes, quarries, heather, rocks, trees, whins, rushes and so on, and even the straightest of players can and do "iet one slip." Then if they are unlucky following this slip they can find the ball in an unplayable spot. No golfer, however poor in skill, likes to add penalty strokes to his score by admitting his ball is unplayable. It does run this way, though, and the poor player often thinks his ball is playable when it is not, and it costs him a few more strokes to find this out. The "champs" become "champs" because they know when to. say "it is on" and when "it is not on" and cut their losses.

In these photographs you can see in one Jim Ferrier, up a tree, trying to dislodge his ball, which has stuck in a crotch of the tree. I imagine he only went up the tree to see if the ball was get-at-able at all and so to save a shot. It was in the tournament where Nelson beat him into second place by one stroke and there go two strokes. Tough, I call it! It is very hard luck.when a ball stays up a tree. If his ball had dropped to the ground under the tree and not behind the trunk, he would have possibly not dropped any strokes —as it was, it meant going back and playing two more—and to lose by one after that is enough to brown anyone off. Golf is like that.

As the old golf philosopher would say: "Trees are not invisible, and if you see one there and go into it, well, whom can you blame but yourself?"

Can Caddie Help? The other golfer sitting on his caddie's feet and getting into quite a good position to play a normal righthanded shot is Tommy Goodwin, an Arnerican golfer. He played the ball out well, better than he could hope to do any other way except possibly with a left-handed club.

I am not quite sure about the caddie's help being "legal"—in fact, I was just trying to think if it would not be possible to get my caddie to help me out on occasions. I was thinking of a very gusty and windy day on the putting green, when I would be swaying slightly, I might get my caddie to prop himself against me to act as a sort of support—he need not shelter me from the wind— or when I was waiting to play a long shot 'from a very steep bank with the ball above me the caddie could so arrange himself for 'me to lean back more, and in this way get further from the ball and be able to put more power into the shot. . Those of you who play to the rules —and I hope you all do—would hardly pass this, would you? Would you let your opponent get away with it, but what rule would you quote? What penalty, if any? ; 1 Heather A Tricky Hazard Alfred Padgham is playing out of the real Walton Heath heather, and, by the look of it, in full bloom. He had a decent lie, too, for he has taken a No. 5, and as there is no sign of forcing the shot, it would appear he has played only a half-shotrfor some particular reason. Heather is a fine hazard, but it can be very unfair. It can be either "a sp.obn or a No. S" from the same bad shot, and if you get more No. 8 lies than teed-up balls, then you will get beaten. At Walton Heath where there are two of the best tests of golf in the country—inland or seaside —the best player wins more often than not, but I have seen some terrible shots miles off the line finish on little grass paths -in the

it JIM FERRIER INVESTIGATES —The ex-Australian, playing in the San Francisco Open last December, hit a ball into this, tree at the sixteenth hole in the last round. This cost him the championship, Byron Nelson ' beating him by one stroke.

middle of shocking heather, and wonderful shots just trickle off the course into impossible positions. The' other golfer is burly James Adams, seen up "against the rails." He tried to hook the ball out, but it was in a bad lie and it took him three shots to move it. If the ball had been two feet to the right where the grass is shorter, he certainly could have played it easier, and he could perhaps hav,e banged it up against the fenee and let it rebound on to the fairway. His failure on this occasion must have made him feel mad at himself for misjudging the whole position, for such an error can easily cost a championship title. If a ball is lying very close to such a fence and not badly, I would stand with my back to the direction I want to go' and hit the ball, as it were, behind me. I find that from such a stance I can keep my club from hitting the fence as my swing becomes a sort of scything action. I do not say "It would' have been the best way to play this shot, I would want to see v'the lie before deciding, but I do hot like the look of Adams' stance. Do you?

He can't cut across the ball, for the obvious. reason the fence is in the way; he must use a swing which com£s round his right hip and his hip is well forward—really in the way—so I feel it might be fairly said he was tackling this shot wrongly.

This is only my opinion. Jimmy is a most experienced player and circumstances decide everything, anyway. • v