GOLF.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17936, 3 December 1923, Page 11

GOLF.

' —-- fo-- | NOTES OF THE DAY. (By "Jigger.""' FIXTURES. Decent 25, 27, and 2!^ Op£ Tournament at bhirlev L'.c.xe. church. ■ December 31 and Jontiary I Year's Open Tournament at ba.iEiu.. »<" iinka, Dncecrlii. Wednesday is a ladies-' day at during the Summer. The "Four o'Clock" matches are scheduled to start on Wednesday. December sth at the Harcwood links. A curiosity of the Broxbounie tournament was the play of F. H. Frosr.ck, of St. George's Hill, who in his firstround broke the Tecord with a 63. «.nd then took 84 for the second round and failed to qualify. Entries are being received for the Christmas open tournament at. bWriej, and from the keen interest being shown there is no doubt but that there will be a large attendance and that the who e meeting will go off successfully, lne events are open to both ladies and me p> and in the Christmas Handicap separate prizes are offered for the winner and the runner-up among the men and tne winner and the runner-up among tne ladies. J

Broken Hill golfers are the longest hitters in Australia. Incidentally Jic course is as hard as concrete. As t © fairways contain not :i vestige of g ras ;j drives of 400 yards axe o common occurrence. The prevailing hazards are heaps of old kerosene tins and a golfer is never in doubt as to whether he is "bunkered" or not. ® can always hear it happening. Approaching calls for great nicety ° judgment. A. P. Cohen, the club champion, has solved the problem by using his putter from 20 yards downwards.

On the golf links of Kashmir some of the players are using 1 little swcarwlieels/ When a player badly misses a shot (says "Sporting and Dramatic") he takes the wheel hurriedly from his caddie and violently turn 3 it round.

A sensation was created among golfers tvben a Fremantle lad proved successful in the open golf championship of West Australia, and also tho championeship of the Fremantle Goif Club. They were the first tournaments in which he had entered. The new champion, who is not yet 17 years of age, was at one time a caddy on the Fremantle links. He learned all he knows about golf by watching the adults play, and taking advantage of every opportunity to get in a round or two for himself.

Miss Phyllis Read, of Warplesdon, put up a fine performance in the ladies 1 gold vase competition which was held at West Hill. Her morning round of 75 was a ladies' record for the course, and though Mis Patey broke that again with a 74 in the afternoon, Miss Read's second round of 76 and aggregate of 151 sufficed to* win th a trophy by six clear strokes.

"Baffy," in the Wellington "Post," writes: —Apart from the question of the supply ai professionals in New Zealand—a matter that lias already been dealt with at various times in the past few months in this column —there is a growing need for the committees of the various clubs who employ professioAls to consider just how they are going to obtain the best results from employing such men. There is barely a club in New Zealand that can afford to employ a professional merely as a coach. Some, of them can, . perhaps, afford financially to pay a retainer to a professional, but there is not a club in this country; which can afford to' regard casually the expert advice that is at its disposal for a moderate sum. Yet most of the clubs at the moment are taking that attitude. Without taking into consideration. the financial point of view of the professional, can it be asserted that the clubs are getting the value they should from their professionals? In nine cases out of ten it can be asserted that the clubs are not —of course they could not get lvalue without paying for it, and they appear.to. be under the impressios that the professional has nothing worth paying for, apart from his ability as a coach. The case which prompted me to bring forward this matter recently occurred in a South Island club. According to my information the professional was receiving a retainer of £3 weekly. The committee decided to appoint a head greenkeeper, and the price offered was £6. On his appointment the £3 man wris dropped £l. The professional had been associated with another professional in redesigning the course, and understood all that was to have been done. Apart from that he was probably quite capable of doing the redesigning himself, and put- 1 ting the alterations into effect. Result: One green which was specially designed may now resemble a billiard table, but it certainly has few pretensions to being a putting green. The trouble is that people will not realise that a properly qualified professional is more than a coach. He knows what a golf course shnuld be, and what a putting green should 'be, and how they should be looked after. As a general rule he knows as much about- keeping greens as a greenkeeper, and the greenkeepeTS here are almost without exception only greenksepers. Many of them do not aspire to that ranking. They know little, if anything, about golf courses. But the position ends there. The clubs are content to carry on with lack of supervision and without advice —often because a member thinks he knows better than anyone else what should be done. A change is gradually becoming evident, but it is moving very slowly. The position summed up in as few words as possible is that the committees would be well advised to consider using their professionals —provided the professional is qualified to that extent —for a few hours daily or weekly to supervise their courses, set the work for the men employed and nee that they do it, and to bring alout gradual improvements and reformations. This would involve a higher remuneration to the man employed, but the clubs would generally get more than the benefit of the extra amount it would cost them; their men would tie employed on a more comprehensive programme, and the work would gain because of systematic arrangement, while the knowledge of the professionals in this direction wonfS be used to the benefit of all concerned instead of being allowed to remain in the professional's head as it does now.

A LIGHTER GOLF BALL. CURTAILING THE DRIVE. LONDON, November 35. A oontrovezay has o]>ened regarding the American proposal to eiajsdaxdise the lighter golf ball, which weighs 27.7 pennyweights, without altering tho site of the ball. Tho present standard weigiht is 29.5 pennyweights. Experts express the opinion that tha reduction of weight would curtail the a^erag® (Ceattaaed at foot of next colaaa.)

drive against the wind by 20j»ds. American authorities declare th&t the present ball permits of long driving, but abolishes many intermediate shots. The rules committee has cabled to Amer ica, stating that it is watching the experiments with interest, and will await results; bui that, though it agrees that -nniformity between Britain and America is important, it desires to give' manufacturers of golf balls ample notice of any change. The committee welcomes the intimation that America agrees that grooved, slotted, and punched be illfigaL