FANTASTIC GOLF.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18545, 21 November 1925, Page 13

FANTASTIC GOLF.

Fashions in putting ! GREENS. | I TRICKS AND TERRORS. | (skcullt warm* to* "m rsass-") j (Br Hjlrrt Vaedox.) Most golfers agree that flat, featureless putting greens are tl>© dullest things in the game. Tho majority arc equally satisfied that fantastic green*, with ridges and hollows running »** every conceivable direction and hump* here and there to divert many a trulystruck ball from tho line, have no equals as irritants. It is not «asy to describe tho exact stago at which sporting reasonableness ends and eccentricity begins, but most of us know it when wo see it. Truo it is that there are fashion* in golf-green architecture just as there are in many other affairs of life. In this connexion, I havo in my scrapbook some illuminating comment* made by Mr 11. S. Colt concerning the St. George's Hill course. Wey bridge, of which he was the designer. At tho timo of its opening, M. George's Hill—a course of natural charms, far above the ordinary—was roundly condemned because of the puxsliug slopes on and around its putting greens. Indeed, opiriibn was so strongly against these features that changes had to bo mado so as to render the short gamo loss distracting. Plainly this outcry came as a surprise to Mr Colt, in spite of all his exporionc© of links-architecture, for. writing seven years after he had designed tho course —a period lons enough to ensure matured reßection* —he said: "I was extremely proud cf my share of tho work, and thouehv that this particular dub probably would do me more good by way an advertisement than any other scawu* that I had been connected with; out as frequently happens, the oftfcipsctet turned up. Although the course* w** favourably criticised in all the leading papers of the day, there was an outcry about the difficulties of some of the' greens. I had —no doubt, foolishly—left natural site 6 with rather steap gradients in parts, as I was '*fv loth to alter the easy lines which Nature had provided. No doubt a m«UW was made and I admitted it, and alteiv ed a few of the greens during tho following two or three months at wy slight expense, but until more or Wto receptlv this course, I' suppose, did lis more harm than good, and I through hitter experience. I know full well that ultimately the heantow of the surroundings and the qualify of the golf would appeal to the and am glad fo say that now this «*. so. ... 'lt is extraordinary now opinions change from time to time on too wb* ject of putting greens. For a f*w years you will see in the Preas WWW but criticism of dull, flat greens, and then someone will come forward make undulated greens which will a* highly approved of for a period. Tsj# there will he an outcry against M difficulties of putting. In fact. «* course-construction work there !*• fashions, and the club possessing "f* latest creation is as proitd of it #• th» ladv who possesses tho most recall** Parisian frock." Balancing Acts. It is very interesting to have this frank declaration by Mr Colt- X to. not think that it was he who started the craze for putting greens of whimsical design. It had asserted itself at Coombe Hill, for instance, a fall JN*r ■ earlier. .In due course it gave there to rational ideas, and If B*. George's Hill still has some dips a*< ,j rises that give even a good patter furiously to think, I an not sure tint • well-played putt would even fail - to finish dead through the character ef the green. It might be fair to say of it as eao/. can say of many another eoane—ttal • the runs up to some of the Jbokw **w, well worth knowing, and that iMtl players therefore enjoy an advantage i when they oppose visitors. 8tHl» tha only way in which perfeet equity wril be secured for strangers ia thsfe matches with people possessed of load; knowledge would be for patting green; and the ground immediately ia ftlst of them to be virtually leveL Ami that wonld introduce an intolerable gree of dullness for everybody. Nobody objects to the vdkiiiiiii succession of rises and dipewhith'WfH'; not divert a properly stride tell- frsi its line to the hole. Then tho ptqwr has to think hard as to how th* hafi will take the slopes without beiag Vfe* tracted by the fear that it KW wtt " take the lot properly beeauae of tlMrtaf i terferenee of a perplexing hillock or % , narrow "hog's back" aowewhtf* itr the straight path to the hole. Tho est putter in the world would mtl eqfe ;• to back himself to urge the ball ajaiMf '- a "hog's back" ia the middle of thoputt and make it drop off to tako » f slope or two before arriving at tho holeside. ! Putting is interesting enough when'' only the waves of the green have to V* considered. When it becomes *be A balancing act, it is a tomcat. T«t this is the test to which there has heat at times a tendency to submit gclfeca. There is another form of terraL It is the putting green which any haatoV: two utterly different fatea apoa approaches of almost identical merit. A hole which I have in miad illustrate* it. A small but none the less definite valley, running at right angles to thr Bar* begins about seven yards from the pin. A difference of an ineh or two ia the places at which two shots pitch may mean tbat while one finishes cteae -to the hole the other trails off dews the valley and trickles into a banker. We all know that perfect justice weald he .the greatest bore imaginable, even if it could be introduced into golf. Bat the finest golfer is so mach of a jaggfer that he can tell to within two inches where his ball is going to pitch, a»4 when the player knows that he has hit the shot wclC it is very trying to see the ball turned aside by a malformation. Importance of Position. As regards patting pare and simple ■ and wc do not want it to be too simple —a great deal depends upon the positions in which the holes are eat. I faaey tbat some of the criticism .which map heaped upon St. George's Bill at its inception arose from the faet that the holes were cut on fairly steep gradients that made a downhill putt a horror. The desire to pereh the hole en a ridge, where you putt uphill with the knowledge that the ball will ran dorakllt if it gets to the top and misses the tie, is still strong in some plaees. So is the penchant for catting the hole on a slope, where in dry weather the most tenderly trickled ball runs eat of holing distance when it misses the hole. This occurs to one as toiag aa artificial way of making the game exciting—for onlookers. The real art of patting is to lay the long patt dead—not to hole it, although that is very aire if it can be done. There arc people who say that good golfers ought to be able to ovetvaaw any difficulty, that they must lean new - shots in order to grapple with new problems. But that sentiment ■»*ht be continued indefinitely until the goad players west down upon their kodjA knees and prayed for tho vUiauiqpfc, i ;