INTER-TEAM GOLF.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18942, 5 March 1927, Page 13

INTER-TEAM GOLF.

HOW ITS VALUE MIGHT BE INCREASED. (SrECUU.T WRITTEN IO» THR (l>v Harry Yardon, Six Times Open Champion.) A definite and general appreciation of the fact that the team spirit can oxi«t in golf may bo regarded, I think, ns one of the most notnble phases of current thought on the links. As a widospread sentiment it is new. At o»« time —and that not many years ago —a team match at golf was held to ba lacking in all tho proper elements of a struggle between sides, however enjoyable it might be as a social gathering. Nothing could conceal tho cireumstnneo that it consisted of a certain number of individual games, each contested on its own merits. At the finish you might add up the points gained by each side, but that process did not make either side into a team in the true sense of "the Tvoni.

Tho old condition is unalterable in golf, b-.it several events—as, for example, the Oxford and Cambridge match, the Public Schools Old Boys' tourinincut and the Army inter-regimental championship—have shown th&t the spirit of playing for the side can lie so strong as almost to obliterate the individual element which is an inborn and natural trait of golf. Thus it is that the team match is taking upon itself a now glory, horn of a realisation of the fact that it can bo true to its name. Eveu Mr John L. Low, n keen supportor of this form of rivalry, used to. say, I am told, that nobody could introduce tho real team spirit into golf. It was for this reason that hj led tho crusado which ended in the abolition of the old system of each couple playing out to the bitter end in team matches, and counting the number of holes up at the finish of tho day. He contended that golf was so individual a game that nobody jtos Interested in anything but winning or losing hi* own match, and that tho aggregating of holes up was spurious and foreign to tho game. There wero pcoplo who thought that tho team which possessed a particularly brilliant player, capable of gaining, perhaps, nine holes for his side, de* aerved to reap the full advantage of his excellence, just as a team that had :i man who lost heart or became peevish in adversity, and to finished nine down, deserved to suffer for including hint.

An Essanti&l. These situations, which did occur front time to time, provided some of the attri- v butcs of team play. It enme to be accepted, however, that cncli game in & team match should count one point, no matter by what it might' bo won and lost, and time has that, even with this limitation of an individual's possibilities, the team spirit in golf con rise to heights worthy of tl\» .expression. Nevertheless, to bring it to the pitch at which it rings true from Upginning to end, one condition is indispensable. It is that the match WUft N between sMen which are natural rivals, npd which have legions an loyal, or bound by such ties, that a man playing for one* could not, or would not, play | for tho other if his very life depended upon it. When ibis state of affairs prevails, as it does in the Oxford and Cambrldg#. match, the Army Cup tournament", tin Public Schools Old Boys' tournament, and a few other events, the spirit of playing for tho aiile ifc 90 strong th#l. individuality is forgotten, s.ita 'Al'ft, means to an end. ' Intcr club golf is increasing in larity. For proof of that, one hM only to take noto of the growing numbers of team matches that are decided every : week. At the same time, it seetql tn* tho detached observer thdt ttlii farm 01.'' competition will never be marjcod by the r zest and rivalry which Wight to di* tingnish it so long as it is tho reeog* nised thing for anybody to play for ieveral clubs if he happens to bo a membcr of several.. ' . On the ground that golf is only a game, and that int«r-club matches i»re meant to provide pleasure ratbor than stern trials #f strength, .the procedure is perfectly justifiable; but these matches » would have so much more and would afford such excoUent.twin* ing for rising young «MraJpra*. if the identification of tn« gpjkf one club were as strong in golfj for .tn* purpose of iliter-team matches. 11 »t ; is in football, crlcjrtt, hockey) anathb like. Strength Without tyfftlfioitafc In some eases, it Is m. I do not think that Sir Ernest HolderM* 6v»r . plays for any club except Walton Heat|i>. while Mr B. H. Wothered Is identified solely with Worpjesdon. Kotfcing would do more to promoto the Standard of amateur golf than properly organised inter-, club tournaments la Loudon and other big centre#, with each club represented by eight or ten meta linked together by > the knowledge that they could play for that club onlr-r«t any rat#, » one season. ... It is the best feature of those, ev«tl. ; Which have mads good the « inter-team golf that, ** th «V?S can change his colours. Mr A. w. Uarry did, indeed, go tost to nnd later to Oxford, after winning the n»j» tenr championship, and so each University in turn; but that was dne, I believe, to a policy in regard to his education that arises only once *ow and agaip. In the Public Behoota' tournament, I do not supposo there is • single instance in which a golfer < could play for more than one school. That.is a condition which makos the tcam match a splendid means of developing the fighting spirit, and, with it, talent at the game.