MAKING GOLF AS ORDEAL.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19676, 20 July 1929, Page 13

MAKING GOLF AS ORDEAL.

TRIALS OF CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYERS. ,«raci*i*i wanm no* *■■ *ss*s* * i 37 Harsf Vardon, Six tumm Of** Champion.) In one reared poll i* becoming ■»- comfortably popular. Its great e\ent». which have a profc-tt-d academic interest for tie cY\. :ce of tbe game, arc fast developing into r"..Mie carnival*, and tbe truth. is that they are not adapt**! to the purpose. Everybody who witnessed the final of the recent la dies' championship at Bt. Andrews, in which Miss J eye* Wethere-i gained her famous victory over Mim Glenn a Collet by three holes up and one to play after the American champion had stood five up. agrees that tbe crowd made the match a dreadful ordeal for both contestants. I am informed that sometimes they had to hit their shots wide of the line which they wii-hed to take because the assemblage of -V.HH) or h\V<X> spectators (this is the general estimate of their number) could not be coaxed or forced into a formation that would giv« the plavers a clear cocrse. The principals reallv had no choice of direction. If'they had taken the lire they desired, they "would have hit somebody in the crowd." On humanitarian grounds there was a natural reluctar.ee to do this, sad, in any case, it would have resulted ~m the ball being diverted from its appointed track. It is said that at the fourteenth hole in the afternoon when Miss Wethered took an 8 and her position be raise urecarious, ehe was virtually compelled to aim her second shot into "Hell" bunker {though she doubtless made a desperate effort to carry it) because there was no other way of keeping clear of the crowd. She took two shot* in that hazard. The Hmiy-Bnrly. It has always been the same in Scotland. No matter how thrilling the occasion, the calm and studious golfer can generally depend upon seeing most of the things that he sets out to see on any course in England. baring recent years his objective has called for more and more agility and ingenuity everywhere, but on the whole it has been attainable Sooth of the Tweed. He engages himself to be a member of a house-party (and houseparties nt golf championships are growing in favour every season) with this encouraging prospect before him. But he approaches a championship in Scotland "pretty much as I imagine a person approaches those alleged games of fontball in which whole towns take part to celebrate some ancient custom, and in which the participant most expect often to lose sight of the ball and the drift of the entire proceedings during its hectic progress up and down the main streets and round to the town hall: He is in the thick of a surging mass of humanity which seems to be content to run with the blind faith of savages in massed charges.

It is futile to protest againit public excitement about outstanding affairs in sport, even though most of those who create the commotion hare only an ephemeral interest in the event of the day.

They are entitled to be interested* la i it, just as in other matter*, and it Is conceivable that the iannenee is for the genera! good, since it is at least ! better than that people should have all their time to nurse supposed grievances. But the fact remains that golf as a public entertainment presents a very different problem from that offered by any other sport or pastime. On an in par tan t occasion at rating, football, or cricket, for instance, a comparatively small of police can do wonders. * That is beeaaae the speetaton do not ordinarily want to roam very much, once they have taken up their positions. The shepherds can keep an eye on flocks that are in orderly array. "But at a golf championship, police are swallowed up in the crowd directly it starts to move. Tney cannot arrest everybody for running, so what are they to dot And if even they are poweriens what ean stewards do when their emblem of authority it no more than a red flag! They may ware it with all the aplomb of a man in front of a steamroller, but the steam-roller simply runs them down.

The f%m. For » lot of the spectators it may be tremendo<ußly exciting, but it is wortJi considering whether the ordeal ia fair to the player*. It is the fact that ■out* at tha heat amateur golfers have grown riek ef these gatherings that merely afford aa opportunity fa- multitude* to n» about as mobs. Some bare retired prematurely from the classic ©rent* for thai reason, and others find no pleaser* ia competing, which an amateur ia amreij entiled to do. The professionals are just a* oooceroed about the matter, which ia natural, seeing that they want their honours to go to the right quarters. J. H. Taylor has suggested several times, and in all seriousness, that spectator* should be absolutely prohibited a* champion shipa. This ii rather too drastic, aad I imagine that even a player wbe had been harassed by onlookers ia his time would pine for somebody t« wateh hhrt if he found himself winning. Where pate-money i* charged it ought to be possible to limit the erewd to certain numbers. After alt, a theatre holds only a certain number of peraaas, and cannot acotnmodat* more if all are to enjoy themselves. There huve been gatherings of over 20,000 on the Preafwick links, but it is idle to suppose that anybody found pleasure in the eirevastanee, in leas he west solely *e he ia a mob.