GOLF KITS AND CADDIES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19724, 14 September 1929, Page 8

GOLF KITS AND CADDIES.

SOME STRIKING PROPOSALS. (STSCIAU.T ■rarrriK *ob ibx pesss.) (By Harry Vardon, Six Times Open Champion.) I heard it suggested the other day that something might be done to solve the problem of slow play on golf courses by limiting everybody to the use of a certain number of clubs, rather to my surprise, nobody in the representative company to whom this proposal was put raised any objection to it. There is good ground for declaring that the extensive equipment which has become a fashion on the links (it sometimes reaches a total of twenty implements) has been a serious factor in developing the delay, which is now an urgent question. People have so many clubs available for one type of shot that they take a long while to decide which to use, and often change their minds after having addressed the ball with the original choice. Personally, 1 never carried more than eleven clubs in a championship, and several of those largely for show, because everybody else had such a lot. When I won my last championship at Prestwick, I put an umbrella into the bag to give it a respectable appearance of repletion, although the weather that day was a perfect sample of summer. One young player supported the suggestion of limitation to the point of expressing the view that six clubs ought to be enough for anybody. He added that the golfer would then be able to carry his own clubs; an important point, he said, in the case of youthful enthusiasts with restricted incomes. He felt sure that many members of the rising generation were pursuing lawn tennis because they found it cheaper than golf, and remarked that the sum expended on caddies was a big item in the cost of a day on the links. In fact, he considered that caddies ought to be abolished altogether, and could be abolished if the player had to carry no more than half-a-dozen clubs. The Caddie Analysed. My youthful companion pointed out that golf is the only game in which the player is permitted to take out a henchman to wait on him hand and foot, and advise him all the time as to how he should achieve his purpose. In pre-sent-day circumstances (and he stressed modern condit.ons), he could imagine no more unfortunate influence than the caddie, who helped to make the game pampered and expensive, just when its cost ought to be reasonable, and who could not be relied on to perform his simple duties satisfactorily unless his patron had a reputation for generous tipping. The idea is altogether too revolutionary in the height of the holiday season, with heat-waves occurring and recurring; but my friend's arguments have so much of the element of originality that they deserve to be stated. i There most certainly is a caddie problem. It is of a very involved character, and this pioneer's effort to deal with it from the root may be helpful. His supreme question is: "What does the caddie do?" And he answers it in detail, thus:—

(1) The caddie carries the clubs. If the player had to carry his own, he would learn to depend upon a few, which would be very much better for his golf. Unnecessary clubs confuse him. (2) The caddie prepares tees. Anybody can stick the modern wooden peg tee into the ground without inconvenience. (3) The caddie watches the flight of the ball, and marks down the spot at which it falls. It depends, however, upon his own keenness and other qualities as to whether he finds it in the rough. (4) The caddie gives advice. The player should depend upon his own judgment. It is purely a matter of chance (or tipping) as to whether he receives good or bad advice. (5) The caddie cleans the clubs. The professional would do that for a small sum by contract —a system which obtains at some places in England, and nearly everywhere in America. There remains the great question of taking out the flag-stick. Caddies are helpful in this respect. They are also useful as light porters and as searchers for a lost ball, although I fear that the complete responsibility which is often assigned to them in the matter of finding the ball is not quite fair to them in view of the temptations by which they are assailed.

Most of them are honest, but the fact remains that there are regular advertisers for used golf balls (and paying very heavy prices for their advertiser ments), and that they must be alluring to some caddies, with their own little troubles in the matter of financial resources.

I heard of an episode that occurred one evening at the corner of a road which was the junction of two lanes leading from well-known golf courses. On a seat was a man, and from each direction came caddies at intervals who handed to him a number of golf balls —the majority apparently nearly new. He appeared to be an agent appointed to receive these offerings at certain hours. I suppose they were just treasure trove, but it was placing a big premium on the caddie's honesty to expect him to restore every lost ball to its owner when he had somebody waiting at the corner of the road for any that might be found in the evening. A Lost Character. I hope Ido not seem suspicious of the caddie or disrespectful to him. In most instances he is a most admirable man or boy, with a healthy desire to help his family by doing something other than draw the dole. But in these days it is not much use regarding him romantically. The truth is that we have lost a character out of golf; we have lost the caddie as we knew him an era ago. He was then a survival of the feudal system of the fifteenth century, when the "superior lord" and his servant went out side by side to fight for their joint cause. He is almost extinct now, and | it is no use being so poetical as to believe that he still lives, except in wondrously rare instances. But to the middle-aged (and most golfers are that), the caddie is indis- | pensable. 1 expect my friend had been carried away by his own youthful ideals. I do not suppose that even he wants to carry his bag of clubs round the course to-morrow if the other man has a caddie. If we grope into his sentiment we find that what he means is that the best caddies ought not to be the privileged employees of the wealthy; and that they ought not to be set up against a less fortunately equipped player who is battling arduously with no such help. Why Bhould one player have the distance of a shot accurately judged for , him, and the other lack competent advieet It is against the spirit of any