WOMEN'S GOLF.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1479, 29 June 1912, Page 13

WOMEN'S GOLF.

HER STATUS RECOGNISED. At the exhibition of the Royal Academy this year (writes the correspondent of an English paper of May 18) there is hung a picture with the . title, "On tho Links"; it shows a British' girl in golfing costume with' her bag of clubs slung over her loft shoulder. I think that this is tho first time, that ladies' golf lias been represented : at the Academy; though man's golf has been there for fome years. It is only a simple little coincidence, but it is more timely and appropriate than tho selectors ijlreamt of when they gave the painting its place among the chosen. This is the great "boom" year of ladies golf. Very nearly the same thing was said last rear, for the goif that is ploy--1 by the'girls and the matrons has been increasing all the time. Now, it has proceeded from the strength of last- season to tho dignity and pride that it enjoysat present. Within the last few weeks there nave been happenings _ that have been in the nnture of unofficial celebrations of -its new importance. In the first place, a new monthly magazine of a most handsome character, devoted entirely and exclusively to its interests, has been established, and I think that this is the only journal in existence that is devoted to i ono section of women's sport. Next, thero has just bsetv opened at Whitehall a women's social golf club on tho linos of a good West End club, and the office* of the ruling authority, the Ladies' Golf Union, havo been removed to the sanio place. It is am est handsomely equipped club, and it started with two hundred members, the number fast increasing. Jlore recently still, a series of open competition meetings has beeu held on London courses, four of them within a week, at which some two hundred .of the best lady golfers from all parts of England, Scotland, Ireland,- and Wales have attended.

The Triumph of the Ladies' Golf Union. During the past few days most of these two hundred have been assembled at Turnberry, in . Ayrshire, for the ladies golf championship, which began on Monday. To this meeting there gathered the best ladv golfers from many parts ot tlie earth. There was a champion from Auswalia. another from Canada, others from different distant places. Thero was, m effect, n- great though partly unconscious demonstration of power and of enthusiasm being made, and there was a special occasion for it beyond all the others that I have already mentioned. This was the twentieth annual championship; it was the twentieth annual celebration of the ladies' Golf-Union,-the governing organisation. So It is that these have now passe<l out frorti their teens, and arc mature and strong arid splendid. Thirty-even 1 of the women, or rather more than a fourth of the entire n,unbar of competitors, are married, but oni} once hns a married lady won the championship, and that was in 1906, when Mis. Kcunion, homo for a holiday from the East, secured the title. On the other hand, two or three years ago a splendid crop of young, girl golfers, most of thorn with their' hair hanging down their backs as they ;took their place npon the tee in" ground, came out and scintillated exceedingly. It' was the advent of these young girls and the form they- displaced that aroused .public iuterest in women s golf as it had ,never been arousid beiore, and made .' tho men players wonder whether their .old estimate of the woman s game—which, frankly, they had regarded as a Tather stupid thing, and ono not to be encouraged at all—was quite correct. A lieiv era had begun.

In this brilliant littlo. string were Miss Cecil Lsiteh and her sisters, Edith and May; Miss Lily Moors of Hie Midlands, who ran to the final of the championship at eighteen years of age; Miss Violet Hcalet,.Miss Elsie Kyle, who .won the Scottish ' championship, and was a successful international before she was eighteen years old, and others. But many of these girls showed the faults of golfing youth in a rather exaggerated fcrni, despite their successes. They lacked experience and steadiness in match play, knew not the great importance of pressing, home an -advantage when they had .tie opportunity,'wore inclined to be careless' at times, and occasionally lost their heads. Nov.'. that they'have played in two or three more championships, and have pnt their hair up, they have got rid cf all theso faults. They are tenacious, strong in nerve, and when they ara engaged in match play they fight like— I nearly said cats, but I mean heroines. They, and not they alone, think that their time may come at this championship. _ There wero no fewer than five of the sisters Leitch entered. " 100,000 Lady Golfers, Xow this is really a very wonderful business. But the championships arc not so look at another feature of i,' woman's golf. ,J.t is estimated that there arc now about 100,000 lady golfers in this country, and the number is increasing by hundreds weekly. There are about 5000 in the metropolitan quarter, and the clubs aro overflowing. There are 500 of them in one women's club alone, the Mid-Sur-rey;' and I am, informed that in their clubhouse there are served about 15,000 teas in the year, and 500 dinners in the summer months. But they all play, not merely talk, and the secretary writes: "The weather has to be 'very' bad to keep them iu!" The Ladies' Golf Union, the governing body, has 422 clubs affiliated to it, and represents over 40,000 players. This union has been one of the chief factors in the great progress of the women's game. Under the leadership of Mrs. Miller it has been a magnificent triumph of organisation, arid not a little of its success has been due to its splendid independence. The women have tackled .problems that the men have feared to tackle. Chielly, they have evolved a system for universal handicapping. It may not be perfect, but neither man nor woman has yet been able tn suggest a better, and it answers splendidly.

Is all this girls' polf a good thing; for the girls? What about the women who make England great? What about that hand that rock's, the cradle and the power that it has? the girl golfer is good enough; she is in no danger; she is, in fact, a splendid snecimen of the Bri-tish-girl,-and slie is the proper emblemof Gilbert's song of praise. . There is nothing of the Suffragette about the British, golfing girl.. I hnye just ■taken out from a drawer a letter that was written to me two or three years back by tho lady, who is the. greatest controlline and influencing force in women's golf. "You may not think, it," she wrote, "but I can stitch and I can sew and I can cook anything from a potato upwards. I think I can do all that a woman should, and T strenuously encourage all the girls to do tho same and not to give themselves wholly up to the fascinations of the game, and T think they have got the right 6pirit among them." '