SUMMER GOLF

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 65, 10 December 1930, Page 19

SUMMER GOLF

A Growing Habjt

(By

“NIBLICK.”)

Signs are not wanting that golf will soon become an evergreen pastime. That is to say, that it will be played all the year round. It is not so very long ago that there was uo necessity to tell golfers when to close their season. The long grass on the outfields shouted loudly enough when it was time to give the game best. When a player had lost four new Silver Kings before he had got to the ninth green it was forcibly borne in upon him that the game was becoming too expensive, and so clubs were oiled, and stowed away until the grass got to reasonable length again..

These days, however, bless you, grass gives no trouble whatever. Fussy little motor mowers run about the links, and cut grass quicker that it can grow even in springtime. Hence it is that most of the local clubs are staging summer programmes, and very popular they arc proving. , The Wellington club's links at lleretaungu, of course, has always been a summer course, and the season is now in full swing, with the club • championship tourney in progress. Arthur Duncan is still in the running, and it is pretty safe to prediet that he will add the Wellington club’s 1930 championship to the Miramar club’s title, which he has already annexed. The veteran is playing very solid golf at present. Titahi Bay, Shandon, and Manor Park are all conducting summer campaigns, and gradually the game will switch over in the Dominion from winter to summer, as it has already done in ylder countries. Why should golfers plough round .the links with water squelching out of their boots when the game can be played under sunny skies? For instance, the British open championship will be played next year in the very middle of summer. The qualifying

rounds will be played on the Carmoustie and Burry courses on June 15 and 16, and the lilial ntCarnoustie on June 18. The British amateur championship wijl commence at Westward Ho on May 25. and the British ladies’ championship al Portmarnock on Muy IS. So, while the game is played in Britain practically all the year round, the big events are got off when the days are fine and long. The Trusty Spoon.

“Players sometimes imagine that their lie is so bad that an iron ie»., necessary, when as a matter of fact a spoon would dig the ball out much better,’’-writes Duncan Gray in the "Golf Monthly.” “It is a willing servant in adverse places, and can bo used to recover from rough grass, tight lies, short heather, and even bunkers, if the ball is lying well back. To play out of close lies of this nature, it is necessary to change the swing from that of an ordinary wooden shot; swing the club a shade shorter and a little more upright. Then, as regards the actual bitting of the ball, you must at the moment of impact, impart something of a powerful dig, similar to that with an iron club. The stance for this shot is considerably different from that when the ball is sitting up. Get close up to the ball well over it and a little iu front. You must try and keep the hands advanced and the toe of the club-head well turned iu, while at the same time the wrists should be firm. Play the shot, if possible, _ off the heel of the.club and the ball will come away much easier, however, with a left to right swing on it; this necessitates playing more to the left than ordinarily to allow for this swing in. Don't be afraid of aiming at the back of the ball and then taking turf; in fact, it must be a downward blow that you make and also the finish must be low and short.”