Golfing Essentials: Big Match Play And Temperament

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 14

Golfing Essentials: Big Match Play And Temperament

(By

NIBLICK.)

IF New Zealand and Australian golfers wish to reach the heights it is essential that they should indulge in more big match play. For this reason, it is a thousand pities that the Kirk-W indeyer contests between Australia and New Zealand'should have been allowed to lapse. This was no fault of the New Zealand Golf Council, but was due to want of unity between New South Wales aud Victoria. It is to be devoutly hoped that the golfing authorities of the Commonwealth will soon realise that these annual contests are vitally necessary to the advancement, of golf on both sides of the Tasman, and see that they arc resumed.

Australia has undoubted golf talent, but. to date our exponents of the links game have not figured in play as have our champions of cricket, tennis, boxing, billiards, and other games (writes J. M. Dillon, in “The Sporting Globe.”) Joe Kirkwood is the solitary Australian to take a place among the truly golfing great. But there are indications that it will not be long before our men come right into the picture in first-class golf. It has been said that an opponent is

not necessary for the development of skill in golf, and that a man playing solo can, by consistent concentration and correct methods, become as proficient as one can at billiards: and that because of this the providing of opportunities for play among the established world cbampions is not necessary. That is a grave fallacy. ’Hie purely mechanical side of golf can admittedly be as far developed and advanced on a practice ground, as billiards can be on a table. In fact, we have tn Australia golfers whose proficiency in individual golf shot making is as great as that of many of the most famous on the links. Some of our men can make shots which are mechanically more perfect that are the shots of even such golfing great as 'Walter Hagen. Temperament Big Factor. The hub of the whole matter is that actual shot making, while a very important and essential matter, is only a relatively important detail in becoming a truly great player. To a degree perhaps greater than in any of the fast moving games, greater even than in any other game besides billiards, temperament and

s big-occasion attitude of mind arc prime i- factors iu golf. g The stage has been reached here when a it seems distinctly unlikely that our golfr ers can get further ahead than they are - without opportunities of meeting interna- >. tional stars in big events. Unless on our J own greens, or abroad on world-famous f links, or both here and abroad, develop--1 mental chances are provided, Australia is t not likely to take a prominent place in - golf . Something definite has been accomplishe ed ,and more is to be done. Recently six e professionals had wonderful but brief opportunities for this important develop- , ment. when, in California, they attempted j to pace it with the crack American pros, j Jim Ferrier, our outstanding claimant , for a place among the great, is, at the . moment, iu the thick of big golf in Bri- > tain. , In 1938 a team of Australian amateurs ; is to accept the invitation of Great Bri- ; tiu to play at home. Already we have . had here some of the best American professionals, aud some leading British amateurs. They gave the game a memorable fiillip during the Melbourne Centenary period. Joe Kirkwood did much to advance the game by bringing Hagen aud Sarazen here, and Sarazeu will do much when this year be comes, accompanied by the famous American woman player, Miss Helen Hicks. Example of Hagen. No greater example has been provided in the history of golf Io prove that temperament and seasoning are at least as important as mechanical proficiency for success in golf than Walter Hagen. Next to Jones, the great Hagen ranks as the greatest of the post-war champions of the links. It was Hagen, rather than Hagen’s golf, that won him the four British open championships aud other memorable victories. No recognised great golfer of the past or present made so many bad shots as 1 Hagen did. But on the fighting, imperturbable Hagen temperament those bad shots had no different reaction than would have had the most perfect efforts. Every shot he made, whether from tee. most perfect fairway lie, or most desperate place, was attacked with the same coolness and concentration. Unparalleled self-possession was Hagen’s greatest asset iu golf. To a degree it came natural to him, but to be of real worth in championships he had to develop it intensely. Bobby Jones was naturally highlystrung and woefully lacked the cool, big-occasion temperament. He had for seven years the great golf that eventually made him reach the unprecedented heights of winning all four major world golf titles in the same year. But in those seven years he missed out in winning liecause be did not have the temperament. Only by opportunities of big play, in big company, with a big urge to go out after the best, aud to stand up to the gruelling test, can this golf championship attitude of mind be won. Our golfers have few opportunities here. Even if they had more they would still need to got iu the thick of the overseas events to have a post graduate course out of which they could come fully equipped to attain world class. Golfing Markers. James Ferrier, the youthful Australian amateur champion, was greatly taken with a method of scoring employed in the Decside open tournament, his first . competition iu Scotland. A marker is sent out with each pair, and scores for both. Players are relieved of the re- i sponsibility of watching the opponent's , score, and are free to concentrate on their game. The marker records each stroke ou the card as it is taken, and adds them I up after each hole. The rules of golf do ] not permit this method, but the diilicully , is got over by the standing permission to , committees managing tournaments to make special local rules for special occasions. '

A new turn was added to the sorry farce of the Olympic Games selection wbeu a youth named Cohen, told that he had been provisionally added to the team at the eleventh hour, virtually by that pillar of amateurism, James Taylor (the mail vote for and against additions was a tie, and Taylor gave his casting vote for the ayes), engagingly replied “Oh, but I’ve turned pro.” He had signed up to box a fourround preliminary at the Stadium under the management of a charming widow. The lad (he is only 17) may live to regret it. He will find it dashed hard to make even the basic wage boxing “prelims.” at the Stadium (remarks a writer iu the Sydney “Bulletin”).