GOLF NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 14, 16 July 1921, Page 7

GOLF NOTES

(By "Niblick.")

One of our esteemed citizens of Wellington, who is very well kno-wn in &ie fcity arid also irt bowling circl-e'6, has just added to the list of his achievements by doing a hole in one. This was Mr. W. G'renfell, who, on a day last week, holed out from the tee at tile sixth hole on the .municipal links. Evidently bowling and other athletics do not do any harm to golf. It has often been said that cricket and golf do not go. well toge'tiler. This has been proved a fallacy; quite a number of leading 'cricketers at Home have shown them'&elvefi to be in the first ranks of ama.teur golfers.

It is a gdo'd thing occa-sJohally to .lieep one's edtfre for a round, as it is. the only real indication that can be afforded a golfer to know exactly wha,t is his farm for the time, beifis, and how well or how 'badly lie is playirig, and it iis (j^t-e desixa.ble that he shottld from time to time, have tliJs laiowledge, which will act as an incentive towards the improvement of his game. A man may be.winning all his matches with two or three holes to spare, and if he is of a placid temperament he may be living in a fool's pai-a-dise with regai'd to the quality of his filf and the accuracy of his handicap, andicaps are. supposed.'to. represent, tne relative, strength of players,. and it. is reasonable to 'expect that the holder of a certain handicap will go round his course one time in three or four, at a net score, which will come out at par. One doubts whether the average man does this, ■vrilio'h, of course, leads to the -usual conclusion that the general tendency in 'haridicajjs ih these daj's is to make them too flattering. In keeping orie'a score during a. match, it. should be done unobtrusively, and without at all.in k ddca,tirig to an opponent that he -lias other things in his rriind bieside winning the match. -It is shnply a iriatter of co'mmori-senso and gop'd manners that all scores should ibfe kept mferitalljr, akd riot, be 'spoken of until the round is over. The keeping of 'orie's 'ec'oi-e will often, urge a irian .to gieater. effdrt a.not the display of greater sldll irt a _ particular emergency, arid tiiW tend to tho irn,pfov.eiiien't of his game. The constant keeping of 'one's gcore has, on the other hand, a tendency to produce what might be. called a

"pawky" game, preventing a player from going out, for a brilliant stroke- through the fear that it may land him in difficulties, which will possibly cause the loss of several (strokes, Jk also has the viclination. to breed ih the player .self deception', often in the way of Coiiceding oneself short putts .when one's opponent lias given up the hole or not couoiting thft lo^s stroke ,wh«ai aaiymie is laid. A player has been.lcriowax to call himself "four! 1 at the first hole on a couiw. when he actua.Uy took six; giving as a reason that if he were out to make his best return, as if trying to break a record, he would play that hole two or. three time's. if necessary until he got a four, and 'then gO ori with the Toilnd. There is only one sc/ire that coiintis, and that fe the one which, would 1 be passed according to the ru)e>3.of stroke play. If 'golfers nvust count scores, .they must be just to themsejves, and they must not even temper justice 'wffli any mercy, for tlie laws of golf are rftorable, and. in them there is rto msrey.

A t.ile is told- of an 'iM gbntleinaii who aise'd to play round aftfer round With his Caddy only, counting his score every round. On on? > occasion, after, making ia good drive, he found his ball .badly tupped. He stood and gazed a.t it, and jionSered how rie was going to play it so ds to get a reasonable .length, from his next stroke; then a bright thought flashed across his mind. He was in the habit of carrying around with him a flask of whisky and water, Ho abstracted the flask from his pocket, unscrewed the top, and poured the whisky a.-nd water on •to the bs.ll. He tAen lifted his ball and dropped it over his shoulder, remarkins to lii's oaJttdv trj'At'the tall vras innsßiial ■water, arid therefore he was entitled to lift and drop behiri-d without penalty.