GOLF.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 August 1924, Page 11

GOLF.

Interest is well maintained in the competitions, though the frequent wet week-ends has. rather mixed the events. The beginning of the championship events will, however, straighten ' up matters, and the keenest interest will be taken when the drawing has been made. The visit of the professional added a spirit of keenness to the play, and while perhaps the lessons piit players off for a while, the result must be good, provided players will practice, and result in a general raising of standard of play. The ladies appear to have generally made more use of the opportunity for coaching. Their enthusiasm has been very keen all through the season, and their officials and committee are to be congratulated on their good management and the spirit of keenness engendered by them. The visit to the neighbouring clubs and the visit of Patea. men and the great match between Wanganui ladies and the combined forces of Waverley, Patea and Hawera, in which the combination proved much too strong — these all serve well to foster a. spirit of camaraderie, and are good in every way for the sport. The frequent heavy rainfalls have made the middle and end parts of the course very heavy going, and made one earnestly wish that move of the sandy and higher country were used. • There the turf has been excellent and the fairways and greens in capital order. A Wanganui visitor some two weeks ago had a, round and expressed himself as delighted with the greens, which he considered as good as any on which he has played. The new tees are a. great joy to play from and are. heartily appreciated. GOLF TOURNAMENT. The golf tournament between representatives of the Gisborne and Napier Golf Clubs was won by Poverty Bay. A feature of the day’s play was the driving oi Mr. Kapi Tare'ha, the leading Napier player. On the 18th he drove a distance of 352 yards, creating a record for the Poverty Bay links.

ST. ANDREWS AUTOCRACY WANING. It is a siirn of the times that in golt, as in other matters, a Home paper, the power which has for so long been vested in a long-established body is slowly but surely passing. Naturally that tendency is more observable at the centre of things than it is on the outside edge of the circle. Many golfers here doubtless fancy that the Royal and Ancient still retains its ancient power, unaware of the fact that another king has arisen, who not only doe s not know Joseph, but who is even scornful and incredulous of the work Joseph is alleged to have performed in the past. In Scotland the R. and A. is nowadays but the figurehead; the power behind the throne is the Scotish Golf Union. The movement for the formation of that body came from, the golfers of St. Andrews, Leven. Carnoustie, and Monifield—places which have thousands of good who do . not possess that social standing which forms a passport into the portals of the R.. and A. Starting first with purely country organisations, these people progressed unformec! the Midland Counties (Fite, Forfarshire, Perthshire, and Kinross and Clackmannan) Golf Union. Then three years ago they boldly proposed to -institute a golf association for Scotland, and run a Scottish amateur championship. "JR- now thoroughly alarmed, the R. 'and A. stepped in, and agreed to the running of a. championship, and also agreed to tackle in earnest the formation of a national handicap. (The word national is used in its broadest sense.) The club even sent a special emissary to pronounce a blessing on the Scottish Golf Union, which now includes practically every club in .Scotland. Lord Anderson, one of the senators of the College of Justice, became the first pre-

sident. Last year, thanks to the activities of the union, the It. and A. issued thousands of handicaps to golfers all over the United Kingdom, an improvement which alone justifies the existence of the union. Under that national system of handicapping a golfer can go from Lossiemouth to North Foreland and become a. member at the latter place with precisely the handicap as he had at his former course. The first Scottish amateur championship —won by an Ayrshire schoolmaster — run under the aegis of the new body was a pronounced success at all points, playing, and organisation, and now the union is trying to induce English clubs to start a similar society. Many of the southern clubs are favourable, and small organisations are springing up. Development will certainly not be so rapid in England as it was‘in Scotland. North of the Tweed golf is the game of the poor man as well as the rich —in the places already mentioned the players can golf all the year round on some of the finest courses in the world for a subscription w T hich varies from 10s- to £1 —but in England, although public courses run by municipalities are multiplying rapidly, golf is still the pastime of the well-to-do. In any case, the action of the Scotish Golf Union and the power it now wields is all to the good of the game. It has galvanised that atrophied body the R. and A. into a semblance of life, and with it supplying the driving power possessed by the new president, Mr. J. C. Holland, there is little doubt that international golf will rapidly be placed on a more satisfactory footing.

FAIRWAY AND GREEN. The worst hazard on any course! is a gairrulous companion. “A round of golf is a good walk spoiled,” said Mr McFoozle, after losing all his golf balls and breaking two clubs. A caddie is a person whom a golfer pays to do less work than he does himself for nothing. Father and mother were fairly even at golf. “Who's winning?” asked litle Dorothy, as she and her brother Tommy followed their parents around the course. ‘‘Dunno,” whispered Tommy, “but I think father is, ’cos I heard him offer to carry mother’s clubs.” LIGHTER SIDE OF A GREAT GAME. The St. Andrews Club reaches this year its one hundred and seventieth anniversary, and it is easy to imagine that golf has its lighter side. An amateur championship is a dour business, a long-drawn-out concentration for those who survive into jthe later rounds, a tragedy of might-have-beens for those who are early defeated and are left to ruminate sadly on the difference between the test of a championship course anff the easy triumphs of the scratch player who knows every blade of grass on_ his home links. Perhaps it is significant that much of the anecdotage of. St. Andrews is morel or less comminatory. It includes the English par_ Son who, having failed to emerge from a hunker, tried to beat down his natural inclination with “Vade retro, Satanas,!’’ “Nane o’ that IGermaU SAveiring here,” said his caddie, firmly. Kindlier was the caddy who, carrying for a university principal on an eAdl day, Avhispered at length, “Noo, Preencipul, if an oath wad relieve you, dinna mind me.” Naturally, “professors’ golf” (deemed by some to be the worst thing of its kind) has many stories at St. Andre\ys, all of which might be summed up in the caddie’s “Onybody can teach Greek, professor, but gowf, ye see, requires a heid.” Probably it was a professor Avho partnered the mildest of St. Andrews players in a foursome. Nothing Avent right, and at last the scholar, having a long putt, overran the hole even to the far edge of the green. “Oh, sir,” said his partner, “if only you could dri\ r e as far as that.”

TIMING THE STROKE. “Proper timing means swinging the club-head against the ball with minimum cut and maximum impact,” remarks Thomas H. Ussellin in a particularly good article in the American Golfer. ■By way of summary the writer offers ten practical hints which may help in mastering the timing of every shot in your bag: “i. The essence of the timid shot is the swing, not the Moav. A hoy strolling along the meadoAv sweeping a club at the daisy heads before him ha s the fundamentally correct rhythm. Try swinging your club easily in the same manner. “2. Loosen your grip, especially during the follow-through after a full shot. This loosened grip you will probably find unsuitable for use Avith your irons, and indeed you may not be able to manage it with your AA’ooden clubs; even so, it will pay you to experiment Avith it in practice. “3. Give up the idea entirely of ever swiping blindly at the ball. ' The tee shots of some of the champions such as Sarazen seem at times to he just such sivipes as this, but their ways are not for the average player. “4. Try a weighted club until you get the feel of the club-head, and teach yourself to think of it rathei than of the ball. “5. Practise driving with your left hand only. The OA r erstrong right side and arm are much to blame for bad timing. Strengthen the left side. Flick the ball off the tee AA’ith a sharp turn. of the Avrist at the bottom of this one-armed swing. “6. Don’t force the folloAv-through: let your body be pulled around bj the club-head rather \’ice versa “7. At the beginning make a feAv experiments of hitting the ball while preventing the body from following through at all. Your club will seem to have groAvn suddenly longer and the ball will rise much more sharply into the air. Then gradually let youi body folloAv after the shot. “8. In practising Avith your iron clubs you Avill find that added confidence is gained and rhythmic sAvinging made easier by at first- teeing up the ball. When the correct SAving becomes habitual, the tee can be lowered gradually until the ball 'rests on the turf.

“9. Don’t force your clubs. Rather than struggle with the temptation to force the mashie for instance, take a mashie iron or a spoon. The longer clubs will get them high enough” if you hit them clean, and clean hitting is the main objective of a correctlytimed shot. ‘TO. Remember Columbus: the wisest thing he did was to get started, and the next wisest thing he did was to keep going until he got there!” NOTES AND COMMENTS. Lawn tennis, golf, cricket, athletics, and even football, although the latter is not at present played on these shores, says a correspondent in the Australasian, all claim a certain amount of attention, and to do real justice to every subject columns would

be required. English golfer s are naturally in very high feather these days for was not the ancient enemy conquered on his “ain midden heid,” a belated but Avelcome success. This is Scotland’s first defeat in these annual encounters since 1910, and chief credit for the triumph must be awarded to those great amateurs, Cyril Tolley played like a professional, and did the first 11 holes at St. AndreAVs in “five under fours.” He went ont in 33 (seven 4’s, a 2 and a 3), and accomplished some rare drives, one brassie shot coA r ering 320 yards. Yet Avith all his brilliance Tolley is not first favourite for the amateur championship, which commences on Monday. The present holder carries the public confidence, even if he does not carry the public money,' betting, except on a small scale, being quite unknoAvn when the aristocrats of the amateur golfing Avorld settle their differences. Judging by his recent consistency. Wethered is fully entitled to the preference, although there are several talented Scots who will give the old Oxonian a rare run. Notably his conqueror at Prestwick tAVo years ago, Robert Scott junior. So far there is no suggestion of a real surprise occurring, and when the end of the week arrives I expect to see some wellknown name added to the list of titleHolders.

Andrew Kirkaldy, the veteran professional to the Royal and Ancient Club, is the master of ceremonies, Avhile one of the caddies serving in the championship is the aged father of Jock Hutchinson. Andrew’s playing days are unfortunately over, for owing to the state of his heart he has been ■>forbidden to SAving a club.