GOLF

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 9 May 1925, Page 10

GOLF

It seems quite like old times to see members enthusiastically assem in_, at the' links on the Turuturu Road as often as they can arrange to be auaj from th© sordid business aftairs n ] tv so necessary, for without them, it is assumed most of us would hot be in a position to play golf or any otlie ojame—and to enjoy a round on a. course which will be very satisfactory so lon«- as the ground-man has had time to get the greens and approaches into that state of order tor winch the old course was so well-known. And there is little reason to doubt that - this can be accomplished before very long. When this comes about the. local golfer’s cup of joy will be full. At present it is a question of making the best of things as they are.

A team of men from Hawera. had a very enjoyable and interesting trip t-O; Eltham last week. Sixteen players went up and played four-ball matches in the morning and afternoon. The Eltham plovers, and especially two of the ladv members, were indefatigable in looking after their guests. Hawera hope to have an opportunity before long to return the compliment.

Several of the Eltham players are showing remarkably good form just now, 'and of them all none is doing better than H. P. Rale. He is playing wonderfully well and ‘returning many cards under 80. His all round play is very consistent.

Both the Quins are also playing very well. There should be great matches when- these three meet in competition.

A number of Stratford golfers have joined up with Eltham as country members owing principally to the rough condition of-their course. These playrers thoroughly appreciate the excellent fairways and good greens.

In regaining the Wellington Provincial title A. D. S. Duncan played magnificent golf, states “Baffy” in the Wellington Post. All the old dash of 12 years ago was there still, with the added steadiness of many hard matches, and an accuracy that was almost uncanny. In his final round on but three occasions was he 10 yards off the line, and on only one of these did it cost him a stroke. In every department of the game he gave an exhibition that. thrilled the onlookers. His consistency can best be judged by his qualifying rounds over the last three vears, 73 and 75 in 1923. 79 and 74 ‘in 1924. 76 and 73 in 1925. It would be an interesting table if there could be published all his scores under SO.

Back in 1913, a California girl named Mary K. Browne won the Women's National Tennis Championship, says an American paper. She won it again in 1914. And then took up golf! For, some years Mary Browne was out of tennis competitions. Then in 1917, when “patriotic” tournaments were the vogue, she began to show a flash other old-time form at the nets. And meantime her golf name, was improving steadily. Miss Browne caused a flutter of excitement when, she won the women’s tournament that is an adjunct to- the California Amateur -Golf Championship at Del Monte. Soon she was winning golf events with no little regularity. Then came the sea-, son of 1924. Mary Browne entered the Women’s National Golf Championship, played some brilliant 1 matches against the best feminine golfers of the country, and was .runner-up to Mrs Dorothy Campbell Hurd. Mary Browne entered the 'Women’s National Tennis Championships) gave Helen Wills the hardest battlp of the season, and is ranked by the United States National Lawn Tennis Association as No. 2 player in the country. No. 2 player of the country in two snorts! It is an achievement of . which to be proud.

The "West of Scotland is this year to have its full share of the limelight, for at Troon, next door to Prestwick (where the British open championship will be held), on 18th May, begins the British ladies’, open championship. Miss Wethered’s hold' on the titleis likely to be contested by two of America’s best players—Miss Edith Cummings and Miss 'Glenna Collet, young golfers who have done great things and are expected to do greater.

A golfer who had many rather .irritating idiosyncrasies was on the links with a caddie. On one green he dropped on his knees to take a line of his putt, and the caddie who had stood a good deal, shouted: “That’s right!. God bless father ancl mother—and make me a good putter, Amen.”

Miss O. Kay, of WhaTigarei, the 16-year-old girl golfer, who defeated several of the older and mote seasoned players at the ladies’ championship meeting at Hamilton last year is again playing extremely well tins year, and with the added experience should do Very well.

.1 The nine-hole seaside course at Paekakariki is fast improving, and when a decision has been finally come to in regard to proposed alterations, it will form yet another links within reach of Wellington well worth while. Mr. Brodie, the popular stationmaster ■' f there is one of the enthusiasts. He is well known to HaWera players. Tact! A plus-two golfer once accepted an invitation to play on one of Sydney’s new links. After a round spent in trying again and again to lift the ' ball over the tall gum-trees, and in , successfully losing three balls, which rolled off the precipitous fairways, the golfer was asked for his impressions of,the course. His response was: “It V; demands play of a very high order, and furnishes a very searching test.” The sporting husband brought home a friend to dinner after they had played a round of golf. “Well, Sam,” said the guest as they sat down to the soup, “that certainly was a glorious approach of > yours to the fourteenth.” The daughter of the household looked at her mother significantly. “Thank goodness they’ve begun at the fourteenth, mother,” she/murmured sotto voce.

There -were four men sitting in the smoking-room of the golf-club. “Look here, you fellows,” said one of them suddenly, “what about a round?” One member looked up languidly from his magazine. “Thanks,” he said, “mine’s a,whisky.”—I. S. and D. News. BRITISH SPORTS ECLIPSE. MR. L. J. MAXSE ON THE EFFECT OF GOLF. The National Review for March contains the following in its notes, which, j as is well known, are written by Mr. L. J. Maxse, its editor: ' Golfers indignantly repudiate the suggestion that the eclipse of England • in many international sports and pastimes is in any way ascribable to the rise and spread of their favourite hobby..

But they have some awkward facts to explain away. In the first place, the- date of our relative, decline in international competition coincides with the time when the British Press went golf mad and began treating “putting” as a main duty of man, and made popular heroes of leading golfing professionals. Indeed, We have never been quite the same country since- at- more active and athletic games, and the chief hope of our recovery would appear to lie in our competitors catching the same infection as we are glad to hear is the case with the Americans, who do nothing by halves, ancl who are said to have latterly “gone clotty” on golf, with every prospect of ultimately spoiling their lawn tennis. F. S. JACKSON—GOLFER. Writing of the success met with by the Hon. F. S. Jackson, formerly one of England’s greatest cricketers, Harry Vardon says, inter alia: —“Mr. Jackson has won the Parliamentary Tournament three times in the past five years, hut- has not in the classic’ events of the links so often as one might have wished. If he had done so he would perhaps have come under close consideration for a. place in the English team, since he possesses, in -addition to style ancl effect, this valuable quality which we know as the fighting gpirit that wins matches. Beginnings. I remember the time when, with the country still full of enthusiasm about his prowess as England’s captain and Yorkshire’s captain at cricket, he began seriously to study golf on the Ganton course, in Yorkshire, where I was then professional. There is a story, accepted now as a kind of tradition, that Mr. Jackson made himself a scratch player within six months of taking up the game. This has been set down as a record in progress until ft transpired a little while ago that a V.C. of the Great War, Lieut.-Col. J. Sherwood Kelly, had secured the handicap of scratch within four months of his introduction to golf. There has never come under my personal observation a player who made such remarkable advancement as this. It sounds almost like a miracle for a person eirtirely strange to a difficult game to become so brilliant in a few months. I have known a player develop something like scratch form in a year —I believe that Mr. Sidney H. Fry, of billiards fame, did it —but a year is very different from a half or a third of ; that period. I think that if Mr. Jackson were consulted, he would explode this story about his having come down to scratch within six months of the start of his golfing career. If I remember rightly, he had an handicap of six at Ganton at the end of his first year at- the game, and progressed steadily from that point. Like most men of confirmed cricketing habits, his main ambition at the outset was to hit tremendously long drives. He set himself to do that in the spirit of a Jessop flogging the bowling on a cricket field. He lias Confessed that he thought then that •nothing much else was necessary in order to win at golf. Following-Through.

The completeness with which Mr. Jackson transformed his style once he had come to appreciate the finer points of the game said much for his adaptability. At the present time his swing is of the kind essentially! associated with golfing practices and precepts. It is: all a matter of ease and perfect timing. Indeed, he represents the school of method that prevailed in a former generation; the round steady swing in which the club-head gathers pace coming down by the influence of leading all the way instead of forceful hitting which has come into vogue among the present race of young players.

The latter are so concentrated on this forcing action that they check the follow-through very soon after the impact. Putting so much fury into the blow they- have to stop the ? lob-head quickly, for if they were to foilowthough with it, they would be swung off their feet.

It is possible that, when eveything goes well, this principle secures a little extra distance, hut I have never been able to satisfy myself that it :s the equal of the old way in promoting staightness. Mr. Jackson, coming from a game that calls for a considerable matter of hitting the hall as distinct from swinging at it, has set a good example for many young golfers who, as far as concerns games, have given their time exclusively to the links. It has occurred to me that American players differ from British in the sense that their best men cultivate rather more of a follow-through—especially with iron clubs —than ours ore inclined to allow. There is not quite so much of that forcing action by which the club is stopped with such suddenness after the blow, that, as somebody has said, “Tlife shaft quivers like a sharp string.” There is still a lot of virtue in the old follow-through.