GOLF.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 12 February 1921, Page 4

GOLF.

"Member of a Club Committee."

Writing on the text "Golf a Luxury," a correspondent of the London Times has the following of interest to golfers:

Certainly the increase in cost which is incurred in playing golf is alarming, but this evil is not entirely attributable to the inefficiency or malevolence of committees. In the first place, all golfers, old-established and beginners alike, must realise that there is at the present moment an amazing "boom" in golf, and that the raising of subscriptions and green fees is an effective method of preventing courses from being overwhelmed with players. ,More and more people are taking to golf each day, and any club which is of a very good quality or which is conveniently near London cannot be blamed in choosing for its new members those vvho can pay a substantial entrance fee and subscription. Such a club has, in .fact, a great asset on which to trade during a flourishing peripd of the game.

It is incontrovertible that money is squandered in many clubs by the amount of fine work which is put into the care of toeing grounds and hazards. There is in fact an obvious tendency to rob courses of their natural features, and so to build and maintain them that they shall appear patternlike. Provided that a teeing ground faces in the right direction, and that it be reasonably level, it should not be essential to a golfer, of whatever standard he may be, that the surface be the same as that on which he hasbeen swinging his club in his drawing room overnight. On the other hand committees must be supported in any reasonable expenditure with which they are faced in the upkeep of their greens.

"An Old Golfer,"

The cost of keeping body and "soul together in a man's own house lias risen, every book he reads to improve his mind costs more than it did, and yet he expects to exercise his body on a golf course as cheaply as he, did before the war. I know of mkny golf courses—and golf links, too —where I have marvelled that golf of such fine quality can still be enjoyed at a cost so little greater than that of 1914. But criticism of the conduct of a golf club .is apposite when it is clearly shown that, over and above the inevitable increase in the expense of maintaining a club, there is a tendency to pander to the luxurious tastes of members.

I am indeed weary of those members of my own club who waste glorious sunshine under the canopy of a blue sky by playing bridge in the club house in an atmosphere which a niblick would not cleave. I am tired also of those who start luncheon with a round of cocktails and finish it with a dockglass of port and expensive liqueurs, | and end the day with hacking to pieces a three-shilling ball. It is such people who lead the young and others to soend so much money on the game that it is made impossible for anyone with only a moderate income to pay his or her way. "A Poor Player." Far away in the' 'eighties there was a small shanty beside a golf course, where now stands one of the most palatial club houses in Lancashire. In it was a shelf, and on the shelf a bottle of whisky and a box for the receipt of pence. On the bottle was this inscription, "A moderate go 4d." We can hardly go back to-day to a state of such pristine simplicity, and might perhaps distrust one another's moderation, but the principle is th 6 right one. I know that I have a far more gorgeous lunch at most golf clubs than I do —or for fear of domestic reflections let me add than I want—at home. It is always hard, especially for the young, who are often the poor, to resist fashion, and fashion runs towards port, liqueurs, and cigars, "all sweet things," but quite unnecessary and bad for golf.

The season at Hawera should b© able to be opened in March,for summer golf has kept the course in good condition, and the new course is well on the road towards a playable condition. Altogether the coming season points to the brightest in the club's history. In an interesting book on School 1 Sports, published recently, Mr L. Aytoun contributes a brightly written chapter on golf; his list of "Things Good Golfers Don't Do" throws a light on the habits of the lower orders of the golfing community; the third runs: "Ostentatiously dance around' when he (the other fellow) is buried j in n hunker and audibly count his score." ' I