GOLF

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 6 January 1923, Page 3

GOLF

1 lay is very pleasant in the warm weutuer, , provided players dress suitably, and many, including visitors, have been enjoying rounds on the course, iney report that on on e of two of the holes tlie grass is getting troublesome, otherwise the course is very good. The I warm rains will tend to accentuate ' this disadvantage. J Arthur Duncan put un a wonderful! round of 67 last week at Wellington, j He did 33 out aud 34 home. He is evidently in magnificent form, and playing better than ever. His powers oi lasting are remarkable. Writing of American play, Vardon has some remarks which are worth consideration by every player. He says: The Americans certainly hit the ball hard, but their first consideration is to steer it in a straight line. They are always practising with that object in view. That is why their leading players regularly survive qualifying stroke competitions. They hardly ever get into difficulties. In this country, it nearly always happens that one or two great players fail in qualifying stroke tests —because they do not keep sufficiently straight. Unfortunately —as I think—the long-driving fever is encouraged in every way in Britain. In this respect the newspaper correspondents have something for which to answer. If a player drives to within, say, thirty yards of the green at a hole which is marked on the card as being 330 yards in length, the incident is chronicled with great eclat. It would be all very well if equal stress were laid upon certain iron shots or mashie pitches of greater value and demanding greater skill, which that same man accomplished in the same round, but, ap a rule, it is the drive that secures first ana longest mention, although you will find that more often than not, it neither wins a hole nor halves a stroke. This propaganda in- j duces the young player to go all out! for terrific hits from the tee. Incident- ! ally, I often wonder whether drives' are as long as they are supposed to be. By no means is it always safe to depend upon the measurements given on cards. If the holes were properly measured, I am sure that many of them would be found a good deal shorter than the lengths quoted on the cards and tee-boxes. By all means let the slogger carry on if he wishes to do so. But to recover the old standard of Bri- I tish golf, our young players will have to concentrate on steering a straight course. | Writing of a recent interesting series of essays for young and old players, a critic says: rTETad my golf education "been so neglected that Mr. Bernard Darwin's name was unknown "to me I might, after reading 'A Friendly , Round,' have imagined that he was as frail and erratic a golfer as myself. In one of these delightful little essays he does confess that on one occasion his 1 'pitching was comparatively blameless;' but this admission seems almost to have been wrung from him, so extreme is his modesty. This admirable quality is supported by a charming literary style and a real sense of the ridiculous. Mr. Darwin is not, I believe, completely without responsibility for the fact that multitudes of golfers who have spent laborious clays in reducing their -handicaps to single figures are now compelled to see tens and twelves op- , posite their names. But if any such '. have a grievance against him 1 am confident that it will evaporate it they will travel this friendly round in his company. Some of us may think tnat the last word about golf has already appeared in print; but if Mr. Darwin cannot- always find anything particularly new to'say he looks at old things from k so original a point of view that it is a pure delight to read every word that he writes.''