LEFT-HANDED SPORTSMEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 8, 7 December 1935, Page 14

LEFT-HANDED SPORTSMEN.

TOURNAMENTS ’IN GOLF. It is not so long ago that left-hand-ed golfers were so unpopular that they were held up to ridicule, says an English critic. Since then players who stand, the wrong side of the ball have made their presence felt, and tournaments for left-handed players have even been hold. Professionals like to coach left-hand-ed golfers into playing right-handed, the theory being that no left-hander becomes really first-class at the game. A contradiction <?f this is Alfred Perry, the open champion. He has become a champion by playing in the orthodox way, yet naturally he is left-handed. Nobody ever tries to teach a lefthanded cricketer to “stand the right way.” A good left-handed batsman is a treasure in any team, and so is a man who can bowl left-arm. At football, too, a naturally left-footed player is welcomed with open arms, and I always think i that most left-handed billiards players are excellent, and look beautifully comfortable with a cue. But at golf the left-handed style is declared to be wrong, while boxing instructors throw up their hands in horror if any youngster spars in the reverse style. And they are still as horrified, even though Freddie Miller, who does evberything the wrong way round, recently arrived from New York and defeated every good feather-weight in Britain.