GOLF SOCIABILITY

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2328, 23 December 1925, Page 11

GOLF SOCIABILITY

ITS PLEASURES AND PENALTIES (By Harry Vftrdon, Six Times Open . . Champion). Every devotee of golf Is agreed that one of the greatest influences of the game Is the spirit Of freemasonry which it engenders among its followers. The sign of the bag of clubs is, perhaps, rather clumsy, aa Symbols go amongst masons; it is there to be detected not only by brethren, but by strangers, who la these enlightened days, know the difference between “golf sticks” and “hookey bats." But it is none the less beautiful and effective on that account. A man who, entering a railway carriage with the impedimenta of the links under his arm, discovered another man similarly equipped seated in the corner of the compartment would have no hesitation in inaugurating a heart-to-heart talk, la come respects, there is no other Freemasonry quite like that of golf, It is an established custom that the member of one club may play on almost any course in the world On payment Of a green fee, which in most Circumstances is a trifle that prevents & privilege from partaking too much of the nature of a favour. 1 do not know of another pastime that offers the same freedom. If you chance to be an enthusiastic cricketer—and at the same time a poor one—you cannot expect to dbtain a game hundreds of miles away from home on payment of & few shillings. Personal acquaintance with the captain of the local eluo or some other person of authority alone could help you. A idevoted rose-cultivator, compelled to spend a week far from his own beloved shrubfifeiy, has no facilities for dabbling with somebody tlse's toSeS in return for & fixed sum Golf Is said to be a selfish game, and yet It is surely Unexampled In the completeness with which its whole world belong* to every Inhabitant of that world. Happy Idling. I suppose that it la the prevalence l of this spirit of Freemasonry which wins for the golfer the reputation of being a confirmed talker of shop. Even the players whom he has never met in the past are his friends, - because I they pursue the same game, and, he' would be a sadly taciturn creature If

he. could ispend ton minutes with them and find nothing to discuss He cannot; talk about, their family or business affairs, because he does not know them: in ‘fact, the only subject that Offers itself for Conversation is golf,' It, is ’ appropriate, It is Interesting, and Very' likely it li helpful. Reflecting upon the many phases of a by match or tournament, one is struck by the circumstance that they include tome aspects Which do not enter into any other game. Why is it, for instance, that everybody has the right to talk to everybody else? To be sure, promiscuous conversations are frequent wherever people foregather with one object ill View, but the interesting side of championship sociability is that nobody seems to be bound by even a Shred Of a law of convention. Thus we may see two men engaged la communion; if somebody else beasts a nodding acquaintance with one of the two, and nothing In particular to boast the moment, he ambles up and makes the affair a conference of three. In any other walk of life ho would bo restrained by a sense of respect for the privacy of a meeting already established from pushing himSelf Into the conversation. He knows no restraint at a golf Championship, and as it IS always ’the play that is being discussed, there Is no very sound reason why he should pay homage to ceremony. After a while, the three desultory debaters go their various ways, having decided for about the hundredth time that the greens are very tricky and that a lot of things ought to be done to remedy obvicßs defects in the arrangements. Ten minutes later, one of them encounters somebody else, and the discourse thus instituted is Invaded in due course by One or two other people until the party finds its reasoning faculty properly and profitably exhausted. Everybody, at a big golf meeting seems to be'as a butterfly, to whom conversation is as sweet as honey: a butterfly that flits contentedly from blossom to blossom all day long. It la ideal idling, because It Involves walking as -Well as talking. Troublesome Spectators. Possibly It has been in exercise of the right to talk On the links that the practice of chatting indiscriminately with the players In important events has assumed such extensive proportions. This la a state of affairs that ought to be checked. It Is Very distracting to the competitors. In ooe tourna-

ment In which I took part, an official | was appointed specially to elbow, off unwarranted and therefore unwanted conversationalists. He did his work very well; ho said nothing, but whenever anybody came near with the Tosolve to- talk written upon his countenance, the guardian contrived to place himself between the player and the would-be eolioquiaiist and to manoeuvre in such a way that the man who was burning to say something found himself still burning when he had to fall into the background in order to allow the next shot to be executed.

Talking is a distressing disturbance to a golfer who has before him a task that Will require all the thought that he O&n focuss on It, and Alexander Herd made a suitable response to an interrupter who, in the last round of a championship at St. Andrews— Which Herd had a chance of Winning —came up to him and asked him airily whether he had been to Crail since he took part In the opening of the couise or some other function there.

"I’m not worrying about Crail now,” declared Herd. “I’m trying to win the championship.” That was a justifiable way of ending the conversation. When a player Is followed by a big crowd— as a likely winner always is— It would be a reasonable measure to appoint one or two stewards to see that nobody interrupts his Concentration with small talk. Golf IS peculiar among games in the circumstances that It lends itself to this distraction.