GOLF CLUB FACES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6669, 24 July 1928, Page 2

GOLF CLUB FACES

Some Points Concerning Restrictions (By Harry Vardon, Six, Times Open Champion.) I suppose it does not matter very much- what device the long-handicap golfer seek a in tho f orin and make of his clubs when, he is trying ,to improve his game. It is usually his manner of swinging that wants setting right, and all the artifices imaginable'in club? construction will not achieve, that purpose. ' ’ ' i, .', , Still, it is worth while pointing out that there arc legal limitations as to the kind of implements that may be used. Some players do not seem to bo-aware of the fact. 'Clubs that almost certainly would not secure the sahetipnof the Kales Committee are to be seen in a good many bags. One man told mo the other day that he had discovered a good means of intr.odueing somo ‘ ‘ bite’ ’ on to the .face of his mashio so as to make it put back-spin on the ball for his pitches'. -He has deepened and widened the lines scored across the face of tho club. He was wholly innocent of the . circumstance- that he had thus made it illegal. , ' ' - f It is a very good thing that the various inventions which wore once a craze even among some of the best players have been suppressed. In some instances, they may have been a help to people possessed of a certain knack or skill ;in, their use, but they introduced a spurious influence into the game and I- doubt whether they would, ever have been of service to the rank and file: of golfers. ’ ;: ? A few' years ago there was a great to-do' •übout the mashio with deep, sharp-edged hollows running in parallel' lines .across the striking surface. It whs regarded as an instrument which rendered the application of back-spin a matter of automatic, action rather' .thhm- art, and,..indeed,., its razor-like edges did bite at the ball with such effect as often to make it jump back on, alighting, instead of running- forward.-" '

Hutchinson, of Chicago, used sjieh' a club when winning the British Open frnampiontliit at St. Andrews in' Italy arid I remembpr several of his shots; '(One dyer-the burn guarding the first green stands out vividly in, the memory/which . actually leapt back a ’’foot, or so' on pitching. (Bin. lam certain that the; moderate player would not have been able to hit the ball half the necessaTy.; distance with such a club. •’ The Prototype. * ,

; America was supposed to have been the birthplace of these devilish inventions; but, in point, of fact, those of uS’ who. have;,-known the game for a quarter, of ( a century, can recollect their progenitors in this country. long before .they were, thought of in the United, States,'- The only difference in th(f -British-grooved.mashie, which rejoiced in the name of "Stopem" and had, a considerable vogue for a time, was that'its hollows were bevelled.

, When; thp'sharp edges arrived to incfease'.tlio stopping effect, most people thought that the thing' had gone far enough, and it was the United States Golf Association who suggested to the British Eules Committee that such clubs should bo barred. Both countries’ -now have restrictions on tho po’mt. ;

■ Knowing that ffobves would not be allowed,- the' United States professionals ■ subsequently : camo' over for tho Open Championship with the faces of all thejr iron clubs punched with holes, tho.Jcdges of which—pointing downwards’to the ground—wore left rouga and jagged, so as to secure a biting effect on the ba11... They had these holes punched afresh every day. >

•-■lt is true that the British rule at the time said nothing about such, indentations and eruptions (it specified only grooves, slots and corrugations as being'illegal), but it was obvious that if you inake sharp, rough-edged holes in sufficient number on the face of a club, the effect is just the same as if you introduce grooves.

I have no doubt tuat the Americans thought genuinely that if the British authorities had wished to . bar these punched holes, they would have in-cluded--them among the - prohibitions mentioned in the rule ;and that in the absence of such mention, ■ they were legal. ' What the. visitors could not understand was that they "were allow* e3 : 'to-.uso these.tubs for a month here, which they took part in two big tournaments, and that the interdict was announced within thirty-six hours of-the beginning of tho Championship. They resort to'no such aids now, and yet. tko standard of their golf is, if anything, higher than ever. ; Tradition, that Confuses. Unfortunately, .-tradition docs not help us-very much to decide what is a proper club, ' Old-time golfers will tell you that half a eontuxy ago, it was ■a-"common;,thing to hack little marks in the face of an iron so-as to produce a stopping effect, or, at any rate, an effect calculated to save the ball slipping off the club at the impact. In a',distant past,, when a beech—a comparatively soft substance compared with , the. persimmon now- in vogue—was used for the heads of wooden clubs, it was customary to have a leather face fixed to such clubs so that they might last-longer. In truth, almost

from time immemorial, there have boon facings of many, kinds—ivory, hemp, and what-not. The player in tradition'might be as hard put to it as tho now golfer to„. decide upon tho justice of : some-features of a clubface. Ono practice, adopted sometimes in America; when” ihp grfiss is damp and slippery/and Jho' ball is apt to slide off the club at tho impact ,is to glue sandpaper,-to the, face of a wooden club so as to plrtam, a rough holding surface*-) .Is this against the spirit of the game? It is on all fours with expedients—such ;ap -fibre facings—which have been adopted here in the long ago;; The only solution'Wbiild seem to bo to iuio that, after a certain date, the face of every golf club must be perfectly plain., It would be necessary to fix the date for some-years ahead, because otherwise tens of thousands of clubs would have to be scrapped. But makers would- then cease to produce iron heads with, marked-faces, and in tho rnd, uniformity, simplicity, and peace would reign. - ■ --