GOLF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12523, 16 March 1904, Page 7

GOLF.

1 The annual 'general meeting of members of | the Auckland Ladies' Golf Ciub was held at ■j the clubhouse, One-tree Hill, on Monday \ ■:. last. Mrs. Hope Lewis was in the chair. \ ''. There was a good: attendance of members. i The committee reported the club to be in a very satisfactory state, several new members , having joined during the year. Owing to ;. the inoroasod membership the ladies had to enlarge their clubroom and build a new dressingroom, but, , notwithstanding whese heavy expenses the account's showed a small credit balance in hand. : A vote of thanks; was passed to those ladies who kindly presented prizes for competition, and also to - ] the Auckland Golf Club for the use of their clubroom for committee meetings. Officers for the ensuing year were elected as under: —President, Mrs. Street; vice-presidents, Mesdames G. R. Bloomfiold and O'Rorke; ■; captain, Mrs. Hop© Lewis; hon. treasurer, ■ and secretary, Miss Barstow; assistant treasurer and secretary, Miss M. Richmond; t committee, Misses J. Richmond, Lewis, Gillies and Pierce, Mesdames Peel and W. R. Bloomfield; Handicap Committee, Misses ; Gillies, B. Gorrio, Lewis and Mrs. W. R. Bloomfield. The meeting closed with a hearty vote of thanks to Mrs. Hope Lewis for presiding. . The following excellent description of the nature of the game of golf and the reasons , for the interest taken in it is written by Mr. T. L. Lowe:—" Golf is a contest rather than a combat, but in medal play it sinks to the level of a competition. In nearly all other games the rival forces are in opposition direct— in cricket and football indirect, i as in those games which use a wall as me- ! dium. The parties attack and defend; they'■; advance as warriors from fronting camps, j and counter each other's efforts. The bats- | man is attacked by the bowler; he resists ! him, and spoils his skill as best he may; ho ! will combat to the last all efforts at dfslodgment; ho will return blow for blow. In football tho companies are marshalled as for a pitched affair of war; they have their forces deployed in flank and van and rear positions; they rush towards each othei, each side striving- to drive back the other. And so in tennis, in hockey, in racquets, in fives, in almost every sport, from boxing to chess, the combat is direct, the antagonism unambiguous. Golf is, from the nature of the game, a friendly affair. The players meet on the teeing ground, and flatter each other with pleasant words. Not once, but 18 times, does this common meeting ground welcome the golfer, a3, with new hopo or accentuated determination, they start afresh the next game. For a round of the links is 18 little games, 18 new starts, 18 opportunities of shaking off the failures of tho past or bearing well the good fortune of the present. The one serious drawback of golf .is that it is too much a single game—there are often no companions in the match, it becomes too much a rivalry between persons. But golf in its highest form has not this disadvantage. True, the sides are small, there is not tho triumphant union of companies, as in cricket or football, ; where each player claims a fraction of tho success, yet glories as if individually the conqueror. But : from the very composition of the golfing side-many advantages are reaped and disadvantages avoided. The foursome game is golf in its most complete form; a game of sides, which are sufficient for th» sake of companionship, and yet exempt from the evils of larger bodies. The natural egotism of men and nations joining in the game made popular, however, for a time the single form of the sport. The beginner wished to know his own worth as a player day by day, and concoived the plan of writing his autobiography on small pieces of paper planned for the purpose. Golf became for him of interest only as far as his own total of hits and misses was concerned. The battle proper was of small account; even victory or defeat were items of mild comparison. The one and only interest lay in the daily attempts to reduce the total strokes which were required to compass a' given number of holes. In this selfish struggle it is little wonder that the position and very life of golf as a game was for a time assailed. It became no longer ■ a friendly affair of the skill of one man as compared to another, but rather an individual attempt to perform some feat irrespective of rivalry or contest.; No athletic game affords such opportunity for cool calculation or such Occasion for self-examination or solf-casti- : gation as golf. The man who is fearless in the melee, who will throw himself bodily against a rushing pack of burly forwards, has yet been known to tremble when called upon to undertake a simple operation of kicking a goal from a. mark right in front of the posts. Golf is all kicking from marks. We may go back next day and try our shot over : again, and replay the putt which would have turned the tide of yesterday's battle in our ' favour, and ruminate over our shortcomings as we ch<»w the cud of our first inglorious actions. This makes the game very humbling, but very hope-giving."