PROFESSIONAL GOLF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19963, 4 June 1928, Page 11

PROFESSIONAL GOLF.

ARRIVAL OF E. S. DOUGLAS. MAUNGAKIEKIE ENGAGEMENT. THE GAME IN ENGLAND. The English professional golfer, E. S. Douglas, arrived from England by the Tainui yesterday to take up a position as professional to the Maungakiekie Golf Club. He was accompanied by a very promising young professional, A. Murray, who was Douglas' assistant at the Robin Hood Golf Club, Birmingham, and who will continue to be his assistant in NewZealand. This is not the first visit of Douglas to the Dominion, for he was attached to the Miramar Golf Club, Wellington, five years ago. He revealed himself as a fine exponent of the game, winning the open championship of New Zealand on four occasions, and securing many trophies in professional events. During the past five years he has added considerably to his laurels. He won the Midland professional championship one year, and was runner-up on another occasion. He considers his best performance was the gaining of third place in the northern professional championship at St. Anne's in 1925. "The climate did not agree with me, so I decided to come to New Zealand again," he said. "During the past two or three years the weather has been dreadful in England, and one could only play golf on rare occasion!!." Advantage to Americans. Discussing the standard of golf in Great Britain in the light of the recent American invasion, and the annexing of the open championship by Walter Hagen, Douglas said the weather had much to do with the failure of the British players. The weather had been so bad during the past 15 months that English professionals got scarcely any practice. " I consider that, on the whole, American golf is two strokes better than British golf, and there is a very good reason for this," said Douglas. The Americans come over to England when the weather is good, play in the championships, then return and go to resorts, where good weather is again met with. Most firstclass American professionals experience no winter at all. and consequently are able to play alt the year round. In the recent championship the British players were further handicapped by the fact that the event was held much earlier than usual." . , Promising Professionals. Professional golf in England to-day was at a low ebb, and was not being helped by the fact that three great professional. tournaments, the Daily Mail, Gleneagles and Northern, had been discontinued. "My opinion is that it will be years before Britain regains the open title," added Douglas. "We must improve our game very much.' Discussing players, Douglas said he considered Abe Mitchell the finest golfer in the world to-day. Unfortunately he was extremely temperamental, and this was a considerable drawback. Walter Hagen did not play the golf Mitchell played, but had a wonderful gift of recovering by will power, often assisted by luck. He considered the most promising young British golfers to-day were the professionals, H. Cotton, J. Ballantyne and J. Smith.

Douglas is accompanied by Mrs Douglas and their two daughters.