LIMITING GOLF CLUBS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22627, 15 January 1937, Page 12

LIMITING GOLF CLUBS

QUESTION OF RESTRICTION After Lawson Little, student golfer from the United States, had won our amateur championship with the aid of 22 clubs, the cry went up that no golfer should carry so many clubs in his bag, states a London writer. They were needless and unfair. And what about the poor caddies who had to carry them round? The United States Golf Association had a meeting for the purpose of restricting the number of clubs a golfer could use. After much talk all they did was to express the hopo that players would employ a "reasonable" number of clubs. Which meant precisely nothing. Hut some move for a restriction now seems to bo afoot. Wherever one goes the talk in professional circles is that certain clubs are about to be barred. One most frequently mentioned is tha heavy niblick known as the "sand wedge." "It is certain to ho made illegal in championship play," I was told. When Craig 1 Wood tied for the English Open chuapipionship at St. Andrew's he carried 27 clubs, and many other figures could be quoted to show that the multiple club fashion was invented in America. The average weight of the "sand wedge" is 200z.; it has a thick sole, and is employed for recoveries from bad lies.

The "pitcher" is another typo of club popularised by American professionals. How well they used it to discomfort Britain's team in the last Ryder Cup match! The story told to me is that the Rules of Golf Committee may decide to make any iron club with a sole more than |in. thick illegal. This would eliminate the "sand wedge," or "blaster," and some "pitchers" as well. Sixteen clubs were sufficient for that super golfer, Bobby Jones. That also is the number required by All' Padgham. and it might not be a bad thing if If! were made the limit in championships. .It is not unlikely that an announcement on the subject will bp made shortly, and that the official "bag" will be made up of 12 irons and a putter, and three wooden clubs. A cable message from London earlier this week stated that the question of limiting the number of clubs was exercising the minds of authorities iu England.