NEW RULE IN GOLF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22685, 24 March 1937, Page 24

NEW RULE IN GOLF

LIMITING NUMBER OF CLUBS FAMOUS PLAYERS' OPINIONS it can bo regarded as certain that the Royal and Ancient, at its general meeting in May, will agree to the recommendations of the Rules of Golf Committee to limit the number ot clubs a player may carry in any competition under their rules, states an English writer. The change will not affect more than one golfer in fifty. It is clearly in the best interests of"the game. There will be plenty of people to say it does not go jar enough: others will assert that the number of clubs a golfer carries is his own affair —and that of his caddie, is the writer's comment. Henry Cotton expressed the opinion that "any man should be at liberty to please himself in the matter, so long as his clubs arc not of illegal design." Cotton suggested caddies will be- losers. "If a player nowadays lias a heavy bag he usually pays his caddie more money," he remarked. It is expected that the older and presumably wiser professionals would b.> in favour of restriction. James Braid, winner of five open championships before the war, said:—"Such a change would make the game much more interesting. More shots would have to bo played with the same club. Fourteen should be enough for anybody."

"Sanely" Herd, for fifty years a championship competitor, said: —"If they made it four fewer again it would be enough for me. Some players have fivo or six mashie-niblicks; I am at a loss to know what they do with them."

It was'hinted that there might be an official protest from the Professional Golfers' Association, whose committee would meet to discuss the matter. Sir Ernest Holderness, a distinguished amateur who twice won the British championship, said that in those days he rarely carried more than eight clubs. Alfred Padgham, the open champion, carries nine irons, a putter and four wooden clubs. The committee were guided, I imagine. by the fact that most of tho present matched sets of irons run from one to nine. Allowing for a putter and tho four wooden clubs so many people seem to find necessary, this brings the total to 14. Joe Kirkwood came within an ace of winning the open in 1921 using only seven clubs. 1 remember counting 24 clubs in Craig Wood's bag. Lawson Little carried six wedge-like clubs of the mashie-nihlick variety alone.