GOLF

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 61

GOLF

Braid and Vardon have played two exhibition matches on Scottish boruer courses. At Galashiels Braid drove in Ms best form and won by 8 up and 7 to pl.'tv, Chll hi “hditicil !? w «red the record of the course by 10 strokes to 71. At Hawick both players were in fine form, and the first round was halved. In the second round Vardon led by one at the turn, but Braid gained one hole on the homeward journey, and the match again ended all square. Both the Amateur and the Open. Championship for 1902 fall to be played at Hoylake, and the committee have just fixed the dates for the two events, the former commencing on April 29th, and the latter on June 4th. Mr Tait won the Amateur event on tlie last occasion on which Hoylake was the venue, after a curious series of up and down matches; he beat Mr Hilton easily in one of the earlier rounds, but in tho semi-final had to go to the twenty-third hole before somewhat luckily disposing of Mr John Low. Until he reached the final, as he himself said, he never played really good golf, but paralysed his opponents by his marvellous recoveries from bad shots. The Open Champion ship at Hoylake in 1897 was the last occasion on which an amateur proved successful, Mr Hilton winning by one •stroke from James Braid.

Andrew Kirkaldy at St. Andrews, has always beeiya difficult nut to crack. Taylor had to acknowledge defeat at ins hands in 1895, just before he won his second championship, and now he has defeated Braid in a thirty-six hole match. Braid started well and at tne turn had a lead cf three holes, but Kirkaldy, playing finely, got back to square at the fourteenth,-and the position was the snipe playing to the last hole. Braid, however, gave himself too much to do on the green, and lost the hole. In the afternoon both players went out in 37, at which point Ivirkaldy was still leading by one; coming home Braid again drew level, but Kirkaldy won the seventeenth and last and the match by two holes. Both took 79 strokes for the second round, while in the morning Kirkaldy did 79 and Braid 80.

In tlie “New Liberal Review,” Mr Garden Smith has an interesting article o.i “The Etiquette of the Short Butt.” As he puts it, each yard that brings the player nearer the hole intensifies tlie strain on his equanimity. The putting green becomes the arena in a welifouglit hole, where, as someone has said, “all the worst passions of the human beast” are ready to show themselves. He thinks, and probably rightly, “that there is more bad feeling engendered over the holing of short putts than over any other stroke in the game.” There are people who consider themselves almost insulted if they are required to hole a putt of eighteen inches ; they probably miss it, and several shots after it, and still think they have a grievance. But the fault is all their own; no player has the right,, in the absence of direct intimation; from his adversary, to consider any putt, however short, as “given” him. There is a tale, which I believe is a true one, of two somewhat hot-tempered golfers in a club match. On a certain green, ] the balls lay near the hole, A’s about twelve inches off, B’s about nine. "Call ; it halved,” said A. “No,” said B, “hole ; your putt first.” A played and held j his putt. “Now it’s' halved,” said B, | and picked up his ball. “Not a bit,” j said A, “it’s my hole you’ve picked ! up!” Tableau ! Mr Garden Smith at the conclusion of his article gives a very fair rule to go by. “When both halls are lying in tho like,” he says, “a foot or eighteen inches equidistant from the j hole, it is quite usual and proper for a ! half to be agreed to, and also if one I player he a little further off and holes, ] he will probably earn a character for I better sportsmanship if he occasionally | gives the other a half, than if he always rigidly insists on his playing. The golden rule of golf etiquette is to do as“ you would be done by. It makes better golf and better golfers. Writing recently in the “Athletic News,” Mr Low called attention to one of the “rules of etiquette” which ' is very seldom observed, i.e., “A player should carefully fill up all holes made by himself in a hunker.” “Of courso when one is in a bunker,” he says, “the main idea is to get out as quickly as possible, to get out also with one’s oa.i, and with some little dignity. Once the ball has been driven from the sandhole tho instinct to retreat rrom tho neighbourhood of the hazard is so strong that no further thought of duty remains in the mind. When wo see a man in a bunker we know he is not there of his own choice, but is in prison for his misdeeds, suffering the pen- 1 alty of some previous fault. It were j kinder not to speak at all to 'friends thus met in straits, for they will nei- . tlier appreciate sympathy nor understand good-humoured banter. Their one wish is to bo unobserved in their sorrow, and to as quickly as possible escape from a situation which reflects no glory and would soon if possible be forgotten

were it not for the sand-filled- shoes so plainly reminding the golfer of his sin. Thus incomes about that .this rule of etiquette is so seldom observed, even by golfers who are desirous of doing their fellows good and not evil. . It was on "the suggestion of the late Lieut. Tait that this new rule of etiquette was introduced into the revised code, the popular Black Watch golfer being himself very particular to treat the links in as kindly a manner as possible. In bunkers full of light sand, if the rule is not observed, impossible ffrS ofleii the result, The force of the example of gooct players would go a long way towards popularising the good custom, end so save much annoyance to players, an dmucli trouble to green committees.

A somewhat curious point cropped i.p a few days ago in connection with a stroke competition. A player’s ball was on the edge of the green lying in a shallow cup. In the act of addressing the ball with his putter the player touched the ball, and it rolled half over up the side of tlie cup and then back again into its original position. Did he lose a stroke P Of course, by Rule 9, he is allowed to touch the ball with his club in the act of addressing it without penalty, and the case comes under the definitions “m” and “j” in Rule 1. “.1 stroke shall be any movement of the ball caused by the player.” .... “A ball shall be considered to have ‘moved’ only if it leave its original position in the least degree, and stop in another; but if it merely oscillate without finally leaving its original position, it shall not be considered to have moved.” By the strict wording of the latter definition, it would seem that the player did not . lose a stroke, hut at the same time it ' gives a very loose rendering to che j meaning of “oscillation.” I suppose that the real answer to the problem is l that so long as the ball returns to its original position the player can gain no advantage by the occurrence, and there- | fore should not he “docked” of a stroke, j An interesting article appeared in tho ! “Field” some few weeks ago on the treatment of golf greens, laying special | emphasis on the necessity, at least oa i inland greens, of using some one of the j many artificial manures. “The past sum- : mer,” says the writer, “has been especially severe on inland golf courses and greens. In the absence of adequate rains the proper preservation of putting greens is a task that will try the sk*U and- patience of the most proficient ; green-keeper, but when weeks on end . pass without adding to the moisture in the soil the ordeal may be said to have ; passed into the domain of the impossible. When due allowance is made for adverse climatic influences, however, it ; will usually he found that the treatment or management is not wholly free from blame.” It may seem unavailing to effect improvement during a drought, j but it *is when that drought breaks that j the effects and mistakes of treatment I can be realised. Where a properly tend- | ed course sends up a rich growth of : grass that will in a week or so efface all the mischief done in the dry wear ther, a neglected soil will take months to recover unaided its former state. “lit some insolated instances,” he continues, “there may be neglect or mismanagement in the mechanical treatment of tho greens, but we think it safe to say that in nine cases out of ten the primary cause of the defects is assignable to the poverty of the soil. Tlie ordinary routine on golf courses consists in removing tho herbage produced without adding any really rich material to repair ihe exhaustion. The prevailing practice is to spread road scrapings on the greens, a top dressing that is good enough in its own place providing proper care is taken to sec that it is-'iiot made the means of infesting the greens with the seed of weeds. What apparently has still to be learned is that road scrapings are not manure nor capable of fulfilling the conditions of a concentrated mammal dressing. The one and only remedy consists in the prudent use of manures, natural, in the form of farmyard dung, or artificial. Basic slag or super-phosphate, with the addition of Kainit on inland courses whore the soil is of a light description and rich in lime,' will probably answer as well as anything on heavy land, especially it there is a deficiency of lime, basic slag would usually be preferable, and perhaps superphoshate or, better still, dissolved bones would give superior results on thin land.” Of course, it is impossible to lay down a general rule for every inland course, as they nearly ul will differ in the treatment they require; but one does find a perceptible deterioration in certain greens after a few years’ play, which possibly a careful treating with some one of these manures would have altogether obviated.