GOLF

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 44

GOLF

• T '‘V iew the great sub. joct or controversy at« Home. g*Andrews Mr Maitland had one. He had two drives. The first he hit badly. The second was a high-skied shot. The ball landed on the steps of one of the houses between the Marine Hotel and Tom Morris s shop, and bounded hi<di : nto the air. From that moment “it was never seen again. An instance of how ugh it bounds. Previous to Mr Maitland s driving it was stotted on the' steps of the club-house, and stotted a 3 high as the house, a two-story one. In the American Women’s Championship it is said by a correspondent: “I am inclined to think that the bad putting, and throughout the week this was eel erally bad, was to a great extent due to the rubber ball. Perhaps it would bo fairer to attribute it, however, to onfamiliarity with its use on the part of most of its players, many of whom had not used it until the eve of the cham-i pionship. The winner, Miss Hecker, used the rubber ball part of the time, but abandoned it in the middle of the "week, continuing to the end with the gutta.” The general consensus of opinion seems to be that the hall wants some improvement before it is reliable. The autumn medal at St. Andrew’s has been won by Mr R. Maxwell, in the good score of 79. The medal was played for in a thick fog, so it could not bo seen where the balls went. It made it very difficult to judge distances. At one hole Mr Maxwell was within an ace of taking a wooden club to approach. He took an iron, and as it was, was ever so far past tihe hole. As Mr Maxwell won the spring medal in 82, he takes the Glennie medal for the best aggregate score in the two competitions. Mr A. G. Tait, brother of the late “Freddie” Tait, was in in 80. He hit the last hole and jumped out, or he would have tied Mr Maxwell. At the meeting an oil painting of Mr F. Tait was presented to the club. I had meant to write no more about the new ball in the meantime, but' the following note in “Country Life,” by Horaco Hutchinson, the celebrated player and writer, will be of interest:— “I have been making some trials of the American ‘Haskell’ ball, and fail to see that it ‘carries’ very distinctly further, as it is said to do, than a good ‘gutty ball. It may be that after pitching will run further, in consequence of the india-rubber inside, than the gutty, when the ground is hard; but since 1 have had the ball there has been no hard ground to test it on. One has the fear that when the ground gets hard it may be difficult to control this hall in the approaching and putting; but the weather must change; perhaps the spring must come before this can be put to a proper test. One misses the sharp clic of the gutty ball on the club, but o course, this is merely a matter of'sen •* ment, not of practical value. Tins a more subtle affair than that nota above. One of the most uncanny in the world is a Haskell ball cut opIt goes on uncoiling its lengths of co india-rubber like one of those entra 1,1 fireworks called ‘Pharaoh’s serp u that used to be the delight of P® r. now middle-aged. This, of cour J ’*. ‘not golf,’ but is nearly as amusing • game, and much easier. S