GOLFERS' TREASURE BOOK.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14707, 7 June 1920, Page 8

GOLFERS' TREASURE BOOK.

FULL OF YARNS.

"All tlie ~ world knows that Mr Lloyd George has set lis an example in this direction" (of the worst golf, score ever returned) "by once handing in a car.d Which showed him to be no -less -than 17 dowli. ,! To the iii&n who is not a golfer this may be Greek. Interpreted it means that out of 18 hole's the. famous Prime Minister lost, to an opponent, or to "bogey," all but one. He had the consolation that it might have -been worse; he might have lost them all. It may be credited to him that possibly, like the Laird of Cockpen, "his mind Was ta'en up wi* affairs o' the State." _ This quotation, which displays the "little Welsh attorney" in so poor a light as a. golfer, is, from ' "Super Golf" an " .unpretentious compilation by Mr Robert H. K. Brownihg, editor of "Golfing," of golfing incidents and achievements. They are "super'' gplf because they are far beyond the ordinary." The ardent devotees of the "ancient and royal" game find their own achievements an unending source of interest in the narration. For hours of an evening they will pour into the, ears of willing listeners the recounts! of the villainous ill-fortune—the "rotten luck," they .term it—that spoilt their otherwise brilliant round, 'Hie j listeners are "willing" for this singular. reason—hot that they are eager to hear the others' experiences, but that, they are eager to tell their own, They listen, patiently in the hope that_ they will be listened to with equal patience: This- little book .may be recommended to such for its narratives will supply them with fresh and brighter topics than their own doleful doings. The "world's records," the "longest drive," the "perfect fluke"these are indeed topics of perennial interest to the gossipers about golf. Imagine the envy to be roused in the breast of the devotee who prides himself on a 5-a-hole average when he reads that the world's record score for 18 holes is held with 56—or just over an average of 3. Or in the breast of the man who claims to drive liis "full 200 yards" when he learns that an amateur drove a distance of 445 yards (measured) on the Hearne Bay course, in England, and that Jimmy Braid has coaxed the "wee white- ba' ," .as he himself might call it. 395 yards on its way to the goal. Well may the author make the aptquotation from Biblical source that driving of this kind "is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously." The dividing line between the most "perfect fluke" and the most- "brilliant shot ever played" is narrow in"dced. The two North Britons "Willie Park and Bob Dow were the opponents in a match in which Dow was one ahead at the 17th hole, so that Park, by- winn.ng the 18th could do no more" than tie. But "Dow" play«d his shot to within six inches of the hole, and Park's only chance of the tie was to hole out in one shot. He took his cleek and "did it." Was it fluke or brilliant stroke? One of the most extraordinary incidents in the way of "holes in one" recounted by the author has an eerie ring about it. It was a "dream stroke" played by Mr Ernest Simpson in an Easter competition of his club.

"On the previous jiight-he dreamed that he did that hole in one stroke, and when he related his dream in the clubhouse it was made th& occasion of much good-humored chaff and offers of bets, against it coming off. These Mr Simpson declined, but he may have regretted his refusal later on, for when he played his iron from the fifth tee, the ball rolled into\ the hole before the astonished eyes of the couple in front (who, knowing of the dream, had stopped to watch), his own partner, and four caddies." It will surely be admitted that stories like this would form a welcome break in the customary evening narrations of the club-house. But til© reader may browse in addition on "record ties," "famous recoveries," and the like.. Halving every one of the 18 holes is a feat to the credit of two young ladies in a tournament, and playing a capital shot from the roof of a club-house on to which he had landed his ball is. a picturesque performance of a player in a university match. And what are we to think of the enthusiasm of "Mr H. B. Lumsden, of the Royal Aberdeen Ciub. who in June, 1910, played J2 rounds of the 18-hole course at Balgownie in one day, holding out at every hole." And he -did the 216 1 holes in 990 strokes, it is added. It was assuredly, a fair day's work, for an 18-hole course is on the short side that does not cover three miles, and 36 miles of golf iii a day should satiate the greatest golf glutton that ever lived. Just one more incident is _surely worth quoting "A pathetic incident was reported from India in" the spring of 1901. A bird of the hawk species had flown off with a golf ball" (a similar incident has been recorded several times) and the owner of the ball, chancing upon the nest some day® later, was surprised to see his ball in it, with the hawk lying dead beside it. Both ball and bird were still warm, and the scientists to whom the golfer mentioned the matter assured him that the facts all pointed to the bird having made- a determined effort to hatch out the ball—and, failing, it had died of -a broken heart !"