GOLF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19065, 10 January 1924, Page 4

GOLF.

By Divot. The Ctago Golf Club had some notion last year of abandoning the New Year tom-na-njent. The meeting did not attract the support 12 months ago that was hoped for. Presumably, this was why the abandonment of it was taken into consideration. Another circumstance which may have contributed to the suggestion to cut the tournament out is that some of the officials of the club seem to bo unable to make it convenient to attend. Last year more of them were absent than wore present at the tournament; this year, three of them were absentees. The success of the tournament last week should, however, put out of the Question anv idea of its abandonment in future. The fact that the Christchurch Club has instituted a Christmas tournament supplies an additional argument in favour of the continuance of the Now Year tournament at Bahnacewen. The occurrence of tournaments in successive weeks in Christ church and Dunedin should have the effect of attracting visitors from the north who would be pleased to have tho opportunity of participating in competition golf during the holiday period. The belief that a good night’s sleep is necessary if a man is to do himself iustice at golf is very generally entertained among devotees of the game. One of the participants in. the New Year tournament at Balmacewen knocked that I belief very completely out of bounds. The player in question, who shall bo nameless, celebrated tho advent of the New Year so festively that it is recorded of him that he found his bed about 6.30 a.m. on one of the mornings of the tournament, having previously refreshed himself bv a swim in the cool, fresh morning in one of the inviting ba*'* along the harbour side. Mis golf in tho forenoon was none tho worse for this. It was, in fact, bettor than usual. He actually won the forenoon competition. Incidentally, his putting—the supreme test of a steady eye, a firm wrist, and a well-controlled nerve—was superb. Sir Alfred Schuster, tho English scientist and philosopher, has lost the sight of his left eye from the effect of an accidental blow from the golf club of a woman player who was practising driving in the garden of his house at Yeldall, Wargrave-on-Thames, Berks. Unaware that he was standing within the radius of the players club. Sir Arthur received a blow which broke his eye-glasses, and a piece of glass entered his left eye. An operation to save the sight of the eye was unsuccessful. The attention of the committee of the Royal and Ancient Club was drawn recently to the fact, that the referee in a tournament match had penalised a player for smoothing with a club tho marks made by himself in a bunker before subsequently playing another shbt from the bunker. The committee decided at Deal in May last that in these circumstances the player incurs no penalty unless something was done which might be construed as intention to do anything to improve the lie of the ball or assist the player in his subsequent play of the A remarkable golf drive was recorded durum a week-end in mid-November on the Home Park golf course, near Hampton Court. Mr Kemplev, a member, waiting to drive off the sixth tee. hesitated because ahead of him in the rough, about 187 yards away, was Mr G. F. late telephone controller of London. His remarked, “Yon would never hit him in a hundred years at this distance.” Mr Kempley drove off and the ball struck Mr Preston on tho elbow. When Air Kempley apologised, Mr Preston said. “I felt something'hit me, but I cannot find your ball. They searched for some time and finally found the ball in Mr Preston’s pocket. The thirteenth hole on tho Wanstead course, Essex, must be the most unlucky in tho world from the point of view of lost balls. It is a dog-legged hole of 296 yards, played from left to right round a sheet of water known as Finnis’s Pond, which m some places is 30 feet deep. At the point where (he scratch man drives over the lake the carry is 155 yards, but the smallest slice will mean a watery grave, with the ball gone for ever. A hooked shot to avoid tho possibility of driving into the pond will land the player into a field —out of bounds. So at some point or another he must, whether he likes it or not, go over the lake. Safely over, he has then a mashie shot of sorts to the green. But he has not finished with the lake, for the green is on the very edge of it, and a timidly’hit approach slightly off the “neck,” and another ball has disappeared. In an Essex Golfing onion tournament on November 21 at Wanstead, no fewer than 150 balls 'were lost M . the pond, surely a record for. the number of lost balls at one hole in a day’s golf. In 1914 the lake was dredged, and over 3000 golf balls were fished up from tho bed. What awful tragedies these thousands of balls represent! And it is computed that in the nine years that have elapsed since that time another 5000 at least have been driven into the lake. In cash alone these figures represent a sum of £IOOO. . Whatever it has failed to do in other directions the United States is about to make an attempt to bring peace and tranquillity to the ■ golfing world. It has restored the stymie, barred tho use of grooved, slotted, and “punched” clubs, and now, apparently, it is going to settle the vexed question of the ball. Whether wo like it or not, there will in the near future be imposed upon tho golfing public a new typo of ball, lighter than the one now in universal use. It is a little curious that America, where the croze for length is probably more pronounced than is the case in this country, should take up the matter whore wo left off. We took the initial step in restricting tho size and weight of the ball, with the paradoxical result that, instead of cutting down tho length of our drives, we added to them. This was scarcely tho fault of tho form of legislation, but was due entirely to* the ingenious manufacturer, who, catering for the desires of the mass of players, produced a ball that, while conforming strictly to the prescribed regulations, totally defeated the object in view. And (writes Mr Greenwood in the Daily Telegraph) .1 have no doubt, he will do it again, hut' each time that his sphere of activities are limited the more difficult he will find it to seek a way of escape. So finality is likely to bo reached some clay. A step in this direction is to bo taken by the United States, whore exnerimcnts are being conducted noth a ball a tenth of an ounce lighter than the present one. A tenth of an ounce sounds a trifling matter, but the golfer will find (hat it means an enormous lot when enmnaring his drives with those he now obtains. In length it means a difference of 20 yards when driving against the wind.