NOTES BY BULGER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2850, 28 October 1908, Page 65

NOTES BY BULGER.

' The St. CLatc Club held ' a bogey competition on Saturday, and although the .ground was very, wet from recent rains, it was Mry overhead. E. J. P. Denny came in 1 down to the colonel, and thus won the competition. It is pleasing to note that ho has recoverod fonb. after his travels. I have been asked by Miss Christie, this year's lady champion, to correct a statement which appeared in my notes on the Wises' championship meeting. She elates that she has never made a record score for the Christcharch ladies' course. I regreb that the mistake occurred, through a misunderstanding on my part. The Earl of Dudley, lately appointed Governor-general of Australia, is a keen .golfer, and perhaps never shows to better advantage than on the. golf links, and lie will go down to history as haying taughfl tbe ■game to the ZXachess of Connaug-ht. There is a good story told, with the Earl of Dudley as the centrepiece. Lord Dudley hod been taught .largely by Andrew Kirkafcty, and. for some years Kirkaldy played a great deal with his. lordship. But the da-y caHie when. Taylor, Braid, and Virdon all had an innings with the keen golfing nobleman,, whose game did., not improve under the divers advice. Kirkaldy, the observant, noticed h'i3 pupil's deterioration, so at « k cofn-v«nient moment, "he arranged the- triumvirate as folows : — " There is you, Harry Vardon, with your long swing; you, Harry' Taylor, with yourchip; and Jimmy Braid, with' your big; hitting — oil *t I»ord- Ihidley, and between tho Jot of you, you .have damned him." -It is «v curious fact in connection witb the playing of the game that there are more disputes about the rules in the putting green than in any other stage of play. When either of the players in a match has to play his ball through the green, the occasions ere by* no means many when the nature of the lie or tbe position of the balls provoke controversy. Here everyone knows that, with the expection of .bunkers and other awkward contingencies provided for by the local rules, the ball must be played <&3 it lies, and that if the play is not exactly what it ought to have been there is rarely any difficulty in convincing a player that he ha 3to submit to a penalty for infringement of a rule. Bup the case seems to be otherwise when the balls are lying on. the putting green. All sort« of refinements seem, to be dcvised| by a certain school of players to abridge some of the difficulties necessarily attenctant upon the delicate process of holingout the bail. The bole, indeed, seems to act as a, kind of fascinating terror upon some- players, «nd so much is this frequently the case that all kinds of expedients and subterfuges are displayed in order to avoid playing the game to its ultimate conclusion of holing out the ball. Why this hesitation of many players to hole out short puts should be so marked as it has of late years foecdme is' difficult to explain. There can be no doubt, however, that it arises in many cases from the lax system of playing general matches. In these friendly struggles it is to be feared that neither player is particularly anxious to appear as if hk disposition were unchivalrous. _ He therefore concedes- a put of 2ft or more as being dead- when a shrewder &tud«ns of •human character, watchful of •personal {Jemeanour and temperament, would exacr of the opponent that no put. however short, was to be taker, for granted as being absolutely certain of being holed ia the next stroke.

Chivalry counts £or a trrear deal in the proper, spirit which should infuse all kind* of pastimes. In golf, however, as well as in other game.-, the sentiment can certainly be carried too far. It is a treachery to one's own ideal of playing a match ihac through fear of being- voted mean by v thance opponent you should gaily cou-<-«de a put of 2rt when ion have a feelinir i^ruo-r. of absolute certainty in your ininJ ihat the- odds are against his holing- for a half. That such » concession is usually expected i?y nearly . every player in a match goes without savin?; but to-day the characteristic of expecting much more than was ever conceded in earlier days has shown the inevitable tendency to jrrow upon what it feeds. Now and again, howfiver, those players who have been accustomed to got short puts up to a yard or more conceded to them without demur run against a stern match plajer who concedes nothing, and who remains impenetrably silent when a direct appeal is made to him. -in these terms, "You give me this? " A gesture of dissent is all the answer vouchsafed, and then wirh the precipitation born of angry resentment against spch treatment the opponent usually puts sp rashly that he misses the hole. Only one of that match party smileo as he treads the path to the tee ; the other is too vexed with his own careless stupidity in gi\ins himself into the charge ol the enemy to <lo anything except restrain as much as lie can the flame of anjrer which scorches him outwardly and inwardly- This resentment occasionally finds expression in some such phrAse as "No gentleman, would have asked me to hole such a short put as that." But as golf is a game largely of short puts, with other unlooked-for ups and downs, it is a weakness in tactics for such an opponent to b?£in the attack on the stronger e_nemj, with right and law on

his side, when it is fo ea3.v to crush him with the rejoinder of the Scottish player, to whom such a rude observation was once addressed in similar circumstances, " Maybe no; but ye see we're nae gentlemen here: we're gowffers !" Indeed, there is but one method of conducting the play on the putting green in a satisfactory and harmonious manner. It is to take nothing for granted and to play the game at the hole side strictly according to the spirit and letter of the rules. Humiliation awaits a placer who either appeals directly to his opponent to concede to him a shorn put and is bluntly refused, or who always approaches the hole with the feeling that, should it come to the worst, the short puts for a half at anyrate are secured to him. No player has a right to expect an opponent to grant him any favour or concession. No pastime, and least of all a complex game such as golf is, can be played either with .pleasure -or satisfaction a3 an exhibition of rival skill if one of the players cherishes the conviction that- he has a claim upon the opponent to concede something which the strict reading of the rules does not permit. Ths rase is v.holly difieren! if a player. in an access of jreneroslty, calL& orrk, " I will R'vc you that." as meaning a nufc which he is assured cannot be missed. That- is a testi- . mony to a sound belief in the skill of the player, which ought to he accepted as a compliment, and which* moreover, has the additional virtue of saving time on the putting gr&Gti > when, tho links are croirdod. Buc one corices-^ion oufflit ncvei to ho accepted as. in effect, tlic creation of a rule to- yield all short puts during the match. Every golfer ought to be prepared to hole out every shot, and he certainly has no right to feel aggrieved if a put, which he himself assumes to I>e a certainty, has to be holed out whether a request to do so is made or not Tho csi^p, aff-ain. " differenr with the plavo? who, Ixayiiif? holed G'ifc himself for a- half, turns his "back on the opponent and stalks off to the next teeing ground. Such action ought to be accepted* as a tacit assent; to the concession of the short put. and the opponent is justified in knocking "his ball away and" in also making his way to the nexir tee. Disputes and misunderstandings are froquenfc when this incident happens. The first player, -yforking away: from -the hole side with .his back turned to the gime, often expects the opponent to put out while he ia not looking, and, if the hole is missed, to claim it. 'Why should he? By walking away he has plainly indicated that as far as that boh? is concerned, at any rate, tho play is finished. It is a plain intimation to the opponent that he should pick up his balL If this was not his intention, then the ethics governing the r>lay on the putI ting green exact that he should stand still ' and pay his opnonent at least the courtesy | of watching him play -the shot. — Field.