GOLF.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17130, 4 September 1926, Page 7

GOLF.

BOYS' CHAMPIONSHIP

AMERICAN- CHALLENGERS

LONDON, July 23.

Fired by the example of Mr. " Bobby" Jones, who won the open championship of Georgia, when only 14 years of age, and in the space of' ten years became a world's triple champion, boys from all parts of Great Britain are entering for the boys' amateur championship (limited to'eighteen years o # f age), to be held in August. Two American boys, Robert and Charles Sweeney, of the Canterbury School, Connecticut, are challengers. The brothers, who learned their golf on the Long Island courses, New York, are ao present playing at Le Touquet, where they are practising diligently. They may not be golfing*, prodigies, but the Sweeney boys, no doubt, see no reason why they, in a less exalted sphere, should not emulate the thrilling successes on British soil of Mr. Jesse Sweetser and Mr. " Bobby " Jones. We quite understand that Mr. Sweet, ser and Mr. Jones, Yale and Harvard boys respectively, are, so we are in formed in picturesque language, " bla? inn- a line trail " for other American undergraduates to follow, foneach year the colleges of the United States arc producing scores of players of championship class ready to meet any shortage of the future. For example, thero are Mr. Roland Mackenzie, of Washington, who, at the ago of 17, was a member of this year's victorious American Walker Cup team, and Mr. Watts Gunn, of Atlanta Technical College, whose golfing " education " has been the special care of his particular friend, Mr. " Bobby " Jones. VALUABLE EXPERIENCE. A question that might properly be asked is: Has the boys' championship justified itself? Inaugurated by the Royal Ascot Golf Club in 1921, has the championship done anything to help forward the game in its senior aspect? These questions cannot fully be answered, for the simple reason that the boys r.ie not yet old enough. In 1921 the "ge limit was sixteen, so that the oldest boy I hen playing is not yet 2.1, but there is abundant evidence that the championship is helpful. For instance, there is the case of the boy, Robert Peattie. of Cupar, near St. Andrews, the present boy champion, who this year in his first effort in the senior championship defeated Sir Ernest Holderness. There cannot be the slightest doubt Hint the experience gained in tlvee hrvs' championships helped materially- in Peattie's success. As he is six wee!>"B above, the age limit, Peattie will jiot he in a position to defend his title. <' her instances tint may bo cited are those of Raymond Oppenheimer and R. I\ Mathieson, who iwe doing well in English university golf, and: Waller Maernire and A. D. I). Mathieson in Scottish university Bnlf. Hugh Mitchell, {he winner in 1922, one of the most capable hitters of the stationary ball 1 ever witched, has practically abandoned the game, owing to his military

studies, while A. 1). 1). Mathieson, the winner in 1921 and 1923, has given up bi<r competitive golf for three years. Plaving in iiis first senior championship -' S' Andrews, Mathieson was only heiten at the seventeenth hole by Mr. Euitncc Storey, the -ultimate runner-up. hiil •>! Westward fie! the' boy reached the third round, where lie was defeated by Robert Harris. The value of the hoys' clinrnnitiii'-'iin was also exemplified in the case of Pierre Manoeuvrier, who l'sl vc'i.r. at the age of nineteen, won the French native amateur championship at St. Cloud.