GOLF.

Southland Times, Issue 20615, 13 October 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

GOLF.

(By

“Cleek.”)

Mixed foursomes on the Park to-day. The final of the A grade championship of the Queen’s Park Club will in all probability be played to-day. Owing to one of the finalists, F. C. Wylie, being away on holiday, the final of the C grade competition on the Park has been postponed indefinitely. Owing to so many matches having to be postponed on account of unfavourable weather it will be the end of November before the Invercargill Ladies’ Golf Club’s fixtures are concluded. At a meeting of the Committee of the Invercargill Club held during the week it was definitely decided to go ahead with arrangements for a Christmas tournament at Otatara. The dates fixed upon were December 26, 27 and 28. The programme is in hand and will be issued without delay. The Queen’s Park ringer and aggregate statistics are now to hand. The ringer competition was taken through six stroke rounds and one flag match, while the aggregate prize goes to the player with the highest aggregate of four out of the six stroke rounds played. The ringer results were: A grade—G. Tapper 74—8—66, W. Fordvce 78—84—694, F. H. Hughes 79 —84 —704. B grade: F. H. P. Miller 82—12

—7O, C. J. Colley 82—10—72, A. B. Caverhill 83—11—72. For the aggregate prize F. H. Hughes headed the senior division with 302 strokes. G. Tapper was in second place with 309, while R. Miller and H. P. Fougere tied for third place with 321 strokes each. Among the juniors C. Campbell headed the field with an aggregate of 3QB, F. H. P. Miller, 310, was second and H. T. Thompson, 317, third. The Invercargill Club has suffered some serious losses in its membership during the past few months, and will soon have the resignation of its hon. secretary, Mr Ivo Carr, to deal with. Mr Carr has been promoted to the management of the Dunedin branch of the firm he is associated with, and his removal to Dunedin in January will involve the termination of his membership in the Invercargill Golf Club and also of his tenure of the secretaryship. Mr Carr has been a hard worker in- the Club’s interests for many years and it will be difficult to fill the blank left by his retirement. He will take with him into his new position the best wishes of his many golfing friends. The New Zealand ladies’ championship will be decided next year in Christchurch, on the Shirley links.

The final of the Hamilton Club’s championship, played over 36 holes, between M. Macbeth (formerly of St. Clair) and W. Wynne (formerly of Balmacewan), was won by the former on the thirty-first green. Millen Macbeth competed regularly at the Easter tournament at Otatara for a number of years. He won the junior championship of Southland, but has gone a long way in golf since then. He has also the distinction (so far as the writer knows) of being the only player who has plunked the ball on to the middle of the Club House green from the tee. In referring to the Laing Shield at the conclusion of the match against Balclutha on Saturday last, Mr R. Fisher, president of the Gore Club, stated that the shield had done a great deal towards creating keener interest in the game of golf among the country clubs in Southland. It was, however, a mixed blessing to the club which held it for any length of time, and the Gore Club would be very pleased if, early next season, some other club gained possession of it. During the time it had been held by Gore, match play had practically been confined to the six Laing Shield players, and this was not very encouraging to the younger members of the club, and did not tend to improve their play. The challenges received from other clubs had been welcomed and the visit of outside players had given a great deal of pleasure to the Gore players, who, however, had held a big advantage owing to the fact that they were playing on their own course. After having held the shield so long the club members would be quite pleased to see another club hold it and next season to institute more club competitions. The Gore Club’s senior grade championship was this season won by F. D. Scott, who defeated Houston in the final, 4 and 3. Scott played steadily throughout and completed the first 18 holes in 76. His approach shots were excellent, and on and near the greens he held an advantage over Houston, whose short work was not so accurate as usual. Throughout the season, however, he has been playing good golf and merited the right to meet Scott in the play-off. The junior championship was won by K. Richards, whose game has also improved during the season. A pleasing feature of this year’s junior championship was the fact that those who qualified did so with scores much lower than those returned in the qualifying rounds for the previous season, indicating that there has been a general improvement in the play of the less experienced members of the club. Though Mr John Cunningham has not plaved much golf in recent years he has always been an enthusiast for the game and for very many years a staunch member of the Invercargill dub. When he found it necessary to send in his resignation recently, the Committee of the Club, in recognition of his long connection with the Club and his loyalty to it, unanimously appointed him a life member. In acknowledging the Hon. Secretary’s letter Mr Cunningham wrote:—“The honour your Club has conferred on me is more than I could expect, and is, I feel, undeserved, and the members’ appreciation and esteem are highly prized by me. It has been a great pleasure to me to watch the growth of the Invercargill Club, which is in a great measure due to the wise selection of its executive officers and committee.” Lady Somers, wife of his Excellency the Governor of Victoria, was a competitor in the Victorian ladies’ Championship tournament on the Commonwealth course, Melbourne, last month. Lady Somers played a good deal of golf when at Home, principally on the famous North Berwick course, but has had very little practice in Australia and was not successful in the championship. L. Nettlefold, the amateur golf champion of Australia, and his father, R. Nettlefold, tied in the Southern Tasmanian championship contest on Royal Hobart Club links on Saturday. Their scores for 36 holes were each 150. In the play-off, over six holes, the son beat the father by one stroke, the scores being 27 m 28 and this is not the first time that the two Nettlefolds have been finalists in Tasmanian championships. They met in the State final some years ago, when the son w’as successful. “Hoylake” writes in the Sydney Bulletin: —One of the outstanding features of the final of the Australian amateur golf championship was the speed at which Nettlefold and Keane played their match. They went round in an hour and three-quarters in the morning, and the second circuit, was done in even better time, allowing for the fact that the full course was not played. One of the most ghastly aspects of golf is the player who considers every shot from all possible viewpoints and changes his mind a dozen times before he plays it, regardless of the stifled fury of his opponent or the open malevolence of those playing behind him. He has his prototype in billiards, and, like him, is usually well aware

that his irrating methods are as good as a handicap in his favour unless his opponent is of the same tortoise-like breed. Every club has one or two players who should not be allowed to go out on the links without a time limit being imposed on them. The rules committee which has the courage to first take this particular cow by the tail will have the heartfelt support of every member with the slightest consideration for his fellows.

George Duncan-, in the Daily Mail—“l would describe the turn of the hips which we see in good golfers as the natural result of the left side of the body being thrust against the right, the later side resisting, at the start of the swing.” And, add London Golf Illustrated, if the latissimus dorsi is brought into direct opposition to the pelvic bridge with the trapezius released and the deltoids and serratus magnus tensed, the action of the pedal extremities will be found to be quite free and the answer will be a lemon.

Those who think they keep their heads still when they swing should try a swing with their back to the sun. Turn your back to the sun so that you are facing your shadow. Then take a practice swing without a ball and watch your shadow. One of the most important points in golf is to keep your head perfectly still while making the swing. In what easier way can one observe the action of the head than by watching its shadow? Another common trouble is the lurching forward of the body before or after the ball is hit. It should not move to the left or right, and the shadow should be perfectly still as if there were a straight steel rod through the head and body. The body and shoulders should rotate, however. This twisting of the body will cause the body to be behind the impact, which will add distance to the ball. This method will also check up on any awkward movement of the shoulders or any tendency to rise onthe toes on the ».;p stroke. Just before the Walker Cup matches at Chicago the majority of the members of both teams took part in- the first competition for the Warren K. Wood memorial trophy. Warren K. Wood was a Chicago golfer who was not only a fine exponent of the game but was also held in esteem and affection for his qualities as a man by fellow golfers in the Chicago District. The trophy was provided as a memorial to his fame and popularity on the links, and thanks to the presence of the Walker Cup teams in Chicago the field for the first tournament was one of unusual distinction. The competition was held on the famous Flossmoor course on August 28. It was a handicap event and the Walker Cup players were on scratch. The result was a runaway victory for Bobby Jones. Flossmoor has a par of 72 and is a full championship course. Jones was round in 67, five under par, and just how difficult par is to get may be judged from the fact that in the whole field only one other competitor beat par (John Dawson 71) and only one equalled it (Alden B. Swift 72). The best British score was 76 by T. P. Perkins; Dr. William Tweddell, R. Hardman and Major C. O. Hezlett were all 77. At the fifth hole Jones was level with par; at the sixth he dropped a stroke to par, taking 5 at a par 4 hole; at the seventh he got into a pond and a par 3 hole cost him 5. Then he got threes at the eight and ninth (both par fours) and was out in 37 as against par 36. But those threes at the eighth and ninth were the beginning of a remarkable run, for Bobby got five more of them in a string, then a four, another three, and two fours, giving him 30 for the nine holes in-, which was six better than par, and five better than any other player in the field could do. So his card read:— Out 4 4 5 4 4 5 5 3 3—37 In 33333434 4—30—67 Dr William Tweddell, the British captain, described it as a perfectly marvellous exhibition of golf, and of course it set a new record for the Flossmoor course. A day or two later Bobby Jones played the Wheaton course, on which the Walker Cup matches were decided, in 67, also—two strokes below the previous best, but it was not a competition round. Just how deadly Bobby Jones is when at the top of his game is show by the fact that John Dawson played flawless golf for a magnificent score of 71 (one under par) and yet had he been playing Jones he would have found himself five down at the eighteenth. THE GROWTH OF THE GAME. UNSATISFIED DEMAND FOR COURSES. SYDNEY’S DIFFICULTIES. All over the world golf is advancing in popularity by leaps and bounds, and it is claimed that so far as the number of players actually engaged is concerned golf now leads all other open-air recreations. Every year many thousands of new recruits to the game come forward, and few of the larger centres of population in Britain and America are able to give links accommodation to all who wish to play golf. Even in New Zealand the difficulty has been felt. Several clubs have closed their membership lists and have “waiting lists.” Wellington City Council is providing a second municipal course, and Christchurch City Council is considering the question of making a public course. In Sydney the position has become very acute. The one municipal course at Moore Park has proved remunerative to the City Council, but instead of one public course Sydney needs a dozen. The following article in the Referee gives some idea of the unfortunate position of the young man in Sydney who wants to play golf, but who cannot get into the established clubs, and who, in many cases, could not foot the bill even if a vacancy occurred and the opportunity of joining was given to him:— If there is one country in the world where golf should be available to all who wish to play it, that country should be Australia. But the game is practically prohibited to thousands of people in the cities. The great need of the day is a general and extensive movement in the direction of municipal links. Moore Park is a source of large revenue to the Sydney Municipal Council, and if there were a dozen such courses about the metropolitan area they would all pay. The playgrounds of Sydney and its environs do not keep pace with the rapid growth of the population. Golf, under existing conditions, is so expensive that thousands of people are practically debarred from playing. We have known people who have learnt to play in the country and have been obliged to give up the game on removing to Sydney. Not many wage-earners can afford the luxury now. Every course about the metropolis is overcrowded, and many of the clubs are exclusive to well-to-’do people. Metropolitan golf costs even the man of economical mind and habit not less than 10/- per week. Membership in many of the clubs probably costs four or five times that amount. The difficulty now is to find land at a reasonable price on which to make links. However, the council, which does not assist in this matter, is standing in its own light. Many languishing towns have been boomed into prosperity through the medium of golf courses. The game becomes more and more popular, and the difficulty of playing it regularly at a reasonable expenditure more and more pronounced. THE STANDARD BALL. LARGER AND LIGHTER. PROPOSALS TAKING SHAPE. An article on the proposed new standard ball from the pen of a special correspondent of the London Observer is printed below. Since the article appeared Mr W. N, Boase, Chairman of the Royal and Ancient Club Committee, has visited the United States. When leaving for America Mr Boase said that he was going to discuss with American golf authorities the British suggestion for a lighter and larger ball, and also the question of amateur status. He said that in the past Great Britain had given a lead in these matters, but it was now necessary to obtain the approval of United States golfers. Evidently the Golf Association of the

United States did not quite see eye to eye with the Committee of the St Andrews Club, for a cable appeared last month reporting that the St Andrews Committee had, at the request of the United States authorities, postponed its decision in regard to the adoption of the new ball. The Observer’s article was written on the assumption that the new ball would become “standard” on January 1, 1930, but it must now be read in the light of what has happened since, the essence of the matter being that no agreement has been reached between Britain and the United States and decision in regard to the new ball has been postponed. The Observer’s correspondent wrote: Following several years of negotiation with America, and many tests, the British Committee responsible for examination of the ball question believe that they have arrived at the ideal solution, one that will meet with the approval of all classes of golfers from the championship players to the 18-handicap man. Briefly, the concrete proposals are that a ball 1.55 oz in weight and 1.68 in in diameter shall be standardized for world use from January 1, 1930. In order that the golfer may form a comparison it should be stated that the present ball is 1.62 oz in weight and 1.62 in diameter. By comparison, the proposed new ball looks appreciably bigger, and certainly feels lighter off the club, two factors of which there can be no sort of doubt.

It is a firm and settled conviction of one of the chief sponsers of the new ball, which is to bring about an angelic state of things in the golfing world, that it will help materially the pdor player, and render his life on the links far less burdensome than is the case at present. This should be an abiding comfort to him, and he ought to look forward to the dawn of January 1, sixteen months hence, with great hopes and expectations, a day when he will go forth and fill his pockets with brand new half crown balks of a type that are to open a fresh and glorious era in his golfing career. Actually, he should blees the people who have been so mindful of his interests. But will he? The situation is a little burlesque, because a very similar ball to the one which the British Committee will ask the members of the Royal and Ancient Club, at the meeting af St Andrews next month, to sanction as the standard implement of the game, has been on the market for several years and can be purchased freely by any golfer who wants it. But, apparently, no one wants it, otherwise they would buy it; but none does, except perhaps a few ladies and others. The governing factor in the commercial success of any article is its sale, and if the public do not buy it, but prefer some other type, then it is clear as noonday that the article in question does not fulfill requirements. In a Wind. Now one of the chief objects of the golf “reformer” is to .introduce a ball which will demand a fuller measure of control on the part of the player than is the case at present. A bigger and lighter ball means that it will be more the plaything of the winds than the smaller and heavier ball; therefore the poor player—l am referring to the man with a handicap of 18 or thereabouts, and he is the predominant figure in golf throughout the world —will be infinitely worse off than he is at present, because he knows little or nothing about control. There is no getting away from the fact that the average golfer thinks in terms of driving; so long as he hits what he is pleased to think is a “screamer” he is happy and contented, and though it may not be anything like a “screamer” in the accepted sense of the word, it will be a thousand pities to deprive him of his intraneient joy. He may be wrong, but he is ever striving for the long ball, and if faced with the awful thought that with the new ball he is going to drive 25 to 30 yards short of the mark that he knows he can now reach, and that most other shots will suffer in the same ratio, golf to him will never be quite the same again. In the post-war period tens of thousands of golfers have based their game on the ball that has been evolved to give the maximum amount of pleasure and enjoyment to the maximum number of players, and any step that savours of retrogression, which a restricted ball in the matter of length and of control seems to indicate, will certainly not be welcomed. “Ruin” of Courses. There is another aspect of the question which requires elucidation. It is an essential part of the case of the “reformers” that the present ball, because of its flying qualities, is “ruining” golf courses, and rendering obsolete some of the finer shots in the game. Personally, I have not come across any links that has been “ruined” when playing in normal conditions, nor have I noticed any absence of the scientific shots which are supposed to have been so much in evidence in the “good old days.” One perfect answer to the charge of “ruin” is contained in the statistics relating to the British Open Championship in the last nine years, from 1920. These show that the average score per round of all the competitors is substantially 791. Surely, this figure relating to the world’s best players does not suggest “ruin” of courses; rather does it mean that Nature and her allies still are the masters of the ball and the player.