GOLF IN THE GARDEN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 59, 18 June 1910, Page 11

GOLF IN THE GARDEN

UP-TO-DATE VERSION OF THE PUT-TETG-LAWX The worst—and the best—of this game of golf is that its devotees want to ibe always .playing it. There is a famous golfer of whom it is reported that he takes his clubs to his bedroom with him at night so that he may practice mashie shots from the hearthrug on to the bed. Then a good marry golfers of a morning plan chin golf, in which the abject is to get round one's, face with a razor in as few strokes as possible, with a bogey score (which depends on the size of one's face and tbe condition | of one's razor) to encourage the spirit ; of emulation. But none of these variations of goli ; are anything like the real thing, while | garden golf is. The apotheosis of garI den golf is, of course, the private links, 1 which is a possession much' more common than might be supposed, since ; there are three or four situated around London scarcely ibeyond the four-mile ; radius 1 .

What with the rise in the price of golf balls, and the income tax, which we Save not paid, and one thing and another, deplorably few of us can aspire to what may be termed private links. Still, a good many of us ought to make better use'of our gardens. If the man who, wishes to. go in for garden golf does not possess a garden he .need not despair, for Kb l can give his word of honor that the game will db no harm to the garden of his friend. Provided he is a fairly accurate player, not even one pane of glass need Be broken, and, since an ingenious appliance has ibeen placed on: the market, not even a hole need be cut in tne lawn.

The architect of the garden course should not be too ambitious;. As a general rule, he should banish, from nis mind all thought of getting- length, for, however good a golfer he may be, an occasional slice or pull ; is inevitable, and a pulled drive or ■brassis' shot is almost certain to land in' the conservatory or among the cucumber frames. Rather let the garden course be laid !ont so as to get the greatest variety in i Hie short game. Tho remit will noi ! onlv be less destructive, lin-tr is calculated [ to have a salubarv offset on the art of |l handling a mashie. |j s o far as is possible, the holes (or i| their equivalent) should 'be in such a !j position that great accuracy is neccsjj wiry to reach them without disaster. j; There is a man in Surrey who is justly i 1 .nroud of a "green" that is guarded in ; front iby a rose-bed, oro one side by a •ssajdxg; broad path, on the other by a rockery,

while the shot that overruns the green is punished by a greenhouse. The greenhouse is the only serious fault. I have often urged him to do away with it and build a good ,pot bunker iii its place, and one day, I have no doub:, he w.U do so.

A green 'hat i- :>;,.;vded by a few bushes or by a plot of fairly hhjjh growing (lowers is eminently ouapCed for pitching purposes. A gravel path is also useful in thi* respect. There is a live-hole garden course m \ the north of London wliieh was laid out by three men with trowels in half an hour, and of which 1 have a kind of ■parental pride. Serious links architects would treat this garden course with scorn, and rightly, too; but, then, no one who lays out a garden course is ever serious. At least, he has no right to be.

The first hole was a long one,- s» that we could take our cleeks to it, driving into a kind of paddock possessing a capacity for concealing golf balls whica was somewhat disheartening. From the ipaddock to the second green wa* another full cleek shot, and the hazards were big elms, rhododendron bushe.%. a. path, and the windows of the home. These two holes were a concession; to the man who wanted to get into hi» swing, and I do not recommend them. a» models.

The third hole, however, was quite tricky, and necessitated a well-lofted mashie shot over a high hedge, for the hole was a blind one. To overrun) tlte green meant that the ball went into somebody else's garden. To slice meant the risk of hitting a ,passer-by on the' highway, and to pull meant the drawinjfroom window I have already referred to.. The fourth hole was back again, a somewhat longer shot, and here many flowerbeds acted as excellent bunkers. It seems a .pity to add that the lady of tha house insisted on making a local rule to the effect that a ball landing in such, a bunker must be lifted and dropped. Sheleft the penalty to our own sense of the fitness of things. The fifth lwle wag. •from one lawn to another, and the path that lay between, together with the herbaceous border that surrounded the green, made accurate play very essential.

The garden course, however unambi? tious, is an improvement, to my wu y of thinking, on the putting lawn in wWh' several holes have been cut. After nil,, even the most conscientious of golfers; i» apt to grow tired of filling all his spare time with practice-putting, and a mashie shot over a rose bush comes as a relief.. The form of the enthusiastic duffer improves, too, so very rapidly on the garden course. On the opening day of Ufa* five-hole course I have described the lowest net score was sixteen and the Highest about thirty, the former being • accomplished by a player who is handicapped at nine at Woking, and the latter by a sixteen man at some other club. The Mowing afternoon the sixteen handicap man was going round in thirteens and fourteens and the nine twelves. These figures in tliemscivea go to prove that the single figure handicap player finds that there are tew things more difficult than the taking of one unit off his handicap, while the sixteen man can get down to a single figure with comparative ease. Garden golf is by no means a bad substitute for the real thing. It is undeniably sporting. It appeals to primitive instincts. It affords scope for originality. The higher critic may sneer at garden golf, hut that is just his wayGarden golf is jolly good fun. And what more does one want t—Mark AUer-