GOLF

Taranaki Daily News, 20 January 1930, Page 4

GOLF

J PROGRESS OF FRENCH GOLF.. ‘ WHERE LADIES SHOW THE WAY. (By Harry Varden. —-Special to News.) The other day, I met a man who had just returned from a holiday in Paris, I where he had played on all the golf J courses within easy reach of the city—i now about twelve in number. He remarked- on their wonderful prosperity. It is perfectly true. On the occasion of my last visit, I was informed that every club had a long waiting list for membership, and that the great problem was to find accommodation for all the people who wanted to play, especially as so high a standard had been set in costly course-construction and clubhouse grandeur .that nobody liked to institute a dub on modest lines. Verily the club-houses at such places as Versailles, Saint Cloud, Chantilly, Saint Germain and Forqueux have all the specious splendours and services of first-class hotels, while the courses must have been made without any regard for expense. My friend, a very good judge of the game, confirmed an impression which I I had already formed; that France will | certainly build upon the great prestige which she has established in the past three years in ladies’ golf, but that she is even now only in the infancy of her endeavour to produce men in the front rank of amateur golf. Still, the number of young Frenchmen yvho arc taking to the game—and diligently takI ing lessons at it —is surely’ a good I augury. A REMARKABLE CHANGE. ' Whatever may be the possibilities of the men, there is unquestionably a great I deal of talent among the younger gen- | eration of lady golfers in France. Every- | body in a position to judge is agreed l upon that point. There are girls playing on the courses round Paris who show talent every bit as marked as that displayed by the two who have already won the British ladies’ open championship, and although France did not send a player to defend the title at St. Andrew’s this season, I am sure it would be an error to assume that a period of . eclipse for her has begun. The rise of France as a nursery of lady champions surely deserves to be set down as the most remarkable development in latter-day golf. It is far more noteworthy than America’s production of a succession of world-beaters in men’s rivalry, because we know that', for something like twenty years, the game lias been a wondrous obsession throughout the United States, and proficiency at it has been regarded there as the greatest glory to which mortal could aspire in international sport. To be perfectly frank, nobody took French golf very seriously until two or three years ago. It was supposed to be a social pleasantry rather than a medium for strenuous competition or scientific study. Even when Mlle. Simone de la Chaume won the British championship in 1927, there was, a feeling that France had happened by chance to evolve just one brilliant young player from her limited and mostly unadaptable resources. But obviously it is no use entertaining any longer the creed which games psychologists have spread far and wide that the French temperament is.»wholly irreconcilable to the demands of so deliberative an art as golf; that it is a very splendid temperament for the lively actions of the lawn-tennis court or the Rugby football field; but that it chafes under the solemn restraint of the links. The supreme title in ladies’ golf passed from Mlle, de la Chaume to her compatriot, Mlle. Manette ]e Blan (they are now sisters-in-law), and it can be said that both these players are perfect models of the mentality as well as the skill which golf requires. In crises, of which both have had their full share in the gaining of their honours, they are the very embodiment of calm. Moreover, they have that elan in attack which is traditionally French, especially when the situation looks blackest. Mlle. Le Blan showed it at the moment when she stood three down with six te play to Miss Enid Wilson in the semifinal at Hunstanton, and Mlle, de la Chaume produced it' just when Miss Dorothy Pearson was at the zenith of a seemingly irresistible rally in her final.

NO JOKE! There was a time when English gol was regarded as a' joke by the know ledgeable and then dominating Scots French golf has passed through i similar era of humility. But now ii han most certainly ceased to be a joke I remember an English player telling on his return from a small centre of the the game in France a few years age how amusing it wae to see the natives in pursuit of the game. The head ol the family would turn out about once a month for a round if it were a specially fine day, and he would be followed by his wife and family, carrying oranges, buns, and other provender as a precaution against privation in the wilderness. They would spend a nice quiet day, with nobody earing very much about the result of the match. And so to bed. I think the best etory of golf in France concerns a husband and wife who, having joined a club, asked the secretary one day for cards, so that they might return sebres for handicapping purposes. WhClf ! the 'secretary came to examine the figures, he was astonished to find that, although they were exceedingly high, they were identical at hole after hole. Apparently each player had taken anything from seven strokes to ten per hole, or at any rate there had never been a disparity of more than one strike—save at the last hole, where tho husband had registered six more than his wife. Puzzled by this state of affairs, the official made inquiries, and found that the couple had played as in a mixed foursome (this being the only kind of golf they knew), striking their one ball alternately, and entering their respective numbers of strokes on the cards at th e end of each hole. Tiro wife explained that the difference at the last hole was due to the circumstances that she hit the ball into a bunker, and, feeling tired, left her husband to get out of it' by himself and complete the proceedings. Gone are these days of stupendous golfing innocence in France. Here is a country of greater possibilities than wo thought America to possess twenty years or so ago.