GOLF

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1930, Page 7

GOLF

SLOW GOLFERS.

A LONG-STANDING QUESTION. ' (By Harry Vardon— Special to News.) During recent years slow play has become °one of the most pressing problems in golf. It will be interesting to see whether the notoriety which is obtained in connection with last year’s amateur championship will have any effect during the coming season. The late John L. Low once described golf as “the peculiar game of a peculiar people; the game of the Scots”; but it is not the Scots, with all their instincts for proceeding cautiously, who have brought to a head this problem of the tedious players and the irritation that they cause to the procession in their rear. It is mostly the English who are responsible. ‘Fifteen or twenty years ago procrastination on the links was a cult among American golfers. In Heinrich Schmidt, who took Harold Hilton —the ultimate winner —to the nineteenth hole in the round before the semi-final of the British amateur championship at St. Andrew’s in 1913, I think they produced absolutely the slowest good player ever seen, although there were more dilatory enthusiasts among his less distinguished compatriots. That phase has almost entirely disappeared from the : whole rang© of American golf. 1 It certainly io not a serious influence among the Scots, who assume the air of a people born to pursue this pastime without making a lot of fuss about it. Among the English, excessive deliberation is steadily developing into a habit', A SUDDEN AWAKENING, It is a good thing that the question has been brought into the compass of urgent politics. It is the cause of many heart-burnings in everyday club life, as in big tournaments. The only misfortune is that it should have been pushed to- the front in such a way as to wreck the chances of T; P. Perkins in last year’s British amateur championship at Sandwich.- He had a very considerable prospect of winning for the second year in succession. Since slow play had been going bn for so long as to suggest that it received . official sanction, one could nob help feeling that this was neither the-time nor the place at which to stir it up with a bombshell. ' .

Still it is truly very exaoperating to a person who plays at' a normal . speed, and it must be placed on record that Perkins wastes a good . deal, of time without appearing, to be conscious that he is doing it. Once he has made up his mind, he hits his. shots quickly, but he does a lot bf thinking about them, and he has a way of trying his missed putts over again and moving ..forward' with a degree of leisure which doubtless, annoys the more highly ; strung individual. At. the same time, .he was by no means the slowest player in the; championship. There were a good many others against whom such an objection might have been raised with equal or even greater justification. .That he. should have been selected as the dread-; ful example was presumably one of the penalties' of success. It is still -true that uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

There was a competitor who kept Perkins waiting’at every hole, and'another who is so distinguished for his slowness that the authorities have even “seeded” the draw for the open championship (a step they are not supposed to take)';so as to'place him last and prevent him from holding , up the rest of the field. On one occasion, when little more than halfway round, this amateur aspirant was four clear holes behind the' couple immediately in front of him. A player following him who had a chance of winning (one of the foremost golfers of the present day) o-ave up the effort after these dreary delays in a storm of wind and rain. PLACING THE RESPONSIBILITY. . There is not much object in mentioning the names of unduly contemplative players how that Perkins has been accorded the limelight all to himself.. He must rest content with the knowledge that, having, taken up his residence in America' he: has left behind/ him a martyr’s memorial. /' Surely there" will now have, to be in-, troduced -.some definite procedure;' by .which the. player who constantly holds' up those, who follow" him can come under automatic treatment. It has been semiofficially stated that-jt -is not. certain what steps can be. taken under the rule which says that if a match fails: to keep its place and loses in distance more than one clear hole on ...the players in -front it may be passed on request being made.: Apparently, jt is a -question of whether I‘may be passed” means “shall be passed.” Presumably the remedy is a rule that in such circumstances those who have lost a clear hole in distance must invite the succeeding couple cd pass through.’ . The onus should be .on ,the laggardfl. > It is all very hard on the people who believe in the proverb that , what) is worth doing is worth doing well, and .that they cannot produce their best golf unless they' reflect' upon , their shots. Perking: j g one of that number, and their number.has been legion since the early days of the .’game; ■ Truth to’ tell, the great one and only James Braid in his halycon days was about as slow a player ,aa anybody could be. He would walk forward a hundred arid fifty yajda in his most solemn mariner to inspect- the land for his approach shot, and walk back again without .any regard for the time that might elapse before the world ended. The difference was that, the multitude watched him doing thia reverently, whereas now they want their champions to speed up to high horse-power.