GOLF COURSE INCIDENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 June 1931, Page 4

GOLF COURSE INCIDENTS

TARANAKI’S RECENT PLAY •ELTHAM AGAIN IN THE LIMELIGHT A NOTE ON FLAYING CHIP SHOTS

(By "

“Stance”)

Golfers in Taranaki have not been particularly lucky with Saturdays this season, and again last -week the match at Waiwakaiho had to be postponed. However, it is to be hoped that this week conditions will be better and the final round of the Medley Cup will take place. The present leader, J. H. Boon, had to go away from town during the week and will not be able to take part. ■Players are particularly requested to look at ■ the notice board before commencing play as the greens committee ■will make a decision regarding the teeing up on. Saturday morning. Whether or not the rule is in force it is up to all players to be very careful regarding ■the replacements of divots, and junior players are warned that members of committee and some of the senior members will be on the look out for offenders.

The committee would also like to draw members’ attention to the appeal for the Hawke's Bay Earthquake Fund, and a special effort is being made during the week-end. Donations are limitled to the small sum of one shilling. .Viewing the matter how we will, it ie an uncomfortable fact that the New Plymouth Club has few promising youngsters, fewer perhaps than any club of its standing in the Dominion. It 'cannot be that our youths have not the ability; it has just not been brought •■out, and it is up to the better players to arrange four balls including some of these boys. In this way they will lose that “don’t care” feeling and get down to serious business simply because they have to in order to hold their ends up 'and justify the compliment paid to them. These boys cannot ask low handicappers to play with them; the move 'must come from the low markers, and the. sooner the better. The Hawera match taught us a lesson, and here is the femedy. Marcroft fairly bolted away with the (Boyle Cup at Opunake and the handicapper will take a slice off him now. (His. net score of lid for the two rounds was no less than 20 strokes better than the scratch' score for the 3d holes, and (needless to say the back-markers could not cope with this. Edmonds, Cundy (and J. N. Stephenson ad scored well, land the last-named had the best gross. Congratulations to Mrs. Owen Casey on carrying off the Coronation Medal event against lady players right through the Dominion. The Quin brothers have (always kept Eltham on the national (map on the men’s side, and now with (Mrs. Casey on the ladies’ side people will be excused for thinking that there is something in that Eltham air. Stratford carried too many guns for •Waitara in the inter-club contest last week, and. dealt with the riyer-siders just as Eltham had. dealt with ■ them the previous week. Greer, and Anderson set their side a -good example by accounting for Glasgow tnd Fuller both morning and afternoon. Eltham still retain the Seafield Cup, Hawera’s challenge being beaten off by ■four matches to two last week-end. Leo Quin. continuing his good form was just tod good for 0 Callaghan, but Jimmy had a harft struggle before he could dispose of Whitehead. Beeves got a big lead on Abbott at the start, and though the. Eltham man fought hard he could not quite make up the leeway. Alex Stewart was not hitting too well, and Tad. Morpeth had a margin in his favour reminiscent of brother Sloan. Both the Hawera youngsters,, Pease and Sturrock, fought hard, and though defeated were, far from disgraced. The winner of the British Open, Miss ’Enid Wilson, though still young in years, has been playing golf for the 'last ten or twelve years. Sheris a sixfooter and very powerfully built. What is more, she can use her strength and hit a very long ball. In the final game She apparently played in inspired style over the last round and never gave her opponent a chance. The holder, Miss (Diana Fishwick, went out in the fourth, and in the light of her American trip It would seem that her win last year Was somewhat of a flash in the pan. It would be interesting if Mis.. Wilson were to make the trip to the United States to try herself out against Glenna Collett and company, but so far very (few Englishwomen have competed in .the American event, and those who did have been troubled by the closely bunkered greens, which are a feature of the courses in. the States. It han been said, and with a great deal of truth, that the main difference (between a good player and a champion lie* in the shot played from 30 to 50 yards from the pin; in other words, the chip shot. Any analysis of the (rounds of the crack players in the big 'event confirms this statement. In his (record-breaking round of 68 in the last 'American Open Bobby Jones was never •within 30 yards of the flag with his tee shot at any of the three one-shotters, •but he tore off his three at each, and the same was true of them all. Now, to the actual shot itself, it can •be played in various ways, and of course Ivanes as to the circumstances, but the first thing to bear in mind is that the simplest shot is always the best under all circumstances. This is the run up Bhot with a number three iron. The tehot is played through the ball with the object of making it run on landing *nd has no stop on it whatever. Some misguided people, more through ignorance than anything else, will often Condemn this as not being a golf shot, Ibpt 'don’t believe them. It works, and *ny shot that works is a good one, and, What' is more, all the cracks from Bobby Jones downwards use it, and if they (knew a better one they would not. The greatest mistake the average player Can make is to try and pitch a ball •up to stop on the green unless he has to. If there is a bunker to carry it is a different matter, and then the club must be held more firmly and the back •pin applied to the shot, but in all other circumstances the simple pitch and run i* 100 per cent, better than its more spectacular looking brother the stop •not. CULTIVATION OF STYLE. HINTS TO THE WEEK-END GOLFERS The - chief difficulty of most club golfers is that they are forced to allow an interval of a week or so between each spell of play. Keeping the game together—and forming a style —with ■ these breaks is never easy. A golfer may sometimes play better after an absence from the game of a month or more, but the occasional holiday is a very different thing from regular intervals of six to seven days. In the former case after three or four rounds one manages to capture the knack of timing shots. A week away from the course, however, and it is gone again. . Inability to imagine shots « causes vital mistakes ami confidence is destroyed. When that happens there is the risk that shots will get so far out

of control that steady play for days will be needed to got back to form. The player who suffers least from the difficulties of week-end play is the man who has developed a style of his own. “Self-made” players seem to have the knack of producing their standard form at will. They seem to reach their lowest handicap . after a few years, and having reached that standard keep to it. There are, however, the players who are so keen to improve that they will try anything once. Away from the course they study theories and on their return attempt to put them into prac? tice. The result is chaos.

Golfers with reputations for temperament are often those who attempt to study the game in too many directions at once. One day a new theory works, confidence increases and they go from success to success. The next day something goes wrong and they lose form as rapidly as they found it. , It might appear, therefore, that the golfer who ignores theories and keeps to his own game has the best of the bargain. That is not so; there is a time for everything, including theories. The early part of the career of every golfer should be devoted to experiment, tuition, studv. Then, when a certain style has been” developed and a fairly satisfactory standard of play reached, the. golfer should concentrate on keeping to one style until his. strokes become automatic. Once the golfer can relieve himself of tho need for thinking how to produce any given- shot, then will-his game become most successful and his form vary least. . .. An error of three or four yards in the pitch of an approach- shot may make a difference of four or five points in a medal score. If you have no need to think of anything, except the exact spot on which you desire to pitch the ball, you are ten times more likely to place it there than if you are trying to think about the movement of your left hip while swinging. Almost -any -player will find a big improvement in his game if he will strive to forget everything except the ball and its destination. He must also keep this in. mind—it matters little whether one uses a half or full swing, providing the timing and placing are correct.

Types of- swing, grip and stance are means to an end—very valuable means —and must essentially be understood by the golfer who aims at something more than mediocrity, but they ■ are not the whole game. ■ It is easy to be disgusted at being beaten by a player whose style can only be described as. “poky,” but the .fact that he regularly gets, down in four or five strokes, must, be. admitted to atone for a certain lack of artistry. Im the long .run, the .player, who develops a style modelled on classic lines -vvill reach the highest standard. The whole point is whether that can be done by the week-end player. If he pursues a definite route, it can.