BARRED GOLF CLUBS

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1931, Page 11

BARRED GOLF CLUBS

ROYAL AND ANCIENT CLUB ACTS

The secretary of the New Zealand Golf Association has received advice from the Rule of Golf Committee of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrew’s to the effect that the committee has recently been giving very careful consideration to the question of certain clubs manufactured with striking faces having a concavity much more pronounced than in those hitherto in use. --It has been decided, that the use of clubs so constructed, is not in the best interests of the game, and accordingly from the date of. the communication such clubs will not be permitted under the rules of the Royal and. Ancient Club.

Probably the cause of. the restriction is the revival of a very old. form .of club, known as the “sand iron,” in a modern form. With a much eoncavedfaeed niblick getting out of bunkers is made so much easier that the club may be said to have an automatic quality. All clubs that do the work that the golfer should be made to do through his own skill are likely to be similarly barred. Heavily ribbed mashies, giving automatic backspin, are an instance. Probably the ban in this latest instance is intended to block the “sand wedge,” a club recently introduced in America.