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Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12872, 6 January 1906, Page 3

UNKNOWN

Some jealous males, who cannot play eo weu, says a .London daily, swear that tiio ali-conquering game of golf, which is increasing at tie rate of nearly one club per day, is not a lady's game at all, and that one's women-folk ought not to be encouraged to play is. But ilia: docs not prevent .:.<.• iv.nk.~- »•: fciiiiniix-- goiters troni swelling vc:y visib'.y indeed every summer season, .J! i the ladies who play confess t- making a'.! ki::ds cf saoritices so that they may pur- *:' 3 what is. under the cheapest of cor.d; r,s by va> means an ir.expensive pas;kite. ".:.o links poh.:. out that by doing so they need line hats and costumes, and • hits they are free to devote a large share •>; their dress allowance to their golfing upkeep: while it has bven suggested from '. somewhat prejudiced quarter that the husbands of matrons who play have noticed a marked decrease in the "quantity and quality of the family lunches and dinners from the time of the election of such ladies to their firs; golf club, the presumption being that ths financial supplies which had been voted by rlw head of the house had been partially expended in Haskell balls instead of in delicacies for the table. However, tb* lady golfer is alwavs able to justify herself very readily. As to its being a lady's game in looks." there are fewsights more graceful or more typical of healthy British sportswomanship than that of a skilful girl swinging a driver on the links, even though it is not in powerful driving, or the "long game'' as golfers call it, that women mostly excel. As for her determination and thoroughness, the lady golfer is able to point to the fact that she is a member of a Ladies' Golf Union, a marvellous organisation, embracing the whole world of lady's golf in this country, while the mere man golfer has no- union at) all, and though he says he does not want one, that answer does not altogether dispose of the lady's assertion of supremacy in one respect at least. Driven into a when the man is arguing in this way against golf as a game for women, and being oftentimes very much annoyed at the increasing number of " cock | and hen" golf clubs, he generally declares savagely at the finish that golf was never intended to be played by women, implying that tradition is against the fair sex on this point. Wrong again; but 4his is a very common delusion, since all the storie: that one hears told of the great deeds < old time golfers and all the ancient pictures that one sees on the walls of golf club have man golfers for their heroes. B« as a matter of fact, some of the oldest but least known golf traditions include women, and it seems to be the fact that one of the first Monarchs in England or Scotland who ever sought pleasure and relaxation in trundling a golf-ball over the links was Mary, Queen of Scots, and that she played on golfing grounds no less celebrated than St. Andrews. This was in 1563. During that winter Mary occupied a house in South Street, and it is generally believed that she yielded to the spell of the place and played golf on the links with Chastelard, the favourite who was subsequently beheaded. Although the evidence that she did thus play at St. Andrews is not conclusive, it is v.ery likely that she did so, for it is quite certain that she played at Edinburgh, and it is variously quoted as a specimen of her heartlessness on the one hand and of her enthusiasm for the game on the other that she was found playing it only a few days after the murder of her husband.

It is suggested that the golfing ancestors of the present lady members were fishgirls, and the evidence on the point is comprised in a minute of the Roval Musselburgh Golf Club, dated December 14, 1810. which reads thus:—"The club to present, by subscription a handsome new creel and shawl to the best Female Golfer -who plays on the annual occasion oa Januarv 1 next, •3d style (January 12 new), to be "intimated to the Fish Ladies by William Robertson, the officer of the club. Two of the best. : Barcelona silk handkerchiefs to be added to the above premium of the creel.—(Signtd) Alex. p. Hunter, Captain." From such early beginnings th» ladr golfer has come on" at a great rate, especially during the last decade, and it is singular fact that though England has manv fine golfers, and Scotland naturallr Terv many more. Ireland has produced "br far the tinest of all, the rest of the world" during the last few y*ars having brought forth nothing to equal the peerless Miss Rhona Adair, who is almost as good as a man champion, or the Hezlets. —The Welsh lady is comparatively shy of; golf. But the American girl is mad on it. She is> selling her tennis rackets. ier bicycles, her pet poodles, and her spare clothing, and putting every penny of the proceeds into jjolf. Englishmen golfers who hare been to the States lately have been amazed at. the enthusiasm of the American lady golfer. They say there is nothing like it anywhere. Lastsummer thry sent a team over to compete for our Ladies* Championship, and though the Cup did not go back to America, it may do some day. __ „ Just at present the American girl is evidently a trifle inferior to her British sister on ths- links, but the latter has a wholesome fear of the American peril which threatens her. The American girl does not care to what lengths she goes to improve her game, and she is setting an example of efficiency which is already being largely copied elsewhere. She adopts the very simplest and most comfortable clothing so that she may swing freely, and she has a taste for large boots, because she can play belter in them. One day this summer the present writer was playing at North Berwick, immediately in front of a ladies' match, which included a well-known American player, who was wearing enormous boots that looked as if they were B's at least, and which had soles that a ploughman would have rejoiced in. What is more, she wore a short, skirt that the freest display was made of this most unusual footwear. Some familiar friend ventured to chaff her about them, and she answered,

'"Waa!. T guess that you'd have tens if vou could drive like me!" There was no possible answer to such a crushing retort. This, in a modified form is the determined self-sacrificing spirit that is pervading the lady golfer everywhere, in Britain as in America.

It is not always easy to account for the ladies' success, particularly as it is by no means chiefly made up of great skill on the putting greens, where strength does nob count at all. as so many men imagine it does. A large number of lady golfers, without being physically strong."and with only quite slender amis and wrists—strength in which is generally supposed to be essential to powerful driving—manage to hit away amazingly line balls from the tee. The cnly possible explanatioa is that while they have less .strength they apply what they have in n more scientific manner, and with kss waste than the average man. This almost amounts to an admission that they play more scientifically, and in the case of the lending lady exponents, there can be no doubt about the science their game. Whatever its length their driving is generally straight. A man's favourite explanation for the skill thus attained is that the lady golfer smokes less than he does and drinks less—if he drinks at all—and that these circumstances tell their tale ia her favour. There may be something

in that. The average lady also goes io bed much earlier than the average man. and tiiis iilso is immensely in her favour as a golfer. And she is more regular in her diet, anl not so much given to eating things which are certain to disagree with her. and one of Use best judges of golf and goifers declares that golf is nil a matter of the stomach, and the man with the best must. win. It is certainly true—,-iid no outsider or even a golfer of small exper: .-ncc can possibly appreciate h«v. sjv.c !t i>.— success in golf depends < 11 lsvji:c ;i healthy H:V— healthy down to the vcrv nicest «U tails: and while a. man may Ic. "i! what' is recorded as quite such a heaihy necessity, nearly always the pull of him in this respect, and that is why. when she really applies herself patiently to the gvur.e she makes progress at it which, in comparison with that made by a man. is nficn quite out of proportion to her physical abilities.