GOLF NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16908, 6 December 1922, Page 3

GOLF NOTES.

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2) Young play ©re, and the younger the better, can alter their style at will, but it becomes more difficult as tho

player gets older. Personally, I alter e<i my grip when twenty-five years of age. At that time the principles of the overlapping gr\r> were not so well &..aoxm fru at the present time, and it repaired longer to carry out the alteration, but the improvement warrant© 1 the change. The player who will find the greatest difficulty in changing his style would, he the one who lias never 1-ad tuition, but who had. developed a style which rendered supoess impossible. ith such a player for a pupil. J would ifsk him to play a number of shots and hud out where his swing was tunda mentally wrong. He might be doing half a dozen things incorrectly, but there is always one main fault. TEradi- ‘ .Ue that fault, ami all the others will >-><>n disappear. Having located the fault, the player should concentrate upon that one point and endeavour to l- ‘ l if right-. Most players will find ili.it within their powers of accomplish n ••nt, and having done so they will do rive additional pleasure from their

LADIES’ GOLF NOTES. Players at Shirlev last week wore i. <U Boys and Mrs George Barnes, Cameron Smith, Miss Fish, Miss i>risbecl, Mrs Vernon, Mrs Wigram. Misi» May Newton and Mrs J. H. Hull, Mrs Ounliffe, Mrs Langford, Mrs Best and Mrs Donald. Golf is described as a tragedy in eighteen holes. .V 6 on one’s card is a thing to j accept with caJm, a 7 is not a dis ' grace from which there is no reeov } «ry hut an S—Mas there not a famous i professional who once observed “ I 'ate j n eights l ” ‘‘Yet every man must take tho i greatest, care with teo shots, or give i .vay to grim Despair. Slice, and you aaow not where you go, nor why; pull, and you know not why you go. nor where.” t: Every inch a golfer, but. not enough inches! ” Such is Mr Ber nurd Darwin’s summing up of Miss Alexa Stirling, the l. nited States champion. Abe Alitchell says. *•* I would like t<* adduiss a word to those golfers who are always so anxious to speak to players during a match. That word is ‘ Don’t.’ ’* Malcolm Brown is still caddying at Sr, Andrews old course at the age of 82. Naturally, he thinks golf id not ■ what it used to he. For nearly sixty years now golf has l»een the whole basis of Hoy lake’s social and. economic life. When a Hoylake resident meets a friend he does net say, “ How’s business? ” or ‘'How’s your family?* 3 but “How’s your game?*’—(Liverpool ” Courier.)’’ There are three methods of learning to drive—by study, which is i lie most wearisome; by imitation, which is the incist fallacious j and by experience, which is the most bitter. Players in muckle matches, harassed enough l»v cameras and crowds, will have need of ribbed iron heads on then shoulders and nerves of steel if the innovation of tho Louis Club in placing u. wireless operator at every hole to record th© results is generally adopted. *** Princess Maty improves her game and her interest in golf so much that it is to ho hoped she will make convert of Viscount Lascelles. Her Royal Highness enjoyed some delightful golf during her recent stay at l hate worth.

Seaside golf on a real links is the only true test of golf. it does not necessarily follow that, because u course happens to overlook the sea, i’ is of a sandy nature; but even if the ground may leave a. great deal to be desired, the finest of all hazards is to be found at a course so situated. The mere fact that all novices and all theme who are accustomed, to inland golf hate • wind, is proof that it is the most difficult cf all difficulties. On the o her hand the player who ha.s learnt to play the game on a wind-swept link* is absolutely at home under the worst weather conditions, and is inclined t.j look upon the calm days as unnatural conditions under which to- play. In- , land courses do not vary very considerably with difficult weather conditions On a sandy seaside links the holes can vary from day to day. and often from hour to hour. Although a sandy links may in appearance be suffering from want of rain, you find with iron shot> and approaches the small sandy divot comes away without causing jar, and through tho green the ball sitting up and making brassie play a joy. \ course of this sandy nature does become dry and the greens fast, but it i- still possible to stop a ball from a pitch. This cannot be said of an inland course which is baked hard. On the former the tent bolds the ball, on rhe latter the ground, having become mUed, affords no grip. The golf drive is a clean sweeping 'troke. in which distance is the desider alum, it is much better to sacrifice butane© to direction; and the ideal stroke is to go “all out” without any strain. When addressing the ball for a drive, address it with the head of the club -lightly inclined inwards; this is the exact position and angle at which the c lub head should strike the ball to gel the maximum strength, elevation ami direction Swing back slowly, without over reaching. And remember, a great deal depends upon the smoothness of the drive. The mid iron is a moat important c lub tor lady golfers to learn to its 3 properly, tor it is a “hitting ’ stroke, ;«»id very few women golfers have learn ed to hit. The ball is hit on the down ward instead of the upward swing. Miss Leitch describes it as a descending blow, so that the club head in continu ing the arc of the swing strikes tlio grotfnd and iHits out a divot of turf after hitting tiie ball. The stroke - should finish with the club in line with tli*. objective at which the player s aiming—the same applies to all iro i t-hois. It is with the mashie that the range Of finer golf strokes begin, when the phiver has learned to have more con trol over the ball in tho air. and alter it has landed. Forcing with the mashie ueually proves fatal. For a, woman golfer any distance tip to eighty yards 16 the range for the mashie; over that use -r or the mid iron, as the neces “ - cdfi for *- until, a r© cent convert to golf, took a day off from his office to watch a thirty-six jMiiao final of a big tournajukciit. At

the end of the day, finding him thought - iul and depressed, his friend asked him ihe cause of his worries. He “ Well, I have watched A. and B? play every shot ; one stends with a very open stance, uses the palm grip and plays a beautiful shot on to the green; the other u&es a close stance arns tho finger grip, and aleo plays a beautiful shot on to the green. What am I to do?” A famous English woman golfer in writing of the above incident says: “ My sympathies are extended to him and other novices similarly situated, but my advice to all beginners is, ‘ TTse the stance and grip that feel most com iortable, and do not pay the slightest, attention to the criticisms of others. * No two people in the world are exactly alike, so how can two golfers be expected to swing, stand and grip the chin in an identical manner? Every golfer has her own little tricks, and that similarity is unnecessary is proved by, the tact that of tho hundreds of good play ere* in the golfing world, each reaches the hole in a more or less different manner from all the others. In the distance one can recognise a certain play er. Why? Simply because she has some little characteristic of her own. It may l>e the way she addresses the ball, or the position of her feet, or some break in her swing, but no matter vrliat it is, that player has made it part of her style and it comes naturally to her to play her shot in that particular mariner.

Golf* is an open air game. Put me in a greenhouse and I’ll play good golf. Give me a putter in the hall and I'll show you how to hit the umbrella stand every time, and smash the barometer with a perfeitly executed rib faced niblick approach. Set me down on the eleventh green at St Andrew’s, a beautiful glassy piece of turf, turn on an eighty m.p.h. wind, and after ten minutes you would need to whistle up an ambulance. It is the gift of being able to overcome the conditions that proves a golfer’s worth.—Harry E ill lord. A certain histrionic genius who was more at home on tho stage than on the links, once thought he would like a little practice. Accordingly, he wont out to a tec with an attendant caddie, and proceeded to make several drives (of sorts). At last, however, ho succeeded in getting a bail away to a distance of nearly lbO yards, where it fell just short- of a couple in front Thereupon his caddie, who was a. little vn y a hea d. I ustil y be I lowed “Fore !*' J he actor smiled happily, and proceed ed to despatch a second ball in the same direction. ‘‘ Ye mustna drive.’ exclaimed the caddie, running back to him. “ Did ye no’ hear me shout Fore’?” The actor’s face fell ! “ S, \ that was what you were yelling, was it ? he returned in a disappoint-en voice. “ l thought it was ‘ Encore ! ’ »’ The favourite story told of the big professionals is that which relates how Vardon and Braid played an exhibition match at* the opening of a singularly bad nine-hole course. To some remark of Yardcn’s on its dements, B aid dryly replied that “it might have been worse.” “ Worse!” replied Vardon, “ how could it possibly have been worse?” “Oh, well,’ was Braid’s grim answer, “ there might have been eighteen holes of it instead of only nine ! ”

With your putts, if you look up You will never strike the Cup; Keep your eye upon the ball. Still you will not hole them all.

It is commonly said that the poorest player can always make a faultness drive when ho is swinging at a. daisy ou the lawn, but is not this a de lusion? Hie swinger is usually content so long as the daisy is fairly decapitated. But a. decapitated daisy tells jiq talcs! The stroke might lie topped or sliced or pulied, but the daisy-head does not fly far enough to betray us. i “My time,” the millionaire, “ is worth fifteen pounds a minute.” ‘ Well,” said his matter-of-fact friend, ‘ * what about a. couple of thousand pounds worth of golf this afternoon? ” “ We carry far too many clubs,” murmured the philosopher, ‘‘we should carry only those wc are really able “ Yes,” snarled tho disagreeable man, “ but you would look a damn fool chasing round the links with an empty bag in your hand.” A lady who played at. Montrose, Always wore the most wonderful clothes. Her opponents got “ fed-up,” For it always was “ head-up,” To look at her well fitting hose. The clubhouse ghost story—One down on Bogey. The Better ’Ole—the nineteenth. Painting the hall a jazz pattern is the latest suggestion for helping you to keep your eye on it. Our own trial of it was unfortunate, for at the first attempt the ball jazzed into the rough out of bounds to the right of the first hole. GOLF TIPS. When on the tee you take your stance, note well that there is just one thing that is no golfer’s mere ro mance, but really worth remembering ft makes no odds how far you swing, or if you do not swing at all. Just keep your eye upon the ball. When through the green you next advance, whether you lie in gerse or ling. Though divots don’t improve ; your chance, tlio turf is vers* soft in spring as clock or spoon to earth you bring. Keep your eye on the ball. Aiid when you roach the green’? l expanse still to my counsel firm 1.cling. Waste no time in fidgetting nor let the hole your gaze enthrall, no matter what you’re borrowing, and keep your eye upon the ball, j Golfer, whose game has lost its sting, I whose pride, perchance* lias had. a fall. | just treat your arms as bite of string, i and keep your eye upon the ball.