THE ROYAL AND ANTIENT GAME OF GOLF

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17576, 29 June 1925, Page 10

THE ROYAL AND ANTIENT GAME OF GOLF

13 V TJIE “CADDIE.”

The many golfing friends of H. B. Lusk will be pleased to hear that, he intends participating in the championship meeting in September. Though now a resident of Auckland. Mi* Lusk is still very partial to Shirley and spends any vacation he can there. J. IT. Early, when playing last Saturday at Shirley, holed his approach shot at the “ Narrows ” for a 2, or two strokes under bogey. Amongst the visitors to the Christchurch. Golf Club last week were Mr I). > Menzies (Miramar) and Mr M. Andrews (Hutt). The Christchurch Ladies’ Golf Club can now claim a 3 handicap plnycy in Miss Chrystall, who reached that enviable position in playing in the qualifying round of the Godhv Bowl. Miss Chrystall has been steadilv reducing her handicap all this year, and has earned her distinction by constant good play. Miss Chrystall spent some time in England, and while there received tuition, the benefit of which she is now enjoying. Mrs Dodgshun, of Dunedin, is also a 3 handicap player. The only low.er handicap is that of Mrs Peake, of Cambridge, who by virtue of being lady champion is entitled io be scratch. Messrs Bay Smith and C. 'Devlin, members of the Rangiora Golf Club, were players at Shirley during the week-end. Mr K. W. Robinson won the flag r atch at Hagley last Saturday, taking the flag to the nineteenth green before his allotted strokes on the round were exhausted. Several of the members of the Maurice Moseovitch Company are keen on golf. Messrs Greenaway, Souper, Laurence and Blunt are playing regularly at Shirley during their stay in Christchurch. Among the recent visiting players at Shirley were Miss Lowry and Messrs .Tames and Ralph Lowry, of Okawa, Hawke’s Bay. J. Lowry is a crack tpnnis player and last year showed promise at golf, attaining a handicap of 0Ho unfortunately lost his right thumb and now lias to grip the club between the first and second finger. Notwithstanding +H S inconvenience, he drives a long ball. The British open golf championship of 1925 was won bv the professional, Jim Barnes, of America, with the aggregate score for four rounds of medal play of 300. Two Englishmen. Ted Ray and A. Compston were the run- i ners-up with 301. Macdonald-Smith J turned in a 69 for the second round, j a record for the course, and at the I end of the third round looked like an easy winner, leading the field by five strokes. The championship was last . played at Prestwick in 1914, when Harry Vardon won with an aggregate of 306. In 1908 James Braid won his fourth open championshij) with an aggregate of 291 (70. 72, 77. 72). the best aggregate ever made in the. BritThe first of the mid-week competitions arranged by the Christchurch Golf Club for it 5 members was played last Thursday. The competition was a four-ball bogey, and it was won by E. M. Macfarlane and A. R. Blank, who returned a card of 7 up, a very good performance. Unfortunately the response in the way of entries was not encouraging. True, the afternoon was not inviting, owing to a. heavy fog. but all the same had all the players oil the course entered for the competition it would have made a fair field and

given encouragement for Ihe committee to continue the competition. On Saturday at the sixth hole, “Briggs',” E. T. Shores, playing his approach shot to the green, landed his ball on the full pitch right in the hole where it remained, holing for a three. V. Macßae, the professional of the Nelson Golf Club, who is under special engagement to the New Zealand Golf Council to give tuition to the North Canterbury clubs, is due at Amberley , to-day. There are 156 golf clubs in South Africa, many of them possessing beautiful club houses and courses. Each golfer knows the large part that “habit” plays in golf. One of the most important habits to develop is that of giving approach putts a chance. Many golfers who arc playing extremely well in every other department of the gamewill play more than half the approach putts just short of the cup, instead of being past the cup. Give the ball a chance and make a habit of it. This also includes chip shots and short approaches, most of which are lamentably and dismally short. This habit can only . be developed by more concentration on this one section of the game. The mental side must do its part of the job. Miss Joyce Vethered gives women golfers the following advice: "If it comes at all natural to the player to keep the back of the left hand turned over, showing on the top of the club, it is a point to cultivate. It has the considerable advantage of tending to keep the left arm straight. The tension of the left elbow is increased by it, and this helps to prevent the crumpling up of the left arm, whicn leads to loss of power and accuracv. But to most players this position is very unnatural and can even be painful, so that it would be unwise in any way to insist upon its adoption. Only let it be emphasised, that any device which a player can make use of with the intention of increasing the straightness of the left arm and the consequent swinging directly and freely from the left shoulder is invaluable. It is also necessary that the hands should be kept low in the address. This brings the body into the correct angle of position leaning over towards the ball, with the weight kept well back on the heels. If the hands are held high, the body becomes too upright.” SPIRITUAL CHRONOLOGY OF GOLF. (By Opie Reid.) “Did you know that golf has unconsciously jnade more gentlemen in manj ners in one season than were ever turnI ed out of a dancing academy? j “Do you know that the records show I that there are very few criminals among golfers? "Do you know the origin of golf and what was used for the first golf balls? “Did 3'ou know that golf develops character more than any other game? “Shortly after the introduction of golf, the Scottish Parliament passed a law regulating this new game because it was interfering with archer}-, and (this with national defence. This was in 1457. Did you, know that? Golf laughs with the school boy. Golf appeals to the manliness of youth and of age. "The spirit of golf cannot be taught on the point of the pen. Golf is endowed with a spirit, unlike the spirit of any other game. ‘How shall we reform the devil'! thundered the evangelist. 'Teach him to play golf.’ shouted a man in the audience.” This is a book with which ever}- golfer should be familiar. Whether you are a reader or not. so long as you arc a golfer, you should have this famous little book on golf by Opie Read.