THE ROYAL AND ANTIENT GAME OF GOLF

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17864, 4 June 1926, Page 6

THE ROYAL AND ANTIENT GAME OF GOLF

COMING EVENTS. June S—L.G.U. Monthly Medal, Avondale Ladies’ Golf Club. n —Medal Handicap, Richmond Hjll Golf Club. June s—Last day for final round of the Captain s Trophy -and first round of Campbell Cup, Christchurch Golf Club. June s—Bogey Match, Ilarewood Ladies* Golf Club. June 6—lnter-Club Matches, home and away, against the Kaiapoi Club, Avondale Golf Club. June 6—First Round of plav-off of the Ward Cup, Harewood Golf Club. June 9—L.G.U. Monthly Medal, Christchurch Ladies’ Golf Club. June 10—First Round of an EclecticMatch, Richmond Hill Ladies’ Golf Club. June 11—Senior and Junior Canadian Foursomes, Christchurch Ladies’ Golf Club. June 14—Scottish Ladies’ Championship at Cruden Bay. June 21—British Ladies’ Championship, at Harlech. June 23—' The British Open Champion ship, at Lytham and St Anne’s. Saturday's play at the Avondale Club saw the entrants for the Scales Cup narrowed down to eight couples. The remaining competitors are: J. Stokes and Miss Gibbons, J. Carter and Mrs Fierce, J. Millard and Miss Baxter, H. R. T. Spanjer and Miss Lawlor, H. Lightband and Miss Mitchell, L. E. Robinson and Miss Maindonald, E. Reese and Miss Webb, and F. W. Deighton and Miss Marriott. The Hagley ladies succeeded in defeating the ladies of the Rangiora Club in a match played at Rangiora last Friday. Mrs M’Clatchie, the first player for Hagley, lost to Miss Lvnskey, the Rangiora champion. The match was won by the narrow margin of one game. 11. A. Boddington is the latest player to hole out in one. He accomplished the feat at “Old Nick” at Shirley last Saturday. Mr Boddington was until lately a well-known cricketer, and he evidently* remembers a little about “ finding the gaps in the field.” A. L. Cropp drove to some purpose at Harewood last Saturday, when he was playing- for Shirley against the home club. He reached the green at “ The Hollow,” a distance of 257 yards, in one, and holed out the putt for a sensational two. The bogey for the hole is four. For the second time in the history of the game the British amateur championship has been won by an Ameri can. While congratulating the winner, Mr Jesse Sweetser, one cannot help feeling that a British win would have been the slightest bit more satisfactory. When Bobby Jones, the bright particular star of the strong American team, was beaten by J. G. Simpson, it was felt that the event was almost a safe thing for Britain, but the result serves to emphasise the fact that the Americans generally have several strings to their very strong bow. Three Australian ladies have entered for the British ladies’ championship, which event has been postponed until June 21. The growing popularity of the game is amply borne out by the preparations that are being made for the British open championship, which commences on June 23. Arrangements are being made to accommodate one hundred competitors, who must qualify beforehand in three sectional competitions of two rounds of eighteen holes each. In the event of an unwieldy entry, provision is being made for an extra day’s qualifying play. This event is really the world’s greatest fixture, and few nations will remain unrepresented. 5*5 55 5*5 Here is something which provokes thought. It was during a discussion of long driving that an acute observer mentioned it, and every ode present was impressed. If you look at photographs of Mitchell and Ray, two of the biggest hitters in England.’ you will see that their hands are considerably above the head at the top of the swing. If you watch Macintosh. possibly the biggest hitter of his weight in New Zealand, you will see the same thing. Although members of local clubs have been known to kill a seagull with a golf ball, there is no record of a player having killed two with the one shot, says an exchange. The feat of killing two birds with a drive was recently accomplished by James Bomford, golf professional in Chester, England. He made a long drive from the seventh tee. After the ball travelled about seventy-five yards it killed a bird known locally as a weather wagtail. Its speed apparently unlessened, the ball continued on 15ft, and killed another wagtail, this time dropping with its feathered victim. :*: 5*5 Great golf was played recently by Allen Russell who, at Fishermen's Bend course (Victoria) did a sensational 38, breaking the previous record for the course of 71. Sandy Herd, a former world's champion, says you can turn and you can waggle, you can twist and you can pivot, but if you haven’t the natural ability to play golf, then you simply can't play it. You are being taught to turn your body this way arid that

. and in the end you get nowhere. Everyone has a natural way and to get j from this and try to follow up j what you studiously read about—the straight left and other such things- is 1 the means of putting 90 per cent of people off their game. In young Hornabrook, who was fourteen years old last December, Masterton have a promising golfer. He drives a good straight ball and all his othershots are played with that skill which denotes a real understanding of the game. His handicap at Masterton is at present 16-12, and at Miramar 20-15. It requires no very great stretch of imagination to see him, before he is many years old, getting down well towards the scratch mark. The Cunard line has ' inaugurated special golf tours from the United States to Europe, arranging for the tourists’ privileges of all the best-known golf courses in the British Isles. A plan is being considered by the company of sending out a special golf steamer next year to touch at every port in the world where there is a golf course. It is estimated that there are nearly 1,000.000 golfers in the United States, sa}-s the New York Herald-Tribune.” This ought to make the world tour golf ship a practical and profitable enterprise. Out of this million there certainly would be a shipload of golfers who arc so attached to the sport that the only way they would care to see the world would be by moving from one golf course to another. :*5 :*: All golfers in these days are long drivers, but how many* of our 200yards men would continue to be satisfied with their wood if a New Zealand club followed the example of the Fulwell course in England and placed posts 200 yards from the tee? This has led to some surprises for the Fulwell men, scratch players who imagined that they often got 250 yards off the tee having discovered that their best drives are not often more than a few yards past the post, and that when driving against the wind they frequently fail to reach it.

Miss Glenn a Collett, the leading lady player of the United States, has now resolved not to compete in the British women’s championship at Harlech, Wales, scheduled to begin on June 21. She gave Miss Joyce Wethered a hard match last season, and was then so intent on making another effort this year that before returning home she paid a visit to Harlech in order to study the course. Three Australian ladies are entered lor the championship this year, but the cables have not told us whether Miss Wethered has entered or not. The last report was that she had not.

Where would you say the main difference between a low handicap, man and the man with middling figures against his name rests? Some players fail to reduce because they simply cannot keep straight with the wood, yet play their irons quite well;' some stay up because they*don’t know how to putt. Many people, when asked this question, would plump for the mashie as the club which separates the 2 man from the 16 man, and there would be a great deal of truth in it; but taking it all round, the 16 handicap man usually has the groundwork of the shots, and his failure to reduce is due to his failure to play consistently with all clubs.

The news that Archie Compston has decided to stay in America and become a professional there, is very disquieting to the British golfing world, writes H. J. Fernie in an English exchange. He attributes the exodus of British professionals to America to the fact that a large number of them are finding it very difficult to make a living at Home, whereas in the United States their serveies are rated much more highly and huge salaries are the rule. s*: 5*5 Compston was looked upon as the “British hope” for the next open championship, writes Mr Fernie. If he takes part in it now he will enter as an American. The loss of Compston to. Great Britain is in itself bad enough, but it is merely a symptom of what is going on to an alarming extent. I understand that Percy Allis has accepted a post near Berlin, that Frank Ball is leaving for America in June, and that a number of other less known but promising players are either leaving or thinking of doing so. K K SS The general exodus of the younger players to overseas clubs is accounted for by the fact that a very large number of professionals in Britain find it extremely difficult to make a livelihood. When one hears that in America even caddies can drive to the links in their own cars it is not to be wondered at that professionals in Britain cast longing eyes towards American clubs.

The teaching, playing and retaining fees in the majority of cases show very little increase on pre-war charges and have not risen in proportion to the cost of living. The result is that the professional has to depend to a large extent on the sale of golfing goods, and as many shops have added golf requisites to their departments the professional has lost seriously by this competition.

The tempting offers held out by Americans to British golfers are nothing new. My father, the late Willie Fernie, of Troon, who was open champion in ISS3, received a splendid offer from the Garden City Golf Club, Chicago. after he won the championship, lie declined the offer. In recent years nearly every professional of note has received good offers. Golf courses are being built in America much more rapidly than they are in Great Britain. In New York State alone there are 13 18-hole golf courses within a radius of five miles. All these courses want professionals and offer very attractive terms. Many of the players who have gone abroad have not distinguished themselves as players, but as teachers have been invaluable to their own clubs and have turned out some of the best golfers in America. If golf in Britain is to regain its former standing, something must be done to stop this emigration. The explanation of the movement is quite simple. The professional in England is underrated as compared wit the value placed upon his services in America.