THE ROYAL AND ANTIENT GAME OF GOLF.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18208, 15 July 1927, Page 3

THE ROYAL AND ANTIENT GAME OF GOLF.

(By

FIXTURES.

July 16— Semi-final Captain's Trophy, Christchurch Club. July 16—Against Kaiapoi Seniors, at Kaiapoi. Avondale Club. July I(s—Fir-=t Rounds Senior and Junior Club Championship, IlaglSy Club. July 16—Bogey Handicap, Ilarewood Club. July 16—Second Round Rawnsley Cleek. Richmond Hill Club. July 16—Against Avondale Ladies' Club, at Avondale, Ilagley Ladies’ Club. July 1(| —First Rounds Junior Championship, and Teams Match against Hagley, at Avondale, Avondale Ladies’ Club. July 16—Second Round Rawnsley Cleek, Richmond Hill Ladies’ Club. July 17—Against Rangiora, at Rangi ora. Christchurch' Club. July 17—Second Round Blank Cup, Harewood Club. Julj- 19 —Junior L.G.U. Medal Match, Ilaglev Ladies' Club. July 21—Four-ball Bogey Handicap for Mr D. Wood’s prize. THE BRITISH *OPEN. Intense interest centres on the British Open Championship, now in competition on the historic course at. St. Andrews. From this distance we hear mostly of the fame and doings of the formidable American contingent, but the latest cables seem to indicate that the British competitors are going to make a very serious bid to regain their lost supremacy at the game. The most notable performances have so far been put up by amateurs. The qualifying rounds for the championship seemed to fulfil the prophecy of a local writer that, on his most accustomed course, Cyril J. Tolley would be a hard man to beat. lie was well to the fore then, but later cables indicate that the redoubtable Bobby Jones has found his form at last, and if that is so the cheeriest optimist will have to say good-bye to the prospect of the championship staying in the Old Country. Jones’s first round of the championship proper, a 6S, eclipses anything else that has been put up so far, the next best being seventy-ones by Tolley, Charles- Whitcombe, and Len Nettlefold, the Australian. Tolley’s first round was a 77, which wili •want a lot of improving on if he is to come out, at the top of the formidable list of competitors. Dr Tweddell, the new amateur charn pion, who has come in for such high praise from Greenwood, a leading c ritic of the game, showed up well in the qualifying rounds, but he only sec ured a7B in the first round. Aubrey Boomer, with 76, is another whose promising golf lately does not look like being borne out. Golf Decisions. Two recent decisions of The Rules of Golf Committee have to do with points arising from Rules 22 and 23 (says a Melbourne paper). A member of the Truants’ Golfing Societythought he had driven a ball out of bounds, and immediately played a provisional ball. Subsequently he found his ball in bounds, but in such a position that he elected to deem it unplayable. The decision is that he may continue his play with the provisional ball, although he had wrongly guessed the cause which might make it the ball in the match. In the other case it was a lady, who, thinking she had lost her ball, went back to play another. Having found the ball she would fain have continued with it. The rule is quite clear. She cannot do so. In answer to a supplementary question she is told that she cannot go back to the tee and play a ‘"provisional” ball, leaving her caddie to search for the bail originally played, and if he finds it continue to play it. So soon as the second ball is struck it becomes the bail in play, and the boy is merely looking for lost property. Caddie Picks up Ball. An extraordinary incident occurred in an Anglo-Scottish match at Hoylake in which T. P. Perkins, the young Birmingham player, who recently won the English championship, and Ronald Hardman, of Southport, were opposed to Andrew Jamieson, the Glasgow youth, who beat Bobby 7 Jones in the last year’s British championship, and \V. Tulloch, of Glasgow, a new player to international golf. At the fifteenth, Tulloch sliced his drive deep into the rough close to the second tee, and after a long search the ball could not be found. When the players were on the point of going back to play another ball, it was suggested that’ one of the caddies in a private match had picked up the ball. This assumption turned out to be correct, and the caddie was brought back and told to indicate the spot where he found the ball. In the end, instead of losing the hole the Scotsmen won it, thus turning the whole fortunes of the match. The British Amateur Championship. An Englishman writes as follows in regard to the final game of this year’s amateur championship“Mr Tweddell beat Mr Eustace Landale at Hovlake on Saturday by seven holes up and six to play and so becomes Amateur Champion. “It was rather a depressing end. That cannot be denied, for the unfortunate Mr Landale had, one of those mornings on which nothing can go right. The ball must be hit and he could not hit it, and so he became eight down and all was virtually/over. He shewed that he was made of V.rave stuff by playing far better after luncheon, never ceasing for a moment to try.t> get one hole back, but when all is said it was not. a match but a funeral procession. Mr Tweddell has played the best golf in this champion- -'- o and he played yet again the same rful. precise, machine-like game took plenty of trouble, but never «4psed into the painful slowness of the earlier days, with the result that his golf was a true pleasure to watch. As an example of his thoroughness may be mentioned the fact that, although'

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i he was eight up, he went out to prac- ! tise pitch shots after luncheon. There j is a quality of greatness about such pains taking, and it brings its reward. ; -^ r TWeddell’s name is a very proper j one to be added to the list of his illustrious predecessors, lie is a worthy | champion.” THE DUFFER’S DIARY. Yesterday, 1927. I dreamt the night before that an angel came down from Heaven and i showed me how to swing mv iron. The day was fine, and the links in perfect order, so I swallowed my dislike of Jones and rang him up ro golf. He jumped at the chance, for T am the sole surviving member of the What not Club whom he has the slightest chance of beating. Arrived there pronto, and teed up, swear Jones uses a double-headed penny. Then he made his usual motion, the ball travelled at least eighty yards and was not sliced more than a chain off the fairway. I knocked mine oft the tee when addressing it. and Jones had the insolence to remark that it would be better for me if I counted that as my stroke. Dam’ Jones. My drive proper went three feet to leg. Jones snickered. Dam’ Jones. However, the pill was sitting well up on a tuft of grass, and a savage brassie sent it far beyond Jones’s ken. It was a sweet shot; ball well teed up, slow back, left arm straight, and -eyes not shut till well on the down swing. Inspired with confidence called on the angel aforesaid to refresh my memory j and nerve my arm against that chip i shot. I chipped it all right. A pity, i for it was otherwise a perfectly good ! repaint. My next attempt, from four | inches nearer the pin, took me to j about the same distance from the pin ! on the opposite sode of the green. Better country there, anyway. I holed in sixteen after some fearsome work with a putter. Jones got down in ten, but then he used his putter from eightyyards avyay from the green, which isn't golf. Jones beat me seven "'-up and six, and I had, to stand the blighter beer. A beverage/ I may state; which is typical of a man who will use a putter through the fairway. I will draw a veil over my score. No, dear reader, T do not do it from modesty. Moreover, I will never trust caddies again. Jones came to me this morning, after he had been out practising, and ! accused me. saying that his boy had I told him that I told mine to kick my j ball from the rough into the fairway. : \ It _ was with satisfaction that T j pointed out his mistake. I had merely ! • told the urchin to kick his (Jones’s) ball into the rough. • And so to bed. (The words of an- i | other famous diarist.) j SARAZEN WRITES ON THE PITCH SHOT.; i I ’ j Of all the golf shots demanding skill. the pitch is the one which in my j opinion calls tor the greatest finesse ; j (says Sarazen). There’s a saying that 1 any dub can drive | and a child can i putt—but it’s a j different matter J when it comes to : pitching. In com-1 parison with the j drive. it seems' childishly simple, to- execute, and! y-et it is. over the! pitch that most 1 players feel the | greatest uncer-! tainty. The golfer,! will start out con-j fidentlv from the : | tee, hitting the ball 200 yards down ; j the middle of the fairway: but when j he essays the relatively simple task j of pitching his approach to the pin j he is apt either to make a mess of it ; entirely or play an indifferent kind of • shot which gives him no satisfaction : at all. A putt has been called 14 the axis j of golf ” and is known as the greatest (stroke-saver in the game; but in a • sense the pitch is more useful along I this line. Everyone appreciates the 1 value of the long putt that rattles gratefully into the tin. but the well struck approach that finishes aft the hole side is of still greater value, since it makes the long try unnecessary and gives one a more consistent chance of equalling or bettering par, and in a manner not so haphazard as when 1 achieved with the help of a long putt. This pitch shot is actually allied to two others —the pitch and run and the j j run-up stroke. These are offshoots of | | the pitch, but each is essentially im-1 portant and requires a distinct method of treatment. The pitch is a stroke : i calling for crispness in execution allied | to careful timing. Jerking the club j j back, stabbing, scooping, and not fol- ; | lowing-th rough with a straight left arm | cause failure in pitching, j Subconsciously, the golfer realising ! the ball has to be hit into the air with j ' the minimum of run when it reaches ! the ground, is apt to snatch his club j j back from the ball and jerk it down : j before it has had a chance to get into J the proper hitting position; this leaves! i the ball in a half-smothered position. ! And then there is a danger of going j to the other extreme—taking the club j back too slowly and thus hitting in a I sloppy fashion, losing that crispness | which is so essential to the shot’s pro- 1 i per execution. The swing, I believe, should be a (little faster in pitching than in driv- ! ing; it tends to make one hit crisply ! and firmly, although one must guard carefully against ‘‘snatching” the club. Another evil to be avoided is stabbing.' bringing the club down to the ball and then suddenly stopping ihe head from' i following through after impact j A fault no less disastrous than stab king is scooping a result of an attempt to "ladle" the ball. It. is caused by helping the rubber-core up-I

wards by a scooping movement of the wrists following upon impact. The wrists, instead of being kept firm, are allowed to give, cave in, or entirely collapse, with the result that the clubhead loses its power and the ball is weakly sent forward for a few yards. The man who plays a pitch as though his club were a shovel will never get results. Remember the loft on the club-head will do alb you ask of it. _ Naturally, the stance for the pitch shot varies according to the length of .shot one has to play. Under no circumstances stand too far away from the ball. Let the ball be as close as possible, consistent with comfort. Do not stand so near as to feel cramped, for that will mean loss of power, but take up a position so that y r ou can swung uprightly. In the address the weight of the j body is nearly equally distributed on i both feet, the greater weight if any being on the right foot. Pivot as little jas possible on the back swing, and ! that will keep the left heel only just ! off the ground even when making a i full pitch shot. j Address the ball with the face of J the club-head pointing outward just a trifle. The stance should be fairl} 7 I open, the hands being slightly in front lof the club-head. Many amateurs I place the ball too far forward—-on the left leg-—and this position, while certainly creating the sensation of being able to loft the ball in the air, is to be avoided, as it ,is conducive to scooping, and to swaying or lurching for-

ward on the down-swing. For the pitch and run I prefer to use an iron rather than a mashie, as I believe the iron simplifies the stroke a great deal. The loft on the mashie always suggests that it is a club essentially intended for getting the ball into the air, whereas the straighter face of the iron seems to suggest less loft and more run. This also applies to the run-up shot, except that a straight faced iron can be employed. Make due allowance for depressions, bumps, and the general slope of the ground in calculating the distance between the ball and the hole and play the shot decisive!}'.

RANGIORA CLUB. The following: is the draw for a stroke competition for prizes donated by Mr 13. B. Wood, to be played on Saturdav: J. \V. Stanton and H. Heney; L. b. M’Phail and W. Mackenzie; T. Shankland ami L. W. Harley; A. Ambrose and R. -T. Logan; C. March and T M. Blain; TV. Smit h and TV. C. Keotley; J. Palairet and L. H. Leech; M. E. Leech and L. M. King - ; J. A. Ivory and E. D. R. Smith; L. TV. Menzles and W. Hewitt; <l. A. Watson and C. Taylor; V. O. Purcell and S. T. Seward; W. J. Heney and J. R. Heal; A. Furdie and J. M. Fraser; R. Macdonald and 7>. jf. Garrett; W. Wilson and S. TI- Smedley; R. J. Smith and scorer. Following is the draw for the second qualifying round* to be played concurrently with an L.G.U. and club medal match on Saturday:—• Seniors—Miss Murpliy and ■ Miss Lynskey; Mrs Macdonald and Miss Glasgow; Miss Morrish and Airs Keetley; Mrs Tolmie and Mrs Feron; Miss Fear and Miss Leech. Juniors—Miss Ambrose and Miss Garrett; Airs Strang and Mrs Smedley; Mrs Menzies and Mrs Bell; Mrs Hughey and Miss Walker; Mrs Faser and Miss Jennings: Mrs H. Heney and Mrs T. Heney; Miss J. Macdonald and Miss Be* re; Mrs Shankland and Mrs ProsHAREWOOD LADIES’ CLUB. The bogey competition for Mrs X. Tingey’s trophy: was played at Harewood to-day, the winner being Airs Bayfield, with a score of 2 down. Miss Joan Johnston was runner-up, J down. The weather was very unfavourable, and the conditions made good golf impossible. s RICHMOND HILL CLUB. The second and final round ».>f the Rawnsley Cup will be played to-mor-