PARLOUR GOLF.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 15000, 22 September 1900, Page 2

PARLOUR GOLF.

Iv the energetic Secretary of the Christchurch Go f Club should fail in his efforts to induco the Avon Road Board to provide decent facilities for reaching the rinks at Shirley, he might very well consider whether he "should not turn his attention to a new deveopment of "ye ancient and royal game." It was shown in London the other day by a, match between Baird and Taylor, two of the most accomplished players south of the Tweed, that a broad expanse of country is not absoutely necessary l'or an excellent exhibition of the game. Tho match took place in the thow-room or Messrs Anderson, Anderson and Anderson, before an interested group of spectators, and though played' with obvious limitalions, it was good golf all the same. The object was to ilustrate the efficiency of a "golf practice machine," a clever contrivance which we are told is certain to attain considerable vogue among golfers, especially such as wish to improve Iheir driving. The machine is a meter which registers with mathematical exactitude tbe length of each drive. A ball is attached by n cord 'about a yard lon_g, and the player hits it just as if he were playing the open air game. Baird. made a drive during the trial inatch which was registered as 225 yards, and both he and Taylor were amazed to find ihe machine registering their shots with perfect precision. The teeing ground was a cocoa mat, the green a Turkish carpet, and the imaginary course that of Wimbledon, a map of which lay on a table near for reference.. By agreement, the weather was supposed to" be dry and windless, 25 per cent being allowed for the mn of the ball. The machine reckons only the distance of the carry. Baird, according to the report of the game, appeared to become acquainted with tho hang of the machine before his opponent, his "approach shots" being admirably judged, so that he got round the eighteen holes in eighty strokes. Though Vicing" and "pulling"— the report runs on — cannot be indicated, and bunkers can only be reckoned with in imagination, the ingenious contrivance affords a first-rate game, with plenty of exercise and all the elements of competition.