GOLF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20182, 26 June 1928, Page 5

GOLF

SEAFIELD CLUB NEW PLYMOUTH CLUB BETAINS TBOPHY CHALLENGERS DEFEATED The New Plymouth Golf Club are the holders of the Seafield Cup, a trophy while they secured, a couple of seasons ago from the Eltham Club. The cup was originally won from Seafield by the Hawera Golf Club, who lost the trophy to Eltham. During last week-end the SeaficW Club sent a challenging team to New Plymouth in an endeavour to regain possession of the cup but their efforts were not attended with success, for of the six games played for the trophy, the Seafield representatives could, only hold their own in one, in which P, England defeated H. N. Johnson. Singles and four-ball matches were also played by representatives of the two clubs and from these the visitors emerged losers for they had but seven games to their credit, whereas New Plymouth had won 17. The weather was perfect and the course in good ond-er for this time vt the year. Most of the games were keenly contested and the New Plymouth members did their best to see that all the visitors had an enjoyable time. In the following details of the results the Scafield players are mentioned first in each instance:— Seafieltd Chip Challenge S. Irwin lost to G. M. Chong. F. S. Shirrif** lost to A. S. Hasell. R. Haworth lost to C. H. Stephenson P. England defeated H. N. Johnson E. Gilbert lost to T. V, Mackay R. Syme lost to C. H. Wyatt Inter-Ulub Match Singles M. MacArtney and R. T. McQuadfO, all square. R. Smart lost to V. Elliott. B. Jones lost to J. McNeill. E. Goldsbury defeated I. Thomson. G. Thorpe defeated K. Akers. R. Cutherbertson lost to C. H. Wynyard. G. McMillen lost to H. Grayson. M. Mill lost to H. C. Newell A. Sharpe lost to L. M. Stephenson F. Handley lost to G. H. Saunders L. C. Young and A. L. Humphries, all square Four Ball S. Irwin and F. 8. Sherriffs lost to G. M. Chong and A. 8. Hasell R. Howarth ami P. England lost to C. H. Stephenson and. H. N. Johnson. E. Gilbert and R. Syme lost to T. V. Mackay and C. H. Wyatt M. McArtney and R. Smart defeated R. T. McQuade and V. Elliott. B. Jones and E. Goldsbury defeated J. McNeill and I. Thomson E. Thorpe and E. Cuthbertson defeated, K. Akers and C. H. WynyartY C. M. Millen and M. Mills lost to H. Grayson and H. C. Newell A. Sharpe and F. Handley defeated L. M. Stephenson and C. H. Saunders Total: New Plymouth 17 wins; Seafield 7.

UNDER FOURS FINE PERFORMANCE AT BELMONT Playing on the Belmont links, J. Goss, last week-end put up a fine performance. He completed the course in 71, equalling the course official recordl. or the first nine holes Goss played under par, doing 33. He dropped a couple of strokes through missing two short putts, one at the short twelfth and another at French Pass, finishing the home journey in 38. Bogey for the course stands at 80. WANGANUI LADIES’ CLUB MEDAL MATCH TO-MORROW The Wanganui Ladies’ Golf Club will stage a medal match to-morrow. The draw for the match is as follows and members may play at any time during the day: — Airs Izard v Mrs Earle Airs Grummitt v Aliss Franklin Airs Christie v Aliss Hammond Mrs Gilbert v Mrs Bayly Miss Cave v Mrs Hussey Airs Armstrong v Aiiss Currie Airs Silk v Aliss Blyth Mrs Knight v Miss Robinson Airs Bogle v Mrs Harris Airs Orton v Mrs Smith Aliss Murray v Miss Johnson Airs Williams v Miss Hatrick Mrs Broderick v Mrs Forlong Airs Woollams v Mrs A. Hunter Mrs Bassett v Mrs Richardson Mrs Rutherford v Airs Stevenson Aliss Burgess v Mrs Al. Hunter Mrs Howarth v Miss V. Bayiy Airs Frankish v Airs Leary Aliss C. Bayly v Airs O’Neill Alias Alontgomcry Moore v Alias Mason Miss J. Christie v Miss Baird Miss Barnett v Mrs Beauchan > Airs Taiboys v Airs Robertsuu Mrs J. Davis v Miss Lilburn Airs Howie v Mrs Harrison Miss Lewis v Aliss Anderson Airs Rose v Airs Burnett Aliss P. Wall v Aliss Cowper Airs Brodie v Mrs Hastings Aliss Zeisler v Mrs J. Craig Miss E. Craig v Mrs Wall Mrs Saunders has a bye. ' Bogey Match Result Results of last week’s bogey mate* are as follows: A Grade:— [ Airs Forlong 3 up. Aliss Blyth 2 down. Airs Earle 3 down. B. Grade:— Aliss Bai nd* 3 down. Mrs Haworth 4 down. Mrs Richardson 5 down. C. Grade:— Airs Hastings 1 down. . Miss Wall 5 down. Mrs Burnett 5 down. Mrs Bayly’s Trophy Mrs Bayly has given a trophy for the best results from a series of matches commencing on Friday, June 29. Partners will be drawn and will play on handicap. Stymies must be playedL

NOT MUCH ADVANCE SHOTS THAT HAVE GONE. A BALL FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS? [Specially written for the ‘‘Chronicle’’ by Harry Vardon, six times Open Champion]. There is a remarkable diversity of opinion as to the degree of length that the modern ball has added to the shots in golf. One of the best-known pavers in the country with whom I ocently discussing this subject insisted that the average first-class drive of to-day is no more than twenty yards longer than the equivalent stroke made in the era of the gutta-percha ball. This is the lowest estimate that I have heard as to the disparity, but. it came from a man who had himself been reared in golf with the help of the “gutty” until he was seventeen years of age, and it indicates how varied may be the views of future general ions as to the changes that have come ovfir the game.

Personally, I should say that the distance of the full drive has been increased by at least sixty yards. It was a very good shot of this kind that travelled 190 yards in the time of the gutta-percha ball. Nowadays, the average of a first-class player’s drive under normal conditions is about 250 yards. Similarly, the mashie was formerly a club to take at no greater range than 100 yards from the hole. Something like 80 yards was considered the limit of real safety for anybody who could not force the shot without endangering the rhythm of the swing. People now bang the ball up to the green with a mashie from distances of 160 yards. These considerations are important in their bearing on the long-discussed question of limiting the power of the ball—a question which, although quiescent this season, is by no means dead. The United States Golf Association have now perfected a machine devised by Professor Harold Thomas, of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburg, for measuring the resilience of the ball. They feel that, if the degree of resilience can be restricted by a rulb under which each make of ball must pass the test of this machine, then the problem will be solved without recourse to limitations of size or weight. There are thinking golfers in this country who, in spite of the disposition among golfers in general to let everything go on as usual, are as determined as ever to see some new restriction on the power of the ball brought into effect. Certainly it is worth while realising just how greatly the game has changed, and worth while considering whether it has changed for the better. St. Andrew’s Up-to-date,

In last year’s open championship at St. Andrew’s, there was. only one hole, the fourteenth, at which Bobby Jones had to play a full second shot. Thus he had precisely four full second shots in four rounds—a very sparse provision of what was once regarded as the most testing stroke in golf. The same remark could be applied to dozens of the competitors, although they did not accomplish the intermediate strokes and the putts with the same skill as the Winner.

Ten of the holes were drives and chips, or, as the contemptuous old-timer terms them, “kicks and spits.” Then there were two, the second and fourth, that called for a drive and a mashie; two others, the thirteenth and fifteenth, that demanded a drive and a mid iron; and another two, the eighth and eleventh, that lived up to their glories as the only short holes on the course.

The sole remaining hole, the fifth, was a drive and a spoon. And this with the ground soft and holding, so that the run on the ball was a small factor in the securing of distance. It is truly a very nice problem as to whether cJassic competitions ought to . be decided under conditions (born of the ball) which reduce the game vir- | tually to a test of long first shots and I short second shots, supplemented by I that “game within a game,” that shuttlecock of momentary fancies and inspiration which is known as putting. It is salutary to remember that, at one time, the long and second testingshot was the keynote of golfing efficiency. John Ball’s brassic shot that beat Mure Fergusson at the seven-

teenth hole in an amateur championship final at Hoy lake; the brassie shots and the cleek shots of Taylor and Braid—these are remembered before any others in connection with the firstclass golf of a comparatively short time ago. So far as concerns big events the brassie and the deck have virtually disappeared from the game. They may still be carried for the sake of tradition, but they are hardly ever needed.

If a full second shot happens to be required, as at the fourteenth hole in the open championship at St. Andrew’s, the player usually takes his driver for it, because he has forgotten the feel of the brassie.

Expectation and Effect. In the days when golf was climbing to greatness as a world’s pastime, the brassie had to be used for the second shot even by a player of the front, rank, at probably nine of the eighteen holes in the round. You would see him tip-toeing as he neared his ball to see if it were sitting up sufficiently well —he could tell from the measure of its countenance above the grass —to suggest the taking of the brassie. That situation has disappeared from first-class golf. At most of the other holes, the cleek would be a necessity for the second shot. Ball could place the ball as close to the hole w’ith a brassie as the modern champions do with a mashie-niblick. Braid and Taylor were as deadly with the deck.

Ought there to be these testing second shots in modern championship golf!

It would be ridiculous further to lengthen courses so as to provide even half-a-dozen holes of the full two-shot description, so we could have, for championships, a lighter ball than the present one. Introduced for such events, the innovation might well appeal to the multitude.