GOLF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 258, 1 November 1932, Page 12

GOLF

AGAINST HANDICAPS GOLFERS’ INFIRMITIES. Golfers claim that their game is an elixir for the infirm, a rest euro for the overworked, and a tonic for the ex hausted. There must be some truth in this (remarks a writer in the London I>aily Mail). I have just been talking to Harry Twine, the professional at Ashford Manor Club, Middlesex, who a year ago suffered such a severe motorcycle accident that his life was almost despaired of. Twine had fractures to both legs and the bones in his left hand were badly smashed, but he has made such a recovery that during the past live weeks he has been playing golf and has re gained almost normal use of his limbs. “When I began to play again,” ho said, “my left knee was quite stiff, but now I can use it properly. The only trouble I have in golfing is caused by my left hand. I cannot hang on to the club at the top of the swing, and have therefore boon compelled to shorten my swing.

1 * However, that does not seem to have made much difference, for I have had a score of 71 here, where the scratch score is 74.”

Twine’s amazing recovery recalls to mind the even more remarkable return to the links of the famous Irish international golfer, J. D. Mac Cormack, now a Ministry of Health Official in Dublin. During the war he was shot through the spine and lay on his back for three years.

In his first championship he played golf in a steel jacket, and though naturally still handicapped by his wounds, few of his friends would guess that this golfer, who is ranked high in the list of British players, was almost shot to pieces.

There have been one-armed and onelegged golfers of considerable ability Outstanding among them is Yves Botcazou, a French professional, who qualified for the British Open, playing only with his right arm.