GOLF.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18159, 25 October 1930, Page 21 (Supplement)

GOLF.

THE GAME IN GENERAL. CLUB HOUSE CHAT. LOCAL JOTTINGS. * (By “Niblick.”) To-day’s competition at St. Andrews was a bogey consolation handicap open only to those that had not won any of tl>3 club competitions during the seasoh. Next Saturday (November 1) will be the official closing day, when a mixed four-ball best ball wil be played, and the presentation o! trophies won during the ’season will be made.

At the time of writing the Anal in the junior grade club championship had not been played as the semi-final match between Beveridge and McMullin was held up for some time owing to the latter having been on the sick list. This game, was got off last week, and resulted in a. 3 up and 2 win for the former. Later in the week, however, Beveridge was unfortunate enough to dislocate his shoulder, and in consequence was unable to play. Cann in the final last week-end, but anticipates being fit to do so before the ‘official end of the season.

Though the season will officially close next Saturday the course will continue open for play and no doubt quite a number of members will go on with the game through the summer. J. L. Black and N. Bell, jun., the Hamilton Golf Club’s amateur and professional representatives at the Dominion championship tournament, left here for Palmerston North last Sunday evening. By the time these notes appear we should know how they fared in the Open Championship, and will await with iterest their doings in * the Amateur and Professional Championships respectively next week.

Mrs Gower was the only Hamilton representative at the Ladies’ Championship Tournament at Heretaunga, where she was successful in defeating Miss Acheson in the first round of the championship, but in the second round fell before Miss Pharazyn, o' Napier, by the narrow margin of 2 and 1. . Champions to Retire. Not only is Bobby Jones likely tr retire from championship play this year, but it is said that "Walter Hagen also has signified his intention of retiring from tournament golf. Report has it that a young 'hopeful in Walter' Hagen, junr., may be equal,to keeping the family name alive in the golfing world. He is said to possess a swing which is in all detail a duplicate of his father’s, and that he hits the ball like a real golfer. Bobby Jones also has a son—a very young hopeful as yet, it is true—, and he also is no stranger to clubs on a miniature scale. They Fell For It. Somewhere in the hardy land of Wales (says the American Golfer) an ingenious, but none too scrupulous party or parties is having a quiet chuckle these days over the discomfiture of certain golf enthusiasts 'in this.-country, whose enthusiasm and admiration for our golf stars and their chances in the British championships appear to have gotten rather the better of their hard 1 '- common - /sense. "It happened in this way. Back some weeks before the start of the British Open at Hoylake, there was circulated among some of the golf clubs here a very dignified and business-like statement which conveyed the information that the South, Wales Pari-Mutqel Company of Cardiff “in compliance with numerous requests from- the United States had resolved to extend its operations in the British Open Golf Championship.” Its business operations consisted of playing odds and accepting bets against entries in this links classic. A glance at the “sheet” was most interesting and intriguing. It quoted figures of 10 to 1 against Bobby Jones, Leo Diegel was offered at 14 to 1. Horton Smith was 16 to 1, while Macdonald Smith was as good as 40 to 1. Or if you weren’t sentimental, and chose to back a British entry against our own players, you could get 16 to 1 against Archie Compston, and 20 to 1 against young Henry Cotton. Oh, yes, you could also get 66 to 1 against Tommy Armour and so on. But you get the idea. It sounded very attractive, beyond doubt. And there were those who fell for it. A small group of friends in a certain southern city (not Atlanta, by the way) made up a pool to back the chances of Bobby J'ones. The money was duly cabled and they sat back to wait for Bobby to do his stuff. They were elated when he did, just as we all were; but their elation was rendered even, more buoyant by the knowledge that certain people had promised them ten for one, if Bobby hung up his third victory in the championship. But there was a joker and here it is. When these cheerful gentlemen set about collecting, no one on the other side -could find the whereabouts of the South Wales Pari-Mutuel Corporation! Like the Arab, the persons-composing that staid and dignified organisation had quietly stolen away in the night, or at least in the interim between receiving the -stake and the checking of return at Hoylake. It’s a rather old story, of course. But it is worth retelling, as a warning to others who in the future may be tempted to risk a wager on American players in British Championships. If you must bet, be sure you know with whom you are betting, and that you ■ have a fair chance of collecting in case.you win. Another -story that has appeared in, print in this connection is to the effect that a coterie of sports in a Southern State of the United States of America put £SOO, -at odds of 50 to 1 against, on Jones’ ability to win the four major -titles, which he eventually did. The layer of the wager was the selfsame South Wales Pari-Mutuel Corporation, which was found to have faded out of existence when the coteri? tried to collect -the £25,000 they had supposelly won, plus the £SOO sent over when the wager was made. Fourteen Years After. It is rather interesting to note that the Merlon Club course at Philadelphia, where Bobby Jones last month , once more won the American Amateur Championship, was the scene of his first appearance in a national chamionship, when in 191 G-, as a lad of fourteen years, he led -the field in the first of the two qualifying rounds with a card of 74. ■ “Chick” Evans, who won the event on that occasion, describes Jones then as “a stocky youth 1 of extraordinary strength, whose shots I easily went as far as those of . the i grown men with whom he played." It 1 was at Merion in 1924 that Bobby i Jones won his first amateur-champion-ship. He needed eight years after his. dazzling start to break down the barrier at match play. And fourteen years after his debut, he went again to Merion in September with a rc(Continued in next column.)

cord of twelve national and international titles, and succeeded in setting a new mark in golf by winning his fourth major title in one summer’s campaign. * Not a Conversationalist,

• When Bobby Jones went to Interlachen’to play in this year’s American Open a caddie, by name Donovan Dale, became the envy of all his mates through being drawn by lot to carry for .Jones. After the first day’s practice Dale had found that the champion was not hard to converse with for all Jones said to him in five hours was, “Where’s the water?" and “What’s your name.”