GOLF NOTES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue I, 4 July 1903, Page 18

GOLF NOTES.

(By

Money Dead.)

Last Saturday our players were pro■liseJ a good golfing day. There had beeu no rain since Thursday, and Friday was a nice fine day wiih a southerly wind, and every one in Auckland knows that a southerly wind is the wind to dry up the ground; but, unfortunately, just jpunediately before the time for pl«y.- a very heavy shower came on. The result was that while one could say that the ground was fairly dry. yet it had that half inch of wet surface that just made one slip when playing a full shot. It is on days such as Saturday that those players who play the correct halfswing, so strongly advocated in the Old Country for those who take up the game after the first blush of youth is over, score over their full-swing antagonists. The half-swing golfer stands firmly on his feet, u lieu the full-swing player is literally “all over the place,*' and if the latter has not got the eye of a champion he is lucky to hit the baE al a’L His feet slip in his up-swing, and again in his down swing, and his equilibrium is disturbed: consequently. instead of getting his weight into propelling the ball, it actually detracts from the swing of his arms. Of course, it is said that if the full-swing player has proper sails in his bools or shoes. he ought not to slip or slide, but my experience, is that no arrangement or nails or spikes ever sold will prevent him from slipping on such a ay as Saturday. I am not to be taken by these remarks to give as my o| i?!ion that a aalf-swing is better than • fun ding. Cireumstaisees, and courses, always alter opinions, and I do say that on Saturday, on ue Auckland golf links, the half-swing player had the advant age over the full-swing player. But on a sandy course. vhich One Tree Hill is n« t. the conditions existent on Saturday never No matter how much rain may Lave fallen. a sandv course aever gets ‘’greasy.” A grea. deal of misconception arises about this question of full and halfswing. When a beginner takes up golf he invariably, whether he be old or young, tries to acquire the full-swing. 1 from a young man who has plaved the game from youth upwards, or who is so naturally lithesome he has learr:t a perfect full-swing after he has { h.< teens. Ninety-nine men out of a hundred who start tne game after tney have reached twenty-five are prevented. by reason of their physique, from acquiring a perfect The majority of ?ho«» under t wen tv-five are not fitted by r, tnre to develop a perfect full-swing. Yer. it is a strange fact that nearly ?. 1 professionals attempt to teach ’.heir yr pi!* v full* wing. no matter what age msy be. The professional can do a and he naturally tHnks that bo ean teach h’s tod the ’ but he is oblrviors ci the f*u that he started yvinrring a •’ ?’» when he wa« a lad of fourteen, an] he m now teaching a z-n--t » t". m f f< ' •y. W-.ah one starts voung one‘« muscle* aie developed in the ri?ht way. one can do the same bin? when one is getting on in life. The man of for*v ba* r '' a r tnlnel hi* m**and fortv-y--'- bl mnse'es do not How the pranks ' Fourteen-rear-old *nes do. T~profe-'>,•?*;*’ fail* to re'’i«* thf*. and eon<eo’ien*!v do** rerv V‘tle FO‘d to the pupil. Tf he hid appreei *ed th ■* fact that his pupil w*« not In* own a?e he nrisM hare turned the duffer into a first-da** plover. Tt i« ahcurd to fe*rh the tra* with a chest of 40 inches and wawt of 45 inches the sfrle as t’ •* rsn w4*h a rhe«t of !tq rnehe« and a nF X 5 Inches. But it doe* not IWivr that heean*e a rbvAr the ha»f-«’rinr rirle that he mn«t never exr*** to rise to he a firat-riaes player.

There are a number of players in England who play with the approved half-swing style who would hold their own uiia anj player in New Zealand. On the other hand, there are a great number of the members of the Auckland Golf Club who might improve their game out of all expectation. These are they who attempt to play with a fullswing. At the end of their full-swing they have all their weight on their right leg. That means that, instead of rising the weight of their body to drive the ball, they are actually making their body-swing reduce the power of their shot. The long driver at golf is the man who gets his 12 stone into the ball, and he does it by getting all the weight of his hips and the sinews of his legs into his shot. If the t-odv - swing is in front of the arm-swing, or the weight of his body on his rigat leg at the end of th-- stroke, he has played the shot exactly the opposite way that he intended. He meant his body-swing to propel the ball. whereas it has actually lessened its power. Perhaps, after all this talk about half -wing, it is only right for me to explain what is a true half-swing. The player draws back his club from the ball in an even swing, with the arms well away from the body and the club sweeping the ground on the backswing. The dub is not allowed to go above the horizontal. There is a perceptible pause at the end of the backswing, and then the elub starts *« move towards the tell, and is moving at its maximum pace after the ball has been hit. The position of the body is stationary, but not rigid, till after the ball is hit, and then everything is let go to follow on. It is absolutely surprising to see the distance of such a shot. A man of thirteen stone who plays his half-swing correctly will outdrive the most perfect full-swing on the part of the ten stone man. Then, again, the half-swing man scores in the certainty with which he hits the ball. He has no slipping to reckon with. He does not hit the ball from a d-foot swing, but from a 3-foot swing. His eye does not have to direct the alterations of the swing made necessary by the movement of re body. The only player who has a proper, but not a perfect, half-swing that I have seen on our links is a Melbourne player. I eats commend his style to most of our "juniors. ~ The final for Mr Hanna’s prize was played on Saturday. Mr Hooper maintained his form, and beat Mr Peele bv 3 and 2. The Australian ehampionship was brought to a finish at Adelaide on Saturday. It was won by Mr Souter, of the Manickville Club, Sydney. The runnerup was the old champion, Mr Howden, of Melbourne. Mr Souter has been playing in rare form lately. Judging by the f.*.?t that he tied Mr Simpson’s Bo‘any record a short time ago his eowld not have been a flaky win. Hutchinson, the young North Berwick “pro.,” is playing at Botany, but the best round he has put up so far is a 79. There was a Senior and a Nursery Handicap at One Tree Hill on Saturday Mr H. T. Gillies came in an easy winner for the Senior. Though bis return was not a good one, yet he deserved his win by his steady play and forethought. Th* Nursery attracted a large field, and the winner proved to be Mr C. Heather, who returned a score of 91.