GOLF

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 20, 16 November 1910, Page 10

GOLF

This paper hat been appointed the official organ of the Ladies? Golf Union, Wew Zealand branch. Secretaries of ladies’ golf clubs are invited to forward official notices, handicaps a.-.d alterations, results of competitions, and other matters of interest, ta reach the publishing office not later than the Saturday prior to date of publication.

Cambridge. The final for the Caldwell trophy for the men was played on Wednesday between Mr. Nicoll and Dr. Howden, the Matter being the winner by 4 up and 2 to play. Mr. Nicoll was 1 up on the first round, but in the second round he did not so do well, and Dr. Howden played a splendid game, beating the local record, his score being 83. Mr. H. B. Lusk’s record score is 79. The Golfer's Feet. There are many things that have a considerable influence on the quality of One's game besides the skill that is possessed, the clubs that are carried, the balls that are played with, the weather, and the state of one’s liver, and some of them are not always inspected. Hereabouts in the golfing season a little difficulty often arises which must be mentioned (observes Henry Leach, the wellknown golf-writer, in a London paper). For nine months in the year oqr average player tramps the links in boot's or shoes •with thick solsw. and good substantial heels, which are liberally studded with iarge-headed nails. Now. with the turf dry and hard, the sun shining at last, the weather warm, and himsejf attired in thin clothes, his fancy turns to rubber Boles and very likely to canvas shoes, and forthwith he goes out to the first tee 30 shod, and feeling so light and happy as to convince himself that he is about to do something especially good in the way of driving and pitching and putting. He feels just like that. Often enough the result is that the rounds he makes at this time are among the worst he has ever perpetrated, and he becomes very sail in consequence. He cannot understand it.

It never occurs to him to assign the trouble to those thin rubber shoes: but. nevertheless, this often, very often, is the cause. It is that for two reasons, the first being that it is not always a good thing for the man or woman to be made to feel so specially and unusually lightsome and gay, and the second that the rubber soles, commonly with no heels or only very thin ones, make a material difference to the stance and the general attitude of the player towards the stroke he has in hand and his execution of it in the process of swinging. He may feel better and easier and more powerful, but there is the circumstance that he does not feel the same as normally, and it is in a large measure necessary that he should always feel the same. After a while he suspects that this is the cause, anil then away go the rubber shoes, and out come again the thick-soled leather things that see him through most of his golf. His proper game returns, and then ho observes wisely to himself, ‘‘No more rubber soles for me!” This is a common experience. There is a certain small proportion of players who do verywell in the summer-time with the thinnest canvas shoes. Among the notables there is Mr. Hilton, who always used to wear white shoes with rubber soles in the dry season, but latterly has frequently been seen in something brown and stronger; and one remembers, also. Mr. I). F. Ranson, who oftentimes attracts much attention at championships by his very slow and deliberate methods on the putting greens, and who I have hardly ever seen in anything but thin feet coverings such as cliildren and other holiday makers potter about on the sands of the seashore with. But these arc exceptions. The majority of the most experienced players keep to the same strong leather hoots and shoes in the summer as at other times, and they will tell you that it is best for their game, and that really they do not tiro you so much as you imagine they might—not so much, indeed, as the thin-soled things through which vour feet plainly feel the hardness of the ground. Anyhow a large proportion of players consider that they must have some extra ease and comfort in the summer time, no matter what may be argued against it. Then, they may lie recommended to take to shoes with stout akin tops and

rubber soles of full thickness, with proper heels. Or, belter still, there are shoes with leather soles and uppers just as usual, which have pieces of rubber let into the soles which give all the grip that is necessary, a better one indeed than nails, which have a tendency to slide along the hard and slippery turf unless they are very sharp, as they seldom are. All this is substantially this advice of some of the best players, particularly James Braid, who has given -as much consideration to the question as anyone. "You sometimes find players,’’ he says, "going from heavy leather to a thin pair of canvas shoes, and then wondering why they suddenly find they cannot hit any sort of a tee shot, not generally suspecting the real cause, which is nothing more nor less than those canvas shoes." Even at ordinary times the average player is most ridiculously inconsiderate in the. matter of his golfing footwear. I*.: will take the utmost care to satisfy hintself in the matter of comfort with boots and shoes for ordinarypurposes; but when it comes to needing them for his golf he just looks into an old cupboard for something that has been discarded, and the leather of which has grown very hard, sends them out to the shoemaker to have some nails put in the soles, and takes them off to his club. Yet he probably does not walk two miles a day in the ordinary way, but if on the average he plays golf on two days of the week—and think how many players do twice as much!—what with walking to the course and back and pottering •about in addition to his two rounds, he tramps some twenty miles on those two days, which means a thousand miles in the year! So he should be very careful in the choice of his shoes, and look after them well. It is, above all, necessary that the fit should be quite perfect, not merely for the sake of comfort, but that a proper sense of security and power may be experienced by the player when making his shots. Only the man.who has gone from a pair of badly-fitting things to something the reverse can know what a difference it makes.

He should also experiment very thoroughly in the difference that -boots and shoes make to him. They do make a difference to most people. Harry Vardon strongly recommends the average player to wear shoes, saying that they allow more freedom to the ankles and make it easier to pivot on the toes. On the other hand, you never see the great Taylor in anything but boots, and Braid declares that while a man with feet and ankles that are very strong may do well in shoes, he thinks that a small man of great physical strength is generally more at home in boots. .So you see there are differences of opinion among the great as to which is the better, and all the more does it' behove the player to make careful trial and come to a definite conclusion as to what is good for him. A last tip: It is one of the delights of a golfing day in the summer to change the stockings or socks and shoes at the end of the second round, and get into something thin and cool and soft. These considerations are of special account at the present time, when most golfers will soon be going away on their holidays, and then they play more -and walk more than at any other time of the vear.

Miscellaneous. Playing at Beamshot. Tom Ball opened with eleven successive fours. His -total of 68 was made up as follows:—Out, 4, 4,4, 4,4, 4,4, 4, 4—36; in, 4,4, 3,3, 3, 5,2, 4, Total 68. There is probably no game except golf in which those points which constitute good and bad manners liave been formally codified and constitute an appendix to the rules. Handicaps appeal in different ways. Some like them higher than they ought to be, for this spells half-crowns; others like them a bit lower than they ought to be, and this spells vanity, and loss of half-crowns. It is curious to note what a lot of uncertainty and misunderstanding prevails as to dropping. Many players think the fact of the ball touching their bodies or their clubs while in the act of dropping annuls the drop, more especially if the ball happens to come to rest in a We.

Jack White is of the opinion that Mr Mitchell, the artisan golfer, can drive further than James Braid, the open champion. Mr Mitchell still continues to keep himself in the front rank of all the competitions in which he takes part. At an open amateur meeting of the West Drayton elub he won the scratch prize, and set up a record for the new extended course, his score being 74. He carries a handicap of plus 9 in his .own club, and consequently he is out. of tile running for handicap prizes. Among the "Researches .of a Foozler” I found the following: The.words “loft” and "lofter” are particularly interesting, and have a very ancient parentage. 1 find the first person to prominently identify with lofts was a gentleman named “Eutychus,” who was evidently in a loft, and fell from a loft, and it is presumed went aloft. For we are told in Act. xx„ v. 9, that Eutychus . . . fell down from the third loft, and I gathered lay "dead" somewhere and was duly holed. Apropos of the holing business, the term "putter” is plainly traceable to the word "putrid.” Hence, a rotten shot, This word. I also find, was formerly •spelled "potter.” which means to act inefficiently, a singularly apt definition. "Mashie" is an extremely good term. It comes from the verb "mash,” to beat into a confused mass; see also "hash,” to make mincemeat of. This, I am given to understand, is what is likely to happen to the ball when the elub now under notice is being used. After sundry onslaughts the air will probably become sulphurous, and it may here be observed that the above words “mash" and "hash” immediately suggest the inoffensive and feminine ejaculation “dash,” the masculine ot which ia "damn.”