GOLF.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 800, 6 July 1905, Page 15

GOLF.

An event in which a good deal of interest was taken was the final of the men’s foursomes match, which was played off on Saturday on the Cornwall links, and resulted in a win for W. B. Colbeck and H._ Gilfillan, jun. (4) from J. C. Burns and D. Hay (5) by six strokes, after being all square at the eleventh. The final in the captain’s prize (Mr. W. B. Colbeck) was also played for, with the result that in the senior division W. Heather beat C. E. S. Gillies by 5 up and 4; and in the junior division H. B. Lusk beat Wallace Bruce by 2 up and 1.

A comparison between cricket and golf appears in the “ Badminton Magazine” from the pen of Home Gordon, the wellknown cricket writer, and gives the opinion of many leading players. I am. not an advocate for pitting one game against another, as there are good points in both games. I think the important question is, “ Does golf help cricket, or otherwise?” Mr. Alfred Lyttelton, the Colonial Secretary, and welLknown at both games, says:—“Whilst golf has never affected his cricket, cricket has undoubtedly. had a bad effect on his golf.” Eric Hambro says that playing golf is an aid to cricket ; he always finds he can play cricket best when he is in form at golf. It is his conviction that golf does not interfere with cricket. Cricketers

who take up golf are not aided in learning the latter by their practice in the former game; whilst, on the contrary, he has often noticed that golfers who take up cricket generally seem to get on very well at the game. Mr. Frank Newnes says:—“l do not finJ that the games of cricket and golf help each othei’; in fact, on the othei’ hand, they interfere with each other. In cricket the main thing is to play with a straight bat, and to keep the ball down; while with golf one plays with a sloping club, and endeavours to hit the ball up. A golf swing is done with the body, whilst the cricket stroke is done chiefly with the arms, and thus you have at golf what is called the cricketer’s style, which is not, from a golfer’s point of view, a correct style.” Mr. Leslie Balfour-Melville, who, besides being an ex-champion at golf, has long been one of the leading cricketers in Scotland, as well as playing for the I Zingari, writes:—“With regard to the practice of one interfering with the other, I am of opinion that if the two games are played at different times of the year they do not interfere with each other at all, provided, of course, that you have learned to play the two games to a certain extent (BalfourMelville played his golf as a child, and, of .course, his cricket later). In fact, I think that the one game helps the other. Take, for example, the pull stroke at cricket. lam sure golf helps one very much for that and such like strokes; while, on the other hand, the use of the forearm and wrist, which one uses so much at cricket, and thus strengthens and develops, is most useful to the golfer in keeping his shots straight. The principal reason, however, in my opinion, why the two games should not be played at the same time is that the weight of a cricket bat and golf club are so different that it makes it difficult to time the stroke in either game, and, of course, I think the timing is the great secret in both games.” G. W. Beldam, I think, sums up well with:—“There are many points of similarity too numerous to touch on. I would mention that there are two kinds of golf—the cricketer’s golf and the golfer’s golf. The former is played by the hitting golfer, the latter by the swinging golfer; and if a cricketer has the style of the cricket golfer, his golf will not in all probability be troubled by his cricket. It is the cricketer who has acquired the golfer’s style, who finds cricket trouble his golf, when the two are played together.”