SOME GOOD GOLF STORIES.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 429, 4 August 1904, Page 7

SOME GOOD GOLF STORIES.

«w»LTHOUGH an enthusiastic player Eg has been depicted climbing a SSOS lamp-post in order to play hia ball which had lodged in the lantern, the incident is generally looked upon as having happened only in the fertile brain of the artist. The places in which the golf ball secretes itself are, however, at times remarkable, as witness the following incident that happened on one of the golf links in the neighbournood of New York two summers ago. A player driving off in good style had the mortification of seeing hia ball strike a rock, and fly off at a tangent upon the roof of a small house, climb up one side and down the other, end finally lodge behind the chimney. As every stroke was of importance, the undaunted golfer ascended the roof, and sitting astride the ridge pole drove the ball from its hiding-place. To make up for its previous delinquency, the ball ia reported to have rolled quite close to the hole aimed at, which was some considerable distance away. Many years ago the following query was propounded to an unfortunate sporting editor j—A member of a Manchester Club endowed wtih a luxuriant beard, wben playing a match, struck his ball when lying against some obstacle ia a manner that caused it to riae straight up and lodge in his beard. The question the Editor was asked to, but did not, decide, was whether the player was bound to plaj it out, or could he drop the ball, or should he lose the hole? Ab a matter of fact, Bule 25 provides for a ball stopped by the player himself, by his partner, or by hi; caddie, and states emphatically that the player shall lose the hole. Notwithstanding the fact that a caddy was accidentally struck behind the ear early this year on a suburban golf course, and died almost immediately, accidents on the/ links are of the rarest occurrence, which renders the following incident more than ordinarily curious. The scene of this singular occurrence, that took place a year last April, was on the Woolton Golf Course, near Liverpool, past which a lady and gentleman were driving in a hansom, when a ball, driven with great impetui, entered the front of the vehicle, and struck the gentleman so severely on thej right eye, which was badly cut, that he felliback unconscious, and had to be carried to the club-house to receive medioal attendance. In this instance the ball in all probability was driven out of bounds, and? even if the accident had not put an end; to the round the stroke would have been penalised. When, however, a ball some time ago elected to alight in a rabbit trap in a bunker, springing the catch, and getting firmly fixed in the jaws of the snare, the unfortunate player was not called play it from where it lay, but; was permitted to release and drop it in the bunker without penalty. There are few inanimate objects that possess the art of hiding themselves more effectually than golf balls, as is proved by the fact that among the treasure trove of the first year of this century was an old feather golf ball that was found embedded among the gravel of a path at the back of a dwelling-house in an Edinburgh suburb This reminiscence of the days when golf balls cost something like four shillings a-piece, though it must have bsen embedded for upwards of fifty years was, when found, in perfect condition, and only Blightly discoloured. Balls have more than once lodged in the bag of clubs carried by the caddie sent on ahead to watch the flight of the ball, and once at least a ball has hidden itself in the turned.up trouser of one of the players, but one of the most remarkabb incidents of the game that has occured of late took place at Chislehurst recently, whsn a player, playing a ball from the tee, drove it into the side pocket of a gentleman playing his own ball, some two hundred yards ahead. Players have driven balls off the face of a watch without damaging the timepiece, more than once, while at Hudderefield, some tma ago, a ball driven at great speed was cut in halt by sticking in tha edge of a scythe held by a groundsman, but only once in the history of golf, bo far as the writer is aware, has a player had the good fortune to walk up to his ball, and i find perched thereon a sixpence, a piece of good fortune that was reported to have attended a player at Norbury, in the last year of the last century.