GOLFING TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 169, 5 June 1940, Page 8

GOLFING TOPICS

some peculiar incidents BALL LODGES IN DONKEY'S EAR The unusual incident in the goli match at the Waitikiri links, Ghrisl church, recently, when a golf ball driven by a player came to rest on the back of a live hedgehog, recalls the fact that golf balls have "been known to behave in a freakish mar ner on many occasions. The Golfer's Handbook, commenting on a number of incidents, states:— "Balls have been accidentally driven into railway compartment.': of trains in motion and into vehicles passing or crossing golf courses, Such incidents are numerous in Scotland, where railways lines run alongside many links and public roads and cart tracks cut through the links. Many instances are recorded of a ball played in a match dropping into the pocket or remaining in the clothing of one of tfr players or of some person on the links-" One incident concerns the feat ol a County Cork player in driving his ball into the ear of a donkey. The donkey stood still until the players were within a few yards ol the animal, when it took to its heels tossed its head, and the ball went spinning to the ground. At Duddingston in 1924 a ball became embedded on the back of a sheep. It was only after the sheep had been chased some distance that the ball was dislodged. In a match at Prestongrange in 1938 a player hooked his ball at the second hole. The player had given lip the ball for lost when, to liis amazement, a woman emerged from onp of the houses adjacent and handed back the ball, which, she said, had fallen down the chimney and had landed in a pot which was on the fire.

One of tlie most unusual shots on record was executed at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1923, by ai woman player. After an approach shot had landed in a bird's nest, she climbed the tree in which the nest was situated, took a stance among the branches and. played a pitch shot on to t he nearby green. She holed out in one putt and halved the hole. It is a common occurrence for rabbits and birds to be killed by golf balls. The most astounding fatality to an animal through being struck by a golf b«S! CKjwsrred at St. Margaret's-at-Cliffe Golf Club Kent, in 1934, when the club professional killed a, cow with his tee shot to the 18tli- hole. The' player | used a No. 2 Iron for his shot, and was surprised to see the animal collapse after being hit on the back of the head. While on a tour with a British professional team in South Africa in 1936-37. Abe Mitchell, -playing on the Hill course at Port Elizabeth, noticed that his club struck something hard when he played his second shot from the edge of the rough at the first hole. Taking another swing he unearthed a tortoise upon which his ball had perch ed from the tee shot. Playing in a match on the Bain course in 1929, the Rev. Davies Jones took his stroke at a ball which had fallen at the mouth of a rabbit hole. A rabbit appeared anil was killed by the mashie.