GOLF.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18231, 15 November 1924, Page 6

GOLF.

THE GAME IN FRANCE.

ANOTHER RIVAL TO BRITAIN.

(srrcoaxY warmnr mb "t=» raxan,")

(By Harry Vardon.)

Is Franco going to be the next great golfing nation? We know the position of predominance which the United States has taken in the game—we cannot blink it in the face of the American triumphs in open championships and international team matches during the past four years—and people who study current signs say that France is destined to be another formidable rival to Britain ere many years have passed. They are impressed particularly by the performances of the vouthful representatives of that country in recent competitions. Mile. Simone de la Chaume, not yet 16 years of age, moved even hardened campaigners to enthusiasm by torplay in the girls' championship, which she won at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. The boys' Championship—'another event held annually in this country—was within an ace of going also to' France, for Pierre Manuevrier who is 18, reached the final, although he was then beaten by the steadiness of a Scots youth, B. Peattie, of Cupar, in Fifeshire. • . . In these facts, there are indications of the rise of a new generation or French amateurs—a development tor which Arnaud Massy has been preparing us for some time by his torn declarations of faith in the possibilities of the girls and boys who have taken up golf in France during recent years. He has said consistently that plenty of them look like real champions in the making. ' This is the Hrst era of "olf as a game for young people in France. In the past, it has been pursued almost exclusively by middleacred people so far as concerns the natives, but more particularly by American and "English residents in the country and their families, and the accomplishments of Mile, de la Chaume and Manuevrier are surely significant. It would be absurd even now to aay thai golf has an enormous following among our near neighbours, but it .most' certainly appears to be gaining recruits m large numbers every season. I am informed, for instance, that the six or seven clubs round Paris—organisations as big in their way as our most famous inland clubs, and possessing very fane courses laid out almost regardless of expense—are all full and have waiting lists. Indeed, Massy tells me that a lot of people in Palis who want to play golf cannot do eb because it is impossible at present lo join a club, although other courses -are now under construction.

A Great Nursery. - French professional golf has teen, lor a long time, a, quantity of considerable importance. This has been due almost entirely, to. the aptitude for the game shown by the Basques, who first came into contact with golf as the result of being appointed as small boys to act a* caddies at Biarritz. Nearly all the best French professionals, thus, far, bare been Basques from Biarritz. The most notable exception was Louie Tel-, lier, son of the caddie-master at Versailles, a particularly promising young player who died in America two or three years ago. . . Massy gave bis compatriots their cue by winning the British open championship on the Boyal Liverpool links at Hoylake in 1907. That was the year of just about ; the worst wind in which I remember any championship having been played. It was so strong that the short fourth hole, which can often be reached with a rhashie, called for a full bang with a driver, and even then one did well to get up to the green. The massive frame of Massy helped him considerably in that turbulence, and his victory tired his compatriots with the spirit of emulation. It was no.doubt a moral factor of considerable influence when a large party -of the leading British professionals went over a week or two later to try to wrest the French open championship from him. Not' only coo" he win again; almost the unkindeSt cut of all was that another Frenchman, Jean. Gassiat, until then, unknown, finished second. The leading Britisher was James Braid; who secured third place. Gassiat, another Basque, baulked mo of that championship one which has always just eluded me—-five' years later. I had rounds of 71,73,72, and 74, which seemed good enough, but he was a stroke better, thanks largely to a brilliant third round of 68. Gassiat has done well in golf, but not quite so well in this country as the student of the game might have expected. He is ' tremendously keen on practising, which is a valuable disposition at golf, and a very fine putter with that curiously shaped implement which looks like a large square slab of wood attached to a shaft.

Evolution. Ithas td be stated -that, until reeont times, amateur golf in France has been of a very nrodest standard. There was one distinctly good player in M. Francois de Bellet who, when he joined the Royal and Ancient Club, was placed at scratch'—an honour which ho vindicated by getting through four or five rounds of one of the handicap match play tournaments at St. Andrew's.

Unfortunately, his golfing career was checked, I believe, by a war-wound, although ho still plays. His sister was also a very good golfer, and another excellent lady player has since arisen, in Prance in , Mile. Gaveau, who is only about 20, and of whom my fellow-islander from Jersey, Aubrey Boomer," her instructor at St. Cloud, speaks very highly indeed. This year, however, she was beaten"" in the chief 'stroke competition of the season among Parisian lady golfers by Mile. de la Chaume, a result which helps one to understand how the latter came to win the girls' championship. It is only recently that ladies in Trance have taken at all seriously to the game; they were, formerly content to accompany their husbands or fathers to the course and watch the head of the household at play. Of tho middle-aged man who, until a few years ago,, constituted the French _ golfing community almost in its entirety, I fear it, is impossiblo to say that they proved adaptable late beginners. They must have had a good many lessons seeing that a club like La Boulie, at Versailles, supports four or five professionals, but probably they played too intermittently to make mueh progress. To be immediately behind a couple of them was apt to be a trial to the flesh; they were very per-, severing in holing out but very slow about it. Now, however, France seems to b« evolving its first generation of truly accomplished amateur golfers.