PIONEER GOLFERS

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19156, 12 November 1927, Page 23

PIONEER GOLFERS

BRITISH TEAM FOR SOUTH AFRICA. (iPICIILLT VTBITTI* TO» THI PBIS8.) (By Harry Vardon, Six Times Open Champion.) It is good to hear that tho Royal and Ancient Club have accepted the invitation to send a team of four British amateur golfers to South Africa for a tour in that country. Except in the case of the Walker Cup sides, who cannot strictly be described as tourists since their mission is to play a match against the pick of the United States and then come home, there has been no previous instance, of an official invasion by Britain. The Oxford and Cambridge Society went round America over twenty years ago playing matches against club and State teams, but that was a purely social piece of pioneering. It is excellent that four such wellknown golfers as Mr K. H. de Montmorency, who has been appointed captain. Mr Cyril Tolley, Major C. O. Hezlet, and Captain A. G. Pearson have agreed to form the party for South Africa. No doubt they will take prat there in the amateur and open championships, and thus a very good idea will be obtained as to the standard of the game in the land of their expedition. We may congratulate ourselves that British g»lf is still rated so highly as to receive this invitation iu preference to the United States. To be sure, blood is thicker than water, but we cannot blink the fact that America predominates on the links nowadays and that its leading representatives would be a strong attraction in any country. Moreover, they have the money to undertake such crusades. Not long ago, I heard of a "Round-the-World" Club which had been organised in the United States, the programme consisting of a four months' tour in a ship of 20,000 tons and a visit to every quarter of the globe in which the game is in season. I believe this enterprise is to begin soon. Apricots as Hazards. They have arranged their programme so as to spend Christmas in the Holy Land and New Year's Eve in Cay-o, and then proceed to the principal courses in India, Japan, Australia, and other countries, . their arrival home being timed for April. On their way, they sire to visit various centres of the game in remote islands. Could there be any pleasanter manner of following the sun? At this season of the year, when our gaze as we tramp over the homeland courses is met by deteriorating trees, it is inspiring to think of a round of golf at Cairo, where, at the ninth hole the tee-shot must carry an apricot grove, with a line of lemon trees on the right and an orange clump on the left. Who would not gladly pay a penalty of one stroke for the privilege of lifting out of apricots in full bloom? For the most part the Egyptian l courses consist entirely of sand which, however, provides a remarkably true playing surface. Helouan was laid out by J. H. Taylor, who, in hia work of planning and constructing, was struck most of all by the natural undulations of the sand, which gave the course a character that „plenty of clubs would pay a great deal to possess. At least, the only circumstance that went deeper home to him during his business of making the Helouan course was that, climbing to the top of the highest hill one day, seemingly alone in the desert, he was suddenly confronted by a huge and fierce-looking Bedouin armed to the teeth. ' - However, this giant proved to be perfectly gentle and friendly. He was the man appointed to guard the golf club's property, and, appreciating the distinction of meeting the architect of the course, he spent the next few days following Taylor about with the placidity of Mary's little lamb. I hope our fortunate brethren, the round-the-world-boatload] of golfers, do not-think of going to Aden. I cannot fancy a "golfing holiday at Aden after reading what the secretary has to say about it. On the subject of the conditions for visitors, he remarks: "No visitors come to Aden. If one should come, he could play if brought by a member. There is Sunday play with caddies—if the caddies desire it." The prospect is happier at Sierra Leone, in West Africa, where, as my authority explains, the hills surrounds ing the course rise majestically to a height of 2000 feet, and where the greenkeeper has the picturesque name of Santiggi Fimanni. Japan's Courses. The tourists may be in India in January. When they go to Japan they will doubtless make a point of visiting tho course at Kobe, which is the oldest in that country, but I am not sure that they will want more than one round of it. Captain Pearson, one of the team for South Africa, who tried his hand upon it two years ago, declares that it has strong claims to be regarded as the world's worst course. The grass on the putting greens, he says, is like long cocoanut matting, and he found that the onlv way to urge the ball into the hole was by using a heavy lofting iron. There is a really good course, however, at Yokohama, it was laid out just after the great earthquake of 1923; it has excellent soil and other great natural advantages. The Japanese champion. Mr Kawisaki, plays there. Captain Pearson had a round with him, and says that he would be rated at about four in the British national handicaps, so that he would be good enough to take part in our amateur championship. Students of psychology and physiology have predicted that when the Japanese take up golf whole-heartedly they will make the greatest players iu the world. They have a golfing society of their own in London, and are keen pupils of several professionals.