GOLF IN 1912.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1368, 20 February 1912, Page 3

GOLF IN 1912.

(By Charles' E. Hands, in the "Daily Mail.")

No trne golfers genuinely concerned for tho higher interests of the noble game but will rejoice at the thought that, sadly disappointing as 1911 was, 1912 shines bright with ihe prospects of development and progress. We should be prudent, of eonrsv, in our optimism. Lcl us not permit oui>elvcs to lorgel that the year that lias uow passed away promised extremely well at the start. In the inspiration ol the hopeful outlook I had not only enrolled myself as a student nl a London go if school and had succeeded in rv-aiTiingiii!; whet passes for a back garden in residential liondon so as to lind room for a doormai, for home practice with a wonderful now driver. If 1 refer to the difficulties that had to be surmounted, it is not in ■ braggadocio but in order to indicate the spirit of resolution (hat characterised English golf. The simple, harmless, useful, and eminently practical proposal with regard to the doormat was only carried into effect in tho face of a storm of powerful and determined opposition. AH sorts of vested interests sprang to their defences. Blind, unreasoning prejudices reared their venomous heads and hissed like snakes. But in the end the cause of progress triumphed, as in the end it always must, and the- lilac tree had to go. It had little or no utility. For only a very brief period of any year had it ever borne any blossom, and that was only of an ordinary lilac colour with a quite ordinary lilac odour. Moreover, it attracted cats. Its removal gave the garden just enough ground space for a doormat and a full-sized swing at a captive ball, and tho outlook was very hopeful. With daily doormat home work to supplement the theoretical instruction of tho professor at the academy there was every justification for expecting that golf in 1911 would make great strides.

Alas! 1911 has handed in it' card, nnd I find that I only played twice. 1 might s:«y, indeed, that I only played onco, for I decline to consider the iir.-.t and only game I had on tho doormat as a serious round. I was using tho new driver, for which I had made the course, and had made, among others, somo really remarkable strokes before tho tragedy of the breakfast-room window revived a controversy which I hud regarded as definitely laid to rest. Vested interest and prejudice reassured themselves with sickly sentimentalities and fads about gardening, and now where the lilac tree used to be and where the teeing doormat once was laid there glowers a hideous clump of rhododendrons. One real gnine I ployed was at the academy. It might justly bo described as a round, for I believe I used every club in my armoury with the exception of the niblick, and that I was unable to employ, because another student was using the only bunker. On (he wholo 1 played a great game that morning. Of sixteen balls which the- professor placed tine by one before mo on tho teoing-patch I hit no fewer than nine at the first attempt, and of these all but four hit tho net. My be.it performance was a brassy shot which, the professor calculated at a hundred and twenty yards if tho net had not been there and the ball had fallen on favourable ground. With my driver I was rather oil" my game, but my approach-shots showed remarkable )>ower. I made a cut in one ball that you could almost havo laid your finger in, and I was only using my second longest iron thing.

Bright as the outlook was, I never played again. On the following Monday morning, when I had booked a round at the academy and the professor had promised to reserve me the bunker, my right hand was still tore. On the Wednesday it rained, and on the Friday the contretemps of tho breakfast-room window had disturbed my confidence, and in the' following week I could not help feeling that without regular conscientious home work academic instructions would only cramp the style. So 1 resolved to make sJiift with outdoor nlav with the many among my friends wfio had kindly offered to give mo a game. However, a series of difficulties arose to prevent nny .of them from accepting' my offer, and (hen came, the hot weather, when there was so much else to do.

In the Coronation week I lent my chilis to a young relative, who left them in a cloak-room, and 1 had to pay 2s. 2d. to recover them, and when the holidays arrived, ami there was every hoi>o of golf coming to the fore tho entire outfit had mysteriously disappeared, and were lost until October, when, in a .shocking condition of rust they were found iii a coal cellar, whither they seem, to have gone of their own volition, Twice since then I have gone out for an afternoon s golf. Once it poured with rain and on the. other occasion we made the mi.stake of lunching at the clubhouse, 'where a discussion arose which did not terminate until the light'was failing. Almost a blank year is the most charitable verdict that can be passed upon 1911 from the golf point of view.

Howover, the past cannot be recalled. liet us rather turn our faces to the future. Roseate gleam the golf prospects for 1912, if only we can get through the year without any elections. I have entered myself once more as a student at the university for a bi-weekly courso of instruction from a tutor who is a Scotsman and knows Braid personally: 1 shall graduate early in May, and then niter n short post graduate courso at St. Andrews, where, 1 am assured, the best style is still developed, tho great forward movement in British golf will begin. The game needs new blood if it is to progress. It.has been too long left to the old.gang, and is degenerating, retrogressing. Braid frequently, almost habitually, as one rends, makes a brilliant recovery after driving into the rough. What golf needs is men who, will havo no use for brilliant recoveries 'sinco they will aever drive into the rough. The man who concentrated upon it would always keep out rif hunkers. There are few holes which it is not possiblo to do in two, and there are many which are easily achieved in one. What was possible in 1911 should bo regularly accomplished in 1912 or all our talk of human progress is vain. But new ideas must be introduced. By removing a superfluous table from the bath-room I find , that I am able to study stances and perfect my swing. That the swing, owing to restricted space, has to be practised with an imaginary club is all the better since imaginntion enters so much more into the game than players of the old school realise. Study and thought are essential. Nothing can be accomplished without burning tho midnight oil. From early in May a new impulse will be perceptible in the world of golf. That is if in the meantime Mr. Lloyd-George docs not introduce a new lot of reforms. The present scries, Insurance, Homo Rule, the Franchise Bill, and Woman Suffrage, are as much as any man can properly study if he is to keep bis mind clear for golf.