SERIOUS GAME OF GOLF.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1864, 25 September 1913, Page 9

SERIOUS GAME OF GOLF.

HAERY LAUDER AND LITTLE TICH

I Harry, Laudor And Littlo Tich recently tasted some of the joys of being golfing celebrities. They 'played on the Mid-Surrey course at Richmondwhore J. H., Taylor, tho Open Oliampjon, is professional —for the championship of tho Palladium, and after a grim struggle before a good " gallery " and on what was otherwise practically a deserted course, the great Lauder won. The sun , blazed 1 down upon a parched and thirsty land'when the two comedians set out. Tich had a bag of clubs larger than himself —murder-ous-lookiing implements for the mysterious business of propelling the ball from teo to hole. And ho engaged one of the largest of tho Mid-Surrey caddies to carry the bag. Not tho least important part of tlie caddie's duty was to holp Tich climb out of tho bunkers. Tich is known as tho " Bunker King." ( His golf is a sandstorm—niblick erup'tions shooting high into tho air with Ticli liimelf burrowing far down below the surface of the course. When there are no bunkers his game can. bo followed without danger through a pair of field-glasses. For his howover, he is a golfing marvel. He is so small that ever ytime.hi} makes.a.stroke..the club threatens to' overbalance him, but somo of lii 3 best drives in the game under revieiv were over two hundred yards..' .Once,.on a fair,and square test —when neither of the comedians topped '.their balls —Tich just outdrovo Lauder but there was a friendly argument before Lauder would admit it. The MidSurrey course was quite clear when Tich announced that " the gladiators would enter the arena." The members of. the club had taken cover round about the club house. Tich was attired in a fawn-coloured coat, bluo trousers, blue cap, and brown shoes. Lauder was somewhat quieter in grey flannel, and he woro glasses. Both "gladiators" found it necessary to emphasiso the fact that they woro not out as comedians but as golfers, but they wore quickly disillusioned. The first hole took six strokes from * Lauder, at least score of snapshots by photographers, and about seven years off Little Tich's life. The Little Ono topped and fluffed. He declared that ho noyer could play golf before lunch or ■ with a gallery. He grew still moro visibly older at the : second and third holes. He had not bargained for a gallery of Scotchmen. Meanwhile, Lauder was going merrily. He was piling up a few less strokes than his rival and celebrating his triumph by whistling bits of his own songs. But, for all Lauder's chirping, it was a funeral and smileless exhibition of bad golf. Theso two comedians, who have in their time madfe millions laugh, failed to extract a complimentary gigglo. It was pitiful. Just when things were at their gloomiest Tich set about Lauder in real earnest, and won or halved sufficient holes to reduce the Scotsman's lead of 1 at the ninth. Two holes later he himself was 1 up. All this while Louder had been calling affably on all the bunkers in his road, dropping in to make a few inquiries ror his errant bal. , This moved Tich to reproach him fori attempting to purloin the titlo of "Bunker King." The next instant Little One found a ' bunker himself —and then a succession of sand-traps. "I am demoralised." said Tich wearily, as ho heaved a bushel of sand out of a hazard designed to look liko a cathedral. Ho was then 3 down to. Lauder, but ho behaved with the coolness and courage of a man accustomed to desperate situations. Ho visited three mora bunkors. and at the end of his iourne.v Laudor had beaten him by 3 holes and 1 to play. At tho eighteenth teo, their troubles being at an ond, Lauder sang snatches from his' songs and Tich danccd out of pure joy. On the homo green Laudor gavo Tich a stymio for the benefit of tho puotographers, instructed him in iTTo art oT looking pleased about it, and then tbo great adventuro was over, fir.uder is, therefore, golf champion of tho Pauatiium.