GAME OF GOLF.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1874, 7 October 1913, Page 2

GAME OF GOLF.

-| LESSONS FROM THE LADIES. (By Mai;k Allerton, in the "Observer.") On the out-of-the-way courses on which I liavo been amusing myself lately tho greater proportion , of the players have been ladios, their escorts being presumably engaged in killing grouso or fish or in waiting for a breeze to fill tho sails of their yachts.' These ladies are industrious rather than expert players, but from the faults, as well as from tho virtues, of their gamo many excellent hints can bo gathered. It has been noted that tho lady gojfer is prone to err m the direction of overswinging, and my observation bears this out. To a great'extent ovcrswinging is due to over vanity, masculine as well as feminine. Wo have watched with admiration the full, free swing of Vardon, Duncan, and tho rest, and we are very anxious to look like them. It may bo presumed that ladies pay more attention to personal appearance (and with greater justification) than do moil, and so that is perhaps why this pardonable desire to acquiro style is moro marked among lady golfers. But this exaggerated swing does not result in length, and by watching these ladies I hope I have convinced myself that it is wise to be content with tho' short swing, which is moro calculated to enable lis to control our club. Our model in this respect is no less oxaltcd than, J. H. Taylor, the open champion; himself. Jabbing at the Ball. With their' iron clubs these ladies showed an almost invariable tendency to jab ab tho ball. They appeared to distrust the ability of the lol't of tho face of the club to lift tho ball, and preferred to supplement this by an ondeavour to scoop it up. This is, of course, very reprehensible, and wo may note' that in future we shall not do <is these ladies do. If these ladies failed to got any considerable length, a noteworthy feature of their gamo was its straightness. They knocked tho ball with great precision along tho fairway, and very seldom found trouble of any sort. Now, the player who never gets into a. bunker nor slices into tho rough is a very formidable opponent indeed, as any malo golfer will discover if ho endeavours to givo as much as a stroke a holo to one of these lady players. He will- find that his long drive is of little avail if his long second runs oyer tho groou into a kind of jungle, or in short

in a steep-faced bunker, or, indeed, encounters any kind of trouble at all. His fair opponent has trundled tho ball ' carefully up to tho green in threo or four, and, with a shock, the more dash- : ing male finds he will have his'work cut out to snatch a half. The lesson j we may learn from thesa ladies, then, - is that it is tho. straight game, even , if it bo a short game, that pays in the long run. ' Cood Sporting Spirit. ' But the most pleasing feature of all of this ladies' golf is that its exponents were under no delusion regarding golf as a game. I do not mean that they did not play with all seriousness and determination, but their appearance did not convey the impression that they were engaged ill a solemn, even a disr agreeablu, business, as so often does that of the man golfer. I heard no angry arid protesting exclamations when things were going wrong. These ladies were out to enjoy themselves and did not mean to let a little episode, such as a hole done in double figures, distress them. A friend who has been present at many ladies' championships tells me that this feature of ladies' matches is by no means oonfined to such friendly matches as I have been watching. Even while a stern championship match is being played the lady golfer, he tells me, while out to win, takes things, even defeat, in a light-hearted manner. This is what we expect from tho less stern sex, but there are men. golfers who may bo reminded that tho state of their form has comparatively little effect on tho heavens above or the earth beneath or the waters under the earth. Then, again, it is incontestably true that tho player who can accept temporary faster in a light-hearted manner is more calculated to ; win his match than he who is driven into a paroxysm of annoyance and despair thereby. Tho oifect on the nerves of expending much - energy and many shots on hacking a ball out of long grass or out of a bunker is known to all of us, but if wo can quickly forgot the distressing episode—as tlios# ladies ssem to do—and pull ourselves together there is 110 reason why we'should not win our match after all. Warner'* Rust-proof Corsets'. Do you know that overy Warner Pattern is designed by au expert in Human anatomy? One who knows exactly where to place the boning for support without annoying pressure. Wellington DraDors.—Advt. Tho New Zealand Club ia entertaining Mr. A. H. Ford, of Honolulu, at hinchson to-dav.