GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 22

GOLF

BY "CHIPSHOT"

KIRK-WINDEYER CUP

HACEN AND KIRKWOOD h

A BRILLIANT PAIR

Every time Kirkwood is mentioned tho question arises—why has ho not won a championship;! Leading by several strokes, and with only a few holes to play, the British Open seemed in hjs pocket at Troon, but he suddenly encountered disaster. At St. Andrews, in 1921, he found himself in winning position, starting the last round, but was beaten by Jock Hutchison and Eoger "VVethered, <who put in brilliant finishes. To deduce that Kirkwood has jumpy nerves and a lack of the competitive spirit, says Bobby Jones, is all wrong. Golf is the most uncertain of games. Everybody has to suffer disappointments, but continued knocking at the door gains admittance. How he lost the two above chances is easily understood, but why did he not continue knocking? • "It is useless to blame any lack of success upon a mechanical deficiency in tlio use of his clubs," says "Bobby," '' for Kirkwood is a finished arid highly skilful player. ■ His driving is not uuusually long, but Very, very,straight, his iron play-is as good as.that of any man, his recovery work is brilliant, 'and, though given to occasional lapses on tho green, he is on the whole a very good putter. Joe may miss a few very short putts, but he will also hole a good many very long ones. ' "I think there aro only two.things which keep Kirkwood off the very pinnaelo of golfing excellence, that is, measured by . tournament successes, which is unfortunately the only measure the public applies.' They are, first his exuberance of spirit, which never permits him to become thoroughly serious about a golfing tournament; and second, 3trangely enough, Ms positively uncanny ability to do queer things with a golf ball. The second reason^ I.^think, is the real one, for the joy of winning must appeal to a certain extent even to Kirkwood, and I am sure he would havo won more than once if he could have done so, but Kirkwood is primarily a trick shot artist. Inevitably he must have devoted more of himself and his effort to the mastery of those shots t^au to the solution of playing eighteen holes in the least number of strokes. Joo delights in trick shots a good deal more than in winning golf tournaments, and "he find it impossible to leave his magic behind when he starts, in quest of a championship., I always'feel that he has to exercise restraint in every shot to make himself play it in< what ho knows is the sensible way.' Ariel) perfectly as ho must appreciate the danger/ there are always a few occasions in every round where the possibilities of tho situation overwhelm his 'restraint. He first sees every. shot in. k difficult light, and it is' only when ho thinka twice that ho employs the safer method. As Nettlefold said when Kirkwood took three putts from eight feet at St. Andrews, "if I could have placed three balls in his way, and handed him a mashie, he would havo holed out with certainty." •

Some of Kirkwood's stunts consist in stamping a ball firmly into the turf, and driving it 200 yards with a brassie, playing balls off the face of a watch, or playing the middle ball of three piled on one another. Nominating shots he pulls and slices to order. A little, while back, playing with some freak clubs made by Arthur le Fevre, ho astounded everyone on,the course at Melbourne. -There was a : monstrous driver, the-, wielding of which was one man's full-time work,-a putter to match, a concave mashie niblick with the head turned back to front, an ordinary wood with the face cut back at an. angle of less than 45 degrees, and a club which for a face had a heavy iron ball the size of a golf ball. With these strango weapons the Victorian players had all had unsuccessful tries, but, swinging them for the first time, Kirkwood made shots that were just about as perfect as he could have made with his own clubs. Imagine the hitting: accuracy necessary to make a full shot, and a perfect one, with a club having -an iron golf ball for its head. Pin point had to meet pin point for that shot . . .

and it did. To all his wonder, gifts ho adds a charm of manner that is.one of his chief assets at trick shot displays. If Kirkwood is a courteous wizard, Hagon is a genial showman with, "the straight goods." He applies to the game an intense concentration, which | with the shots in his bag make him a deadly opponent to the few in his class, and, though he has not a reper-toii-o of fancy tricks, he always seems to be able to play marvellous recovery shots out of the impossible situations his terrific, but sometimes askew, driving places him in. Born in 1892, he lias won the American Open in 1914 and 1919, the British' Open in 1922, 1924, 1928, and 1929 (in the latter year doing a 67 on Muirfield, the lowest round in the British Open in sixty-odd years), the American Professional Championship in. 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, ana 1927, the Metropolitan in 1916, 1919, and 1920, the Western Open in 1916, 1921, 1926, and 1927, the French Open in 1920, the Belgian Open in the same year, and the "North and South Open" in 191S, 1923, and <1924. He beat Bobby Jones 11 and 10 in 1924, Abe Mitchell in an world's match play championship in England, 2 and 1, and for years lias been recognised as the greatest all-round player in America.

It appears as ' though. Hagen and Kirkwood will play**each other here, and will not be matched against local players, which may be a good thing, as there will bo moro' opportunity of studying them carefully. Nevertheless, it would havo been most interesting to have had a comparison of tho work of tho pick of the local-professionals, and incidentally of tho comparative difibrcnee in tho atmospheric conditions, which would be brought out by"a study of the drives of Shaw and Hagcn. Kirk-Wincleycr Team. While tho chief interest in the KirkWindeyor Cup'now centres in the selection of tho Australian team, it is interesting to learn that tho inclusion of Ewan Macfarlane in the Jtfew Zealand team is duo to his remarkably steady performance over a number of returned cards. Over nineteen rounds ho averaged 72, includ-ng two 69 's, ono 70, four 72's, eight 73 's, and four 74's. Macfarlano did not do so well in Australia, but ho was playing nothing like as consistently beforg th« trip lie made over there.