GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 45, 22 February 1930, Page 22

GOLF

LCL\G-LOST CLUBS

<■ V "GHIPMMOT" GEAR ISLAND

- Golfers in general, as well as the members of tho Shandon Club, will bo pleased to lcuru that the mucli disputed Gear Island discussion baa ended iv the Sliaudon Club securing a lease of 63 acres for five years. Applications for membership to this club, already numerous, will no doubt increase now that it has some security of tenure, even for the comparatively short period. Shandon is the third nearest club to the city, and readily accessible' by all manner of conveyances. The club would certainly have preferred a ten years' lease, in order that the more ambitious lay-out considered for the longer period could have besn gone on with, but it will make little difference to play after all. The commencement of the lease is from Ist July, and. no time will be lost in laying out an additional nine holes. The greens on the present nine holes have been kept in good order during the summer, and during the next four months the work of adding hole by hole will be gone into. The lay-out of the present course will allow of a gradually increasing number of holes being played as the work proceeds." A golf house is being considered. After Forty-five Years. The New Zealand High Commissioner (Mr. T. M. Wilford) at present in this country, says the London "Daily Mail," is a golfer, and has'frequently visited St. Andrews. When there recently he told me that ono of the first games of golf in New Zealand was played by a Mr. Pryde in 1885, with a set of Forgan's clubs, which ho bought at a sale at the docks of unclaimed lost property. Dr. Edward Morrison, a well-known St. Andrews man, went to New Zealand in 1885, and took with him a set of Forgan's golf clubs, which he lost on landing. NoWj after forty-five years, he has heard what became of them. Hagen and Kirkwood. Beyond the dates on which Hagon and Kirkwood will play in New Zealand, nothing further is known except that both are on the Aorangi, due at Auckland on Monday. They ■ play at Titirangi on Monday afternoon,, at Miramar on Wednesday, and at Christchurch on Thursday, a programme truly American in its hustle. Too much cannot bo expected of golfers in. such a succession of journeys, just off a long sea trip, ' but the exhibitions of trick work put on by Kirkwood after the ; exhibition ' matches should make up for any shortcomings due to travel weariness. U.S. Walker Cup Team. The American Walker •■ Cup team which will visit England in May has been chosen as follows:—E. T. Jones (Atlanta), H. E. Johnston (St. Paul), G. Yon Elm (Detroit), Francis Ouimet (Boston), Dr. 0. F. Willing (Portland), G. J. Voigt (New York), Jess Sweetzer (New York), and D. K. Moe (Portland). Emergencies are Eoland Mackenzie and M. J.M'Carthy, jun., both of New York. Tho two of all these who are new to Walker Cup golf are Voigt and Moe. Voigt has been one of the 'outstanding amatenrs for the last three years leading iv the qualifying rounds for the championship in 1928, and reaching the semi-finals. Moe, a Sophomore at Oregon University, is twenty years old, but he has won the Northwest Collegiate title and the Western championship; He was nearly tho' cause of the downfall of T. P. Perkins, then British amateur champion, in the American national championship two years ago. Jones sums up the team's chances in: "Well, we'll need a good team." ' The Slow Pair Ahead. How often does one hear in the clubhouse: "Got on all right till I got to the tenth, arid and were ahead of us. . Had to wait for every shot, and you know I can't play when I have to stand about." Of this an American journal says: "In every club you will find one' or morp couples of 'rabbits' who, in 7 arranging their match, will doubtless say- to. each other, 'We will get away early, when it's quiet,' This means,-let us say, a 9 o'clock start They usually aro caught about tho fourth hole, and as there are- possibly other 'rabbits' or 'semi-rabbits' following who have not courage enough to ask to go through, the pace of the leading bunnies remains the paco of the course for tho rest of the morning. Until a few years ago the slow player was confined to the man who had learnt his golf late in life, or after middle age, and who^ having acquired a limited amount of efficiency, had no ambition to improve. But unfortunately of late it lias become the fashion for many of our young and good players to develop exasperating dilatoriness. I quite agree that every shot played in a round should be thoroughly thought out, but to a man of ordinary quick wits and intelligence, every shot can bo thoroughly considered, ■ almost" in the act of taking the club from the caddie. First-class golf and good golf has been played and can be played by quick thinking and quick movement. To an experienced golfer tho playing of most shots is instinctive, and not the result of a mathematical calculation. Tho only shot that requires a careful study is tho difficult putt, and often a great deal too much time is spent over that." Ladies' International Golf. Ladies' international golf has caught the imagination, and developments in international rivalry on the lines of tho Walker Cup match are foreshadow--3d by the proposal of- the Ladies' Golf Union to raise a £15,000 campaigning :und to defray tho expenses of official 3ritish teams playing abroad. Ameri:an ladies are wholly in favour of the dea, and next year's visit of United States golfers to England in consideriblo numbers will, most likely, sco the irst of tho, international matches on n-cciscly the sanio lines as those of the nen. ■ V. Queer Wager. ■ : ■ American clubs, as might bo oxpectid, have quito a, reputation for eecenrie contests in whic'u - the result has ested on a bet. ,Oiie of. theso was de;ided at Pittsburg, in 1899, on which iccasion 2(j members of the Alleghany 31ub wagered 4000 dollars that their lest player could drive a golf ball hrough five miles of the city streets in 56 strokes. Tho champion not only id this, but ho actually got round in 0 strokos under tho minimum. As, howver, he contrived to •do over £100 rorth of damage to windows and conorvatory frames on route, his pecuniary profit must hayo been, seriously, afccteclt

THE WALKER CUP