HOLING IN ONE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 133, 7 June 1937, Page 11

HOLING IN ONE

A GOLF INSURANCE

("PAYING DANEGELD TO GOOD ! LUCK"

The news that an unusual insurance policy had been effected in New Zealand, insuring the handicap golfer against holing in one, led "The Times" to make the following amusing comment in a third leader:—

A New Zealander, solitary and anonymous like Macaulay's, has challenged Fate, and has made a most original choice of weapons. He has insured himself (the report is printed on another page) against holing out in one. The consequences of such a feat are well known—a bottle of whisky to restore the composure of a flabbergasted caddie, and drinks all round for fellow-members in the clubhouse. In short, a good deal of financial gilt off the psychological gingerbread: a swollen head', but'a deflated purse. The custom may seem inequitable; and indeed a month ago it was noted in these columns that a Beckenham golf club (which has four very short holes) had turned the tradition inside out and made each holer-out-in-one its guest for the day. But it is not unusual in human affairs for moments of supreme joy to carry certain financial liabilities, as many a bridegroom, buying presents for the susurrant and self-conscious maidens who must attend his darling to the altar, has had bitter jause to know. :

The New Zealander, however, rejects this expansive but perhaps outmoded principle. He is, on the evidence to hand, a bold fellow, not tr> be bound by convention nor intimidated by paradox. He insures not as lesser men do against failure and misfortune; he insures against success. The modern practice of insurance offers only one parallel or precedent for his action; there are those, it seems,, who take out policies against having more than one child at a time. Twins, and, still more, those larger consignments of offspring which have of late engaged the public attention, are often embarrassing, for financial if for no other reasons, to men who prefer to count their blessings one by one; and the tendency to put this aspect of domestic life on a quid pro Quads basis is a natural one.

But the analogy is not exact, even if one dared to invoke Colonel Bogey in so delicate a context. Besides, other questions arise. To most of us the odds against our holing out in one ieem overwhelming; to the New Zealander they clearly seem nothing of the sort. He appears at this distance an engaging figure; one is loath.to believe that he took out that policy from merely mercenary motives. He has, it is obvious, been doing practically every hole in one, and now he seeks to weight the dice against himself; for you do not insure against things which you want to happen, nor :do you flout Fate by arranging to capitalise her most unlikely kindnesses. No; the poor fellow has clearly been suffering from a surfeit of good luck. His game has suffered. His putter rusts in the bag. He has almost forgotten what a bunker looks like from inside. And so he has taken the only step left open to him, paying danegeld to good luck to go away. If these premises are correct he deserves the sympathy of every golfer; but'he will be lucky—even by his own standards—if he gets it.