Golfer’s Slice

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 20, 25 January 1937, Page 8

Golfer’s Slice

ACTIONABLE NEGLIGENCE Poor golf does not constitute actionable negligence, and the decision of a Pennsylvania judge to the contrary is a real cause for alarm, in tho opinion of Mr Henry W. Taft, eminent among American lawyers, if not, hither to, among American golfers (says the New York correspondent of The Times). This judge recently hold guilty of negligence, in Brosko v. Hetherington, a player who, without benefit of lessons from a professional, sliced a drive on the first tee and hit a caddy in the eye. Startled by the thought of what might happen to the game of golf if a flood of litigation were Jet loose by reason of the Pennsylvania judge's decision, Mr Taft has written to the New York Law Journal a letter of protest. The judge (he says) seems to have been without golfing background. Otherwise, why should he have said that the ball was “irregularly driven by the defendant” ... If an 1 ‘improper posture and an incorrect swing,” referred to bv the judge, are to constitute actionable negligence, there would probably be in a single day at a popular golf links a thousand or more such acts of negligence, and the hazard of players and caddies would classify the pastime sa “extra-hazardous.” Air Taft asks, what is an improper posture? Borne players (he writes) spread their legs wide apart, some place them close togetheer, some stand pigeon-toed, some slant their toes outward, and some stand straight, while others lean over. Ninety-five per cent, of golf players have only moderate skill, he contitnues, and everybody frequently lapses from perfect form. A professional’s dictum is no solution. He admits that lack of skill may amount to negligence, “but in a game where departures from perfect practice are so common and result in so many risks, that can only occur in an extreme