LONG DRIVING AT GOLF

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 27 July 1929, Page 9

LONG DRIVING AT GOLF

••**4^**— THE BALL QUESTION IN PROPER PERSPECTIVE

(By Harry Vardon, Six Times Open Champion)

(Specially Written for “Tho Mail

Thcro have been many golf drives.of wonderful length ' during the recent drought. It is one of the joys of the game that it has these occasional seasons of rapture when everybody thinks that lie must suddenly have improved in a remarkable degree, and developed the ability to hit the ball farther than anybody else can hit it. What is more, we are able to believe the tales of golfers’ amazing drives. For instance, T have the utmost faith in the man who told mo the other day that he had driven on to the green at a hole of *2<3a yards, and just missed his putt for a 2. I am glad lie said he missed tho putt. Tn his delight, he might have imagined ho had holed it.

[ wonder what has been the longest drive during the season of drought? Has anybody beaten 400 yards? On ground such as we .have known it in large areas of the country in the past few weeks, with an uninterrupted downhill run and a following wind to help, t here must have, been some of the longerf shots in history. I suppose they have gone unrecorded because their makers have had only to breathe the proud news in the clubhouse to learn that somebody else on the previous day had driven ten yards further.

Long-handicap players have been annihilating distance as if to the manner born. With my own eyes l l have seen a mail with a handicap of 18 hit a tec shot of over 800 yards. He had the breeze, the falling ground, the adamantine surface—and it was easy. As a matter of fact, lie searched for the ball at a spot where lie considered one of his very best might reasonably have been expected to stop, and found it ultimately sixty yards farther up tho course. If he had won the match instead of losing it, he would not have been so happy as lie was about that drivp.

RARE INSPIRATIONS There always will be drives of remarkable length under exceptional conditions. When the gutta-percha ball was in use, a shot of 230 yards was considered nil amazingly long one (180 yards was the accepted average of lirstclass players’ drives), and yet Mr Edward Blackwell drove such a hall from the eighteenth teeing ground at St. Andrews to the. steps of the clubhouse, which the ball actually struck. The distance was 360 yards. Even the modern ball lias very seldom beaten that, no matter what the circumstances of wind or turf. Perhaps, just now and again, there comes to the first-class player a super-per-fection of timing, which is capable of adding wondrously to the length of the shot, whatever the make or material of the ball. Mr Cyril Tolley sometimes obtains this rare touch of surpassing good timing (just as lie is liable to go to tile other extreme), and it must have been at its best when at Troon, in an open championship he drove on to the green at the first hole, which measures 330 yards. Moreover, the inspiration remained long enough to enable him to get down his putt for a 2.

Still, the riot of long dr'ving in drouglit-timc is' a phenomenon produced almost entirely by the state of the ground. Possibly the power of the ball needs to be restricted, but shots made under abnormal conditions should have up bearing on the question, although they were allowed to dictate the first legislation on the ball prob-lem-legislation which has since gone on continuously with an eye to further limitation. It was at St. Andrews in 1919, when *thc turf was extraordinarily favourable to long hitting, that there arose the discussion which grew .and grew in volume, brought delegates from the United States to Britain to enter into the debate, and produced the now familiar ball formula of 1.62 in weight and diameter. It was borne in by.a side-wind, llie championship delegates had invited representatives of the Professional Golfers’ Association to confer with them in regard to championship regulations, and after a great deal of desultory and abortive talk a standaid ball was suggested. From that chance, eleventh-hour remark has come all the long-drawn-out legislation oil the subject. THE NEW IDEA What has been done has been probably for the good of the gamp, but the next step ought not to be based on things that happen under exceptional circumstances. The Americans have now decided in favour of a larger and lighter ball. On the whole, it might be a'sound policy for us to introduce such ball for tile purpose of championships. , ~ The wisdom of trying to force it on all classes of golfers has to be considered. After all, the implements in use in championships at most games—for instance, the rackets and balls m lawn tennis, and the tables in billiards —are usually of a more easy-going nature for the rank-and-file, of players.