YOUTH AT GOLF

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 31 July 1929, Page 8

YOUTH AT GOLF

TALENT TOO OFTEN LEFT UNTUTORED (By Harry Y anion, Six Times Open Champion.) (Specially Written For- "The Mail") This is the era o '[ young men for big positions in games. Mr A. L'. V. Chapman, at the age of 28, has led England to victory in two scries of cricket matches against Australia ; M. Rene Laeoste, at 23, is lawn tenuis champion; Mr T. 11.I 1 . Perkins, at 21, is British amateur golf champion; and Mr Bobby, Jones, at 27, has won the America u amateur championship four limes, and the British and American open championships each on two occasions. Tin' long-flourishing faith that experience is an asset of tirst importance on the playing-field seems to be going by the board, and in no connection does' its dismissal represent so striking a change as on the links. (101 l may never ipiile have merited the pleasantry which scoffers'bestowed on it. when they called' it "an old man's game", but, in its time, it has certainly brought a great deal of distinction to middle-aged people. Flayers such as Mr John Ball and the late .Mr Charles llulchings have won the amateur championship at the age of fifty or over, It we may judge Ivy lat-ter-day signs, nothing of the kind will ever happen again, and the. prestige'of this country in the pastime will suffer severely, unless systematic steps be taken to encourage and develop voung talent. For this reason, it is satisfactory that the boys' championship, instituted in a small way by th,. Royal Ascot Club eight years ago, is now established on a solid loiindation. This season's tournament is to be held on the Edinburgh Burgess course in. August.

At one time, thc\e was an unmistakeable prejudice in Britain ugainst .the appearance of buys in golf tournaments; and it i,s tolerably pertain that, even now,, nobody wishes' that they - should' neglect cricket, football, and other sports which are in the nature of running, figlils, and which encourage youthful, energy to exhaust itself healthily. Rut public opinion has changed very decidedly during the past year or so tu the sense that it now sees no harm in boys pursuing golf in, the intervals between other games. BEGINNINGS .At its inception, the boys' championship had a mixed reception, marked in just about equal parts by hostility and toleration. The only quality lacking in (he reception was- onthusiasni. Even so,' the event, bus prospered, and helped to bring to light some excellent players, who appear to be none the worse as youths for the circumstance that they have been discussed as* public persoiiBges. lor example, there are Mr Eric iVieUifvic, of Leven, ami Mr E. W. Fiddian, of .Birmingham, who won in 1926 and 1927 respectively, and who gained places in. this year's England v. Scotlaud match. Then there is Mr Robert Peat tie, of Cupar, Eifeshire, who, as the boy champion of 1925, beat Sir Ernest Holiferness in that year's' British championship. Mr Peattie also secured a big competition on the old course at St. Andrew's at. about the same time with a score of 73. Three well-known professionals who played immediately behind him in prac- ' tiee there told mo that he knew as much as they had ever learned about the art of playing a mashie shot up to the pin and making it stop by the power of its back-spin*, T. H. Cotton had his early experience in the hoys' championship, and there arc two brothers, Mr Donald Mathieson and Mr Robert Miithieson, who had their groundings in strenuous golf in this tournament and <A whom the latter played for Oxford against Cambridge. Both have done well in East Lothian.' The fact is that the rising talent of Britain will= never make the headway, of which it is capable without the pursuance of reasonable and properly organised efforts to help it. At such a time as the August holiday season, you may see boys in plenty on seaside courses who, taken into the bosom .of the family .foursome after only spasmodic appearances on the links during earlier vacations, swing the club with a vigour and naturalness that are enviable to late beginners. THE WAYWARD WAY But. in four cases out of every five,. these boys of infinite promise grow up untutored' in golf. They are- coached <it school'in cricket mid football, as, indeed, they should be, since sport Is part of the public-school curriculum. But if only more of them were coached between terms in golf! .The middle-aged player, whose evidence of a misspent youth is a handicap of .something between fourteen and twenty-four, and whose effort to pivot the body on its own axis at the hips in the approved golfing maimer is made with some of the elegance of a duck, .knows that these boys could produce some wonderful results. in most English golf clubs, there is still a prohibition that nobody under the age, of eighteen may be elected to membership. It is perhaps » salutary regulation, seeing that, a golf club has a good deal of the element of a social club, and that boys who were members would associate more .or less .'on terms of equality (or superiority as players) with their elders. At the. same time, much could lie done to encourage the rising generation by holding competitions for cadet members instead of allowing them merely to use the course occasionally on sufferance.