SCOTTISH GOLF

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 104, 23 December 1931, Page 2

SCOTTISH GOLF

HOME OF GAME BUT HAS LACKED GREAT PLAYERS REGAINING ITS LAURELS Scotland, the birthplaee of golf and the only country in which it is truly democratic, has suddenly emerged from her long period of depression in playing ability and recovered something like her old-time prestige at the game, notes R. Endersby Howard, .in the London "Daily Mail." In the women's international match, Scotland beat England for the second time in 22 years. In the men's match between the two nations, Scotland won for the first time for eight seasons. To these indications of superiority in the bulk may be added the point that the British open championship was won by a man who, although now a naturalised American, and established himself as a Scottish amateur of the front rank before he left Great Britain — T. D. Armour, once a violinist in the orchestra of an Edinburgh pieture house. .And if doubt exists as to whether the race can sustain this renewed golfing vitality, -it ought to be set down as evidence on the subject that the final of the recent boys' championship was contested by two Scottish yoUths. It is impossible to understand why Scotland, where everybody either plays golf or thinlcs about it, should

have been deficient for so long in the production of successful players. The volume of play in the favourable months is enormous. All ages are at it. In proportion to populations, even America cannot vie with Scotland in the number of young men who pursue golf as their chief recreation. Whether you talk to earl or artisan, laird- or hotel liftman, managing director or his junior clerk, everybody can discuss the game from a profundity of knowledge, and pour forth a recollection of results, scores and intimate affairs in the lives of famous players which leaves the average visitor from England gasping. New Era Why it is that a people in whom this interest is ingrained and growing should have been for so many years eclipsed in the development of great golfers is a matter worth considering. With all the hopeful signs

of a new era, it has to be remembered that it is 20 years since a Scottish player, Miss Dorothy Campbell (now Mrs. Hurd), won the women's open championship, and 17 years since a Scot by birth and residenee, J. L. C. Jenkins, secured the men's amateur title. Robert Harris, a native of Dundee, gained that distinction six seasons ago, but he had then given the polish to his skill during 20 years' residenee in London. Not since 1893 (nearly 40 years ago!) has a player born and living in Scotland carried off the open championship. He was Willie Auchterlonie. There have been six vietorious* Scots in the ranks of those who adopted American citizenship or took up their abode in England, but what Scotland has longed for ardently is a world's champion in her midst. Why is it that she or he is not forthcoming? Sometimes I thinlc it is that while the facilities for play are stupendous, the courses are mostly lacking in the qualities which develop classic golfers. When A. F. Simpson, of Edinburgh, appeared as the hope of Great Britain in the final of the amateur championship against Jesse Sweetser, of New York, a few seasons ago, it was rather droll to learn that he practised nearly all his golf on a course which had no bunkers — only grassy hollows as difficulties. Too many of these playgrounds seem to me to be reminiscent of the age in which old Tom Morris, having been asked how much it would cost to lay out a course, replied that £200 should be ample; trees could be preserved as hazards with re.lation to the sites for-18 teeing grounds and 18 putting greens.

Ancient Club Recently I paid a visit to the Glasgow Golf Club — an institution whose minutes have been kept since. the 17th century. Its simple title is magnificent, and the club.is entitled to it by seniority. There is no equivalent to it. The club organised the first open amateur competition in the history of the game, and still holds it annually. It miglit be imagined from this that it would be content with nothing less than a course of the true type of Sunningdale or Walton Heath. In point of fact, the 750 members are immensely proud of a dainty creation of 5,784 yards, with countless trees dotted in every direction and the rough almost as smooth as the fairways and the putting greens. All the same, the Glasgow members would not change for worlds. They have a second course, of full length, on the Ayrshire coast, and any whose fancy turns to a sterner ordeal are sent there. Nobody is entitled to tell the Scots how they ought to enjoy themselves at golf, their own creation ; but it occurs to the impartial onlooker that greater difficulties - would bring about a higher standard of play.