Golf.

Southland Times, Issue 18834, 29 May 1920, Page 9

Golf.

(By "Geek.") | The first part of the Flag Match was played on Vv ennesday turner difficult conditions. There wa.? no rain but a high variable wind made the game anything but easy and I fir iMh green was not reached by any of the compe. items in Ins ailoi u d numb’ r ol .-11 ok, >. It. is i.nder.-'.ooii that in a number of eases nrcachi'' oi the rules entailed ciisi | uahti cat ion. Tiie Bark Ul'.'b sent a ream of five ladies and live men to Riverton on V.',’due’s,,ay, Utli m 1., to try tone.ns.on-- -,vi hj t.he Kiveiioii (;o.i ( Inn. Jhe ~ay was noistcrons, but lm!; n.atrhv very Jith; ruin nil while the ni-.tdi was on. Mixed foursome? were played under tiie hole sy.-tem. Tiie match ended in a < ir.u.v am, everyone .-temed ph.-a.-ed al the saM; a net .ary nni.-li to an enjoyable atteruoon’s p.ay. Thank? are ~ue for the appeE.-.ng ai lei norm tea provided by the ladies m tin; Rivet inn Ult.b. Ti.p to,iowing are the result? of the (day:—Mrs Steven? and \V r . A. Mansell (Riverton) beat ; Miss lavnu and A. iMa.-U-rs 4 und 2; Mrs | Willett and J. In? one (Riverton i beat Mi.-s iadeher and T. W. \’i;ker.v -! and 3; Mi;-. Rowe and F. A. Ma.-aers. lihiri-i be. l bus B. rndtson and A. K. Willett 3 and 2 ; Mr? i Cochrane and W. S. Ay?on (Harkj bea, i Miss Stevens and 1). Benudtson 4 and 3 ; ; Miss Collin? and C, 11. Gilford ( Ri. erton i 1 halved with Miss Dyer and C. Henderson, j The Far!: Club ho.d their nr.-l montuiv ) medal inal-rh next Tiiur.-day, 3;al June ! ( King's Dn l imay i. i C. 11. i’ia,\o, tie Brit:,hi golf profe-sio-iel, ; who in as: ociatn n wit’n tn'orge 1 Hm.-an | fou’i’d i in the trout by In? persi.-l enl I challenges lo the Trium;ra e, has gone to ’ Americti to take \.p an appointment with i tin* Edgwatcr Club, Chicago, where Charlo? : Evan? is a leading member. ’1 here ,s saum, i concern in Britain that America should enSlice the best professionals lo leave the conn- ( try. Britain cannot afford ,o li. ■■ inrin.

Certainly nol men 01 the class of Mayo, who is goon enough to win any prize in the season. But America is the land of p-enty so far as golf is concerned. The professional can pet rich <|nick out there. An assistant of Mayo's at the Bush'd; Club went to America in It. 1 14. A home he received lass than £2 a week as a dub maker in the shop. Today he has a bank balance of £10,009--£SOOO represent ing his savings trom his golfing income mu. £6ot>o from .-peculations on stocks. Many British professionals, however, have refused to be tempteti unu some British clubs have recognised that if they wish to attract the foremost men they must pay for them. Mayo goes to the Edgwater ('lull with a guarantee that his earning;, will not. be less than £IOOO per annum. The North 1-orelaiul (England i Club set a new standard the other day by engaging Abu Mitchell as pm, at a salary of £MOU a year with a guarantee that his earnings over and above that amount would no. tie less than £IOOO a year, ,o that Mitcheli s minimum annual income is £IOOO. If there is to i>e competition between Britain and U.S.A. for “the big puns” we shah hear of some fancy salaries yet. There is a phenomenal boom in golf in the States and it is difficult to set any limit to the offer that some of the wealthy clubs there might make to the winner of the open championship at the end of next mouth. With the Open* ami Amateur Championships near at hand it is opportune to bring before local golfers two young amateurs whose names arc as yet practically unknown in the golfing world outside of England but who have been doing big things and are regarded by writers at Home as capable of

doing anything. In the Open Championship there are only eight places open to amateurs and these places have to be won in competition. Even so it is in the highest degree probable that the select amateurs playing in (he Open Championship will include either Mr R. H. Wethcred, the Oxford captain, or Mr C. J. H. Tolley, who plays second man in the Oxford team. It is not impossible that bo hj men may win through. Wethered, just over 21 years of ?ge, has met and defeated almost every well known golfer in the south of England during the past winter. The outstanding feature of his game is its perfect polish. He has a hi." eontlnand “every- shut in the game,” and he executes them all with an astonishing ease and finish that are just as remarkable as the results achieved. A prodigious driver, he gets his length apparently without c-fiort, though his height Bft Sin. helps him. He is very slim, however, and his weight is not in proper ion to his inches. His club mate Tolley is also in the early twenties, stands 6ft in his socks an 1 tips the beam at over 14st. He uses his great physique to advantage and hj ® game is more rugged than that of Wethered. Tic is a tremendous hi ter, and drives straight as well as far, while in his short game he shews a delicacy of touch remarkable in to ' big and heavy a man. “It is d.-icult," I writes Henry Leach in the Illustrated, epo.tling and Dramatic News, “to speak in terms { of moderation of the performances and possibilities of this amazing p”"' of young golfers. ’ The Oxford v. Ca ' ige match was practically the first, fixtui of the current match season in England and great interest was taken in the performance of the • voting Oxford prodigies, Doth of them , won “in a cake walk.” Wethered heat hit j man, a very line golfer, S up and 6, and 1 Tolley won his match 10 up and 8, the 1 match being over 38 holes. One might be (inclined io mtc ihe oppo.-:.lion pretty .ow, j but the reports show that it was not the I weakness of their opponents’ games that i enabled ’ Wethered and Tolley to win by such wide margins. They won by sheer superiority. Some oi Tolleys ho.es mat he taken as' illustrating whar the Cambridge leaciers were up against. The match was plaj - cd at Sunningd ate and at the lith, 422 yds, Tolley pitched his second up to the hole with his niblick and holed a 3. At the 18th, j 396 yds, he repeated the performance, again I taking his niblick for his second and holing I the putt. The men who can reach a 422 yds I green with a drive and a niblick is "some 'golfer,” as the Americans say. At the 9th hole, 280 yds, Tolley landed his drive in the middle of the green. No one sets any limit to what these two young men may achieve so that we confidently expect to see their names figuring in ihe big championships.

CECIL LEITCH. A PEERLESS CHAMPION. Hv winning the Ladies’ Open Championship in hollow fashion (7 up and 61 against so fine a player as Miss Molly Griffiths Miss Ceeil Leiteh has established her position as incomparably the finest woman golfer playing the game to-day. She attained pre- | eminence by winning the championship in I 1914, and the first championship I played since then finds her several strokes better in the round. | Miss Leitcb has played golf since childhood. Her Scottish father, a doctor by profession, practised at Silloth, where he laid out a 1 mne-hole course on common land and with | his sister played the first game of golf played on the shores of Solway Firth. Here the youthful Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn . now lamous in the golfing world as Cecil, handled her first clubs. At nine years of ape she had five dubs in her bag, but. she was fourteen before she had her own first full set. She was playing in interI c.ub matches tor the Silloth ladies at, the I age of twelve, her elder sisters May and | Edith being in the team also. An amusj ing incident of one of these matches deser- | vos to be recorded. The Silloth team, lari gely consisting of Misses Leiteh, journeyed

, to Moffat to play the local club. After tney ■ had been greeted by the Moffat captain, the 1 latter scc.ug two sm.nl children with the | team, said to the Silloth captain: “Oh, you j needn't have brought caddies with you, we 'have plenty here.” Her embarrassment on j living told that the '‘caddies” were members of the team, and named l.cilch, was later succeeded oy amazement when the | little sisters returned to the Club House ' bringing with tiu-m the scalps of their adult I opponents. Miss Leiteh made her first appearance ! in big poll at the DOS Ladies’ Champion - 1 chip at Pi. Anurov. s vviicu she was f.xtccn j years old. “When she entered,” says a 1 writer in (he Ladies’ Field, "Miss Leiteh had not the remotest cxpcclal.on of get- ! ting any distance m the event, biic merely | wisnc.d to gam experience and see the champions play, the only eighteen hole course I sue had ever played on in her short life I was Silloth. Miss iliiona Adair, Miss Lottie 1 Dod and Miss May liezlet were names to | inspire her with awe and admit ai:on, ana ; any thought of matching her immature

| skill who tJieiiwould have savoured to her I ot' impertinence. These, she has since con- ; fesscfi, were her thoughts and feelings when she at rived at St. Andrew's, After-events [ necessarily changed them. Amazement that : she coui.t more than hold her own with j good players gave way to a growing scliI confidence and to the same ambition that ! inspired the leaders themselves. This ■ young ['.layer with the long hair and tile tiiorl skirt, who looked so determined and 'played with such dash, quickly won the hearts ot the St. Andrew’s crowd. She went from strength to strength. It really looked as if i!us raw, untried girl who had newer hau a Us. on in her life or seen a firstclass golfer at play, was going to confound the theory that exp.e.ienee is essential to .-access and win the highest honour in golf at the first attempt. She reached the s. r.ii-ldnul and li-ct-.i Alrss lit tenon, a sea•oi eii plater, w.th many honours to her credit but no nerves. Though breaking her brawl' early on, Miss Leitch m-vtr mitered. tt.il .-he dropped behind and gome to the FcvcnU'cinh hole was g down. Her backers had ddmr,..t abandoned hope, but though “down/' Miss Lcitch was by no means "out.” She had hj moment of inspiration on the seventeenth green, holing a long, undi.’lat.ng putt 01 some 40. t . ;r i the hole. The ;oy of the crowd, four thous- ! and s'pong. llial the match was sitli alive j ; nd the iavourite kicking, knew no bound'. I Si. An iiv'.v's resounded with appiau.-c -applause at a gull match! tUidi a (.re;:.mil 1 diing had never happened before. A horse ; in a rig standing on the road near by joined i in the jubilation and kicked the vehicle to ' match-wood. W.th hope revived, Miss I i filch hit a 'Vcre.intei ” over Swileon burn; ! Miss Titterton topped her drive —almost j into It. Ricochet ting over the burn her ; ball ha the far bank, rebounded on to (he . bridge, cannoned oft that and came to rest ,on the near bank, lying well. Thin irregui larity on the pait of the ball settled the j fate 01 the championship, for Miss Titter- ! ton managed to halve the hole in 5 and I subsequently to beat Miss Dorothy CampI bell in the final.

“So near success in her first championship, Miss Leitch had to wail and serve for six long years beiore achieving her ambition. in 1909 at Birkdnle she went out in the second round, beaten by Miss Mather. This was the year her great rival, Miss Raveuscroft, appeared on the scene, bareheaded. with sleeves rolled up, a very engaging figure. In 1910 at Westward Ho! she fell in the first round to Miss Homing Johnson. At Poitruih the next year she drew Miss Bavenscroft in the first round and succumbed to her at the twenty-second hole. At Turnberry in 19T2 she reu. hod the semi-final, but again Miss Ravenscroft barred her way. At the championship at St. Anne’s in 1913 she went under to Miss Teacher in the first round. At last, in 1914, at Hunstanton, she came into her own, boating Miss Bavenscroft in the final at the thirty-fifth hole. Had she failed that year she would still have been waiting. She won her first championship of any kind in 1912, when she easily beat Miss Ravenscroft in the final of the Fiench Championship at Le Touquet. On two occasions she has won the English Championship.” Her win this year puts her supremacy beyond doubt.

•J. H. Taylor rates Cecil Leitch at scratch in a men’s club. James Braid considers her equal to a man on the 2 mark. Captain C. K. Hutchinson thinks that there is a

difference of 3 or 4 strokes in the round between Miss Leitch end the best amateur playing in Britain, and the difference is one of physical strength only. Captain Angus Hambro places Miss Leitch in ladies’ golf in the same petition rs Mile. Lenglen holds in ladies’ tennis. I.orH Charles Hope, who is in the first flight of anirteu-s. would give Miss Leitch a handicap of 3 in a men’s club on a long course; less on a short course or in summer. Miss Leitch herself offers no opinion on the question, but it is her ambition to win by the common consent of the best men ple.v'Ts rccogn t'on as a “scratch” player tested by the severest men’s standard. When the files renort.ng th'e Ladies’ Chainpion~h : p come to hand a month or so hence I should b? able to give some interesting notes on the play.