DAD USED TO PAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 78, 23 June 1927, Page 11

DAD USED TO PAY

BOBBY JONES IN NEW ROLE GAME WILL PAY OWN WAY A New Y'ork message states that Bobby Jones intends to accept the coin of his country for journalistic by-pro-duct of his fame as a golfer. He declined previously because he had two principles which did not get along well togetherOne was the principle that it was not compatible with amateurism for an athlete to indulge in literature at wages gauged in proportion to his fame, rather in proportion to his demonstrated jonrnalistic talent. Inasmuch as Bobby had never written a piece for the papers he used to believe that the high prices that were offered for anything he might write must be a compliment to his golf, and no particular compliment to his writing. The other principle was, and is, that a grown man with a wife and two children should pay his own way in the expensive pursuit of the golf ball or quit pursuing it. So Bobby reached a compromise with himself whereby he intends to make golf pay its way for him. In this compromise his amateur principle seems to have made all the concessions, but the amateur principle is accustomed to that. FATHER PAID IN PAST A message from Bobby states his position as follows: “Necessity and inclination' often cause a change of mind. When I was in school and single, my father was paying the expenses of my golfing career. I declined a number of offers to write newspaper and magazine articles for money. When I was done with school and married and had a job I was paying my own way in golf and again declined a number of similar offers. “Now I am again in school studying law for a profession, and I also have a wife and two children and I do not feel it proper longer to expect my father to pay for my further career in golf. For this reason, I have accepted an offer to write for a newspaper syndicate and to collaborate with O. B. Keeler in a magazine series. REMAINS AN AMATEUR “This is, as I see it, peculiarly my own affair. As to its effect on my amateur standing in golf there never has been any question of that. From time immemorial expert amateur ’golfers have written for compensation without question. They are doing it to-day. The United States Golf Association of its own motion made a ruling that my decision was not out of line with its policy on amateurism. I see no analogy whatever between this case and that of Miss Mary K. Browne. “I simply wish to be independent in whatever amateur golf career the future may hold for me. I have always felt that this matter was one for my own determination and I have reached this decision with a full appreciation of my previous positions under very different circumstances.” Oscar Suffering Keeler, the Atlanta journalist who has followed Booby around a thousand miles of meadow, and whose writings have been mainly concerned with Bobby and his golf, adds that he personally approves Bobby’s decision, knowing the circumstances as he undoubtedly does. CAPACITY FOR ANGUISH They call Keeler “Suffering Keeler” at the golf tournaments because of his great capacity for mental anguish when Bobby is playing a close match. When Bobby’s ball is in the rough, Keeler’s suffering, if converted into horse-power, would be sufficient to mount every ex-member of the NorthWest mounted police now engaged in the moving picture profession. “I also think,” says Suffering Keeler, “that he is going to do a very fine bunch of articles. He is a much better writer than he thinks and is taking a good deal of pains with these articles and not a little pride in them. Please do not get the idea that Bobby is apologising in any way.” Under the rules of amateur golf there is no question regarding Bobby's status. He will still be an amateur though he makes 100,000 dollars a year from his writings. But the feelings of a few idealists who made Bobby their ideal, will bear the scars of this conflict of the principles for a long time. Bobby was the one great amateur athlete who never made a dime directly or ever so remotely out of his connection with sport. ENGLISH CLOSE TITLE A SURPRISING VICTORY The English Close Championship this year was one of the most surprising in the history of the event. The two finalists were T. P. Perkins, of Birmingham, and J. B. Beddard, of Wolverhampton. English comments included the following: “The achievement of Perkins is the more remarkable, for this player, with a brief experience—he is but 22 years of age—is taking part in his first national event. Beddard, about ten years his senior, first attracted the public eye when he defeated Cyril Tolley in the British amateur championship at Hoylake in 1921. “Perkins defeated first of all R. W. G. Zair, the young Oxford University player, or, rather, it should be said that Zair lost the game, for Perkins had only to play golf of reasonable steadiness to win, Zair failing so badly with his driver. “Then, in the semi-final, he destroyed the chances of' A. Heaps, of Moortown, who also was playing his first championship, and who reserved his worst golf for the semi-final. “Beddard paved the way to success when he defeated in the sixth round the hottest favourite who had appeared in a championship field for a long time, Dr. Tweddell. Then he walked away from N. W. Dunn, the Yorkshire champion, who had putted all his opponents out of the matches in the earlier rounds. His putter failed to work miracles aganist Beddard. who has an intimate knowledge of the course on which the championship is being played.” The Final Perkins defeated Beddard 2 up and 1 to play. “Beddard gave the impression of being rather unconcerned as to the result —at least, at first. Then he began to realise that he would have to fight as he had never done before, and from this point the match became really exciting. “The favourite held the lead for a long time. He was always ‘up,’ but at once lost his lead when the last round commenced. Still, he quickly recovered, and played so well as to become two up with seven to play. “The match appeared over at this time, but Beddard then made a fatal mistake at the twelfth. He pulled a spoon shot into a bunker when in a winning position, and this appeared to intimidate him. “At any rate, he missed a four-foot putt at the thirteenth, and, when Perkins won the fourteenth with a perfect three to take the lead, the whole situation had changed. “Perkins was now playing with the utmost confidence, and although both were in trouble at the fifteenth, he recovered the better, and won another valuable hole —the forerunner to his ultimate success, which was received with enthusiasm, the conqueror being carried back in triumph to the clubhouse.”

The new term for the person who thinks golf in the daytime, and dreams of it at night is “golfiac.”