GOLF.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 300, 15 June 1912, Page 7

GOLF.

To be stymied five times in a championship must surely be a record, yet this is what recently happened to Miss May Leitch, one of the favorites for the English Ladies' Championship. Much has been said and written in favor of the abolition of the stymie, and this assuredly is a very strong case in support of eliminating from golf this element of luck. It is safe to assume that these misfortunes meant that Miss Leitch was, for practical purposes, conceding several strokes to her opponent, to say nothing of the ruffling of temperament. Although many of us would regret to hear 101 the abolition of the stymie, and although the skilful player can frequently loft over the opposing ball, still it must be admitted by any unprejudiced person that the stymie has but little to recommend it, save that it has been handed down to us from antiquity. Speaking of stymies, one eminent golfer recently remarked that it was just about as reasonable to permit one player's ball to become a hazard for an opponent to negotiate as it would be to erect small apple dumpling mounds within a yard or so of the hole. Coif is not a game in which the skill of one player is used in direct antagonism to the -kill of another, as in boxing, football, etc.. and in 90 cases out of I(H)'a stymie means an advantage accidentally gained.