GOLF.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 289, 15 May 1915, Page 7

GOLF.

ITEMS FROM NEAR AND FAR. Matches to be played in New Plymouth -to-day are:-'-New Plymouth Club, bogey handicap, which will also count for the Standish Cup; Witiora Club, mixed foursomes; Taralma Club, bogey handicap.

The Tarahua Club will play a match against Waitara at Waitara on June 3rd.

A match between Inglewood and Witiora will be played on the Witiora Club's links next Thursday. Ing'cweod hopes to send a team of about twelve men to take part in the match.

The full programme of the New Plymouth C'ub has not yet been drawn up, but the matches for the next few weeks after to-day are:—May 22, St. Andrew's Cross; May 2!l and June !5, eclectic matches—the best eighteen holes in the two rounds.

Ladies' foursomes will be played on the New Plymouth Club's links on Tuesday afternoon, and entries of players with partners will close at the clubhouse at 2.30 o'clock this afternoon. The match is in aid of the Red Cross Fund and it is hoped as many p'nyers as possible will enter.

An inter-club match between the New Plymouth Club and the Witiora Club lias been arranged for Thursday, the 27th inst., at Waiwakaiho. The teams will comprise fifteen men. The Witiora Club hopes to arrange a match with New Plymouth on a Saturday later in the season.

There ire many golfers wlio frequent, ly fail to replace turf. Tliey should remember that in doing so tliey are encouraging the irony of fate, for the day I might come when tliey will get into a I bad lie which is the outcome of earlier neglect. It is suggested in Auckland that fines should be. inflicted on player? who do not replace turf, lint such i scheme would he, ha,"dly practicable, but rather it devolves upon players to il< so in (lie interests of the links and tliei: own play. * ft •*

. Tt wns proposed liy the Witiora Club to send a team to Waverley on June '■'>, King's Birthday, but this is now impossib'o. Inste'ad the club will hold competitions providing for a full day's play at Witiora. The course at Witiora is now in better order than it has been th's season. The greens are playing particularly well and the fairway approaching the greens lias been put in better order to provide improved lies for approach shots.

The New Plymouth Club will send a team to Hawera on June X A correspondent at Hawera writes to say that the match will be played over the present nine-hole course, though earlier in the season it was hoped to have the new eighteen-hole course ready. The greens are in good order, and the fairway, with one or two exceptions, is a'so good. Nine new holes are being prepared and when the whole course is completed and the new fairways and greens are got into order the links will provide excellent golfing country. From the nature of the turf the. lies should always be good, and the course, has been carefully designed to encourage straight play and to provide special shots for each club. Throughout the sand country portion of the course the player who can use each club fairly we'l and who plays straight will have a good advantage. The total length of the course will be just over (10(1(1 yards.

The Miramar (Wellington) fjolf Club's new pavilion, a contract for the erection of which has been let at about £2OOO, will have a handsome exterior, will be of wood, two storeys high, and will be ready for occupation in live months' time. On the ground floor will be a ladies' lounge, a gentlemen's smok-ing-room, and various dressing-rooms. A spacious dining-room, having an open timber roof and large pressed brick fireplaces, a kitchen, committee-rooms, and oflices will be located on the first floor, and the caretaker will have his quartern immediately under the roof. A verandah and balcony will run round three sides of the pavilion and enable the members and their friends to obtain a line view of Lyall Bay and the 'links. The pavilion will have a concrete foundation.

The question of whether inter-club matches should be played (luring the war is being considered in New Zealand, but no clubs have yet arrived at any decision on the matter. But Australia has given a lead. At the annual meeting of the Victorian Oolf Association, held some little time ago, it was unanimously decided that the Victorian championships, pennant matches, challenge foursome shield competition, and open meetings of associated and registered clubs be abandoned until the war is over, permission being given to clubs to play their usual club events' if they so desired. Oolf, says a Melbourne exchange, is different from other sports, inasmn/n as the abandoning of the opening championships and meetings does not bring any hardship in the way of unemployment, and what the association had in its mind when it carried the resolution was that golfers might follow their pastime quietly, but they were against advertising the game by way of open meetings, etc.

According to the American notes in ' late issues of Coif Illustrated this is going to lie a boom year for golf fn America, where millions of dollars are being expended in laying out links and elublioii.se buildings. Last year there were from 50,000 to 80,000 'new aspirants at the game, and it is estimated that this year will find some hundred thousand new golfers. The laying out of eight new courses has been commenced within the vicinity of New York, and this will represent an initial outlay before they are ready for play of something like three and a half million dollars. In fact, one course alone—the Lido, at Long Beach, Long Island—!f the promoters carry out their plans, will cost e'ose on that amount. Included in their plans is to he a casino, hotel, and bathing pavilion after the style of 'the famous Lido near Venice. Some wellknown financiers are backing the proposition, including Cornelius Vanderbilt, Hubert Chiclet, .!. P. Morgan, and Otto H. Kalm. The course is being made by pumping in sand from a near-by channel. Six feet of sand has already been deposited to cover the sunken parts, which are to be raised from Oft. u> 151t. \ before the desired height is reached, Mounds from 10ft, to HOft, high are to be made for undulations on some of the fairways. The whole is to he covered 2ft. deep with top soil and fertilisers, They "do things" in America, and when this course is finished it will he well worth n golfer's visit to the country to see it. In all there are about 50 new courses under construction, and there is talk of more to follow. Public links appear to be a great institution in America, ami are largely patronised. Philadelphia being the latest city to lay out a course, which is to bn 0100 yds. long, j and is intended to. be the finest public j golf course in the world.