GOLF.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1926, Page 5

GOLF.

THE PRINCE AS A GOLFER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, Oct. 21. The Prince of Wai* now divides most of his spare time between hunting and golf. As a golfer one used to think that lie played only in order to get exercise, but he has developed a new interest, and he is now very keen on the game. After his illness early in the year, lie went to recuperate at Sandwich, a lonely spot on the Kent coast where one might play all day during the middle of the week without seeing another person. This privacy he greatly appreciated, and lie has been back twice to Sandwich. It is now his intention to pay a round of visits to the London clubs, but it is understood that no official notice will be paid to him, and also on no account shall it be know outside the officials of the clb that he is going to play. As a matter of fact, on these occasions lie often never goes into a club house. He walks straight from his car to the first tee, and there a caddie is waiting to take his clubs. At the present time, he is theg captain of the Mid-Surrey club. When it was suggested that he should join, he consented to do so only on the condition that lie was an ordinary subscriptionpaying member. To mark the Prince’s year of office the club, which is situated at Richmond, has been given the prefix Royal.

Three years ago he played himself into tl:* captaincy of the Royal and Ancient Club. St. Andrew’s, by driving a ball .from the tec. I do not suppose that he will ever forget the occasion. It was a wet October morning, and, when ho arrived in front of the clubhouse, he found about six thousand people waiting to see him perform the time-honoured ceremony. To make matters worse, he had not had a club in his hands for many months, having only recently returned from India. Mould he miss the ball altogether? That was obviously his fear. But he went for the shut in the true golfiing style. Luckily fur him the turf was wet and greasy, for he struck at least nine inc.ies behind the ball. Fortunately, the clubhead skidded through far enough to hit the ball on the top. It was. however, a desperate escape.

KEEPING THE GOLF BALL. STRAIGHT. Golfers have tried many means to ensure straightness. J.S.F. Morrison, the old Cambridge University football, cricket and golf blue, has just, introduced another. Playing in the Mixed Foursomes tournament with Miss Joyce M’ethcred as his partner, he used one of the now wooden tees, to which was •attached a piece of string. The other

end of the string was fastened to a metal pencil, and this was laid on the ground with the point of the pencil pointing in the direction of the flight of the ball. Golfers laughed at the contrivance and regarded it simply as one of Morrison’s little jokes. A member of the St. Andrew’s committee, however. took a more serious view. He declared it illegal. “You must not," he said, “have any artificial guide to the line of flight," and if Morrison were to persist in his tee, there is no doubt, though there is no rule governing the point, that the authorities would tcfl him it was against the spirit of the "ame. That was their decision when H. D. Gillies, the distinguished surgeon, entertained his friends by driving his ball perched on the top of a rubber tee nine inches high. Bor twenty years or more St. Andrew's have had to guard against artificial aids being introduced. In this respect the Americans have been most daring, but, even though there was a risk of causing offence, the British authorities have not hesitated to ban their innovations. The first of these was the centre-shafted putter. It appeared an innocent-looking club, but it was designed with the purpose of taking the eye down the shaft straight to the ball, and in this way it gave the player important assistance. The latest attempt of the Americans to change the implements of the game has been by introducing steel and cane shafts. Both of these St. Andrew's have barred. DUNCAN CHALLENGES HAGEN. Not content to allow Walter Hagen the honour of world’s match play champion because he defeated Abe Mitchell, George Duncan Ims formally challenged the American to a 72-holes match for £5OO a side. Duncan is willing to go to the United States to meet Hagen, as the American player is not likely to travel to England. It is stated that Duncan has waived every possible condition, allowing Hagen to nominate the course and the dates. Up to the present Hagen lias not seen his way clear to accept the challenge. As he is at present out of favour with the American public, he perhaps thinks it wiser not to risk another blow to his prestige. Speaking of Duncan, the golf correspondent of the Observer states that most people think Duncan is quite unnecessarily putting his head into a noose in making the challenge. He has not been playing well for some time, and his chances of defeating Hagen on ground selected by himself are by no means bright. NEW AMERICAN CHAMPION. Certainly the now amateur golf champion of America, George von Elm, is a very exceptional fellow, and a fact which brings this home is that lie won the national title with a set of borrowed clubs. There can be no player in the leading golf circles who is ’so adaptable in this respect. Several times while playing on the Pacific coast von Elm borrowed some clubs and returned some amazing scores. Off the links he never talks of golf, and is as modest as it is possible to be. In fact, lie is so quiet that people who attempt to draw .him out in conversation, and fad, imagine that he must be “stuck up."