CLASH IN DATES FOR BIG GOLF FIXTURES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18055, 15 January 1927, Page 5

CLASH IN DATES FOR BIG GOLF FIXTURES.

PREVENTS EXCHANGE OF VISITIS BETWEEN BRITAIN AND U.S. (Special to the "Star.”) LONDON, December 2. An unfortunate position has arisen in connection with the golf championships of Britain and America. Hitherto they have been held so that it has been possible for the men of the two countries to take part in both. Next year, however, they have been fixed to take place at the same time. This is bound to mean that there will be no interchange of visits. There, will be no Americans at St. Andrew's, and no British players in the American event at Pittsburgh. Another serious effect will be that the tour, which British professionals had arranged, will have to be cancelled. All plans had been made to send out a team of eight or ten men. First of all an international match was to be played, and the men were then to stay on and compete for the championship. It has been suggested that the clashing of the two events has been designed deliberately on the part of the Americans. This is denied, and it is explained that the American competition has been brought forward from July, to the third week of June, in order that it may be decided under more favourable conditions. In July the courses in America are scorched as hard as a turnpike road, and it was to avoid this state that a fresh date has been chosen. But it was known that the British event was held at the same time every year, and it is felt that there should have been some way to prevent the clashing.

The professionals here will be grievously disappointed if they cannot go to America, and it is possible that they will approach St. Andrews with a view to selecting a fresh date for the British championship. - LEAVE FOR PROFESSIONALS. After having acted as professional to the Sunningdale Golf Club for over twenty years. Jack White, the old champion, has resigned, and gone into business as a club maker in London. His post was perhaps most remunerative in the game in this country. His income has been estimated to be as high as £2OOO a year. In these circumstances, the applicants for the position numbered over two hundred, and they embraced most of the leading players. But all these men have been passed over. The man appointed was an assistant to Willie Ritchie, of the Addington Club. He is undistinguished as a golfer, having only once taken part in open competition and then he did not pass the preliminary test. He is, however, an expert club maker, and he has shown a high capacity on the business side of the game.

In effect the appointment means that the influential Sunningdale Club decide that they do not want one of the leading players, who would be away during the three tjjJiief months of the season, travelling round the country taking part in tournaments. They wanted some one who would be in regular attendance at the club to satisfy the needs of members. This view is a new one. Hitherto it has been the ambition of clubs to have the best professionals available, in the belief that their feats in competitions brought them into prominence. But to-day there are so many tournaments that for weeks they do not see their professionals, who leave their duties to be carried out by assistants. The vSunningdale appointment will naturally make the professionals think furiously whether they are. justified in continuing to claim so much leave of absence. Indeed, it would seem that they will have to decide whether it is best to play or to work at the game, tf they are forced to forsake the tournaments, British golf from a competitive point of view is bound to sink further and further into the background, and the field will have to be left almost unchallenged to the Americans. The alternative would appear to be for those who wish to be players, rather than workers, to follow the example of Hagen and other Americans, and become free lances. But that is hardly possible in this country. There is not sufficient scope. To attempt to make a living out of tournaments and private engagements would be too much of a gamble.