PROGRESS OF GOLF.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9673, 11 December 1909, Page 3

PROGRESS OF GOLF.

IN BRITAIN AND THE CONTINENT.

Mr J. Kidd, of Sydney, who lias just returned from a trip to the United Kingdom and toe Continent, had some interesting remarks to make concerning golf in Britain and the Continent. What struck Mr Kidd most was the enormous spread of golf throughout the United Knigdom; hardly a town hut has one or more courses in the neighourhood, and in a large number of cases the limits of membership have been reached. Most of the links are in excellent condition, evidencing the expenditure of large sums of money. Much greater perfection is generally aimed at nowadays than obtained a few years ago, and every ingenuity is devised in providing hazards and bunkers to bring up skill in the game. The tendency is, with such large and growing numbers of first-flight players, to increase the difficulties on the principal courses, and the game has more the higher class players on tnese courses than for the mediocre men. The bunkers are of all kinds of shapes and sizes, mostly sunk. Water hazards are not in great request, as he did not see many of them. He was struck with the trouble taken with bunkers on country clay courses, most of them were filled with sand brought often irom long distances. . With one exception Mr Kidd found abundance of caddies everywhere. The exception was at Babberton, near Edinburgh. Here he found a course granted on long lease by an old Scotch landlord, who made it a condition that no caddies were to be allowed on the links, his aim being to preclude schoolboys in the locality bsing employed. Five hundred members carry their own clubs, but the habit has softened the feeling of inconvenience; many hope that the old lessor's successor will ere long modifiy the provision. "ihe caddy question is onej which is cauing a good deal of thought amongst golfers and others at home. With such a vast number of clubs all over the country, the army of caddies is a very large one. At most places of importance 3Ge finds grown up men of all ages, but mostly young, who do nothing else practically but caddy for a living, and from the State's poiit of view these men lead a comparatively profitless existence, and make neither desirable citizens nor fathers. At more than one wealthy club he found a staff of permanent caddies 70 to 100 strong, who are paid by the club, and when off duty caddying, are employed on improving the links. No doubt the large body of unemployed in England has contributad t) the present position of this class of unemployment—thare are said to be 125,000 unemployed in Great Britain at the present time. Objections are advanced to the errployinent of boys as caddies, as well as young men. The least objectionable class would be old age pensioners, but their use would probably be more as carriers than for marking the ball. The girl has made no headway; Mr Kidd saw none of them, --.-:

Generally \M subscriptions of | members <sn the more import »t j courses ftrtt higher than they are in j Australia, ranging as they do from £5 5s up to £lO lUs subscripts nj, with entrance fees from £5 5s to £ls 15s, and in the case of Ranelagh £3l 10s. Several clubs such as t.ie Royal and Ancient, at St. Andrew's, and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, are exc.usive in their membership, and would-be rnambersof these clubs have to wait Ling periods for admission. Artisan clubs are now conunon t iroughout the though in very many clubs the landlord and the labourer, as in curling, play together. Some clubs have very large memberships, one of the largest, if not the largest, is the Mid-Surrey, at Kichmond, where J. H. Taylor is professional Mr Kidd says if he recollects aright the members and associates run up to I,4oo—there are graded subscriptions, some members being limited to certain playing days only in the week—Saturdays and holidays being barred As to the standard of golf generally, Mr Kidd found it much higher at Home than in Australasia. He saw most of the crack players at the open championship meeting at Deal, but in the short time could only sue patches of the play of the most important. He was greatly impressed with Taylor's machine like accuracy. With Braid's determined, businesslike movements, and with the easy grace and power with which Harry Vardon plays his shots. Massey and Mayo's long, swinging, straight drives also take the eye, and you find yourself comparing Lassen's style with a Royal Sydney man, or Ball

with a Kensington crack, and so on. The deliberation with which men of the Taylor and Braid stamp play each shot further impresses one. At each shot through the green with the irons, they invariablv stand back a couple of yards from the ball and make one or two practice swings, such as they consider will be required for the next shot, and they never put out when on the green without viewing the lie from the hole, as well as from the ball end. On the Continent, largely due to the visits of the English apostles, golf is flourishing. Mr Kidd saw some 30 important Continental clubs being advertised in England, and at many of the planes frequented by the Engish during the season—they are visiting the Continent in far larger numb«rs now than ever they did before —numbers of well-known English golfers spend their holiday.