FREAK GOLF

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10717, 22 October 1912, Page 7

FREAK GOLF

Golf was once described by a learned man who l'ound ; .tliat it was much more difficult than classics, as knocking a little ball about with instruments .singularly ill-adapted for tlio purpose. Most novices have probably the same feeling about 'the clubs; it is only with experience that they realise that these are made in the .shapes, and of the material;; best suited to the work they are required to do. ]n Great Britain and the colonies there has been uniformity in the mattor of clubs, but America has struck out on its own, with weird results. According to the Standard, some of the clubs commonly used on American oour.ses "are calculated to make n Scotchman develop heart disease." Mashios are made like shovels, and niblicks like teaspoons, and some of the drivers resemble nothing known in the annals of true golf. Tho craze for these freak clubs aro.se from the success of the Sehnectadv putter, which somewhat resembles a garden hoe. Tt had a considerable vogue in England, until St. Andrews barred its use. English custom is much stricter than American as regards the u-e of freak clubs. The Standard says it is questionable whether a respectable member of a club would play even a friendly game with' a man who used clubs out of the ordinary style. There j •was a oa c e not long ago of an American gentleman who went to live iu Ayrshire and walked on to a celobrat- j ed green one morning with a great ar- i ray of his own special clubs, but the I groundkeeper refused to let him be- i gin. "This is a golf links," he explained, "not a kitchen garden." The blame for the wide use of fantastic implements in America is laid 1 on won~( lthy young men, who feel that they must do something startling, and if what i.s stated is true, they are doing the game harm in more directions than this. Tt is said that some of I these rich golfers have valets accomI panying them to take off and put on their coats, and attend to their personal appearance, in addition to the man who carries the clubs over his shoulder. Golf in America is in danger of becon'iing a "luxurious languid bobbv."