TOURNAMENT GOLF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 4

TOURNAMENT GOLF

STRAIN ON PLAYERS EARLY RETIREMENT CAUSED Macdonald Smith, who is regarded, in the United States as the most penect example of the “grooved swing ' that golf has produced, has uecideu to retire from tournament golr at the age of 48. Smith was born at Carnoustie, where he learned his golf, but he went to America before fie was 2U. He has won a number of important American and Canadian championships, but has not succeeded in eitner the British or American open.

The strain of tournament golf has the effect of ageing players very quickly and it is difficult to credit that some of the best overseas goiters seen in New Zealand were sucn comparatively ycung men. Bobby Locke appeared tc be more than 21 when ne played in New Zealand recently, but a better illustration was Hie American team which passed through Auckland in 1934. At the time ot taking part in the Melbourne centenary championship, James Thomson, the winner of the main event, was the "baby” of the team. He was 24, while Paul Runyan and Ky Laffoon were 26. Densmore Shute and Harry Cooper had just turned 30, and Gene Sarazen was two years older. The veteran of the team was Leo Diegel, and he was only 35.

With the possible exception of Runyan, these players are now seldom in the limelight in first-class golf in America, as they have been unable to keep pace with the number of more youthful golfers who have come to the fore. On being asked the reason why this should be so, Sarazen recently stated that as far as he himself was concerned, he was hitting his shots just as well as at any time in his career. However, he had now lost the art of intense concentration over four rounds and probably the same explanation applies equally to other past champions.