GOLF LINKS PROPOSAL.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20265, 6 August 1937, Page 8

GOLF LINKS PROPOSAL.

ÜBINO ELECTRICITY PROFITS. COURSE ARCHITECT’S VIEWS. The suggestion made recently by a contributor to the Waikato Times that the' profits accruing to the Hamilton Borough Council from the sale of electric power should be utilised to construct a 9-hole golf course on the 16 acres at Galloway Park was partly based on the great popularity of the present miniature course at Hamilton Lake*. That such a step, however, is Justified by more' than the success of . the present course, is borne out by the opinion of the famous Scottish professional golfer and course architect. Mr P. Mackenzie' Ross, who contends that play on a miniature, or as he terms it, a “concentrated” course, is much better training for the golfer than that obtainable on a course of normal size. Continued Popularity. Writing of such small courses. Ross remarks that “ the continued popularity of tills miniature type of course is due to the fact that it teaches ono to play the most delicate golf shots. “It is not necessarily length of drive that stamps the class golfer, for many young fellows can hit the ball out of sight . . . The manner in which a ball is played near the greett Is often the making or marring of a golfer and this is where the value of the miniature course comes in. It will be readily understood that after playing for some time on to miniature' greens over delicate undulations where the * borrow ’ and strength have to be gauged to a few inches, the corresponding shot on a full-sized course becomes a very simple matter. Bunker shots are the easiest of all and it is wonderful how very simple it is to chip cleanly out of sand when once one has lost fear of it.” Superiority of Professional*. “If we were to search for the reason why tlie average professional golfer Is so much better than the amateur," he continues, “ it would not be found In the amount of golf played by either. The answer is rather that every professional spends a considerable part of his youth in chipping and putting on short holes near the clubhouse, and by this means obtaining tbe touch for the more delicate shots which can -be acquired in no other way. Few grown men would come off very well against even the youngest caddie' on these short courses.” At Galloway Park there would not be the necessity for quite as high a degree of concentration as marks most of the small courses which the Scottish professional has laid out. 1 here are 10 acres there, whereas he has been accustomed to lay out nine holes on about an acre of land. As to the disposition of fairways and rough, he advocates the use of one-third of the land for fairways and greens and the remaining two-thirds for rough.