1939-04-25 — Page 25

THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 25, 1939.

GOLF

PROBLEM

OF THE BALL

Subject That Has Exercised Golfers For Years

WOODERSON FOR AUSTRALIA ?

Sydney, April 14-A proposal that S. C. Wooderson, English holder of the world's mile record, should fly out to Australia next summer, and compete in special races, is before the Amateur Ath- letic Association of New South Wales.

It is also proposed to invite the American, Glenn Cunningham, former holder of the world title, and if Wooderson is not agreeable to flying out here, he will be asked to travel via América in company with Cunningham.

It is proposed that Cunningham | shall compete in an 880 yards race in Sydney, and Wooderson in a mile event, but they would not run in the same race. After this they would visit Brisbane and Newcastle, and return to Sydney to compete against each other in the State Championships, which will be held before the Australian Championships early in 1940.

Many difficulties will have to be smoothed out before the men can be invited, and the permission of the International “Athletics Feder- ation must be obtained.-Press Association.

LAWN BOWLS

H.K. FOOTBALL CLUB WITHDRAWS ONE TEAM

Hong Kong Football Club have been compelled to withdraw one team from the Second Division of the Lawn Bowls League.

DILEMMA OF ST. ANDREW'S

London, April 14,

GOLF

AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

BECAUSE of the conflict of official opinion, the SURPRISE

Royal and Ancient Club in its attempt to pro-

London, To-day.

vide a solution of the ball problem now finds itself About 250 players are participat- in a dilemma. The four unions representing Eng-ing in the English Amateur

Golf

land, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and the various Championships at Birkdale.

The first round matches yester-

associations outside the United States were invited day had some really surprising re- to express their views on a subject that has exer-sults. Among them was the defeat cised golfers of all classes for the past dozen years up, at the hands of R. L. Graham at least.

of E. B. Tipping, a former runner-

by one hole.--Reuter.

which most people will agree, but only Draw For

for a

The issue is between the reten-¡The E.G.U. executive are emphatically KOWLOON GOLF tion of the present ball, and the opposed to any change which would in- introduction of one that is decrease the power of the ball, a view to finitely shorter in flight. Advo-a minority express a desire cates of a restricted ball declare change which would decrease its pre- that curtailment of flight and sent limitations. On the other hand, the Scottish Union have unanimously length is necessary to prevent recommended a change in the specifica- the game and the courses from tion of the ball in order to restrict the being ruined, and further to re-length of the drive. store some of the lost shots, and also the art of control.

Summer Cup

The following was the result of the Kowloon Golf Club Summer Cup, qualifying round, held on April 23:

74,

This will have a direct conflict of

A. J. Dennis 73, F. C. Barry 73, opinion between the two bodies repre- senting the greatest number of golfers. R. K. Collings 74, A. A. Lopes

781 Those favouring retention of the pre- The European Golf Association also fa- M. L. da Roza 77, W. Kershaw sent ball and they form the vast ma- vours restriction, while Ireland is di- T. Lamb 79, E. D. da. Roza 79, W. jority of golfers, do not admit that the vided on the subject. In these circum-Bastin 80, S. Jex 20, W. Ahern 81, F. ball goes too far; on the contrary, it stances the task of the Royal and An- A. Hill 81, G. Milne 82, J. Eastman does not go far enough, Moreover, cient Club has become complicated, but 84, A. E. Davies 84, T. Henderson 85.

be expressed they are strongly averse to the stand-whatever opinions may ardisation of a new type of ball that by other golf associations throughout will make a difficult game still more the Empire, the greatest weight must difficult. In making the plea that the be given to the views of Scotland and present ball gives the greatest pleasure England, which countries provide the to the greatest number they exhort St. bulk of players. Andrews to leave well alone.

Scottish Opinion

From Mr. James E. Turner, an ex- president of the Scottish Golf Union, and twice chairman of the Joint Advi- sory Council, I have received an ad-

Though striving to hold the balance I must say that the attitude of the He man-in-the-street appeals to me. is not a first-class player, and is never likely to be; he plays golf principally for amusement and recreation, and as he provides £90 out of every £100 spent

vance copy of his article on the ball on the game, he is entitled to first con- sideration. Anything that deprives question which appears in the current him of hie sum of enjoyment is a false issue of "Golf Monthly." Mr. Turner's views may be accepted as the official step, and one likely to have far-reach- opinion of the Scottish Golf Union, and ing results on the popularity and pro-I welcome the opportunity of giving extracts from his article, because it

bias on my part.

restricted ball-bigger, or lighter,

sure.

or

Open Foursome (Final).—E. D. da Roza and M. L. da Roza beat W. C. Simpson and E. O. Murphy 4 and 3.

The following is the draw for the Summer Cup-First round to be play- ed on or before May 7.-W. Ahern v. J. Eastman, A, J. Dennis v. T. Lamb, S. Jex v. A. A. Lopes, W. Kershaw v. W. Bastin, E. D. da Roza v. R. K. da Collings, F. C. Barry v. M. L. Roza, A. E. Davies v. F. A. Hill, T. Henderson v. G. Milne.

FANLING BOGEY POOL

The bogey pool at Fanling the week-end resulted in a tie. tween E. T. McMullen (9) and Wing- Comdr. A. H. Steele-Perkins (16) who

tries.

INDOOR BOWLS

over

bo

This step was made necessary by the loss of a large number of play-gress of the game.

I am repeatedly being told that will help to remove any suspicion of were all square. There were 35-en- owing ers in the past few weeks to unexpected transfers and it was both-would help him to play better, Mr. Turner admits that the thrill to felt by the Club authorities that in land, consequently, give him more plea-the handicap man is the long drive fin-

This theoretical view is not view of the fact that any team

borne out by the cold facts of experiishing far down the fairway, and as handicap players constitute probably be given that they could field in order to

ence. Many examples can

those playing the meet their League commitments which utterly confound this view, but 95 per cent of would, at best, be..composed for it is unnecessary to go further than game, their voices carry, and should

recent £2,000 tournament at the the the most part of beginners,

Bournemouth. situation would be unfair to other .clubs.

The following are the revised fix- tures for the next fortnight:---

APRIL 29

First Division

Kowloon Docks v C.S.C.C.

Recreio "A" :

v

.C.C.C.

v

Indian R.C.

v

K.B.G.C..

Recreio "B" Kowloon C.C.

(Police R.C. no match).

Second Division

v K.B.G.C.

V

せ

C.C.C.

Kowloon F.C.

C.8.C.C.

*T.R.C.

Kowloon Tong

H.K.F.C.

Third Division

V Stanley

K.B.G.C.

· V. Police R.C.

Kowloon C.C." v Recreio

H.K.F.C.

.C.C.C.

v Kowloon F.C.

v H.K. Electric

(Yacht Club no match)."

MAY 6

K.B.G.C.

First Division

Kowloon Docks Police R.C. Recreto "B

Indian R.C TV

* C.C.C.

v Recreio “A”

v Kowloon C.C.

(Civil Service no match), Second Division

C.C.C.

Kowloon FC

Kowloon B.G.C. C.S.C.C. H.K.F.C.

Taikoo R.C Thiril Division

Kowloon Tong Police RC

C.C.C.

KBG.C.

Tacht Club Kowloon F,C.

(Stanley no me

y Recreio

* H.K.F.C.

v. Kowloon C.C.

H.K Electric

A Case In Point

Here we had Great Britain's fore- most professionals to the number of 100 playing four medal rounds on a moderate length course of 6,640 yards. Playing with the ball that is supposed to be ruining the game only thirty of the 100 managed to break a score of eighty in one of the rounds. Further, some of the players never returned a score at all.

carry, great weight. The term "long drive" is, however, merely relative. To the average ten-handicap man a "long drive" would certainly not be a "long drivo" to Cotton.

U.S. NAVAL WIN

In a friendly Ten pins match at the Bowling Alleys. U.S.S. Augusta beat H.M.S. Birmingham by 322 points.

The following were the scores:-

U.S.S. AUGUSTA

According to Mr. Turner, the advan- tages to be derived from a restricted T. L. Cleaver ball are: (1) Less waiting, less conges M. S. Johnson tion, and fewer lost balls; (2) Less time J. M. Flaherty taken to complete the round; and (3) P. L. Eaton More actual golf for every mile walked.

.138 174 312 140 108 248

H.M.S. BIRMINGHAM

96

Total

93 103 196

94

98 192

948

85 181

19

97 166

81

84 165

46

68 114

626

· FRIENDLY BADMINTON

In a friendly badminton match at St. Andrew's Hall last night St. An- drew's beat Y.M.C.A. 9-0..

S. A. and F A. Broadbridge. (St. Andrew's).

If we are to accept Mr. Turner's con-

Total clusions, the handicap man would be the gainer rather than the loser by the in-W. J. Bevan troduction of a restricted ball. If A L. S, Garner Such being the experience of the ex- with tee shots, averaging 250 yards in R. P. Welch

R. W. May perts using the relatively small, heavy length, consistently outdrives B with ball, it is possible to imagine how the the present ball by, say, thirty yards,. average handicap man, using a bigger he would still out-drive B, though the or lighter ball would have fared in ball limited his maximum length to 200 similar conditions. Can it be said with yards, the difference now being from truth that he would have enjoyed the ten to twenty yards. In other words, A long experience? Even if Open champion- A would still be considered

won in driver though he would not have the ships and tournaments. are secmingly fantastically low scores, the enormous advantage provided by the great majority of golfers are neither present ball.

In conclusion, Mr. Turner says: “If greatly concerned nor vitally interested,

It is not of vast importance to them the ball ultimately decided on were whether the long second shot with the lighter and larger than the present one brassie is eliminated for the champions it would be more difficult to control; it of the game, nor is it a matter of deep would show, up to a greater degree the concern whether they are compelled to inaccurately struck shot, particularly walk several hundred yards from the in a wind, Surely this would be to the green to the next tee in order to pre- good of the game which would regain servo the club's estimate of the score many of the finer points now lost ow value of their course. What does mating to the use of a ball putting a pre- ter is the protection of the enjoyment mium on hard rather than accurate hit- of the mass of golfers in their pursuit ting. The superiority of the first-class of the traditional form of the game, the golfer as compared with his less re- They will, therefore, heartily wel-doubtable adversary would be just as come the recommendation of the Eng- clearly shown us at present, and he Jah Golf Union to St. Andrews that the certainly would not have to walk near- presenti ilmite of the ball be retained.. ly as far to prove it.”

Beat A. L. Fisher and J. Lamb 21-2. drew's),

Beat R. Johnston and E. Curtis 21-6. Beat F. G. Mills and L. Bennett 21-9. SUPER

H Kew and A. E. Brown (St. An· drews)....

Beat Fisher and Lamb 21-6. Beat Johnston and Curtis. £1-4. Beat Mills and Bennett 21-8. F. V. Wong and M. Weill (St. An- drew's).

Beat Fisher and Lamb 21-17. Beat Johnston and Curtis 21-0. Beat Mills and Bennett-21-17.