Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-03-28
GOLF GOSSIP

The beginning of the year is the
time TO look forward, yet 1t is also
time to look back While meditating
on and dreaming of great things to
l'e, ii is often help and spur to great
CT effort to glance at the progress al
ready made. AS Mark Ailerton says
in the World of Golf:
Events move so rapidly nowadays
that the milestones of life and prog
ross are often passed unnoticed. In
less strenuous times the milestone
was a resting place for the Traveller.
Here he might pause awhile, and re-
feet with satisfaction on the progress
that had been made Now, however.
everything has been speeded up, and
the moss-grown wayside marks of
progress are passed unperceived and
unheeded 1t is the same in golf as in
iocomotion and everything else. We
enter upon a new phase of the game
almost every month, but the changes
follow one another so quickly that
they are almost unnoticed. Few stop
10 wonder whittier we are hurrying at
breakneck speed; whether it Is to-.
wards a golfng FL Dorado, or rocky
pass as full of pitfalls as the ultra
modern links. There are some, of
course, who are never tired Of telling
lie that the game is vastly inferior
now to what 1t was. The question is,
is the character of the game being
changed, and changed for the worse,
the farther we progress? A :Ialt at
The last milestone, and little quiet
reflection may provide the answer.
fs4s.
Horace Hutchinson recently told us
about a set of clubs made by Hugh
Philip, and now in the possession of
]. N. Laidley The set contains but
one iron club. The rest are all of
wood-a driver, spoons Of various
lengths, a baffy, 'grassed" club, and
a putter The iron club was mani
testify intended for heavy work in the
bunkers. When it is considered that
golf links we're not kept in the apple
pie order that they are today, and that
these clubs were intended for play
with the feather-stuffed ball, 1t is OBJ
vious that our golfing grandfathers
must have been a good deal more he
roic than we are. And there was, not
only strain of heroism about these
old players.
With their inadequate equipment, as
We should consider it, they acquired q
degree of skill which few golfers OF
the present day could equal We have
no wish to compare the players Of to-
day unfavorably with those of the
last, but there, is no getting away from
the fact that some of the scores ac-
cornplished by the silk-hatted and era
waited giants of a bygone generation
With the "featheries' and wooden
clubs, make more Impressive reading
than the 68's on championship green's
by adventurous youngsters with all
the modern advantages.
1856.
The next milestone was the INTRO
duction OF the quite" This brought
with 1t an increase in the variety OF
clubs, chiefly irons. The old school,
doubtless. viewed the new develop
ment with alarm. We can imagine
them shaking their heads over their
meals-they were fond of generous
ones, those old heroes OF the "feath-
ery"-and sagely predicting that the
latest invention would inevitably ruin
the game.
The younger and less conservative
members of the golfing community
doubtless gave the new ball an en-
thusiastic welcome. and hailed its In.
PRODUCTION as a sign OF progress. 1t
changed the game. and If change may
10 regarded as progress 1t was GER
tainly a step. forward. The Tories of
the previous generation probably pro-
tested with their last breath that the
movement was retrograde In any
case, it undoubtedly made the game
easier, and its simplification in one
respect bred desire tor easier condi-
lions in others BY degrees. the golfer
began to consider the grass-cropping
work of rabbits and sheep insufficient.
The line of demarcation between the
rough and the pretty must be clear
~ defined. and so the groundman was
introduced.
MEXICAN REFiIGEET TO