Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-03-04
GOLF GOSSIP

| Here is something for our commit
tees to think over when laying plans
for the coming season and designing
all sorts of Improvements" which
may or may. not be for the good of
the course or the golf Of the mem.
bers OF the clubs. Harold Saunders
writes in the World of Golf:
Golfers are patient, long-sufferiRg
race. Perhaps il is because of the
peculiar nature OF their training that
they gradually acquire the gentler vir-
tues From the moment they begin TO
swing a club they surrender them
selves Internationally to the authori-
! ties. Authority speaks with no un-
certain voice, and every golfer meek
ly submits. He tries, though in some
cases with surprisingly little success,
to play his shots In the manner pre-
seribed by the authorities. and he.
accepts without question the rulings Of
this unseen power on every question
relating to the game For a good
many years we >haVe been told that
blind holes and punch-bowl greens are
not good golf. The statement bore
the stamp of authority, and we ac-
quiesced These offenses against the
game must go.
The work of reconstruction has been
going on all over the country, and it is
only just beginning to dawn ON the
conplaisant community that, although
the tyrannical powers may be right,
they really prefer the natural golf Of
the old days. A feeling OF revolt is
growing against the authorities, who
in this case are embodied in the per-
son of the links architect
When a kind of seismic disturbance
changed the character of the Mid-Sur-
rey course few years ago similar
eruptions, began to appear on nearly
every other inland green Some were
successful, and others bore little re.
semblance to natural mounds. Still.
the Mid-Surrey humps and hollows be-
came fashionable It Is doubtful. how.
ever, whether the new pattern in
courses will ever be generally adopt
ed. You certainly have to think when
you approach plateau green with
bunkers eating into it on every side,
but your thoughts are not pleasant.
Nor are they when you try to place
your approach somewhere within hol.
ing distance on green. which, by
some wretched ingenuity. seems to fall
away from the pin In all directions. r
recently had the opportunity of seeing
a plasticine model of a proposed new
course. Il COMPRISED. one would imag.
Inc, all the difffcultles that the mod
ern architect could deyise-innumera
BILE bunkers through the fairway and
Infinitely narrow approaches beset
with all kinds of trouble on to In
finitely narrow green's.
II is contended, of course, that these
excessively technical links are neces-
sary to prevent golf becoming too
easy. But It Is significant that even
on the latest and most up-to-date
courses the best players still contrive
to make some wonderful scores. At
St Georges Hill. which is generally
agreed to be the latest thing in the
new fashion, Duncan went round in
r. The very first time the lengthen-
ed and altered Royal st. Georges
course, at Sandwich. was played in
the st. Georges vase competitions in
1911. E. Martin Smith went round in
6S, And the alterations at Sandwich.
II will be remembered, necessitated
the Abandonment of the old Maiden.
one of the most famous holes in the
world. It was blind hole, and con-
sequently bad one. but who shall
say that 1t was not good fun?
All the inventive genius of the tech.
nical links designers will not prevent
the accomplishment of good scores.
The Duncans and the players of their
class get in the .neighborhood of the
70's on the most modern creations.
and they ran do no better at st. An.
Grews and many other old courses
where the new.fangled ideas have yet
to make their appearance. st. An.
drews provides natural golf What an
iconoelastic architect would make
of the old green If he were given a
free hand. there is no telling. It is
probable that pot hunkers would be
made on the fine piece of turf where
the fifth and 14th greens adioin. Some
thing would certainly be done to in
crease the difficulties of the last hole,
and a new plateau green would pos.
sibly be constructed out at the Eden.
ord roi,,.,.l