New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-06-17
The UnmanIy Sport of Golf.

Feminsm has smiled her beguiling way into al
most every branch OF existence, and according to
Mr.. B. j. T. Bosanquet famous English cricketer
she is now engaged in seducing man from his
ancient manly sports. Cricket, football and polo
have the red brutality requisite for the making
OF proper Britshers, it seems. But not tennis and
golf-especially golf, against which Mr.. Bosanquet
levels most of his adjectves.
We have no means of knowing where this cricket
ers handicap stands in golf At a guess we should
say that the game had never treated him kindly.
He is careful to assert his appreciation of its
pleasant exercise and Charm But something
besides an impersOna judgment Of the game speaks
in these hectic words:
The sooner it is realized that golf is merelv
pleasant recreation and inducement to indolent
people to take exercise the better. Golf has none
Of the essentials of a great game. 1t destroys
rather than builds up character. and tends to
seshness and ill-temper. 1t calls for none of the
essential qualities of great game such as pluck
endurance, physical fitness and agility, unsefsh-
ness and esprit de corps, quickness of eve and
Judgment Games which develop these qualities are
Of assistance for the more serious pursuits of life
To turn to feminsm, tut tut and fudge Golf
may destroy occasional cricketers character and
conduce to his sefshness and ill-temper. but such
is far from its general trend Take up its demands
upon pluck, endurance physical fitness and agility
We yield the point as to agility and quckness of
eye and judgment. That is real shOrtcomng Of
the game. II lacks the swift repartee, the instan-
taneous give and take Of football, baseball polo.
tennis Also, of course it lacks the esprit dc corps
the spirit of joint effort that comes from team
play. 1t is the most indivdualistic OF all games.
But when it comes to the matters of pluck and
endurance, there is another story. As sheer test
Of nerves, Of concentration Of sustained strain on
courage and the whole delicate system Of muscular
control, it probably surpasses any other game-ex-
cepting possibly the giants task imposed on
Mathewson or Walter Johnson. In what other
sport does an expert "crack" so often? The story
Of our American golf invasion is fairly in point.
The very deliberateness and restraint of the game
are It's terrors The supreme effort is not demanded
in a wild. hot rush. bringing its own physical ella
ton, but in n cold, clammy silence on a putting
green, with motions as restrained and delicate as
a pianists Outdoor chess Is not altogether jest
ing description of such a sport.
The distinction between moral courage and phys
ica courage is not a clear oneif it exists at ALL
Courage. itself, is always a thing Of the mind-it
can be maintained But accepting the two phrases
in their common meaning-physcal courage point
ing 10 a pluck more Immediately expressed in phys
ical actiOn-the claim Of golf 10 rank as a great
game rests on its test Of moral courage There II
ranks with the best And even an English cricketer
ought to concede that training in moral courage
is no bad assistance in the more serious pursuits
Of life"