462 



Golf, 



By the introduction of the rubber-cored ball 'a phase in the evolution of golf was 

 initiated which cannot yet be safely said to have culminated. The ingenuity of invent- 

 ors has supplied balls with heavy cores of various materials, and these are tightly bound 

 with rubber thread and an outer casing of gutta percha. A small ball of high specific 

 gravity combined with great elasticity is now in general use, and is of course found partic- 

 ularly advantageous in a strong adverse wind. Not only have clubs and courses been 

 modified to meet the development of the ball, but attempts have been made to obtair 

 a reversion to the " gutty " or at least the adoption of a standard ball for important 

 competitions. A memorial addressed to the committee managing the British amateur 

 championship in 1912, though signed by a large number of leading players, failed to effect 

 a reform, because the committee did not consider itself to be competent to pass what 

 amounted to a legislative measure. There is a consensus among the most authoritative 

 professionals, as well as amateurs, concerning this question. It is held that the new 

 ball does not sufficiently penalise, and, in fact, does not invariably penalise to any extent 

 the not quite perfectly delivered stroke. In this way it directly impairs the game as a 

 test of skill. Indirectly, the action of luck is favoured by the elaborate hazards with 

 which courses are often embellished, and the somewhat fantastic slopes given to putting 

 greens in order that they may not be too easy. It is further argued by Vardon and 

 other teachers that an undesirable kind of stroke is fostered by a ball which when driven 

 low and " pulled " can be made to travel a great distance after pitching. On the other 

 hand, it can hardly be maintained that the worse player is enabled habitually to defeat 

 the better; and it is undeniable that the majority of golfers would be reluctant to aban- 

 don a ball which appears to flatter their skill. The rubber-cored ball indeed may be 

 credited with much of the universal popularity of golf. In America the wonderfully 

 rapid spread of the game has induced municipalities to lay out public courses, of which 

 the long course in Jackson Park, Chicago one of four belonging to the city may be 

 taken as an instance. 



International intercourse is encouraged by open championships. After winning the 

 British amateur championship in 1911, Mr. Harold Hilton successfully essayed to carry off 

 the amateur championship of the United States. He was less fortunate in 1912, when the 

 competition took place in very hot weather and Mr. J. D. Travers won. The American open 

 Tournament was gained in both years by J. J. M'Dermott. The French amateur champion- 

 ship was captured by Hon. M. Scott, M. Castel being the foremost native competitor; but 

 in spite of an invasion of British champions Ray, Vardon, Taylor and Braid among them 

 a French player, Jean Gassiat of Chantilly, was first in the professional championship of 

 1912 at La Boulie, with a score of 289 for four rounds of the course. A competition at Baden 

 Baden, for which the title of championship of Germany was assumed, attracted a number of 

 British and French professionals, and ended in Taylor beating Ray after a tie. H. Vardon 

 was the British champion of 1911, E. Ray of 1912; and Vardon in the latter year beat Ray 

 in the final round of the News of the World competition. Mr. John Ball supplanted Mr. 

 Hilton as amateur champion, winning the title at Westward Ho in 1912 for the eighth time 

 in his unparalleled career. The ladies' championship, which fell to Miss D. Campbell ir 

 1911, was won at Turnberry in the following year by Miss Gladys Ravenscroft. 



Of the many noteworthy additions which have been made to the literature of the game it. 

 must suffice to mention The Royal and Ancient Game of Coif, by H. H. Hilton and Gordon 

 G. Smith (1912): TJie Book of the Links, edited by Martin Sutton (1912): How to Play Golf 

 by Harry Vardon (1912): The New Book of Golf, edited by Horace G. Hutchinson (1912). 



Hockey. 



Scarcely a year passes without some small alteration in the laws of hockey, if it be 

 only the regulation of Hag posts, which are now obligatory. They must be four feet in 

 height, and must be placed at the centre points of the side-lines and at the corners of the 

 ground, one yard outside the line. In the " bully " each player must strike the ground 

 on his own side of the ball and his opponent's stick alternately. Some latitude has been 

 extended to the goalkeeper, who, except in a penalty bully, is allowed to kick the ball 

 within the circle and is not penalised, if, when he has stopped the ball with his hand, it 

 rebounds so as not to fall perpendicularly to the ground. It is no longer necessary in 

 stopping a corner hit for an attacking player to make the ball absolutely motionless. 



