GOLF AND STONE BREAKING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3661, 24 October 1912, Page 8

GOLF AND STONE BREAKING.

“We see on green countrysides during the warm days of summer, perspiring creatures, flushed and unkempt, armed with long-handled clubs, striking the ground with frenzy as if they wish to discover rare stones or precious metals. It is golfers at wont.”

Tlius writes a contributor to the Paris “Journal,” translated by the “Chronicle,” in giving what he calls a “Guide du Golf.” He explains some of the peculiarities of the game. First, with regard to the ground: “Any ground will do, as long as it is not level. Having found - your ground, you then take great care to fill up all the natural holes in it. Having done so, you make a Humber of artificial holes which are all of a fixed shane and depth. (The mere these holes resemble natural holes the better they are.) “Golf is the direct descendant of a now unfashionable sport known as stone breaking, which consists in breaking stones on the roads with the aid of a long hammer. The essential difference is that the golfers clo not wear wire spectacles like their ancestors, tlie stonebreakers. “The stones have been replaced by a small india-rubbed ball, which lasts much longer, being unbreakable. “To push it toward the holes you use a wooden stick with an iron butt, very inveniently turned and shaped, so as to make the problem as complicated as possible. Tin’s stick is called a club, and its number is legion, it is the correct thing to change the club between each stroke, just as you change forks between every course. “Tlie collection of clubs, contained in an umbrella case, is carried behind th 5 line of fire by a youngster known a» a caddy.”