Golf Notes and Notions THE GOLFER AND THE LAW I have no intention, as the title of my article might lead some to suppose, of writing a learned disquisition on the rules in the manner of Mr. J. L. Low in his famous article under the same title in the "Golfer's Year Book." I am not very fond at any time of plunging into the morasses and quicksands of the rules of golf, and only venture into that dangerous region when some very flagrant case arises. My purpose is somewhat different, for all that I wish to do is to draw the attention of my readers to a case which has just been decided in Scotland, and which, as involving a very nice point affecting golfers, seems to me of sufficient interest to merit some detailed notice. Before entering into a review of the case, I must first say that I have not seen a detailed report giving the evidence on which the matter was decided, and have only seen a summary of the judge's decision. Briefly stated, the case was as follows: A golfer sued another, and claimed £50 damages, because he had been struck by the ball of the other player on Musselburgh links. The case came before Sheriff Henderson, himself a thorougly sound old golfer, well versed in all the traditions and customs of the game. He decided against the plaintiff on the ground that the blow suffered by him was the result of pure accident, and not of any negligence or design on the part of the defendant. So far as I can make out, the stroke which caused the accident was a bad slice, and the striker evidently considered that the plaintiff was so far out of the intended flight of the ball that he could play without any danger of hitting him. Incidentally, the Sheriff laid down the sound maxim that the question at issue was unaffected by the tact of Musselburgh links being Co.nmon ground, as the fact of golf being lawful and usual there brought the ground in the same circle of action in law as a private course entirely devoted to golf, and it would have been an interesting case if the plaintiff had been a golfer, for we might then have had an even clearer indication than the Sheriff's present decision gives us of the limits of the rights of golfers and the public towards each other on commons where golf is allowed by the lord of the manor and the commoners. A Welcome Decision even more non As it is, golfers may well welcome the Sheriff's decision, as the outlook for all of us would have been rather ticklish if the case had gone the other way. Time was when the golfer indulged in the pleasant fancy that, once he had called out "fore!" in stentorian voice, he was exempt in law from any consequences resulting from his stroke. That idea was all very well on Scottish courses, where golf has been played, so to speak, since the Flood, and where everyone was expected to understand the meaning of the warning cry "fore!" But the situation became entirely altered when golf invaded the South, and when commons like Blackheath, Wimbledon, Mitcham, et hoc genus omne of suburban courses, became the scenes of the onslaught of the army of golfers. I have had some curious experiences, and I have no doubt many of my readers could adduce similar difficulties in connection with the strolling public. I remember one extremely amusing case which happened at Wimbledon. Going out to play one morning from the Iron House of the London Scottish, my partner and I were confronted at the first green by the amazing spectacle of two individuals indulging in a game of croquet on the space sacred to the art of putting. The elder of the two individuals stoutly maintained his right to play his game of croquet with his son on that or any other of the putting greens of the course. We left him, after a rather heated interchange, to be dealt with by the Conservator, and I do not remember his troubling us any more. But I should like to know what would have happened if, after calling "fore!" to him, and his refusing to budge, one of us had struck him with a strong half-topped approach-shot? A Burly Ruffian on His Rights Another case happened at Hoylake during the Open Championship of '97. As everyone is aware who has played there, the public which crowds in from Liverpool to watch a great match or tournament absolutely excels any other in point of ignorance of the game and indifference to its laws and customs. Having been entrusted with the duty of keeping the course clear in front of two great players, I gently remonstrated with an individual of forbidding aspect and great stature, who was stolidly walking down the centre of the course towards the seventeenth hole, some 120 yards from the tee to that hole. My warning and admonition were received with contumely, and 1 was informed by the determined ruffian that he had as much right as anyone to walk there, that he intended to walk there, and that if I wished him to come away I must make him do so by force. So I had to leave him to his fate, with the inward prayer that one of the player's tee shots might strike him on some non-lethal part of his body, and convince him that I was entreating him for his own safety, and not from any officious desire to meddle with his sacred right of walking over Hoylake links. But suppose he had been violently hit on the head by one of the players from the tee and had brought an action, how would the case have gone? In every case I take it that it is the bounden duty of the golier to take every possible and reasonable precaution to avoid the danger of an accident to a member of the nongolfing public, and not merely to rely on a loud shout of "fore!" which may be pure Greek to the unhappy individual who is obstructing the line of play. We must remember, too, that balls are kittle things, the golfer very human in his powers of erring, and that a vast proportion of strokes result in pulling or slicing with consequences most disconcerting to the golfer and highly dangerous to the passer-by. I am astonished that more accidents do not and I welcome the decision of the Sheriff, as guarding the golfer from petty and vexatious actions. occur, ERNEST LEHMANN. Putting Competition on the Montreux Golf Course: The Muveran in the background The Montreux Golf Course is beautifully situated in the Rhone Valley, between the Vaudois and Valais Alpes. The club-house faces south, with a view on the Dent du Midi and Dent de Morde. To the south-east is the rugged massif of the Muveran ; below is Bex and its salt mines. Six years ago the course was opened. Two years later the Montreux Golf Club was formed to take it over and run it on a club basis. At its start the game seemed to have been but partially understood by the Swiss. It must, for instance, have been a little disconcerting, after a luncheon given to inaugurate the course, for a 20-handicap man, somewhat short of practice, to have each of his successive visits to the newly-made bunkers greeted with encouraging shouts OUR COMPETITION: SECOND WEEKLY PROBLEMS £7 7s. in Cash to the Competitor who gains the greatest number of Marks in the Eight Weekly Competitions. First Prize (each week): Two Guineas. SECOND AND THIRD PRIZES: "BYSTANDER" Bridge Case, value £1 IS. solutions. These solutions must reach the office not later than the first post on Wednesday next, addressed to "The Bridge Editor," THE BYSTANDER, Tallis Street, E.C., and marked in the left top corner of the envelope " Competition." 4. Winners of a weekly prize are not eligible for another weekly prize during the Competition, though they are, of course, still eligible for the chief prize. 5. Competitors abroad, whose solutions reach us a reasonable time after the specified date, will nevertheless receive marks, and be eligible for prizes should they win them. You have to answer 1. Herewith three problems are set. them. Thus, with Problem I., if you think the right answer is "Spades," take half a sheet of notepaper and write "Spades." After that, you write your reasons for the declaration. 2. Having written the answers to the three problems-with reasons, making six answers in all-write your name and address clearly, and, in addition, a nom de guerre under which your marks in the Eight Weeks' Competition may be published. 3. Having given your solutions of the week's problems in the method set forth above, then, for a coupon, cut off the two lines at the bottom of the back cover, "Printed and published by George Robert Parker, etc., etc.," and pin this token to your Hilda " victims St. Cast Church where the bodies of the An Inopportune Experiment next Saturday. Sport of the Past Week The Selection By H. S. SCRIVENER Committee of the Rugby Union have done their best to make things nice and easy for the New Zealanders There is an old saying to the effect that it is inexpedient to change horses while you are crossing a stream, and yet next Saturday England, for the first time in her International history, will take the field with five three-quarters. Moreover, in order that the experiment may be tried in all its unsullied purity, special care was taken that the teams in the Rest v. West trial should play in the ordinary formation. We are, of course, paying a high compliment to our visitors-which they will fully appreciate on the field of play-in copying their Ireland Joins the Majority "I Even dear old Ireland has caught the infection. breathed a sigh into the air" (a sigh of relief, bien entendu) when I found that there were to be eight Irish forwards. I am no great believer in what is known as the typical Irish forward game. There is just a little too much of the kick-and-rush business about it to please me. But it is undeniably dangerous, especially when the fickle goddess happens to smile upon its exponents. But it appears that last Saturday the temptation to throw out a roving commissioner was too great to be resisted. It may or may not be that Ireland would have fared better if this temptation had been resisted; but anyhow the ultimate result methods; for, after all, if you play seven men behind the scrum, not counting the full-back, it doesn't matter very much what you call the extra man or where you put him. But there is just this trifling difference, that the New Zealanders know how to play their game and we don't. The English backs, several of whom have barely even a nodding acquaintance with each other's play, are expected to learn it-in the course of Saturday afternoon-against opponents who have been playing together for weeks. No one will blame them if they don't succeed, and if they do, it will be hugely to their credit. Scotland tried, and succeeded so far as the defensive work was concerned, but defensive work alone doesn't win matches, and Scotland only managed to lose gloriously. It really looks as if the Selection Committee's mandate to the English team is, "Go ye, and do likewise." [Lafayette |