THE BAD SIDE OF GOLF.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.".1
Sin,—The letter in your last issue regarding employment of caddies deals with a somewhat important subject. Your correspondent rightly says :—." A heavy responsibility lies: with all golf clubs The evils of a caddie's life are these: it is unskilled and almost worthless as a training of the intelligence ; it leads nowhere ; and it is undisciplined"; and he refers to " the hours of lounging from which no caddie- is free." Unfortunately this is only too true as regards the system of employment adopted by the golf clubs in general.
I would, however, venture to draw attention to the practice which has been in force for some ten years in the club to
which I belong, and which has produced sufficiently satisfactory results to justify its recommendation to other golf clubs as a mitigation of the evils indicated by your correspondent. The- essence of the evil lies in loafing and lounging about waiting for employment.
In our club the regular caddies are all boys, about twenty- five in number, who come to us when they leave school. They are
not kept on after the age of eighteen, as we consider the work of a caddie is essentially work which a boy can do with advan- tage to himself, but a man cannot. They have regular hours of employment, and earn on an average about 15s. per week, the
greater part of this in fees for caddying, the club paying a small amount in return for work which they do upon the green. They are under the strict supervision of the green- keeper (who is also the caddie-master) and his assistants, and when not carrying clubs are bard at work on the upkeep of the course. This arrangement has in our experience resulted in discipline and industry, and has imparted to the boys quite an advanced knowledge of the laying out and upkeep of turf at all seasons of the year, and of the treatment of various weeds, worm-killing, the handling of mowing-machines and tools, and has in most cases ensured for them a good start in life as under-gardeners and other kindred employments.
As a general rule, these boys obtain situations in neighbour- ing market-gardens and private gardens, starting at about 15s. per week, and they are much sought after owing to the discipline and elementary knowledge they have acquired. We have a steady supply of younger boys whose parents are only too glad to place them under the care of the green-keeper when they leave school. On Saturday afternoons and Sundays,. when more than the regular stall of caddies is required, we
find that many of our old boys come, and in their spare hours add to their earnings by carrying clubs, and it is only to a small extent that we have to rely upon the man loafer who is unfortunately the standard type at so many clubs. At the present time we are considering the question of giving lessons in rudimentary gardening and agriculture in order further to. equip the boys for the start in life.
The Surrey County Council are endeavouring to initiate a system of indoor technical classes on general subjects for- caddies at the various clubs, but with this I am not in accord, as it seems better to use the advantages at hand and to train the boys for an outdoor life as gardener& and agriculturists,— a class which the country urgently requires. We have found that our club has benefited in a very high degree from this inexpensive and efficient labour of the boys, which is most advantageous to the efficient upkeep of good putting-greens. These boys, working in gangs under supervision, do work
which the same number of men could do no better, and at a small fraction of the cost. In the long summer evenings they are encouraged to, and do, play the game amongst themselves, and in the result we have a body of caddies who are civil,„ intelligent, keen, and competent. —I am, Sir, &e.,
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