ON THE LINKS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 271, 29 August 1935, Page 7

ON THE LINKS

GOLF AND ITS DEVOTEES.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY.

(By “Silver King.”)

Championship play by members of the Ashburton Golf Club has produced one or two surprises.

V. \Y. Russell (the present senior champion) was defeated in the first round by E. A. Oockroft. The match was a very close one, both men playing excellent golf. Particularly was this so over the first nine holes, four threes being recorded at the top holes. The match: was square at the seventeenth hole and ended dramatically at . the eigthteenth, Russell putting two halls out of hounds and allowing Oockroft to take the hole in four and 1 the match one up.

In the second round. L. E. Carter heat R. C. McGregor two up. Here again the golf was of a high standard. Carter needed four at the last to equal bogey for the course (70) but his third found the ditch and he took six to hole out for a round of 72. The last of the matches in the first round of the junior event saw G. I. Miller defeat J. Bathgate. J. M. Mcßae won Saturday’s flag match and tied for the medal on /Sunday. He has been playing consistent golf throughout the season.

A Strong Combination. Britain’s Ryder Cup team has been announced, as follows: G. A. Whitcombe (captain), P. Alliss, J. Burton, J. H. Busson, AY. Cox (Addington), F. Jarman, A. H. Padgham, and A. Perry. The contest is played every two years between British and American professional teams. The restriction to teams horn and resident in their respective countries deprives Britain of Thomas Henry Cotton, who is a professional in Belgium, and who was seventh in this year’s British Open, with 293. The cup was .won by the U.S.A. in 1927, by Britain in 1929, by the U.S.A. in 1931, and by Britain in 1933. Britain’s team this year makes it look as though she had a good chance of winning the cup, like the British: Open, twice in succession. C. A. Whitcombc, Crews Hill, Middlesex, the captain of the team, who is still just, on the right side of forty, is one of the few British pros, who has been equally successful in match and in medal play. He has twice won the “News of the World” tournament, once the Glencagles tournament, anti twice the Leeds tournament, while in stroke play his triumphs include the Irish Open championship, the “Daily Mail” championship, the Northern Open: championship, and the Southport tournament. In the Open championship itself he had never finished higher than, fourth up till this year, when he finished third, 5 strokes behind the Open Champion’s 283. He showed himself in form at the Southport tournament which he won with an aggregate of 295, recognised as a fine performance' on a course which recent reconstuiction has made • one of the stiffest tests of golf in England, under conditions far from easy. Of the 147 strokes he then played on the final day, only 70 were putts.

Percy Alliss (Beaconslield) first distinguished himself by winning the Assistants’ tournament in 1920. He won the Welsh Professional championship twice soon afterwards, the Essex Professional championship m 192-3 ami 1925, the German Open in 1920, 1927, 19*28, 1929 and 1933, the German Professional championship in 1927 and 1928, was second in the French Open in 1931, and runner-up in the Canadian Open the same year. He was third in the British Open in 1931, fourth in 1928, 1929 and 1932, fifth in 1923, and eleventh this year. He has frequently represented Britain, and was in the Ryder Cup team in 1929 and 1933.

A Younger Player. J. Burtcn (Hillside, Southport), is a youngtw player who has come to notice in recent important British tournaments in Britain. He won the Manchester Professional championship in 1933, was runner-up in the Northern championship in 1930 and won the Pen-fold-Porthcawl tournament in 1933. He represented England against Ireland in 1933, and holds the Porthcawl professional record of 67. J. H, Busson (FoFmley, Ereshfield), is under 30, but has held professional appointments in the C .S.A. before returning to Britain. Winning the Gloucester and Somerset Assistants' championships in 1925, 1925, 1926 and 1927, he won the Southern Counties Assistants’ tournament in 1925 and the Liverpool Assistants’ championship in 1928 and 1930.

W. Cox (Addington) a London suburban club) lias not records in the goli periodicals, but was apparently given his place for ranking ninth in the British Open, with an aggregate of 297, including 69 in the second round.

K. Jarman is one of a family of live golfing brothers, a mil has some very steady play to his credit. The inclusion of the winner of the Open this year, A. Perry, was a foregone conclusion; and even though A. H. Padgham, the runner-up, had not occupied that position, his record ovei the last few years, as well as his recent successes ill important touinaments would have made his exclusion difficult. '