GOLF.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 209, 2 September 1911, Page 18

GOLF.

CALENDAR. August 29, 30, 31—Manawatu Tournament. September 4 to 9—New Zealand Championship Meeting, Belmont Links, Waagdnui. September 15 to 2ft —Open Amateur and Ladles' Championship Meeting of Austiaiia, Kose Bay Links, Sydney. Septemer 6, 7, 8, St—Amateur Meeting, Oaklelgh Links, Melbourne. September 6 to 16—Amateur Championship Meeting. YeerongpiUy Links, Brisbane. September 12, 13, 14, 15—Napier Tournament. Waiohiki Links. Entries for all events, accompanied by fees, require to be made through Club secretaries. The full list of entries for the New Zealand golf championship meeting, to be held on the Wanganui Golf Club's links, commencing on September 4th and finishing on the 9th, are not yet available. However, it is known that nine professional golfers, including J. A.. Clements, the ex-open champion, have entered. Grisborne, Palmerston North, Wellington, Wanganui, Christchureh, and Invercargill will all have representatives in this class, in addition to Auckland, so that the competition promises to be exceedingly keen. The entry of amateurs is also a Tery strong one, including as it does Messrs. Arthur Duncan, of Wellington, the present open champion; H. B. *Lusk, ot Chratchurch, the present amateur champion: Wright (Christchureh), Burns (Auckland), J. C. Bidwell (Featlierston), Pryde (Feilding), K. Duncan (Wellington). I. Saunders, C. Saunders, Butterworth, Lewis, Meldrum, and J. Goss (Wanganui). The latter is one of the most promising young players seen out here, and is expected to make a good showing. Many other good players from all parts of the Dominion have entered, The meeting is expected to prove quite one of the most successful ever held in New Zealand, and the play will, it is predicted, be of a very high quality and most interesting. A "large staff of men have been working on the Belmont lints recently, and these should be in firstclass order. The course is a long and difficult one, and the golfing qualities of the competitors will be severely tested. In addition to Burns, Auckland will be represented by Messrs. Dargaville, MacConnick and Mcintosh.

Mr. Charles Evans, the young gentleman from Chicago way. must have had i rather a good time in Europe. No doubt j he was very well satisfied when he carried off the French amateur championship, and his pleasure must have been greatly increased by the knowledge that everyone who had golfed with him in ling-land or Scotland, or otherwise made his acquaintance, was delighted to read of his victory. He is one oi those men who are entitled "good golfers"; which means that a sensible person ■would rather lose a round to him than omit an opportunity of going out in his company. Moreover, he had at Troon, fetoke Poges, and elsewhere come near to winning important contests, and his form with all his clubs, especially his irons, had made it appropriate that he should take at least one considerable prize back to America with him. The strength of Mr. Evans' game lies in his manipulation of his iron clubs. His putting, though good enough, is nothing out of the ordinary; an opponent does not abandon all hope of a half when Mr. Evans has to get down from eight to nine feet to win the hole. And there are dozens of men who can drive as well as he. In fact, on the day of the Coronation match, his wooden clubs were not behaving at all well, but his approaching did not Buffer by contrast with that of his partner or either of his opponents.—Exchange. It would be interesting to know precisely what were the motives that actuated that pre-historic golfer who first conceded his opponent a putt or proposed that a hole should be reckoned as halved without the formalities of holing out. Perhaps he was merely a -stout old gentleman disinclined to unnecessary stooping, or perhaps again he was a poor holer out and a Machiavellian intriguer.

. . Sometimes, again, he throws up the sponge not because he believes that there is absolutely no hope of his adversary failing, but because he cannot bear the agony of waiting to see him succeedBy whichever of these motives, all of them more or less unworthy, the golfer is actuated, he is generally a thoroughly inconsistent creature in this matter of conceding putts. He will often, for instance, give a putt of a certain length, for a half, whereas, if it had been a case of " that for the hole " he would have stood by stern and inflexible till the ball disappeared. Doubtless it is always an a—t of folly to concede putts to an opponent, but it i.s not so only because of the possibility that he might in fact have missed them, though, of course, this possibility is not to be lightly disregarded. It is the sparing him a certain amount of mental anguish that is perhaps the greater mistake. Assuming that he holes every one of those " givable " or " missable " putts, •he has yet had to work hard in order to do this, and this cumulative strain is likely to tell in the end. Moreover, the knowledge that his enemy never despairs of his falling will not make him any the more confident of success. As Mr. Low has wisely said, '" As long as a man feels that his adversary has not given in, but rather that he is holding bis ground inch by inch, the strain continues; and it is the strain that causes the " crack."

Tlip open amateur tournament at Peterhead, decided recently, ended in favour of Mr Clyde Pearce, Hoba-rt, the Australian champion of 1908, who, in the final, defeated Mr. J. A. Shaw, Troon, last year's winner, by 3 and L Mr. Pearce drove splendidly j and made very few mistakes in the short game. He was " donny " at the fourteenth, but Mr. Shaw, who was twice stymied in the couTse of the match, won the next two holes. Mr. Pearce, however, won th« seventeenth, and thus secured tha match. In the semi-final the Tasmaniaa defeated Mr. W. Mathieson, Gullaae, by 4 ad, 3.