OFF TO AUSTRALIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 257, 30 October 1929, Page 8

OFF TO AUSTRALIA.

SLOAN MORPETH SNAPPED UP POSITION IN MELBOURNE. AMATEUR CHAMPION'S OPPORTUNITY. News was received yesterday per medium of a cable from Melbourne that Mr. Sloan Morpeth, present amateur golf champion of New Zealand, and secretary ,of the Maungakiekie Club at Auckland, had been offered the position of secretary to the Commonwealth Golf Club, Melbourne. ' Interviewed on the subject this morning, Mr. Morpeth stated that he Iliad accepted the offer and would probably take up his duties in Australia about the end of the present year. Mr. Morpeth has been a prominent figure in New .Zealand golf for the past ten years, since, when yet in his teens, he twice tied with E. G. Douglas for the open title at r—r—r ~... ... '1 tj le Waiwhiki links in Napier and narrowly lost in the play-off. The following year 'he was defeated in the open by Joe Ivirkwood, but won the national amateur title. For a number of years, owing to his work in the . country, he did not take part in big . golf events. It wa3 in August, 1927, that he came to reside in Auckland and took up the office of secretary to the Maungakiekie Club. He at once demonstrated that he had lost none of his playing ability, for that year he recaptured the amateur title from E. H. Horfcon. In 1928 he lost the title at Dunedin to C. Wight, but realised the dream of his life by winning the New Zealand open championship for the first time. Early this year, as a member of the Kirk-Windeyer Cup team, he visited Australia and although unsuccessful in the cup matches under strange conditions, he demonstrated his exceptional playing ability by carrying off the amateur title of Victoria and reaching the final of the Australian amateur championship after having defeated the Australian open champion in a classic match on the way. Returning to New Zealand he failed to hold the national open title, but, characteristically, showed a reversal of form by the manner in which he won the amateur event.

Obviously Morpeth's genius for the game liae been quickly recognised in Australia, where golf is showing something of the wonderful development which has characterised the game in America. Discussing with a "Star" representative this morning: his appointment to the Commonwealth Club, Morpeth stated that he deeply regretted severing, his connection with the game and players in Auckland and New Zealand, generally, but having in view the very much greater possibilities in store for "'him in Australia, he had no option but to accept the opportunity.