WOMAN GOLFER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 139, 14 June 1935, Page 11

WOMAN GOLFER.

MISS SHIRLEY TOLHURST. VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. Returning from a seven weeks' holiday visit to California with her mother, Miss Shirley Tolhurst, Victorian lady golf champion, is a through passenger by the liner Maripoea. Although she neither saw nor participated in any big golf, Miss Tolhurst played at Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Del Monte. The courses generally, she said, were longer than those in Australia, and there were also many long individual holee. A number of the holes were over 000 yards ldng, but there were few bunkers. The fairways as well as the greens were watered all the year round, and there was practically no "rough" in the Australian sense of the word. The greens were smaller and faster than those she had been used to.

The Pebble Beach couree at Del Monte, said Miss Tolhurst, was the most sporting course she had ever played on, while the Cyprus Point Club at the same place wae one of the most exclusive clubs in the country. When times wero good the entrance fee for the latter club was £1000, with an annual subscription of £100, but recently the figures had been reduced. The membership of the club was under a hundred, and it was only because she was a visitor from overeeas that she had had the privilege of playing on the course. "With so few members you can go round the course almost without seeing anybody," ehe said.

Miss Tolhurst arranged to play a round .with Miss Elizabeth Abbot, one of tho leading American women players, but at the last moment her opponent was unable to keep her engagement. At Los Angeles, however, she had a number of enjoyable games with film actors and actresses.

It is Mise Tolhurst's hope that the Mariposa will experience a smooth crossing of the Tasman, for iive days after her arrival she will be called upon to defend her Victorian title. When she first played in California after landing she found that her game was inclined to bo ehaky, but she naturally hopes that on landing in Australia she will quickly settle down. Last year, she added, she played rather too much golf, and sho felt that her holiday would do both herself and her game good.