BRITISH AMATEUR GOLF FINALISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 9

BRITISH AMATEUR GOLF FINALISTS.

YATES AND EWim. Hattersley Loses in Sterling Struggle. TROUELE WITH GALLERY. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON. May 27. The results of the British amateur golf championship quarter-finals were:— Ross Sonierville (Canada) beat H. W. Hattersley (Australia), 2 up. C. R. Yates (America) beat Cyril Tolley. (England). 3 and 2. K. C. F.wing (Ireland) beat J. B. Stevenson (Scotland), 1 up. Hector Thomson (Scotlain?) beat L. G. Crawley at tlie twentieth. In the semi-finals Kwing beat .Sonierville, 2 up; and Yates beat Thomson, at the nineteenth. After his game with Thomson, Crawley complained that the gallery at Troon on six occasions applauded his bad shots. Crawley said: "'I never want to play here again." The gallery, comprising 500 people, also did a lot of shouting during the Thomson-Yates semi-final. Hattersley commenced his match with Sonierville with four fours against his opponent's 5, 3, 4, 7 and was consequently 1 up. When the pair reached the third hole, a brilliant sun was shining in a cloudless sky, though the players had started off equipped for bad weather. The fifth hole, a one-shotter of ISO yards, was halved in regulation threes, but at the 580-yard sixth, Sonierville holed a five-yard putt for a birdie 4 and squared the game. The Canadian took the lead with a birdie 3 at the next (308 yards) after a beautiful approach. He had long consultations with his caddy over his approach putts and this was justified when at the eighth (120 yards) he holed a 15-footer for a birdie 2 to become 2 up. Fortune favoured Hattersley at the long ninth (456 yards), where a sliced second ran through the bunker. He placed his third two yards from the pin and holed the putt; Sonierville missed a four-yarder for a half in 4 and his lead was reduced to 1 up. Good Figures Recorded. The figures for the first nine holes were:— Hattersley: 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 5, 4, 3, 4 —35. Sonierville: 5, 3, 4, 7, 3, 4, 3, 2, 5-^36. The scratch total for the nine holes is 37. Though Hattersley was bunkered at the tenth he made a good recovery and was able to secure a half in 5 when Sonierville three-putted. Somerville was too strong with his second at the eleventh, finding the bunker, and the Australian squared the match. The twelfth hole of 372 yards was halved in 5; at the next of 394 yards Somerville played a slack second shot, Hattersley obtaining the lead again with a 4. At the short fourteenth, however, his tee shot landed in rough heather and he lost! the hole to his opponent's accurate 3. j

Again Hattersley took the lead at the fifteenth when his ball ran round the cup and dropped in, the Canadian missing a six-footer for the half. In the rough with his third at the sixteenth (566 yards) Hattersley played a glorious chip shot to get the regulation 5. It did not save him, however, as Somerville holed another five-yarder for a birdie 4 —all square.

With two holes to play Hattersley lost the seventeenth (223 yards) with a 4 to Somerville's 3. Hattersley tragically missed a two-yard putt, wet sand adhering to the ball and deflecting it from the hoi* This disaster left Somerville dormy. The end came at the eighteenth, where Hattersley's second was bunkered after just failing to reach the green. Somerville played the hole accurately for his 4 and took it and the match— 2 up.

It was hard luck for Hattersley to go off his game over .the last two holes. The scores for the last nine holes were:—

Hattersley: 5, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 5—40.

Somerville: 5, 5, 5, 5, 3, 5, 4, 3, 4 —39

Hattersley's round was 75 and Somerville's the same, both being one over the scratch score of the course, 74.

Ewing has been nominated .for the remaining place in the British Walker Cup team to play the Americans on June 3 and 4, at St. Andrews.

The final, over 30 holes, will be played at Troon (Ayrshire) on Saturday.

On the last ' three occasions that an American Walker Cup team has vi-sited Great Britain one of the team lias been successful in the British amateur contest. The successful players were J. Sweetser (1926), Bobby Jones (.1930) and Lawson Little (1934).

The opponent of the American C. R. Yates in the final this time, Cecil Ewinji, in 1936 was a semi-finalist in the championship. He was described in a London golf journal as a "slower from Slito'" on account of his exceptionally lonjr driving. He went to America with the 1036 Walker Cup team, beinp beaten at the contest held at Pine Woods by Fischer, S and 7. Fischer is a member of the American team this year, and was beaten in the second round by Yates.