A Shirley Golf Record: Seven Rounds in a Day

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 193, 16 August 1941, Page 6 (Supplement)

A Shirley Golf Record: Seven Rounds in a Day

DECORDS are made to be broken, * and golfers are just as keen as other sportsmen to outdo their fellows. For that reason it is somewhat odd that a record held by two Christchurch players should have stood for some eight, years. i The record holders are Messrs. I'. C. Harris and N. H. Skinner, who played seven complete rounds of the Shirley links in one day. observing strictly every rule of the game, and holing all putts. Their feat has never , been bettered. I A former official of the Christchurch Golf Club. Mr. J. E. Donald, recently came-across a clipping from the Christchurch Times, in which the storv of the record at Shirley is told. , Perhaps this story will prompt another pair of record breakers to smash a record which has stoorl so long, although it is most unlikely 1 that it will go before the days are longer. Here is the tale: Early Morning Start Two Shirley golfers determined that, in this age of record breakers, it was high time Christchurch came to the fore. As no man in Australia or New Zealand had played more than five and a half rounds of golf in one day. they started from the first tee at 4.25 a.m., as soon as there I was light enough to see the flight' of the ball, and played no fewer than | seven rounds. Every rule of the game was strictly observed, and all putts holed. : This pair, who may now claim the! one-day golfing record for this partof the world (eight rounds have been , done in Scotland, where the light, lasts longer), are Messrs. P. C.! Harris and .V. H. Skinner. Harris, a ' five handicap player, was in fine I form, and though* necessarily play-' ing at a fast pace, averaged 78.5 for | the first six of the seven rounds.; bogey for the course being 74. He j failed to maintain that excellent scoring for the last round, taking. 90. j The paii- breakfasted soon after three o'clock in the morning, and ' went down to the course. There they i found two caddies for whom they had arranged, with a third youth, who was so keen to be in the I attempt that he went down on the off-chance that one of the others might have slept in! By 4.2 1 a.m.. the light was good enough for a start, and away they went.The first round was completed by 0.5 a.m.. and after ten minutes' rest another! was played, finishing at 7.r><). Harris : doing the round in . I. equalling the standard scratch score for the course. j A second breakfast was then in-1 dulged in. and the third round started ! at 8.1, i a.m. That finished at 10.."() ! a.m. The times for the other rounds' were: Fourth. 10.50 a.m. to 12.10 p.m.;j

fifth, 1.50 p.m. to 3.35 p.m.; sixth (which Harris did in 76), 3.50 p.m. to 5.40 p.m.; seventh, 6.10 p.m. to 7.50 j p.m. Their actual playing time was 12h sm, and 3h 20m was the total time taken off between rounds. The time for the rounds averaged lh 43Jm. The actual distance, from tees to greens, was over 24 miles, so that at 1 a conservative estimate the pair must have walked at least 30 miles. Had there been enough light, they said, they could have managed another round comfortably. The pair confessed afterwards to some slight fatigue, but after a shower and a rub down, both felt perfectly fit after their strenuous performance. j The two caddies who started with the golfers refused to delegate their I duties to others as the day went on. I Thev were, they said, going to put up a record as far as caddies were I concerned: and thev did. Both, playlers had full bags of clubs, that of j Skinner containing no fewer than ten irons: but the boys were quite i indignant when it was suggested I that the bags should be lightened to : make their task less arduous. They : made no concessions. ' Record Well Broken ■ The previous record for New Zealand was five rounds and a half, and; the Shirley record five rounds. The j seven rounds in one day by Messrs. | Skinner and Harris should stand as j a record for some time. Perhaps the most remarkable per-j formance in that line was recorded ! by a Scotsman, who played fourteen j rounds of goif in 24 hours. | And that is the tale that younger golfers may not have heard. Ameri-1 cans, who set fantastic records for everything under the sun. have not neglected golf in that respect. Aided | bv aeroplanes, they have played i games in many of the States in the J same day. The Shirley record, how-1 ever, depends on nothing but the I endurance of the players and the hours of daylight, a notable feature being the fact that skill was not sacrificed bv reason of fatigue. | - I