Tauranga Golf Club

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14883, 21 January 1949, Page 5

Tauranga Golf Club

Course Record Shattered Bv P. Ward

Invitation From Mount

Maunganui

(By “Bunker”) During the weekend in a friendly round, the Bay of Plenty gclf champion, Fred Ward, eclipsed all previous performances on the links —he literally burnt up the course with a briiliantly played C 9, which is 3 under standard scratch sccre. Ward played particularly well at every hole except the 15th, where his loose second shot compelled him to play a tricky approach over the right hand bunkers. This was accomplished so well that he was left with a four-foot putt for his birdie. When exceptionally good scores are carded by almost any player it will invariably be found that the green work has been well above average and this was the case with Ward who, although left with several putts from three to six feet, sank them all.

The first eight holes were done in bogey figures, followed by a birdie 2 at the ninth; the next three were par efforts while the only over par hole, the 14th, resulted in a four. The 15th and 17th are favourite birdie holes of many of the club’s low-handicap men, and Ward was no exception on the day, while the 16th and 18th presented no difficulty in achieving par fours. Although the links were in quite good order the fairways were a bit “woolly.”

The club’s “official” record is shared by Ron Parkes and C. W. Castell, 71, these being returned in a stroke competition. Although Ward holed every putt his effort nevertheless goes down on the records as “unofficial.” However, it was a very fine round and will no doubt inspire others to tilt at it in the future. Several of the club’s members, notably H. J. Bateman, Ron and Laurie Parkes, C. W. Castell and T. Green are quite capable of it, if caught in top form and with the breaks in their favour on the day. It is only by such achievements that the standard of play in any game is raised. With a marked improvement in the links during the past year the standard has certainly gone well up and even old members whose handicaps have stayed static for some years have succeeded in lowering them during the past season.

As the links will be closed during the next two Saturdays owing to the races, golf will be restricted, but the sister club at Mount Maunganui has invited local members to be their guests during the two weekends.