GOLF.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20103, 5 December 1930, Page 25

GOLF.

FIXTURES. Club —December 10th: Entries house, Slurley for Ann.el» w events. December 1. th: Lnrtrl"7 »» annua , Christmas tournatri«f {!ose joeflt. • VOTES OF THE DAY. (By "Flagstick ") Anni« Day event 3at Shir " !» OEC e more thrown open to memany Canterbury club on the b,r, ter 0 f the New Zealand Golf Coun-?•The-\vinner of the stroke handicap V, morning takes the Randolph "Jita.ee) Cup presented by the sons ' H> WD. Wood, who came to o! th *„; a the Randolph. The winner Ivttelton rece ive trophies, and are the prizes in the stroke /• 'n 'playe In the a four - ball boscy handica i' Jjjj be r t<mdin2 competitors in the Cliristf Club'a annual Christmas tourna- ' ♦_nDen to all amateurs—are roentries close at noon on December 17th. The mam the fchristcHureh Amateur Chamwilt bo decided by stroke play on Saturday, December Mb the winner holding the Mc-Dougall " fun for one vear and rcv.civ- « 3 trophy. The present fi /K cup is B. .. Wright, who Sb. defending his title. Arrayed him Will be a strong field of 'STeolfCrt, including former winners Ifrts title in E. M. Macfarlano (1924, »25 1927, and 1928) and C. A. Seymour Of younger aspirants to golfglU* K. C. Ward,, of Avondale, be prevented by business ties from Letinff but most of the local club Tffi' including It. T. Tosswill Swood), J. Millard (Rawhiti), and f B Dagger (Bussley), will .doubtless t th« field, and the competition ilouM b« keener than ever.

Following UP his recent success in .Marine tie coveted Captain 'a Tropli.v, p C Harris again showed good form in 'be Anderson Cup foursomes on SaturJav last. he And L. Hansen combining well f®r a gr° M BCore Their [even strokes of handicap left them two strokes in the lead with a 72. W. P. toderson, the donor of the cup, and his partner, 0. VST. Haverfield —stouthearted', steady goers both —also returned a gross 79, giving 75 net, as did G P. Colbetk and E. T. Tosswill, backmakers for the day with a handicap of one. G. P.. Parkinson and A. A. Boon, with 84—10—74, and F. P. Tymons and J. Wilis, with 05—«1 —74, tied for second place in the competition.

At the invitation of the secretary, J. M. Preston, "Flagstick " had the pleasure—a pleasure shared by a large number of visiting golfers —of revisiting Arondale for that club's end-of-the-season tourney, and noting the advance made in the condition of the course during the year. The greens have been maintained in their usual state of perfection, as. indeed they have been ever since they were first laid down under the direction of J. A. Clements; the approaches and greenside bunkers are rapidly approaching the same standard, and the fairways show a marked advance on their condition at the beginning of the season. Given a successful autumn sawing', the new fairways should be available for play before another teuton is over, and one would expect

from present appearances that it will not bo long before the existing rule about "lifting" can be dispensed witli altogether. A much-appreciated improvement' is the extension of the practice putting-green so as to provide an 18-hole round, and the veteran J. Martin, sitting at the receipt of custom, was kept busy all day long in issuing cards —accompanied in most cases by a word or two of advice. K. C. Ward, the men's champion, who was acting as dispatcher during the morning, showed how championships are won by completing the course in 31, while Miss E. L. Sapsford and Miss C. Penn, who wore also the winners in their respective sections of the driving competition, had to play off a tie before the former won. With the hard wear to which the turf was subjected, and the strong, gusty nor'-wester that prevailed during the afternoon, the putting grew more and more difficult as the day wore on, and 3, 4, or even 5 went down frequently on most cards. Under these conditions private matches afforded plenty of interest and excitement.

O. Andersen wound up a very successful season by carrying off the prize for driving with a fine shot of 242 yards, in a cross-wind, which carried many promising efforts outside tho line of flags, and B. J. Masters excelled himself in the afternoon 10-liole stroke handicap, his figures reading:— 4443444553 —10 His net score of 35 was four better than that of N. V. Smith, who also lias boon "reducing" right through the season. The mixed foursome in the morning was won by T. W. Patterson and Miss C. Penn, with a score of t down, A. J. Borgfeldt and Miss It. Thornton coming next, with 5 down. Tho numerous visitors from City Club 3 from -"Grandfather" Shirley .to "Baby" Rawhiti, left the links with very agreeable impressions of the day's fare, and of the hearty welcome of the Avondalo players. Their feelings were very happily expressed by M. 11. Godby, captain of the Christchurch Club, who incidentally welcomed the new appellation of "grandfather" for Shirley, as preferable to "Old Men's Home." Special interest attaches to the 1500dollar tournament played at Salt Lake City near the end of October because in this event, George von Elm, American amateur champion in 192(3, and one of America's most famous amateurs, made his debut in tho professional ranks. With 3(3 holes played the leader is Harry Cooper, of Chicago, one of tho younger generation of British professionals, who, like T. Armour, W. Huntor and Charles Laccy, have been attracted to the States by the greater pecuniary rewards offered. His 139 (70, 09) for two rounds is six strokes better than A 1 Espinosa's 145 (72, 73), and tho low figure is attributable chiefly to his excellent chipping and putting. He used 57 strokes on tho greens in two days, his second day's effort including five one-putt greens on end. The second day's round was played in a downpour, and tho New York "Herald Tribune's" account is worth quoting from: ' "Cooper drove with his brassie and only once was ho off the fairway. He eschewed his driver for two reasons. One wa« because the mpre lofted club kept the ball up longer, and thus gained by the air route longer distances than the slow turf would have yielded in the roll off tho drives. The other was that he didn't have to hit so hard with his brassio to obtain the same results, and this made it easier to keep his balance in the slippery footing, and also reduced the chances of the wet grip slipping in his hands.'' Tho " tip" is given for what it is worth.

Cooper, by the way, finished in fourtn place in the American Open, and would probably have cut a stroke or two off his total if he had not been aware that he must gain live strokes on "Bobby" in the last round; as it was he lost a stroke to the winner, and finished with 293 (72, 72, 73, 70).

T. P. Perkins, British amateur champion in 1028, who is now writing a series of articles for "Golf, Illustrated" (U.S.A.), may be cited as a supporter of the slogan "Go to your pro." In the August number ho begins by saying that the golfer who adopts sound methods can nearly always play well without much practice, and must obviously enjoy his golf more than the man who takes several holes to get going properly. "By sound methods is meant playing the game in an orthodox manner, in other words, not ignoring any of the accepted principles. The man who shuts the face of the club fails to follow through properly, scoops his iron shots, or stabs his putts, to mention but a few typical examples of unsound habits, is bound to be inconsistent, or at any rate less consistent than ho ought to be." He continues with some recommendations as to clothing that it should be varied to suit the weather; as to footwear, that specially made shoes, preferably with sharp spikes, should be used; as to caddv-bags, that they should be covered and divided into two compartments, and so on. lie concludes his preliminary article with some advice on match play. "A safe rule, when about to play a shot involving a risk, is to ask oneself the question, 'What should I do in a stroke competition?' In every department of the game it is best to adopt methods and to play the type of shot thnt will reduce the margin of error to a minimum. " He quotes from his own experienco many instances where holes were lost or halved by over-cautions play when his opponent was in trouble, and, conversely, instances of holes lost by gor ing for heroic carries when, by playing normally, he had a good chance for a half. "It certainly does not always pay to assume that the opponent will play the hole perfectly." Of course, it depends a good deul on who your opponent is.