SWEET SORROW

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28554, 7 April 1958, Page 12

SWEET SORROW

When R. C. Sweet, of the Hunley club, to play his ninth tee shot oh Saturday morning in the Christchurch Golf Club’s Easter tournament, he must ,b«ve t .been aq • Untroubled .golfer, - Mil game had gone reasonably well; he is a single-figure handicap p&yer, with many tournament successesThe ninth hole at'Shirley is a one-shotter of 140 yards, and Sweet put his tee shot into a bunker at the right of the green. He was on sand which sloped fairly sharply. He failed to get out with his explosion shot, or with nine others which followed it. His eleventh bunker shot did take him clear, but only into a bunker on the other side of the green. J Sweet took hir trundler and himself around the green and set to work again. Seven shots later, he emerged to return to his first bunker. Now the successes were coming faster. His second explosion got him out—to the bunker he had recently vacated. He had two more shots there, without positive reward. Then noticing the players queueing up on the ninth tee, he bent, picked up the ball and lobbed it, like an innocent hand grenade, on to the green; 23, not out. But Sweet, who was prepared to smile at his misfortunes, might have found comfort in the knowledge that an American woman, who needed only to finish a round to qualify for a competition, put her ball into a stream. With her husband rowing, she went to-the ball, and played a long succession of shots into the water before landing the ball 10 furlongs down-stream. She then hit the ball into a wood, and qualified when she had holed out in 106.