Natal Open And Dunlop Masters

Press, Volume C, Issue 29454, 4 March 1961, Page 5

Natal Open And Dunlop Masters

FThis is the thi “The Press,” by R ’A FTER 72 holes in the Natal Open. Alan Brookes and Harold Henning tied for first place with scores of 278. The 36 hole play-off resulted in a ■win for Henning by four strokes. This gives a total of three wins in five tournaments for Henning. Other wins were the Northern Transvaal and Western Province. Playing most of their final round in driving, torrential rain, Brookes scored a recordequalling 66 and Hennng a 67, which in the conditions was fantastically good golf. The Natal Open was played at the Durban Country Club course, perhaps the finest golf > course in South Africa. It has a wonderful layout, testing the golfer with wide variety of holes. The grass on the greens and fairways is of a very course nature which I feel is the only bad feature of the links. ‘This tough wiry grass is necessary though, because of the tropical climate in Durban. Putting Here again my putting let me down. In the first round I hit 17 greens, missed six putts of from two to six feet and finished with a two-under-par 71. Practically the whole of the last round was played in a tropical downpour. After eight holes I was two under but from then on I found it extremely difficult playing on a course almost under water. The 16th fairway was covered almost from tee to green with water. Dennis Hutchinson had an easy win In the Dunlop Masters tournament after scoring an incredible 29 in the first nine holes of the third round. His 64 in the third round broke the existing course record held by Dai Rees by three shots. With a 72 hole score of 276 Hutchinson headed me by eight strokes. I finished second with 234 and third place was shared by Harold Henning and Stuart Davies. The tournament was played over the Bloemfontein Golf Club, course. At 7104 yards, the course was the longest we have played on this season. Although there had been little rain in recent months, the had been watered so heavily, run on the ball was negligible. The five bogeys all over 500 yards could be reached in two shots by most *>.' the competitors, but only pith woods or long irons. Again many struck trouble ton the greens where the nap Was running in all directons.

ird in a scries of articles special . J. CHARLES, the Christchurch p Bob Tuohy of Australia was averaging four three-putts a round and even with a long game as sound as Ben Hogan's, you cannot have that many three putts and still score well. Fortunately I was in much better form with my putter. I covered the 72 holes without once three putting. For me this was my most successful tournament so far although I did not go anywhere near winning it. To show how consistently I played, it is worth recording a few statistics which on thinking back. I find hard to believe myself. Apart from the absence of three putts, I dropped shots to par only on three holes. Two of these dropped shots were caused by missing the green of bogey

Uy written for professional gotfer]

threes and the third occasion by carelessly missing a 30 inch putt. In the 72 holes I shot 58 bogeys, 11 birdies, and three holes one over bogey. In the last round I had 18 successive bogeys for 73. Although putting well in the last round, I could not get my irons close enough for a birdie putt. One Stroke Lead After 36 holes, Hutchinson had one stroke lead over me, 141 to 142. Hitchcock, 143 Verwey. Henning and Brookes all with 144, followed close behind. At this stage with five of us bunched so close together, most thought there would be another close finish, possibly a tie.