Seeded Draw Would Benefit Golf

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30284, 9 November 1963, Page 9

Seeded Draw Would Benefit Golf

AT the national golf championships at Wanganui early in October, the defending amateur champion, S. G. Jones, was beaten in the third round by Canterbury’s R. C. Murray. At Shirley in the Labour weekend Canterbury championships, easily the finest match was between the eventual winner, K. D. Foxton, and R. E. Clements in the second round. It seems that in events where the title is decided by match play following qualifying rounds, serious consideration might well be given to changing the system where players are automatically positioned in the match play draw according to their qualifying position. At Wanganui it was unfortunate that Jones should meet a fellow New Zealand representative at a relatively early stage, for this match could have provided a worthy final. In only the second round the New Zealand representative, T. S. Leech, beat his fellow tourist P. K. Creighton, and another 1963 representative, B. T. Boys, could not survive the first round, when he was beaten by 1. S. Harvey.

At Shirley, Foxton beat Clements 3 and 2 and was three under at the finish. Clements out in 34—they had five birdies and an eagle between them in the first nine—was still one under when he lost. The semi-finals and final did not approach this standard. The cut and thrust of match play is particularly appealing to many spectators and such events are comparatively infrequent. The system followed by most sports of seeding the draw would result in most feature matches being played during the closing stages, when galleries are largest, and interest at its peak.