13 LINKS LOST IN 26 YEARS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30413, 11 April 1964, Page 10

13 LINKS LOST IN 26 YEARS

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, April 10.

Golf course “grabbing” by town planning bodies and local authorities was deplored by Mr D. O. Whyte at the New Zealand Golf Association’s annual meeting yesterday.

“They think they can take courses willy nilly without providing any substitutes,” said Mr Whyte. “We must be more vociferous in resisting this.” Mr Whyte said that since 1938 Wellington had lost 13 golf courses, and the remaining clubs now had waiting lists—some of them substantial. Urging the association to place the cause of golf more strongly before municipal authorities, Mr Whyte said the authorities must be made to realise that golf courses were a public amenity—open spaces where people could enjoy recreation. “We should urge local bodies to establish more

municipal courses,” he declared. “They provide football grounds. Why should they not assist a game as healthy as golf?” The increase in golf club membership was only a fraction of what it would be if there were more clubs and courses. “We have the New Zealand Golf Foundation teaching boys and girls to play, but when they reach golf club age they cannot get in,” he said. “I think some enthusiastic and public-spirited members in clubs might put some effort into building new courses and founding new clubs. We desperately need them.”