Canterbury Golfers Lose; Now Face Difficult Task

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30442, 16 May 1964, Page 10

Canterbury Golfers Lose; Now Face Difficult Task

(From Our Own Reporter) PALMERSTON NORTH, May 15. Golf lived up to its reputation of being, the most unpredictable of games on the second day of the Freyberg Rosebowl interprovincial tournament at Hokowhitu today.

By lunch the three leading teams, Hawke’s Bay, Canterbury and Otago, had all been beaten and Wellington had been held to a draw by lowly Bay of Plenty.

In the afternoon, Auckland lost for the second time in four rounds and the Hawkes Bay-Otago encounter ended in stalemate.

In the midst of falling heads and dented reputations, Manawatu-Wanganui—four of whose players are members of the host club—moved confidently into the lead, half a point clear of Canterbury and Taranaki-Central King Country.

It will require another series of spectacular upsets to thwart Manawatu-Wanganui’s Rose Bowl hopes, for its opponents tomorrow are Southland and the bottom side, Northland.

Manawatu-Wanganui showed considerable strength in its tail today. The three Palmerston North men in the numbers four to six positions, R. A. Mohekey, J. N. Andrews and R. Montgomery, all achieved two wins against their redoubtable Hawke’s Bay and Auckland opponents. J. G. Stern, the No. 1, was beaten twice but H. R. Carver (Wanganui) at No. 3, gained a win and a half to tip the scales in his team’s favour. Crowd Keen The fortunes of the team were followed by an excited gallery, liberally sprinkled with sporting personalities headed by D. D. Beard, M. E. Chapple, and R. H. Horsley. Canterbury lost its unbeaten record at the hands of an inspired Waikato side, but beat Bay of Plenty in the fourth round to finish the day with the most individual wins (15) by any team. / It faces a testing day tomorrow with Hawke’s Bay and Auckland as its opponents. Individual form continued to somersault today. The lanky Taupo assistant greenkeeper, T. S. Leech (Bay of Plenty) strengthened his standing as a national representative by beating the New Zealand title-holder, J. D. Durry (Wellington), and then the Canterbury captain, R. C. Murray. Both wins were obtained on the eighteenth green.

In the afternoon Durry could only halve with B. T. Boys (Waikato) and so faces the last day with only one win in four matches. P. A. Maude (Waikato), who is possibly the fastest player around the course, thrashed the fledgling international, P. K. Creighton (Wellington), 5 and 4, and another national representative, F. T. Gordon (Hawke’s Bay) was decisively beaten by A. R. Timms (Otago) and could only halve with the 53-year-old Wanganui veteran, B. M. Silk. Unexpected Loss

Canterbury’s loss to Waikato was possibly the most unexpected result of all. in view of the first day’s form of the two teams and Waikato’s subsequent loss. But the Waikato players rose to the occasion heroically when the pressure was on in the last few holes.

The most poignant moment of the tournament for Canterbury occurred when the accomplished No. 6 R. E. Clements, three-putted the eighteenth green after being in a winning position.

To score birdies at the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth and yet win only one hole was Clements’s fate. His youthful opponent, J. Page, gave nothing away and at the eighteenth attacked the hole with such earnestness that his win in bogey figures to halve the match was nothing less than be deserved.

The quality of the golf was best shown by the fact that

both Clements and Page were round in one under par. Played Better

T. E. Phahlert, one over par and one down at the turn, found that as well as played his opponent, F. J. Cullen, played better. K. D. Foxton seldom displayed his true capabilities and was soundly beaten, 4 and 2, by the energetic Maude. E. H. M. Richards, two up at the halfway stage, faded to loose by a hole to K. Haggle. It was left to Murray and I. S. Harvey to restore some of their side’s lost fortunes. Harvey, apart from a tendency to hurry some of his short putts, displayed good form to dispose of T. Ormsby. He hit the ball with the timing and power for which he is noted and placed himself well for his shots to the green. Murray was generally too sound for his New Zealand team-mate, B. T. Boys, the match terminating on the seventeenth green with a beautifully judged putt from 30ft by Murray. Sometimes Short Against Leech in the afternoon, Murray hit his drives and irons with decision and putted well on most occasions. But he was inclined to be short in his chipping. All square after seventeen holes, he boldly sought a win on the last green but his long first putt slid five feet past the hole and he missed the return putt to drop the game. Leech, with his flat top haircut and sloppy cardigan, looks nothing like the average man's conception of a golfer, but he

plays like a champion. His putting was consistently good and his Iron play excellent. At the short sixteenth he won a vital hole from Murray with a tee shot which landed eight Inches from the pin. Canterbury's man of the day was undoubtedly Clements, who played golf of a remarkably high standard throughout both rounds. He hit several tremendous drives of about 240 yards in the afternoon and his mastery over his irons was clearly demonstrated when he played a shot from the bottom of a 60 degree bank neatly through a three foot gap between the ground and the lowest branches of a tree to reach the green, four feet from the hole. He was two under par when his game finished on the fourteenth. Improved Later Pfahlert, who had one bad hole when he duffered his shot and then three-putted, went from strength to strength after the turn. He won four holes out of five and when he successfully putted from 25ft across a slanting green the end was in sight. Richards was tn fine form from tee to green but his putting was well astray. He hit the greens with monotonous regularity but could not finish off the good work. But he won comfortably enough, 3 and 2. Both Foxton and Harvey held advantages over thier opponents for much of the time but both had to be content with halves. Their general play, however, augured well for the important tasks which they will face today.