Russell Grace Golf Auckland, Thames Valley Game May Decide

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30452, 28 May 1964, Page 5

Russell Grace Golf Auckland, Thames Valley Game May Decide

C' Several teams retained a positive interest in the Russell orace cup contest being played at Shirley, but everything to this afternoon’s meeting of Auckland and Thames alley-Bay of Plenty being the deciding game.

These teams led after the first day’s play, but yesterday Thames Valley, with two fine victories, established a two-point lead over Auckland, the present holder.

Their nearest challengers are Waikato-King Country and Wellington, which followed Auckland at one-point intervals. The winner of the tournament is the team with the best average when individual successes are divided by the number of matches played—with 13 teams entered, there are byes. The points scored so far, with the matches played in parenthesis, are: Thames Val-ley-Bay of Plenty (4) 20; Auckland (4) 18; WaikatoKing Country (4) 17; Wellington (4) 16: South Canterbury (4) 13: ManawatuWanganui (4) 12$; Otago (4) 10$; Canterbury (4) 10$; Northland (3) 9s; Taranaki (3) ss; Nelson-West CoastMarlborough (4) 5; Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay (3) 4; Southland (3) 2s. Held Bold Shot Although there was a penetrating easterly wind, conditions for play yesterday were excellent. The greens held the bold approach shot safely, and if recent rain stretched out the fairways a little, there were true surfaces for putting, an art in which women golfers sometimes seem to have reached a considerably higher standard than men. The women’s touch is not always in the home. The former national champion, Miss U. Wickham, top woman for the top team, was again a dominating figure. She was one under scratch when she disposed of Mrs N. D. Cullen (Southland) in the morning. But she had a struggle on her hands in the afternoon. Miss Wickham had not been required to go beyond the thirteenth green in her first three matches, but Miss P. Harrison (Waikato-King Country) put an end to that. This was a fine match, full of good, brave strokes. New Zealand’s Misfortune Miss Wickham again showed mastery of all her clubs, and her performances yesterday underlined New Zealand’s misfortune in not haying her available for the world amateur championship in France. But Miss Harrison, one of the 11 players from whom the team will be selected, must have Improved her prospects of winning a place. Miss Harrison is a strong and resourceful golfer, and has courage to match her skill. There were some magnificent passages in the match. There was a half in birdies at the third, and a birdie at the fourth by Miss Wickham. They were square, and scratch, at the turn. Then Miss Harrison, with two

superb blows, reached the edge of the tenth green and she chipped safely for her birdie. The eleventh hole was something of a scramble, with Miss Wickham’s modest five winning the hole. Birdie Beat Bogey After that, It was’ shot for shot to the long sixteenth, where Miss Harrison was bunkered with her third and Miss Wickham through to the back of the green. Miss Harrison struggled out, but calmly holed a 35-foot putt for her five. Miss Wickham, from 30 feet away, took out her wedge, made a swift assessment of the line, and chipped in for her birdie. It wae a thrust to upset the most detached sort of player, and it was not surprising that Miss Harrison, at the seventeenth, hit her second into the creek. There was another particularly good game between familiar rivals, Miss S. Grigg (Canterbury) and Miss B. Stafford (South Canterbury). The match was marked by the brilliance of some of Miss Stafford’s recoveries, and the almost flawless golf Miss Grigg played from the fourth to the fourteenth, where she only twice dropped strokes—and one of those was when she had two putts for a win from a comfortable distance. Splendid Recovery Miss Grigg was two down after three, but recovered splendidly and was two up until Miss Stafford, at the twelfth, played a lovely floating shot Into the tightly-bunkered green and had a putt of only two feet for her birdie. At the fourteenth, Miss Grigg played a magnificent second wood to within nine feet of the hole but Miss Stafford all but holed her recovery from a greenside bunker. Miss Stafford’s great chance was at the short fifteenth, where Miss Grigg was In a bunker; but Miss Stafford three-putted.

She was dormie two down but won the seventeenth, and at the last hole, where she desperately needed a birdie, she played a grand chip which threatened the hole. The young Auckland girl, Miss J. Butler, gave two more good displays in winning her games, and another strong candidate for the New Zealand team, Mrs J. Mangin, had victories over two other members of the squad —Miss D. Peters, of WaikatoKing Country, and Miss N. White, of Auckland. Spectacular Start She is playing sound golf, and her only loss so far has been to Miss Harrison. She started against Miss White most spectacularly —three birdies in four holes Canterbury had another day of moderate success—a half with Taranaki and a narrow loss to South Canterbury which was achieved, in the end, with a fine 20-foot putt Mrs T. G. Lister holed on the eighteenth to halve with Miss L. Hillis. But South Canterbury, which yesterday scored more points than any team save Thames Valley-Bay of Plenty, was also well served by Mrs T. G. Hayman. After two very narrow losses on the first day, Mrs Hayman yesterday twice won on the twelfth green. After being away from golf for two years she has reduced, since February, to a handicap of three, and her soundlyconstructed game should take her further yet. Handy Lead Of 9 Up But whatever her success, it hardly compared with that of Miss D. Foster (Auckland), who, in her afternoon match, arrived at the tenth tee with a handy lead of nine holes. Another in the national squad who distinguished herself was Miss H. Booth (Thames ValleyBay of Plenty), who played splendidly to record two big wins. And there, were others of particular interest—Miss M. Beverley, the former national tennis champion; Mrs J. P. Hornabrook. wife of a former amateur golf champion, and Mrs J. Mullany, an engaging personality whose father, Kapl Tareha, a prodigious hitter, was the leading amateur in the 1927 open, and whose grandfather, Kurepo Tareha, won the amateur in 1903.