S. AFRICAN TOLD HE CAN PLAY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30602, 19 November 1964, Page 19

S. AFRICAN TOLD HE CAN PLAY

There was general satisfaction among competitors in the New Zealand Open golf championship at Shirley that the South African professional, D. Hutchinson, would be allowed to compete in the tournament.

Earlier, the New Zealand Golf Council had ruled that as no entry for Hutchinson had been made for the Open, he would not be allowed to play.

Yesterday morning members of the New Zealand Pro-

fessional Golf Association’s committee approached officials of the Christchurch Golf Club, with a request that the New Zealand Council be asked to reconsider the matter.

Before a eall could be put through to Wellington, the council rang to say that in view of the special circumstances. Hutchinson would be allowed to compete. The secretary of the P.G.A. (Mr N. D. Hayden) said his association welcomed the decision which, in the circumstances, was a sensible one. He said that as in the past the Golf Association was to be commended for the way it handled entries. In the Hutchinson case, the association had acted wisely and properly. Mr Hayden said that to some extent he felt it might have been an error of omission in his own office which had led to Hutchinson’s entry not being received.

Hutchinson asked his sponsoring firm in New Zealand to enter him for all the tournaments on the circuit, but a separate entry was required for the Open, and it was not received by the council. Mr Hayden said it was wise to have fixed closing dates for entries, and to keep, in normal circumstances, to the rules governing them. Otherwise accommodation, printing and travel arrangements would be badly disorganised.