Strong Field For Centennial Golf At Hokitika

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 11

Strong Field For Centennial Golf At Hokitika

V INETY-NINE years ago 1 the roaring gold town of Hokitika was never short of sporting fare, even though the running and walking races had to be held in the streets and the biiliards and skittles played in the grog shanties. In recent years, however, the town has had to be content with one first-class Rugby match a season and occasional displays by representative axemen as the main departures from the usual run of inter-club sport. But 1965, the town’s centennial year, will open with an ambitious project designed to rescue Westland’s capital from the backwaters of the national sporting circuit. Mindful of the mounting popularity of golf, the enterprising Hokitika Golf Club, backed by the businessmen of the town, will hold a Centennial £5OO Open tournament on January 22 and 23 at the club’s Mahinapua links. The tournament

will be over 54 holes, starting on the Friday afternoon. In the quest for players to make the event memorable, the net has been cast wide. The club is endeavouring to obtain the gifted Australian professionals, E. W. Dunk, J. J. Sullivan and F. Phillips, who were second, fifth and sixth respectively in earnings on the New Zealand golf circuit, which ended last Saturday. It is hoped, too, that the leading New Zealand professionals, W. J. Godfrey, R. R. Newdick, F. X. Buckler and E. A. Southerden will be joined by Woody Kay, an A grade United States professional, and M. Roesink, a Dutch Canada Cup player. A £l2OO tournament is being held at Mount Maunganui on January 8 and 9, so it is possible that other noted professionals could compete at Mahinapua. Invitations have been sent to more than 70 well known amateurs.

The possibility of this battery of outstanding players competing will give the centennial tournament considerable standing. It will be the only other major tourney in the South Island this summer, apart from the New Zealand Open championship at Shirley last month. Mahinapua, venue of the tournament, is a links in the true sense of the word, for its western boundary is the Tasman Sea. When the club commenced activities in 1906 Mahinapua was a nine-hole course of uncultivated paddocks and there were acres of gorse and bracken and many water hazards offering discouragement to expansion. But evi-

dently the club had spirit and determination similar to that of its first president, the illustrious “King Dick” Seddon, for today three inches of soil cover the once bare sand, giving soft, springy turf over the perfect drainage that is necessary in an area with an annual rainfall of 100 inches. The course is not long by today’s standards—it is 5720 yards with a par of 71 —but the placing of the greens puts a premium on accurate approach shots. Playing the chip shot on Mahinapua can be decidedly difficult.

There will be considerable interest in seeing what length Phillips, for one, can obtain at a hole such as the 525 yards tenth. With the well-watered turf and the heavy sea air, few of the regular players on the links can reach this green in two shots.

The official links record is 69, held by M, Ewing, a former Christchurch man who has been a member of the Hokitika club for some years. But there is an unofficial mark of 68, which is shared by R. J. Charles, R, C. Murray, and P. Gutberlet, who is the full-time greenkeeper at Mahinapua. Hokitika can no longer boast of having a population of 12,000 or almost 100 hotels in the main street. But it retains a strong civic pride, which is amply reflected in the centennial golf tournament. The club has organised the tournament and the businessmen of the town are sponsoring it. As such it is certain to be a community rather than just a golf club effort.