Young Players Meet In Golf Final

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30886, 20 October 1965, Page 23

Young Players Meet In Golf Final

(New Zealand Press Association)

WANGANUI.

Two young golfers, Miss Helen Booth, of Poverty Bay, and Miss Gillian Taylor, of New Plymouth, will meet today in the 36-hole final of the New Zealand women’s match*play championship.

In the semi-finals yesterday, Miss Booth caused a surprise by fighting back from three down at the 13th to beat the strokeplay champion, Miss Jane Butler (North Shore) on the eighteenth green with an Bft. putt for a birdie.

Miss Butler’s putt for a birdie had finished six inches from the cup.

Miss Taylor scored two fine victories yesterday. She beat Mrs B. G. Middleton (Matamata), 6 and 5, and Miss U. K. Wickham (Tauranga), 4 and 3.

She played sub-par golf all day and on that form must be considered a distinct threat to Miss Booth today. Sank 25ft Putt Miss Booth was out in 39 against Miss Butler, to be one down, and Miss Butler won the tenth with a three to a four and the eleventh when she sank a 25-foot putt for a birdie four. The twelfth was halved, and Miss Booth started her revival at the thirteenth with a birdie four. When Miss Butler hit a poor tee shot at the fifteenth. Miss Booth sank a 12-ft putt for another birdie. By now Miss Butler was a worried golfer, and at the seventeenth she pushed her second into a bunker, and although her 30-ft putt finished only one inch short. Miss Booth won the hole and squared the match. Chipped Past Hole

At the eighteenth the pressure was really on. Both girls were just short of the green with their seconds, but Miss Butler chipped past the hole and could not sink the return putt.

Miss Taylor was two up at the turn jn her semi-final against Miss Wickham, going out brilliantly in 35 (one under par). She increased her lead at the tenth when Miss Wickham lost a stroke, but the Tauranga player stayed in the game when she won back a hole at the thirteenth. However, Miss Taylor took

the next two holes and the match finished at the fifteenth. Results:—

Quarter-finals. —Miss J. Butler (North Shore) beat Miss S. Grigg (Christchurch), 3 and 2: Miss H. Booth (Poverty Bay) beat Mrs H. Robinson (Tokoroa), 3 and 2; Miss U. K. Wickham (Tauranga) beat Mrs J. Mangan (Manawatu), 2 up: Miss G. Taylor (New Plymouth) beat Mrs B. G. Middleton (Matamata), 6 and 5.

Semi-finals.—Booth beat Butler. 1 up: Taylor beat Wickham, 4 and 3.

Plate.—Quarter-finals: Mrs J. F. Farley (Wanganui) beat Mrs K. C. Millward (Wanganui). 4 and 3; Miss M. Winterburn (Otaki) beat Miss B. Stafford (Timaru), 4 and S; Miss J. Hanratty (Hutt) 1-eat Miss M. M. McKay at nineteenth: Mrs N. D. Cullen (Invercargill) beat Miss P. A. Wilson (Paraparaumu), 2 up. Semifinals: Winterburn beat Farley, 3 and 2; Hanratty beat Cullen, 1 up.