WOMEN GOLFERS IN FINE FORM

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 17

WOMEN GOLFERS IN FINE FORM

rpHERE can be nothing but admiration for the Canterbury women’s golf team’s performance in the Russell Grace Cup contest at Paraparaumu Beach last week. For this testing interprovincial contest, Canter bury selected a young team which was expected to acquit Itself quite well: at the finish it was runner-up to Auckland by a very narrow inargin. Auckland scored 23 wins and a half in its 30 individual matches, and Canterbury had 22 wins and a half. But the closeness of the contest can not even be measured accurately with those figures', of Canterbury’s seven lost games, no fewer than six went to the seventeenth or eighteenth greens. Had Just one of those close matches been won, Canterbury would have taken the trophy, for if there is a tie between teams, the side with the greater number of holes up is the winner. Although it had 23 wins to Canterbury’s 22, Auckland was 59 holes up when the tournament ended, and Canterbury 69 up.

Playing in the most difficult number one position, Miss S. Grigg began the tournament splendidly, beating Miss H. Booth (Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay). JMiss Booth is a member or the New Zealand team for the Commonwealth tournament in Canada later this year. Later Miss Grigg’s form declined,, but she finished the tournament with three wins. Miss C. Sullivan gave some splendid displays, and her only loss was a narrow one to Miss M. Winterburn (Wellington). Among her five victims was another New Zealand selection. Miss W. Bryant (Waikato-King Country). The most successful Canterbury player was Miss M. Ensor, who won all six of her games. Miss S. Boag, at number four, was regarded

as perhaps the best putter in the tournament. She had three runaway wins, one closer victory, and her two lost games both ended on the seventeenth.

Miss M. Doherty, playing at number five, had four wins and a half. She beat her Southland opponent at the thirteenth hole, and a Waikato - King Country player at the eleventh. Her only loss, to Mrs H. Donald, of Wellington, was only by a margin of one down. This was Miss Doherty’s first Russell Grace tournament. The experience she, and other members of the team, gained from this testing event, and the efforts made by the Canterbury women’s golf organisations to have their most promising players coached regularly, should provide the province with a very fine team for next year’s tournament