GOLF ON THE FAR EAST CIRCUIT

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31416, 8 July 1967, Page 11

GOLF ON THE FAR EAST CIRCUIT

11

J. M. Lister]

SPHERE are hardly any golf tournaments in which the competition is not strong. At Taipei, the capital of Formosa, the competition seemed to be so much stronger, because there did not appear to be any bad Chinese golfers. The course, too, was a testing one; ponds were dotted about here and there and some of them came into play when the wind blew. The eighth hole, a par three of 190 yards—usually played into the wind—was one of them. It had a large pond srtetching for about 50 yards directly in front of the green, with sand traps bristling along the front Most players were very happy to get past this one with a par. The sixteenth hole, played safe, did not present any difficulties. But with a tail wind, it was tempting to try to reach the green at this 325 yd dog-leg right hole with a big drive over the trees. The trees on the right, however, were out of bounds and a hooked shot was almost certain to find a pond at the end of the fairway. One of the highlights of the tournament was when Haruo Yasuda drove this green with a No. 3 wood, the ball actually pitching on the green. From the cooler temperatures of Hong Kong and Formosa we went to the hottest place on the circuit, Calcutta. The temperature ranged from 100 to 105 degrees every day we were there. There were only 25 overseas professionals playing in the tournament and about 20 resident professionals and about 30 caddies and assistants. At most of the main centres there is a tournament for the caddies and the leading few in each place are allowed to play in the Indian Open. My first two rounds were played with Peter Thomson, and I feel that these rounds

were more beneficial to me than any other rounds on the circuit His assessment of the position before each shot is superior to that of any other golfer I have played with. The Calcutta course was in excellent condition, but all the fairways had been watered where the club thought the drives would be pitching. But officials had to water another 40 yards of fairway, as everyone was driving over the watered patches and the bails were running for great distances. One thing that amused me was the eastern clubs’ dislike at having their courses “burnt up.” They do all sorts of things to make the scores higher, such as leaving the greens rock-hard, watering just in front of them and placing the pins near the front. The tournament was won by Kenzi Hosoishi, who beat Malcolm Gregson at the third hole in a sudden death play-off. I played quite well here, and after three rounds I was in ninth place with Hosoishi. Alas, in the last round I had bad trouble at the fourth and fifth holes, finished with an 80, and slipped to thirteenth place. The water holes, or tanks as they are called, are recognised as water hazards. The sixteenth hole is known as “Thomson’s Tank,” because two years ago Peter Thomson hit his ball into the water when leading the field. He grounded his club, took a five, and lost the tournament. From Calcutta we flew to London, and experienced a steep drop in temperature. The first tournament was played at Hunstanton, which is on the east coast, near the Wash. The course was one of the tightest I have seen. There were no trees,

but the fairways were lined by foot-high bush rough. There are so many players eager to compete in tournaments in England that pre-qualifying rounds have to be held. For a start there are about 200 players fighting for 70 places in the tournament. Only 40 of this number survive the cut after two rounds of the tournament proper. I bad to take part in the pre-qualifying round for the tournament at a course 16 miles from Hunstanton, and my score was 77, which missed the qualifying limit by three strokes. So I packed my bags and left for the next tournament.