R. J. Charles Says... 16th Everyone’s Bogy

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31542, 2 December 1967, Page 14

R. J. Charles Says... 16th Everyone’s Bogy

The sixteenth at Russley, which is proving the downfall of so many golfers in the Wills Masters, is one of the best holes on the course. The hole does favour the right-hander more than the left-hander as you have to move the ball from right to left A good tee shot well placed, must be followed by a good second, and from then on the hole is no problem. Even after a good tee shot, the second is perhaps the most important shot on the hole as there is the out of bounds on the right and

plenty of trouble on the left. Once two successful shots have been played and the hazards avoided, it requires only a short pitch and a potential birdie is on. I just try to hit two good shots down the fairway and in both rounds I have scored birdie fours. But yesterday’s four could easily have been a six.

My tee shot caught some trees and I had to play two 4-irons, the second landing only 3ft from the hole. Tim Woolbank was not so fortunate.

The hole proved his downfall. After 33 holes we were tied at the head of the field, but the sixteenth got up and grabbed Tim somehow and virtually wrecked his chances of repeating last year’s fine win in this tournament.

Thanks to my inward nine of 32 I have taken a onestroke lead on the field. I’ll be flat out today to score my first tournament win in Christchurch since my amateur days. Yesterday; I hit some bad irons in the first nine holes —at the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth in particular—and these cost me strokes. But my play to the greens was much better coming home and at the fourteenth, I sank my longest putt of the tournament—a 25 footer. I had good birdie chances on the last two holes but couldn’t quite make the putts. There is not a big gap among the first nine golfers and any of this group, from 137 to 142 inclusive, could win the tournament. I still think a score of around 276 will be sufficient, although continued fine weather could produce some really low rounds today. It is good to see Frank Malloy and John Lister, two New

Zealanders, doing so well; they seem to be improving with every tournament on this circuit. Among those on 142 are Kel Nagle and Guy Wolstenholme. Neither can be discounted as they are quite capable of getting “hot” and scoring sufficiently well to take the lead. The biggest disappointment of the tournament is Bob Stanton. Stanton on a total of 149 after two rounds finds himself 12 shots behind and with little chance of sharing in the major prize money. Today should be an exciting day, especially if the weather remains kind. There have been some doubts in my mind during this circuit whether we were actually playing summer golf, such has been the damp conditions, but Christchurch has turned it on for the Wills and Russley is in tremendous condition.