Superb golf in amateur final of 1950

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31769, 28 August 1968, Page 15

Superb golf in amateur final of 1950

'THE death In Dunedin last week of Mr A. Gibbs will recall to Christchurch golfers one of the finest finals in the long history of the New Zealand amateur championship, at Shirley in 1950.

D. L. Woon beat Gibbs in this dramatic match—dramatic more for the quality of the golf than for its finish, for Woon won the 36hole game, 9 and 7, to take his first national title.

The preliminaries to this remarkable match were in themselves remarkable. Wood was the leading amateur in the Open at Shirley that year, a man of immense power, in hitting length and in recoveries. In contrast with Woon’s spectacular personality and methods, Gibbs was self-effacing, a stylist, and immaculate in appearance, without the flamboyance of his opponent But he had won the amateur two years earlier. Their progress to the final was marked by splendid golf. Gibbs in the first round beat H. A. Black of Miramar, and had another comfortable victory over W. E. Jones; comfortable, because he had a birdie at the ninth hole, and five more in the next six—all achieved in the calm and modest manner of the man Gibbs had par figures in his third-

round win over A. R. Kitto, and he was one under the card in defeating the titleholder, J. Holden, in the semi-final. Woon went to the final with a series of flourishes. In the first round he beat the then little-known S. G. Jones, 5 and 4. He then met the Wellington man with the croquet-hoop putting stance, W. G. Horne. The game lasted 14 holes. Woon had 14 birdie putts, sank five of them and Home, playing to scratch, was twice stymied—venerable phrase —and lost, 6 and 4. On the

second-last day Woon’s victims were B. M. Silk and J. P. Hornabrook —New Zealand golf’s Hobbs and Sutcliffe of the day. It took Woon 16 holes to dispose of Silk, but he was four under par in beating Hornabrook, 5 and 4. In the final, Gibbs played superb golf, and he was two under the card at lunch. But he was four down. Woon’s magnificent play that day would have defeated almost anyone. He was five under in the morning round, although he dropped two shots at the seventeenth. After the first 15 holes, he was seven under the card—a blistering pace, which even Gibbs, for all his outward calm and re-laxed-looking methods, could not match. Spectators recall the superb golf of Gibbs at the long sixteenth, where a fine drive put him little short of the creek. He had . a good lie, and after deliberation chose his driver again. I He finished two feet from | the green. Then his chip for an eagle died on the edge of the hole. But nothing could stop Woon defeating his fourth former title-holder in succession. His burst of three successive birdies after the turn in the morning more or less settled the issue. Gibbs won the amateur only once. Against a lesser opponent in 1950, he would have taken the title a second time. But he will be remembered as' an extremely fine player and personality.