Miss Ensor is rich in golfing talent

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31975, 30 April 1969, Page 11

Miss Ensor is rich in golfing talent

■pOR many years the x redoubtable All Black prop, A. E. Hopkinson, has been the pride of Cheviot but in the new Canterbury women's golf champion, slim, auburn-haired. Miss Mary Ensor, the small North Canterbury town now has another sporting idol. Since being taken under the wing of the Waitikiri professional. Mr B. Sharp, 18 months ago. Miss Ensor’s rich golfing talent has blossomed. She reached maturity when she won her first Canterbury match-play title on her old home course. Shirley, recently.

Miss Ensor is a former New Zealand junior women’s champion and in 1967 won the Dominion foursomes crown, also at Shirley, with the powerful hitting Wellington lawyer. Miss J. Hanratty. But it was her complete superiority in winning the Canterbury 54-hole and match-play titles this month that stamped her as a player capable of capturing either the New Zealand match-play or stroke championships at New Plymouth in October.

Last year at Bridge Pa, Hastings, Miss Ensor revelled in match-play conditions. She distinguished herself in beating the top Australian Tasman Cup player, Miss B. Dalgleish, 2 and 1, in the quarter-finals and later took another Australian, Miss J. Kerr, to the eighteenth hole before accepting defeat. Cheviot can safely claim her as one of its products. She spent most of her childhood there on the family farm and under the watchful eye of her mother, a noted player. Miss Ensor made her first tentative swings of a golf ciub.

“I did not have a chance to escape actually,” she recalled. “But I was not forced. With my mother’s clubs lying about it was natural that I should try the game.” Victory In the 54-hole tourney secured Miss Ensor’s first Canterbury senior title and the excellence of her play on the final day made it a memorable occasion.

Her magnificent three under part last round of 71 broke the women's record at Waitikiri by one stroke, and enabled her to win by the awesome margin of 11 strokes.

This performance made her the favourite to win the more important match-play title for the first time and she rarely faltered. Apart from two moments of anguish in her trying semifinal with Miss Hanratty, when she was forced to concede the first and ninth holes, after absent-mindedly cleaning her ball on the

green once more than the rules allow, she looked a champion. In spite of her lapses it was Miss Ensor's greater consistency that cleared the major hurdle provided by Miss Hanratty, who had eliminated her at the same stage in 1967. In the final against Miss S. Boag she applied pressure on the last nine holes giving her struggling opponent little chance to get into the match. Miss Ensor, who will be making her sixth successive appearance at the national

Russell Grace tournament in Ashburton next week, was a little diffident about assessing Canterbury’s chances but she did concede that the team’s playing knowledge of the course would be an initial advantage.

Canterbury has not won the tournament since 1953 but when Canterbury almost snatched victory in 1967, Miss Ensor played a leading role. She won ail her six matches—a rare feat. Soon after the tourney finished the 24-year-old Miss Ensor went to Australia, largely for a holiday, but she returned home with an enhanced golfing reputation. She began modestly by qualifying for the New South Wales championships but the conditions further west seemed to suit her better.

She was a finalist in the Victorian championships and then played extremely well in Adelaide to reach the semi-finals of the Australian match-play event Miss Ensor was unlucky to be beaten at the ninteenth hole by Mrs J. Perkins but earlier accounted for a former champion, Miss M. Bishop, 2 and 1.

Until she left boarding school. Miss Ensor's golf

was limited to school holidays and week-ends and now it is even more restricted. Work usually prevents her from playing except at week-ends. Because of this Miss Ensor is grateful for the correct early tuition received from her mother.

“So many players spend unnecessary time trying to eradicate faults developed when young," she said. “My mother taught me the correct grip and swing but apart from that 1 have had very little coaching until the last 18 months."

She is not a big hitter but a very full swing enables her to drive long distances. Miss Ensor’s main weapons in winning the Canterbury titles were almost uncanny accuracy with her irons and splendid touch on the greens.

The possibility of eventually playing professionally has no attraction for Miss Ensor.

"1 enjoy playing golf but I have no wish to make it the beginning and end of everything."