Brown Facing Strong Opposition In Golf

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32127, 24 October 1969, Page 13

Brown Facing Strong Opposition In Golf

The 1969 New Zealand golf representative, G. D. Brown (Balclutha), will make a strong bid to add the Canterbury amateur title to his list of successes when the provincial matchplay championship is held over three days at Shirley this week-end.

Brown’s chances will be enhanced by the absence of two leading Canterbury players, J. R. Broadhurst and E. H. M. Richards, both of whom have domestic commitments to fulfil.

Broadhurst unbeaten in both the Greyberg Rose Bowl and Woodward Cup contests this year, and winner of the Tempelton Open last Sunday, would have been hard to beat.i In recent open tournaments Richards has hit the ball impressively and both he and Broadhurst were likely semifinalists, at least Richards beat Brown in the title final five years ago. The defending champion. R. K. Atkinson (Russley), will not be perturbed by the presence of Brown in the field. An excellent match-play golfer, Atkinson showed that he had lost none of his capabilities in winning the Russley club title recently.

Last year’s runner-up, J. F.| Logie (Russley) has not: played much golf in recent weeks, but cannut be discounted as a title prospect. But the strongest challenge tt Atkinson and Brown will come from R. M. Farrant (Waittkiri), who has been in the first three in the last four open tournaments, retained the Waitikiri title, and finished third in the South Island championship. At Shirley last year, he won the Bledisloe Cup as the leading amateur in the New Zealand Open.

D. L. Beggs (Rangiora), B. ,C. Taylor (Russley) and the I Christchurch pair. M. R. Blank and I. D. Dobson, should be prominent, and two of the three players who finished equal in the under-21 championship earlier this year, B. D. Petherick (Russley) and

W. L. Maw (Timaru), will relish the chance of proving themselves in higher company.

The players most capable of causing an upset will be the 18-year-old G. L. Titmus (Templeton)—who beat Brown and his fellow national representative, G. E. Clarke, on the way to winning the South Island title—and the top Combined Services players, T. F. Wereta and W. L. Poka. Only Farrant and Broadhurst finished ahead of Poka among the Canterbury amateurs in last year’s New Zealand Open. The championships begin tomorrow with two qualifying rounds. Match play will start on Sunday, and the semifinals and final will be played otf Monday.