Golf Rep. To Quit

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32213, 4 February 1970, Page 21

Golf Rep. To Quit

"The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND. The former New Zealand amateur golf champion, B. A. Stevens, of Auckland, has decided to retire from representative golf for personal and business reasons.

“I’ll still play in tournaments, and that sort of thing, of a local nature,” said Stevens yesterday. “But this will depend on the amount of time I have available.

“To put it mildly, I’m thinking of the future. I really haven’t the time to put into golf which is necessary to compete with top amateurs in the country. “Business commitments are not allowing me the time to put into golf,” he said. “It is only representative golf that I am retiring from.” However, Stevens still hopes to play in major tournaments.

Stevens’s record is impressive; he was the South Auckland champion in 1964, 1965 and 1966, the St Andrews club champion in 1965; he won the New Zealand plate and was the Auckland stroke play champion in 1966. In 1967, he was the Titirangi club champion and the Auckland champion of champions. He won the Kaipara open in 1965, 1966 and 1968. Stevens won the New Zealand amateur title in 1968, and was the top qualifier in last year’s amateur. He represented New Zealand in the Eisenhower trophy contest in Mexico in 1966 and In Melbourne in 1968. He also played for his country in the Commonwealth tournament in Canada in 1967 and in the Sloan Morpeth contest at Adelaide in 1969.

Pro. Appointed Taranaki’s largest golf club, the New Plymouth club, has appointed a resident professional for the first time since the Second World War. He is Mr A Robb, who has been professional at the Cambridge club for the last two years.