Miss Booth In Semi-Finals

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 9

Miss Booth In Semi-Finals

(NJL.PJL. Stag Correspondent) SYDNEY. The New Zealander, Miss H. Booth, yesterday qualified for today’s semi-finals of the Australian women’s golf championship with a 4 and 3 victory over Miss M. Gosse.

But New Zealand’s other quarter - finalist was eliminated. Miss Taylor was beaten, 3 and 2, by Miss D. Thomas.

Mrs Thomas, the leading qualifier in the stroke-play rounds at the start of the week, had an absorbing match with Miss Taylor. She recovered from three down after six holes to win five holes in succession against the New Zealand team captain. Today, Mrs Thomas will meet Mrs J. Perkins, the 1967 champion, who won her quarter-final, 3 and 2, against Miss B. Dalgleish with some superb putting. In the first semi-final, Miss Booth win play the former South African champion. Mrs I. Blumberg Mrs Thomas did not reproduce the sub-par golf she is capable of in her quarter-final match against Miss Taylor but she proved once again that she has a tremendous fighting spirit She began her recovery with a birdie at the seventh hole, sank a 16ft putt across a slope at the next, and squared the match with a five-footer at the ninth. Miss Taylor bad two-overs

at the next two holes for Mrs Thomas to lead two up, ami although the New Zealander had squared the match at the thirteenth hole, Mrs' Thomas's power, accuracy and finesse proved to much over the concluding stages. A superb birdie four at the fifteenth hole, when Mrs Thomas put her wedge to 3ft from the pin virtually sealed Miss Taylor’s fate.

Mrs Thomas’s morning round of four under par was equalled by Miss Booth in

her 5 and 4 success in the morning against Miss V. Gmeiner, <rf Western Australia. Miss Booth was far more at home on the greens and had two birdies and an eagle in the first four holes. Later, in her quarter-final match against the 1966 Canadian champion, Miss Gosse, she maintained her consistency with a one under par figure in winning 4 and 3. Miss Booth had successive birdies at the thirteenth and fourteenth, with 6ft and 16ft putts, and then finished the match with a par five at the fifteenth.

Miss Booth has not won a national championship of consequence but she will be a formidable rival in today's semi-finals.

Her opponent, Mrs Blumberg, twice South African champion, won her quarterfinal at the eighteenth when the former Australian international, Miss C. Blair, hooked her tee shot into the trees.