GOLF SPECTACULARS AT WAITIKIRI Murray, Barltrop final for amateur title

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33035, 30 September 1972, Page 46

GOLF SPECTACULARS AT WAITIKIRI Murray, Barltrop final for amateur title

(By

R. T. BRITTEN DEN)

R. C. Murray 7 of Timaru, and R. M. Barltrop, of Miramar, will contest the final of the New Zealand amateur golf championship at Waitikiri today. The foundations on which they built their way into the final suggest strongly that it will be a magnificent match.

It would be difficult to fault either after yesterday’s play. But whereas Murray was immaculate from tee to green and putted soundly, Barltrop had his worry ing moments with his irons, but putted with a magic touch.

For the first time the weather stayed settled all day, and with the course in magnificent order the quarter-and semi-final matches produced golf of highly exciting quality.

One spectator declared, tn fact, that it was better than television; certainly there could have been nothing more thrilling than Baritrop’s semi-final with D. N. Turner.

The setting matched performance, but the stage crew had its problems, for frost delayed the mowing, and four teams of frantic workers preceded the players.

Hagar away first The first telling blow of the day was struck by J. M. Hagar, the young Wellington player, and the only one of the quarter-finalists to practise after play the previous evening. He had been worried by a tendency to cut his drives; and there was little Mt of this fault yesterday. He took the first hole from Murray and the very popular Hagar—he has a broad smile and a fetching way with galleries — looked likely to give Murray a very stem tussle. The weight of history was on Murray's shoulders — although on overseas performances he has been New Zealand’s best player of recent years, he had reached only one amateur final — but before long it was he who held control.

He was square after four, and took the lead in extraordinary circumstances at the fifth. He was lining up a putt of 20 feet for a birdie when the cathedral quiet of the crowd was broken by the merry laughter of two young women who crossed behind the gallery from the Prestons Road car park, one carrying dubs, the other pulling a trundler. Murray stood aside. Happy ending He bent over his putt again, and there was another peal of laughter from the women, both of them quite unaware of the audience and the drama it was watching. “Perhaps they would like to make up a four-oall,” said Murray, smilingly, as he stood up again. And to his eternal credit, he sank his putt, at the third attempt.

Murray was in tremendous form, with his quips as well as his clubs. At the seventh, his approach shot was hit firmly on the head. It skidded and ran, skidded and ran for some 140 yards and finished 18 feet behind the pin. “Anyone can over-club sometimes,” Murray observed. All hard work

If his remarks reflected the cheerful and sporting spirit in which the match was played, it was all application, from both the principals. Murray went two ahead with a birdie from six feet at the eighth, survived his nightmare ninth, and really won control, most unexpectedly, at the tenth.

There, Hagar out-drove him, played far the better second, and was on the green. Murray played a difficult pitch finely, but Hagar’s eagle putt from 30 feet looked a beauty. It hit the hole, bounced forward, and he missed the little return putt. So Murray had a win instead of a loss, and birdies at 13 and 14 put him four up. Hagar, after the turn, seemed to suffer from his loo.sewristed action, but he fought back most courageously, winning 15 and 16.

And a memorably delicate chip to the top of the hill

from behind the seventeenth green, all but kept the match alive, for the ball finished two inches behind the hole. Murray was one under when the game ended.

The lively, young T. Pulman gave E. H. Richards a good battle. Pulman, slight of frame but a vigorous hitter, was two up after six. Thereafter, he did not putt with the certainty and skill he had displayed earlier in the week. "My putter has gone sour on me,” he exclaimed dolefully; and he needed its assistance, for Richards was only one over when the game ended. Richards’s driving was erratic, but again the outstanding quality of his irons held his game firmly together. Pulman was a little unlucky, lipping his putts at 16 and 17 when he urgently needed wins.

The match between Barltrop and J. G. Mackay of St Clair was the most thrilling of the week. On the way out, they made mistakes, but Barltrop made fewer and led by three. Then began one of the most dramatic duels Waitikiri has known.

Birdie not enough Barltrop was on the long tenth in two and had his birdie; Mackay holed a 10-footer for the half. The eleventh was played magnificently, Barltrop holing a birdie putt from six feet, Mackay halving from three feet.

At the short twelfth, Mackay thrilled the growing gallery by scoring a 2 from 25 feet. Barltrop, the best putter at the tournament, sank his from 15 feet. Mackay must have wondered what he had to do to win a hole. At the thirteenth (503 yards) two great shots put him six feet from the pin, and Barltrop was not on the green. But Barltrop chipped up and sank his putt from five feet; Mackay narrowly missed with his eagle putt, and so they halved in birdies for the fourth successive hole.

At the quaint fourteenth, it was Barltrop again, from about six feet. Mackay was through the green, and had a 30-foot chip. It was a wonderful shot, the ball hitting the hole squarely, but going forward just an inch or two.

Kept his “cool” Turner deservedly beat G. E. Clarke, the third of the New Zealand team to be defeated, but it was another fine game. Turner played relaxed-looking golf. He has a beautifully easy swing, and under the most severe pressure, its rhythm was sustained. Clarke had flashes of brilliance, but was a worried man when the putter came out of the bag. Turner was one up at the turn, and lost the tenth to a great eagle 3, from eight feet. But Turner birdied the next two, and the turning point was at the sixteenth, where Clarke missed a putt of three feet. Clarke had chances at the last two holes, but could not quite take them.

After his splendid efforts in the earlier rounds, it was sad to see Richards’s game disintegrate as it did against Murray. His drives took him into trouble quite often, he holed only a few useful putts, and his long irons, so rich an asset earlier, were of only moderate quality. He hit some good ones, but not nearly enough to check Murray’s advance. Long winning run Murray won every hole from the fifth to the tenth, inclusive, with immaculate golf. Although Murray could not get more than one or two significant putts into the hole, he was two under when the game ended. He found every green in the first nine, and with a better putting touch might have had an incredible score. There was not much hint,

in the early stages, that Barltrop and Turner were to turn on so spectacular a match. Baritrop’s putter won the day. He had one-putt pars at the first three holes, and his only lapse was at the fourth where he three-putted for his 5 and had only a half. After that, it was spectacular indeed. Barltrop chipped in for his three at the fifth, had an eagle at the sixth with a 2-iron and a 4-iron, both perfect shots, and an eight foot putt. He holed out from 20 feet at the eighth for a birdie, and Turner halved from eight feet. Under pressure So at the turn Barltrop was three under, two up, and had only 11 putts; Turner was one under the card—and distinctly under pressure. Although Baritrop’s putting was absolutely wonderful, he hit some splendid tee shots and irons. Turner could have been forgiven had he wilted under this strain, but even the remarkable events at the eleventh left him outwardly unshaken. There, Barltrop had a poor drive, a wretched second, and a third which put him 60 yards through the green. His pitch back fetched up just short of the green. But in went a curling 18-foot downhill putt for his par and the half.

Moments later, he holed an eight-footer for a birdie at the twelfth, and although Turner hit back with a birdie at the fourteenth, Barltrop made no more errors. Turner was unfortunate at the seventeenth, where a long birdie putt lipped, but Barltrop was a great winner: five under and 23 putts for the 17 holes.

So, to the 36-hole final: Murray and Barltrop will undoubtedly combine to give a week of great golf a fitting finale.