TASMAN CUP TEAMS READY FOR FRAY

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 20

TASMAN CUP TEAMS READY FOR FRAY

(By

R. T. BRITTENDEN)

“We brought the cup over, and we would very much like to take it back with us,” said the captain of the Australian Tasman Cup golf team. Miss H. Hawkswood, at Shirley yesterday, as preparations for the international with New Zealand were completed.

Miss Hawkswood said the best Australian team was at Shirley, even though the three members of the side for the recent world championships had not been chosen.

Selection was made after the Australian championships,on the basis that the

Tasman Cup was a matchplay and not a stroke-play event.

Shirley posed some problems, she said. It was necessary to be very accurate off the tee at almost every hole. But length did not seem to be a problem, the fifth being the only one which was really long. “It is surprising to see a course so green, yet yielding so much run,” Miss Hawkswood said. “And the greens are beautiful.” FOURSOMES TODAY

On Tuesday, the Australians played 18 holes of foursomes—the foursomes begin the two-day event this morning. On Wednesday, it was foursomes again, for 24 holes, and yesterday the Australian team wound up its practice by playing singles. Both teams are extremely young. One of the best-known Australians is Miss C. Blair, reserve for the Espirito Santo team. She is, at 32, an experienced player, and was in Christchurch, playing at Waitikiri, after the last Commonwealth tournament in New Zealand.

It was when she was playing in a Commonwealth event in Canada that she met one of her present teammates, Mrs H. Gosse. Mrs Gosse is FrenchCanadian, aged 26, and at the tender age of 15 she and her partner won the national teams’ event. TOP AUST. JUNIOR Miss V. Jellis, the present Australian junior champion, played in New Plymouth early this year for the New South Wales juniors against New Zealand. She is only 18, and Miss P. Pulz is but a year her senior. The fifth player is Miss G. Flynn, aged 22 After four days of practice, the New Zealand team was in very good heart, for yesterday’s form was the most encouraging of the week. The captain, Mrs E. S. Nichol, of Invercargill, said the players were all hitting the ball well and they appeared to have solved their major problem, judging the pace of the greens. The new greens at Shirley, she said, were very fast. “It is going to be a good match, and it all boils down

to the putting,” she said, “it is probably a matter of who copes best with the greens.”

The New Zealand team is Mrs G. Bannan, Misses C. Sullivan, P. Dudding, S. Hamilton and M. Smith. Yesterday, Miss Sullivan and Mrs Bannan had four birdies, in their foursomes round, three of them at the short holes, where Miss Sullivan hit some fine irons and Mrs Bannan putted brilliantly. Mrs Nicholl really had her players working. She paid out 10 cents for each of the birdies—but the players were fined for three-putting. The pairings for the morning foursomes today, with each country’s top pair playing its opposing second pair, is: Misses Hamilton and Smith v. Misses Blair and Flynn; Mrs Bannan and Miss Sullivan v. Mrs Gosse and Miss Pultz. The reserves are Miss P. Dudding (New Zealand) and Miss V. Jellis. The top teams meet in the afternoon. x

Footnote. —Practice ended early in the afternoon —but the players’ preparations did not quite end there. They all went off to have their hair done.