REWARD FOR STEADY GOLF Beggs gains vacant place in Frey berg team

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33819, 16 April 1975, Page 38

REWARD FOR STEADY GOLF Beggs gains vacant place in Frey berg team

Dennis Beggs, the head green keeper at Rangiora. lias won a just reward for his consistent golf in the last six months—inclusion in the (Canterbury Freyberg Rose Bowl team which was announced last evening.

There had been keen competition for the fifth position in the team for the tournament at Wanganui next month, after the departure of last year’s No. 2. Des Turner.

The form of the re-] maining four 1971 rep-] resentatives had been so; good that it was apparent only one replacement: would be needed. However, there have been; radical changes in the playing ] order. Paul Hartstone, unbeaten at No. .3 last year, has secured the top position, and Geoff Saunders has been

(promoted from the fifth to I second. ] Bruce Taylor, who captained the team from the No. I I position in 1974, will again i lead the side, but at No. 3 ] this time. Two years ago, i Taylor, then playing at two. | won five and halved one of ]his seven matches. He should prove a great asset in his new placing. Joe Whitaker retains the fourth position he held last year, and Beggs adds substance to the team at five. The promising Waitikiri player, Murray Brown, who represented New Zealand in the Australian inter-state junior championships last month, is the reserve. Hartstone has performed so admirably for Canterbury I in representative fixtures and jin open tournaments this sea]son that his claims for the i top position could not he | overlooked. I His success in the Russley open at the week-end followed wins in the Waimairi Seaside tournament and the Christchurch club’s Easter open. Although he had a hard struggle with Beggs in the last round, Hartstone has come through unscathed in four rounds of the Woodward Cup inter-club championship. The 21-year-old Saunders has achieved a record of exactly 50 per cent over the last two Freyberg tournaments. He has developed into a more mature and confident

golfer, and has an outstanding representative and club record this season. Taylor, the present provincial stroke champion, has not, this season, always played to the high standard that he sets himself. But he now finds himself at No. 3 mainly because of recent achievements

ot Hartstone and Saunders than any serious decline in his own golfing ability.

The methodical Whitaker, i unbeaten at No. 2 for Christ- | church in the Woodward Cup., earned his retention, and! 'Beggs, a semi-finalist in the! • Canterbury match-play event! last October, warranted his; inclusion by tying with Hart-] stone—who won the play-off' —and James Angus after 72 i holes of the Russley open. Before the Freyberg tour-' nament, which starts on May 7, a Canterbury team of eight will play Wellington at Wellington on Mav 3 and 4. The team, announced by the convener of the selection panel (Mr M. J. McNally) is: Hartstone (Russley). Saunders (Christchurch), Taylor (Russley, captain), Whitaker (Christchurch), Beggs (Rangiora), Brown (Waitikiri). G. L. Maw (Waitikiri), W. I. Tucker (Christchurch). Reserves- G. Urlwin (Russley). J. L. Allin (Rangiora).