Accurate Judith Parkes wins match-play title

Press, 7 April 1978, Page 24

Accurate Judith Parkes wins match-play title

By

R. T. BRITTENDEN

Judith Parkes won her first major golf title at Shirley yesterday when she took the Canterbury women’s match-play championship from Sue Bishop in a close and fascinating final.

Her success was based on her greater accuracy but it came too from a steely determination rather at odds with her slight and very feminine physique. She showed in the final last year, when she lost to Sue Boag. that she has tremendous powers of recovery, and a fine fighting spirit. Mrs Bishop, who has had very little golf of late, performed extremely well. It was not merely charitable chatter among the gallery which suggested that very few cared particularly who won the final “because they are both such good players, such nice girls.” It was a magnificent day for golf, but perhaps the heat was a problem. It was so unseasonable that a magpie, waiting in a willow beside the twelfth green, swung madly to and fro upside down from a tendril of the tree. But there was a cool calm about most of the golf in the semi-finals and final. In the morning. Miss Boag went down to Mrs Parkes after a verv fine match. Miss Boag began with a string of immaculate pars — six of them. But this display of erudition left her only one up; for Mrs Parkes, with a typically lyrical swing, put her approach by the pin at the long fourth and had a birdie. The turning point was the

1151 m seventh, where they, I both missed the green. Miss' | Boag was much better: .placed but chipped much too strongly, as did Mrs Parkes, j But Mrs Park.-s was down in I two putts, Miss Boag’s sec-: jond putt lipped out. From: that point Miss Boag was on: the defensive, mainly j ' through putting problems. Miss Boag three-putted 9, .and Mrs Parkes, with a fine! I chip, had a birdie at 10, then! |won 11 with a par to be, ■three up. Miss Boag had a: (great chance at 12, where! i Mrs Parkes. uncharacteristi-| cally, three-putted, but the; opportunity was lost. Miss| 1 Boag took 15 with a par but. | was two down with two holes left. There was a dramatic finjsh to the game. At 17 Miss Boag, somehow evading the! (fairway bunker, played aj great second shot to the (green; Mrs Parkes was' bunkered, but came outj wonderfully well, a metre J from the hole. Miss Boag! jhad a 2m downhill putt,| ‘with borrow, but she struck, lit just a shade too firmly, (the ball lipping out. i Mrs Bishop did not take I control of her game with Dilanne Woodhouse until a few! I holes from home. Only 20, i Miss Woodhouse will be j representing Tasman in her! 'fourth Russell Grace tournament at Waitikiri. Strong 1 : and resourceful, she was the (biggest hitter at th® tournament. Her distrus* of her woods led her to using irons joff the tees, but she still matched everyone for length. Miss Woodhouse went |into the lead for the first time, at 6, in strange circumstances. Mrs Bishop’s /approach found the green, I but ran off by a few inches. Unthinkingly, she picked up the ball to clean it, realised what she had done, and although her opponent was unaware of what had occurred, Mrs Bishop immedi|ately forfeited the hole. | She got back to square with a tremendous birdie putt at 7, lost the lead again through three-putting 8 but won 11, 12 and 13. Miss Woodhouse birdied the par-3 fifteenth, and she was most unlucky coming up 16. Hitting a fairway wood there, she suffered a painful back muscle injury, a recurrence of a previous mishap. There were three phases to the final. Mrs Bishop,

I who can wear a cricket cap :with particular distinction, ■ won the first hole with a > fine putt but almost until .ithe turn, it was the elfin i Mrs Parkes who called the • tune. She hit seven greens II in a row but did not succeed with one of the birdie putts; •jin fact she had three at the short seventh. But this beau- .' tifully controlled, precise :i driving and iron play put 11 Mrs Bishop under persistent ; pressure. She responded i(nobly, having four one-putt ; I greens going out. They both (turned in 39, three over. ■ The second phase was a ■ brief run of Bishop successes. She took 9 with a J par to square the match and jwon the difficult eleventh ■ with a great birdie putt 'after a long, low iron. But ‘lthe final phase had Mrs i; Parkes in command. • With her admirably controlled stroke she putted in Jfrom 5m for a birdie at 12 ■ (and took 14 from a rather ; tired-looking Mrs Bishop, .who was bunkered, then ; ( went well through the green, , and fluffed a chip dismally. It was back to square when , Mrs Parkes three-putted 16, but the writing was on the , wall when Mrs Parkes i played a fine second at 17. qMrs Bishop, badly placed .(and with an uncomfortable lie, worked wonders to find ,!the green too. But she

charged her , downhill putt and missed a 2m return. At the last hole Mrs Parkes hit a beauty, Mrs Bishop duffed her drive and cut her second long and wide. She made a gallant recovery but Mrs Parkes wrapped it up with a precise approach and a putt which almost went in. The scoring was not spectacular, but it was highlyinteresting match-play golf. Mrs Parkes was round in 76, four over. With her very full but fluent swing, she often led off the tees, and she hit 12 greens to Mrs Bishop’s nine, and had five one-putts to eight. Mrs Bishop seemed to stop a little on the shot during the first half of the match, but she was getting through it in her own splendid style before the end. But She made almost twice as many errors as Mrs Parkes and did remarkably well to take the match to the last hole. There was encouragement for the Canterbury selectors in the championship flight games. In the morning Sue Haydon had a marathon match with Sue Whitaker. It ended at the twenty-third, but both had played very well and had scored splendidly. In the final Mrs Haydon overcame a bad start to beat Mrs Nan Mann.