Golf challenge at Westport

Press, 11 August 1979, Page 56

Golf challenge at Westport

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

It has been the policy of the Canterbury golf selectors in recent years to select the strongest available team far the annual match against Buller-Westland.

Consequently, , Canterbury has had some big wins on its home courses, winning 2O|-3| at Waitikiri last year, but the Tasman players are always much more formidable on their home territories as Canterbury discovered two years ago at Reefton when it was restricted to a draw. Again the Canterbury 12man team is very strong and it should have little difficulty in starting the representative programme with a win, at Westport this weekend.

The performance of individual Canterbury players at the Kawatiri sea-side course will hold more significance than the over-all team result.

There is keen competition for a place in the eight-man Canterbury teams for the

South Island inter-provincial event in October and against Wellington in November and, of course, the five Freyberg positions are far from decided.

The middle-order players for Canterbury, John Williamson, Ricky Vincent, Murray Brown, John Allin. Dennis Beggs and Bob Farrant, are vying for at least one place, and maybe two, in the Freyberg side. Their inter-club and representative results over the next two months will be important. Two experienced Tasman Freyberg players, lan Donaldson, who recently won the Buller-Westland 54-hole stroke championship, and Finn Hobbs,- are likely to be the combined team’s top pair and they , will not be easy opponents for Geoff Saunders and Mark Street. Winston Beck, George Allan and Ron Hazeldine are also likely to occupy high positions in the Buller-West-land team and their knowledge of the course will be an added help.