N.Z. player leads golf after mix-up

Press, 23 July 1980, Page 46

N.Z. player leads golf after mix-up

NZPA Sydney Jan Arnold, of New Zealand, went to the lead of the New South Wales women’s golf championship yesterday after a mix-up with a practice ball lying in the rough next to Royal Syndey’s eighteenth fairway. Leading Jan Arnold one-up with one hole to play in a quarter-final match, the drive of Australia’s Miss Galbraith bounced through the' fairway of the dog-leg hole. When she arrived on the scene, she found two balls marked “hot dot six” within a couple of metres of each other. Pointing to the newest of the two, Miss Galbraith said sportingly: “I think this is mine, but here is another hot dot six.” A spectator, who had watched the 18-year-old state player’s drive from near where it landed, confirmed it was Miss Galbriath’s ball. But unfortunately Miss Galbraith had forgotten to put a distinguishing mark on her ball after taking it form the box. She said: “The referee told me she couldn’t make a decision on her own.” The referee then went into a huddle with a .group of Ladies’ Golf Union officials. Miss Galbriath was then told: “Because you can’t positively identify your ball, you have to go back to the tee and hit another. You will be playing three.” An understandly emotional

Miss Galbraith lost the hole. Miss Arnold broke though to win the match at the ninteenth by holding a 20foot putt for a birdie. As they walked back to the clubhouse, the referee said to . Miss Galbraith: “Sherrin, in future put an identifying mark on your ball.” ' All professional golfers from Jack Nicklaus down always put a distinguishing mark such as dot or a cross on their ball with a pen or pencil. Miss Galbriath said: “The Ladies’ Golf Union encourage sportsmanship but the practice ball, which had the same marking as mine, was not mine.” “There was no doubt in my mind which was my ball. It was the newer one, but nobody came and asked me straight out whether I knew which was my ball.” The draw for today’s semi-finals is Edwina Kennedy v. Heather Bleeck and Miss Arnold v. Vicki Jellis. Miss Kennedy struck the ball in powerful style to demolish Tina Lappan, 5 and. 3, and is poised to retain the N.S.W. championship. Mrs Bleeck lost three holes in succession before snapping back to capture the seventeenth with a par and defeat Newcastle’s Cheryl Middleby, 2 and 1. Miss Jellis’s superior touch around the greens was the decisive factor in her 3 and 1 victory over Julie Walsh in the other quarter-final...