Auckland favoured to retain golf trophy

Press, 2 May 1981, Page 64

Auckland favoured to retain golf trophy

Nelson reporter New Zealand’s top woman golfers will assemble in Nelson this week-end in preparation for the thirty-second Russell Grace Cup tournament. The venue for this year's event is the Nelson Golf Club's course at Tahunanui. Teams will have the opportunity to practise tomorrow. Only the six lowest placed teams of last year — Wellington, South Canterbury, Nelson-West Coast-Marl-borough, Southland,

Manawatu-Wanganui and Taranaki (in that order) — will have tournament matches on the Monday. The remaining seven will have the opportunity of a further days practice while these teams play their first round of match play. Auckland, apparently with a long-term lease on the trophy, will be seeking its sixth successive win. With two New Zealand squad members in Miss Kay Maxwell and Mrs Cherry Kingham playing at No. 1 and No.

2, it will certainly be the toughest team to beat. Auckland, however, in its first round on Tuesday, will meet the . third place-getter of last year, Waikato-King Country, with the exception of Canterbury, possibly the hardest team Auckland will meet in the four-day tournament. Both will be striving hard for the first two points, so that this could be one of the most exciting matches of the week. Canterbury,, with the New Zealand representative, Mrs

Sue Bishop, once again at No. 1, finished two points behind Auckland last year. It will meet sixth-place Otago on the second day, in the first round, and South Canterbury in the afternoon. What could well.be the crunch game of the tournament, against Auckland, is scheduled for the last round on Thursday. Heavy showers of rain on Thursday will have benefited the Nelson course. It suffered terribly during the prolonged drought over the summer months, and has not yet

fully recovered. It was playing very short — up till Thursday — and because of the drought-affected grass cover, is likely to be a little lumpy on some fairways. The rough was being cut on Thursday, but will still be lush enough to penalise the wayward hitter. There was no certainty yesterday if two temporary greens in use throughout the summer, will be available for competition on Monday. The new No. 1 green has been manicured repeatedly

for some time, but there are doubts about how it would stand up to intensive play, especially should there be further rain. The alternative green is an excellent one. The No. 3 par 3 hole. Frog Puddle, certainly will not be ready. The temporary green here is sited alongside a hard, hillside area, and luck often plays a dominant role in deciding whether a slightly pulled tee shot stays on the green or skitters through.

The remainder of the greens, however, are excellent and should cause the consistent putter little exasperation. Monday’s matches, to be played in the morning, with the positions the teams finished in last year in parentheses, are:— Nelson-West Coast-Marl-borough (7) v. ManawatuWanganui (12); Southland (11) v. Taranaki (13); Wellington (8) v. South Canterbury (9).