Andy Shaw — great name in New Zealand golf

Press, 17 June 1983, Page 15

Andy Shaw — great name in New Zealand golf

By

R. T. BRITTENDEN

Andrew Jenkin Shaw, who died at Tauranga last week, aged 82, would have made a fortune had he been born into the modern world of golf, with the rich rewards it offers for proficiency. Andy Shaw, born in Troon, won seven New Zealand Open championships, seven national professional titles, when prize money was but a pittance. He was a great player, by the most exacting standards, and a master of his irons. He won the Open in 1926, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934 and 1936. His professional titles were won in ‘ 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1946. Shaw also won the Earl Jellicoe Cup, for the best single round in an Open three times, and the professional foursomes title nine times, the last of them in company with Peter Thomson. Shaw gave more to the game than a proud record of victories. In common with the top professionals of his time, he set very high standards in course behaviour and in dress. He was always immaculate, and often his playing gear included a polka-dot bow tie. He was of the “if you can’t play, at least look like a golfer” school of thought for the general run of players. He was a superb striker of the ball. He was in Melbourne, in 1933, for a big tournament which had attracted a group of American professionals. They watched Shaw at practice and were so taken with his swing and style that they

threw more balls down with the request that he “hit some more.” He was so good an iron player that one of his caddies in Wellington reported that although Shaw was a modest man, as soon as he had hit an iron at a short hole he never looked at the green, but simply turned and asked the caddy for his putter. Shaw was not a great putter, and had his share of luck. He played Harry Blair in the final of the 1931 professional championship at Shirley. Blair was three up at lunch, and could well have been further ahead soon after the second round started. At the long fourth, Shaw’s third shot hit the top strand of a wire fence on the right of the fairway and from there bounced on to the green, to give Shaw a birdie, a win, and the start of a march to victory. He had one particular disappointment, however. He went to Melbourne in 1936 for a Centennial tournament which attracted hundreds of professionals and amateurs from all over the world; the event was played over two rounds and two courses. Shaw won by three strokes. But four hours later he was disqualified because his manager — who was with him — had not filled in the 2s 6d entry form properly. Shaw was top of the tree in New Zealand golf, and during the visits of Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen (twice), he played exhibition matches throughout the

country with these top Americans. Shaw never carried more than a dozen clubs and he felt that tended to make the player of his day more a master of each club than the present player. He had not seen a wedge until Bobby Locke brought one to New Zealand on a tour. Shaw said that he and his fellows would use a No. 7iron, with cut on the ball to produce stop, for the same sort of shot for which a wedge was designed. In 1966, Shaw came to live in Christchurch, where he had started his professional career as a youngster. He did some coaching, played a little golf, and late in the 1960 s took part in a tournament at Greendale,

perhaps his last competitive event. Shaw was a legend in his own time. But of all his feats, none was greater than his Open win at Hokowhitu in 1930. The weather was dreadful as he opened with 69, and when he scored 68 in the second round, he had left the field 15 shots behind. One day when playing Miramar, his ball was deflected into a bunker by an obstruction in the middle of the fourth fairway. That cost him a stroke, but he was round in 61. A week later he had a 63 at the Hutt course. As long as golf is played in this country, Shaw’s name will be remembered with pride and affection.