Golf greens damaged

Press, 22 September 1984, Page 21

Golf greens damaged

NZPA-AAP London Greens at the Wentworth Golf Club, where the Suntory World Match Play Championship starts next week, have been vandalised. When the greenkeeping staff arrived at Wentorth on Thursday they found a total of 13 greens on the West and East courses.

The West course, where the £150,000 (about 3NZ399.000) match play title begins on September 27, suffered the most damage, but there is no doubt about the event going ahead as scheduled, according to the

tournament director, Peter German.

Some greens were badly marked by the heels of heavy boots, others had turf dug from the ground, and on one green on the West course an obscene slogan was gouged. “It is incredible that someone would feel inclined to dp such a thing," said Mr German.

“The damage can all be repaired and the greens will be playable. Obviously where turf has to be replaced we won’t be able to cut the greens as closely as we would have liked.”

The draw for the first round is: Gary Player (South Africa) v. Tommy Nakajima (Japan), Howard Clark (Britain) v. Bernhard Langer (West Germany), Tohru Nakamura (Japan) v. Sam Torrance (Britain), Craig Stadler (United States) v. Nick Faldo (Britain). Second round: Greg Norman (Australia) v. Player or Nakajima, Fuzzy Zoeller (United States) v. Clark or Langer, Ben Crenshaw (United States) v. Nakamura or Torrance, Severiano Ballesteros (Spain) ,v. Stadler or Faldo.