Seasoned player to miss rep. games

Press, 10 March 1987, Page 33

Seasoned player to miss rep. games

Canterbury’s most experienced golfer in the history of the national inter-provincial teams’ match-play golf championship, Mary Sparrow, will not be available for this year’s tournament in Dunedin in May. A heavy workload on her Ohoka farm has influenced Sparrow’s decision this year, but it may just be a temporary break in a Canterbury career that has endured more than 20 years. Sparrow has appeared in 14 inter-provincial tournaments since her initial selection in 1964

at the No. 6. Soon after teams were reduced to five players and Sparrow has played in every position in her two stints in the province’s top side. She missed only two tournaments between 1964 and 1974 and has played for the last five years, filling the No. 1 spot in 1984, a position she had previously played in 1969. The former Canterbury stroke-play and matchplay champion has completed 84 games at the national teams’ event, formerly called the Russell Grace tournament,

now known as the Stylemaster Trophy tournament She has fashioned the highly creditable record of 55 wins and nine halves. Although Sparrow considers that she will not have the time to put in the necessary preparation for this year’s Stylemaster tournament she intends to contest the provincial championships. Earlier this month she finished tenth in “The Press” invitation tournament at Harewood and was beaten on a count-back for the second day’s net