Golf in Wellington Area

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 192, 11 May 1937, Page 14

Golf in Wellington Area

Highlights at Masterton

(By

NIBLICK.)

MASTERTON is a popular course with golfers, and the club's annual tournament’ always attracts some of the very best plavers in the Wellington area, the competitors at the annual tournament, which opened on the Lansdowne links on Saturday, included the amateur champion of New Zealand, J. P. Hornabrook, of Palmerston North. J. L. Black (Titahi). Guy Horne (Hutt), and S. M. Watson (Wellington). . Hornabrook proved in the qualityHU round on Saturday, when the weather was fine, that he is still in his very best form bv heading the list with a brilliant GO. 35 out. and 34 home. . T. H. Horton (Masterton) came next, with 72, and was followed by Jack Black, 75. and Guy Horne and Arthur Duncan. 7G. The links were in capital order on Saturday. superior to any of the Wellington courses, according to Black, but on Sunday, when the first and second rounds were played, heavy rain fell throughout the day.

There were no surprises on Sunday, as the leading plavers all came through. Guy Horne, however, had a great tussle with Miles Watson in the first round, and only managed to beat the youthful Wellington player by 1 up. In fact, he was a bit luckv to win. as a weakly-hit chip just managed to clear a bunker and run up to the pin to give him a win with a 4.

In the second round Horton was down nearly all the way round to D. Henderson, his Masterton clubmate, and . the veteran had to finish strongly to win by 1 up. Hornabrook again played good golf to defeat Arthur Duncan by 4 and 2. The New Zealand champion covered the course in 74, which was good going in the rain. 11. S. Budd, the Masterton long-hitter, gave Jack Black a good fight in the second round. The Titahi man went out in 36 to Budd’s 37, and they headed for home all-square. Black then struck a purple patch, and won four holes in a row to eventually take the game by 4 and 3. The semi-finals and final will be played to-morrow (Coronation Day). It will be interesting to see whether Black w-ill bo able to lower Hornabrook’s colours. If he manages to do so, he will cover himself with glory, as Hornabrook has ruled supreme among the amateurs of the Dominion during the past two years. The other semi-final should see. a battle royal between I-lorton and Guy Horne. The Masterton man’s intimate knowledge of the Lansdowne course should tip the scales in his favour, but he will have to play good golf to stop the Hutt youth. The final in the afternoon should be worth following, and it is safe to predict that a large gallery will follow the pair, whoever they may be. Wellington Recovery.

The Wellington club’s A team made a remarkable recovery in their match against Miramar on the Wellington links on Saturday. In the match against Hutt a fortnight ago on the same course, Wellington did not succeed in winning a single game in the contest between the A teams.

On Saturday the Wellington players appeared determined to prove that they could do better than they had done against Hutt, and they succeeded so well that they outplayed Miramar to the tune of seven games to five. Miramar won the match between the B teams on the Miramar course by six games to two. with four games squared, which gave Miramar 11 games to nine, with four games halved. This was a narrow margin, and proves that there is little between the playing strength of the two clubs.

A Battle Royal. The tussle between the No. I’s, D. 0. Whyte (Wellington), and C. E. Hollis (Miramar), was maintained right to the home green, and ended on a high note in a win for the Wellington player by 1 up. This is the first time that Hollis has been beaten since throwing in his lot with the Miramar club, and only goes to show what an able player Whyte is. The Wellington man has not been playing golf during the past few months, but he came off the grass on Saturday and showed that he has lost little of his ability. Both went out in 40, and headed for home allsquare. Both are long drivers, and there was

little between them off the tees. Whyte got in front at the second hole, where a magnificent No. 4 iron second shot landed his ball four feet from the pin. Hollis was using his irons well, and ; won both the short third and short fifth ' with nice pitches, which pulled his ball ,up near the pin each time. Whyte had a birdie 4 at the sixth (450 yards), and they halved the seventh (444 yards) in birdie 4’s. Whyte took the tenth in 4 to 5, Hollis here finding the bunker in front of the green with his second. The Wellington man drew 2 up with 4 to 5 at the eleventh (416 yards), Hollis unaccountably missing a two-foot putt for a half. The Miramar man got one back with a birdie 4 at the twelfth (410 yards), a beautiful spoon second against the wind pulling up four yards from the pin. Whyte retaliated with a birdie 4 at the thirteenth (453 yards), where he found the green with his second, a low shot, which just dodged the bunkers to the right of the green. Whyte drew 3 up by taking the short fourteenth in 3 to 4. Both were through the green off the tee, Whyte being in a bunker. The Wellington man played such a dainty chip out that he got his 3. Hollis got one back in 3 to 4 at the short fifteenth, and was sitting pretty when he placed his drive near the sixteenth green, while Whyte sliced his *ee shot into the stream. Whyte showed his fighting spirit by playing his second off the tee, landing his second on the green, and running down a la-foot putt for a 4. Faulty short work by Hollis saw a half in 4. This left Whyte dormy two, but Hollis is also a dour fighter, and he kept the game alive by winning the seventeenth in 4 to 5. Whyte’s second finding the bunker to the right of the green. A Thrilling Finish. Hollis hooked his drive into the rough off the home tee, while Whyte hit a beauty, which opened up the hole nicely. Hollis elected to take a spoon for his second shot. He plaved a good one, which landed on the green, but bounced over into the long grass on the edge of the stream. Whyte placed his second nicely on the green. Hollis then played a firm pitch and run shot, which ran up the mound guarding the green and pulled up eight feet from the pin. j Whyte’s approach putt ran five feet past | the cup, and laid Hollis a dead stymie. The Miramar champion surveyed this nasty problem for a moment, and then I took his No. 8 and deftly chipped over his opponent’s ball and found the cup. Joe Kirkwood could not have bettered this gem of a shot, which was done when it had to be done. Whyte was now left with a five-foot putt to win the match. He made no mistake, and thus took a hard-fought victory by the possible margin. Whyte took 77 for the round to Hollis’s 78. Other Tussles. Morgan Duncan (Wellington) and Harold Black (Miramar) had an equally exciting contest in No. 2 position. Black was 2 up at the turn, but the Wellington player turned on some classy stuff coming back, including an eagle 3 at the thirteenth (453 yards), and snatched victory by 1 up. Those experienced campaigners, Jack Parker (Wellington) and Jim Drake (Miramar), in No. 3 position, also had to go to the home green to finish their heated argument, which ended in the Miramar man’s favour by 1 up. The youthful Wellington player, J. B. Graham, was too steady for the longhitting J. Shelly. Starting off with a 3 at the first hole, Graham covered the course in 75 to take the game by 4 and 3. Graham appears to have the Indian sign on Shelly, as he had a comfortable victory over the tall Miramar man in the last inter-club match. Warwick Blundell (Wellington) handled all his clubs well to outplay steady W. Flanagan by 3 and 2, and R. B. Watson (Wellington), a steadilyimproving young player, proved too good for Herbert Aplin, the margin being 3 and 2. They were all-square at the turn, and all-square at the thirteenth, but the Wellington youth then made his run, and took the next five holes in a row’.