GOLF HISTORY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 87, 6 January 1940, Page 5

GOLF HISTORY

Early Vicissitudes In New Zealand REMINISCENCES OF J. A. CLEMENTS The unique distinction of having played in every New Zealand open golf championship since the event was started, in 1907 is held by the well-known Christchurch professional J. A. Clements. With the passage of the years, tremendous changes in clubs, balls and the conditions of courses have been witnessed by this popular professional, who has a vast , store of golfing reminiscences from bis visits to the many championship meetings. . Arthur Duncan was the winner of the ijyst open,, but in the next two years the title went to Clements, and he wou it for the third time in 1912. In the early days of the open scoring was high, but'it was the condition of the courses rather than any lack of skill on the part of the players - that made the strokes mount up, said Clements. Watering systems were unknown then, and it was not till 1915 that green watering was instituted, and it was only.in the past 10 years that various courses undertook the establishment of fairway watering reticulation. Naturally courses were very dry, and on some of the championship courses it was difficult to keep a foothold. Those difficult conditions were particularly noticeable at Balmaeewan in 190 S, when the championship was played in dry, windy conditions. Ghastly Experiences. "There were some ghastly experiences at that meeting,” said Clements. "The ball would not stay on the greens when you put it there, and such conditions accounted for the winning score in the open being as high as 333. The standard of r

play was not as poor as the open winning score might indicate, for a few months later at a Christmas tournament at Heretaunga, in which I was the winner, the best total for the four rounds was dowu to 300. “Balmaeewen conditions were -so bad that my 88 was the best round for the championship and no one else broke 90. What could you do when a full brassie shot would come back and finish behind you One day there 1 saw Jimmy Watt have a putt for a 3 at the second bole, and he eventually holed out for 8. Believe it or not, but he had six putts from the fame place. The ball just would not stay near the hole on the sloping green, always coming back to the original depression in the surface. "That year Balmaeewen was not a championship course, and it still is not a championship course. There are too many slopes, too much room for flukes, and too many blind greens. Some of the old bad features have been eliminated, but there are still the slopes which carry a good shot to the most impossible places. "It all adds up to the point tbai the man with local knowledge has a vast advantage, and in proof of that take the fact that Bobby Locke, one of the best golfers in the world, could only just win the open at Balmaeewen last year. Putt Into a Gully. “When the open was again held at Balmacewen in 1913 I was faced with a classic example of what blows the course could give to a promising round. Uu one green I had a six-foot putt for a 4. but holed out in 7 as my first putt lipped the hole on the fast sloping green and finished in a gully 50 yards’ from the green." Green trouble was common on other courses, for about 25 years ago golf club committees had a weaknes for rolling the greens. They would wet the greens and roll them flat, and if a dry spell came along scoring was almost impossible. Weather conditions swung the other way in 1912. when Clements won the open at Heretaunga. In that year, he considered. the contestants played on the wettest course ever known for the championships. Suckers on the fairways were commonplace, and there was no lifting and dropping. Every ball had to be played from where it lay. "At that tournament I saw Fred Hood hit his approach into the side of a bunker. The ball went in so far that, though it could just be seen, it was absolutely impossible to play it. and Hood had to treat it as unplayable and take a twostroke penalty, "Every pitch on to the green that year stopped where it landed, as I found to my sorrow. At the ninth, 205 yards. I hit a full drive which landed two feet from th“ pin and burrowed so deep into the mud that the top of the ball was below ground level. Full Niblick On Green. “There was no dropping, and I had to play that ball out by crashing a niblick shot into the green. In that round I returned a 76, and two.strokes were virtually thrown awav on that particular green, “Rain continued through the tournament. and the course became so wet that the amateur final had to 'be postponed. Ducks were swimming on the greens the day the final was to have been played.” Clements can tell a hard luck story of an experience in the 1919 Open at Napier that beats even his niblick shot on the Heretaunga green. A gale of wind was blowing, and at one hole he had nut his second near the green, close beside a willow tree about four feet in diameter. It was an easy-looking shot, but Nature saw to it that it was not so easy after all. When Clements was taking his stance the tree began to creak, the player ran for his life, and the tree crashed down on top of the ball. Clements just got out of the way in time, and insult was added to near injury when the buried ball had to be declared unplayable and another played with a two-stroke penalty. Only once has Clements reached double figures at a hole, and that was in 1933 at Titirangi. at the 480 yards 13th, very appropriately named “The Wrecker.” The hole cost him IL but despite this he was round in 711- Before this misfortune he was well in the running for the open title once more. With his first drive at the hole. Clements hit the ball dead straight, but played a provisional in case the first ball bad gone too far and reached a gully. The second ball was also straight, but neither could be found, and there was a strong suspicion that some boys had removed both balls. Clements had to walk back to the tee and play another. This went out of bound.'*, and finally he left the tee after playing seven. Referring to the two greatest players New Zealand golf has seen —Andy Shaw and the veteran amateur. Arthur Dun-ean—-Clements said he considered Shaw’s play at Palmerston North in 1930 the best performance ever to have been seen in an open championship in this country.

Conditions were atrocious. Water was lying in patches on the greens, and a gale of such velocity was blowing that, it was impossible to put up an umbrella. Those conditions meant nothing to Shaw, who was round in (IS and (if) on the one day. to load the field by 15 strokes after two rounds. Hounds of 71 arid 73 gave Shaw a total of 281, s'till a record low aggregate for the Open, and next to him were three players with 302. Shaw’s Records. Shaw s 08 was the lowest that had evei been recorded for one round in New Zealand. tind his 137 was a record for t.wo rounds. It was then freely admitted that Shaw's form entitled 'him to be ranked with the best golfers in the world. "In one round , on that terrible day Shaw had five 3’s." Clements recalled, "lie was getting his ,3's at holes I could not possibly reach with two full shots. He was playing really marvellous golf, putting his woods time after time within a foot or two of the hole. “As for Duncan, who is still playing great golf at the age of (16. be was at bis best about 1912. lie was thought so good that the Wellington Golf Club cut its senior championship to the extent that two qualifying rounds were played by the ■ ilhor members and the man who topped those rounds played Dunean for the chant.

pionship. He has won that club’s championship 23 times and still plays No. 1 for its best team. 1 should say that he is now the best golfer fur his age in Hie world among amateurs, and it would be hard to find a professional of the same age who could hold him. Some day, I. suppose, he will join the veteran class. Putting With Irons. i Thirty years ago there were some really rough courses. Probably the roughest, at that time was Maungakiekie, ou which players in the championship used their irons or mashies on the greens just no often as their putters. Those greens were not much better than the average fairway today. Mowing of fairways in those days w;is a tiling of the future, and sheep were grazed on the leading courses to keep down the growth, .lust before a championship it was common to see a greenkeeper cutting the worst patches on the fairways with a scythe, leaving the balance of the grass for sheep to remove. Apart from the course improvements, scoring Ims been made easier by the use of sleel shafts and higher velocity balls. Clements contends. Actually he thinks that the better balls have made the chief difference. Thirty years ago 200 yards was considered a really good drive, and anything over 400 yards was considered out of range for two shots. Now a good drive is 270 yards, and 450 yards is a two-shot distance.