On the Links

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 19

On the Links

NEXT CHAMPIONSHIP

REPORT ON MIDDLEMORE

LADIES' HERETAUNGA RECORD,

(By "Baffy.")

As has already been announced in "The Post," the next New Zealand championship meeting will be at the Middlemore links, at Auckland, which was one of the three clubs that applied to the New Zealand Golf Association for the championship. I indicated some weeks ago -that this would probably be the decision, and it will surprise few of those who have taken an interest in the matter. The Golf Council was left to decide the matter, and reports were received on the various links, while Mr. R. C. Kirk, the council's president, visited Middlemore, and all tho members of the council went to Miramar, which was the chief competitor. Tho report of the chairman on the links and on other links which he recently visited makes interesting reading, and is as follows: "As arranged at our last meeting, I visited Auckland late in October, and was called upon by the secretary of the Auckland Golf Club, and duly visited and played upon Middlemore links on that and the succeeding day. It being late in the season, I found, as might have been expected, a most prolific growth of grasi, but the fairways had been cut, and also a fair, margin of rough on each side, to a reasonable height. The fairways and greens are in good condition, the length of the holes a fair test of golf, and a start has been made with an intelligent scheme of bunkering where required. The club-house accommodation.and c&teiing is first-class. The site is quite closo to a suburban railway station, and no doubt a suitable time-table can be ielied upon. I. feel. assured that if the next championship meeting be held there the first week in September, under anything approaching normal weather conditions, the competitors will consider the course equal to any- yet played in New Zealand, except Hamilton- as it was three - years ago. Perhaps it will require exceptional bunkering to make it interesting, as comparatively few o£ the holes have any special natural topographical features. . Seeing that vo championship meeting has been held m Auckland for nine years, and recognising the progress the game has made in the populous northern city, it is hard to deny > the justness and soundness of the club's request for the next meeting. I recommend that the request bo granted, the meeting to begin on Friday, sth September, 1924. I also visited the St. Andrew's links, Hamilton, and I regret to say that the fairways, though still far better than those of most New Zealand courses, have seriously retrograded from the <■ perfect condition of three years ago, weeds, being more numerous among the beautiful fescue grasses. The accommodation question has not yet been solved in the town of Hamilton, though improvements will no doubt-, bo effected within eighteen months in this direction I think even the local officials feel they cannot press their claims for the next meeting, seeing that they had the championships three years ago. The Miramar course was lately inspected by the members of the council, and Brook's report, obtained thereon. It cannot be considered as ready for the next meeting, though it probably will be for-the first championship 'held in the North Island after 1924: I also took the opportunity, of visiting and playing over the courses at. Titirangi (Auckland), Whangarei, Rotorua, Napier, and Hastings lhe first-named of. these I consider has great attractions and possibilities when a little more matured. Whangarei and Rotorua are delightful club courses, the beautiful northern trees and natural features lending picturesqueness and variety to the scene of play. 1 was most cordially welcomed at every course by officials and players, and was treated with tho utmost courtesy. It was a pleasure to hear that the present council s efforts in the interests of golf seem to be everywhere appreciated. All the clubs seemed to be eager for any suggestions which meant improvement m their courses or methods of " management. J ■ B ANOTHER RECORD. But a few weeks ago I mentioned that a southern writer was complaining m n°ne <* *1» ladies were breaking TO, and on top of this came the fact that Miss Jervis had established a ladies' record of 75 at the Hutt, while Miss Brown, in Napier, had lowered the provious ladies' record by a couple of strokesi It has, however, been left td Miss M. Marchbanks to establish one of the finest scores of the season, and to sot the record standard for Heretaun^a lady_ players. She was at the time playing a bogey handicap to decide the final of a club competition, and she went round in the magnificent score of 76 a' score which is seldom equalled by tho leading male players at Heretaunga. Tub result on bogey was 6 up. Little can of course be said of such a round. It can only be established in steady and brilliant golf, and this was what Misg Marchbanks produced. It is not her first brilliant round lately, but it is her beet. As a matter of fact, the acor. was nearly 74 r for at the last hole, which she has often done in 4, she took three putts, so that the round finished with a 6. The card read as follows:— •

Out: 454435553—38 In: 455523356—38

A day or so late? Miss Gambrill, play: ing in a match, holed out at the last green for a score almost as brilliant, for she did the round in 78, on© of her best performances this year. Miss Marchbanks's score will stand as the record for the course. A 75 was recorded in pre-war days by Miss A. Pearce, now Mrs. Stout, but the course has seen some changes since that time. FEOM THE TEE. Quite occasionally a player takes an iron from a tee, and he may have one reason for it, and he may have another. It is a subject that seldom gets into print, but I take this opportunity of quoting a well-known Australian writer's reply to the following question:—"A golfer considers he does better from the tee with an iron, and does not use a wooden club. Does he offend in any way against etiquette or tradition of golf, and is his action non-sporting?" The reply was: "Not in the least. There was said to be a rule in force at St. Andrews, that players who did not carry a wooden club were not allowed to play but I never heard it suggested that 'he was compelled to use it. Jerome Travels was champion and amateur champion of America, and at one period certainly did not use wood. The committee of a club might, if it felt so disposed, in order to conserve the tees, frame a rule that no members should use irons from certain, tees but it would be stupid and unworkable. In championships and open meetings the players could use any sort of legal club that they liked, and no one could prevent them. Tho only reai 30n as lar as I know, that men use wooden clubs. IS that they gel, a longer ball with less effort. I fancy that few P»»y«» Y 0?] 4 l»» w««5 if thw ■ could do better .with ironi. They would

be stupid if they did, unless with the fond hope of improving in their wooden club play practice. Some men I know .get great length with iron clubs—quite as far as many of the long drives excepting the very longest. It has always seemed to me that they tire much sooner, and become erratic in trying to keep up. It is a difficult matter to take a full swing with an iron or cleek and hit the ball properly. This is the reason the best players invariably limit their iron shots to the half or threequarter swing. A player may be abandoned as he likes with his drives. What is one man's meat is another's poison and this is especially so in golf. Because a certain player does a .thing men who would be better suited by other methods try to copy them. A good spoon player would use a spoon, not try to get the shot, with a cleek, or similar sort of club which a good cleek player would use. Why should he? There is no special virtue in any club, except that it may suit the player to play the shot he requires successfully. Why try to get a certain distance with mashie if a mid-iron is easier to get it with or a spoon, for that matter. H. H. Hilton often used a spoon for, to us, ridiculous distances with the greatest success." A STRANGE INCIDENT. Duncan was one of those playing indifferently in the British professional match-play championship, the last of the British season's classic events, and he had a narrow shave against an unknown player, A. E. Simpson, of Knott Lnd, Cheshire, who was only beateu on the last green. There was an extraordinary incident in this match. At the eleventh Simpson had a putt of about six yards to -win ths- hole, with Duncan having played the odd two yards from the pin. Simpson ordered Duncan's caddie to take the flag out and stand aside. The caddie walked five yarda away and stood with the flag at his feet. What can only be described as a wave of strange forgetfulness suddenly overcame Simpson, who, instead of putting for the -hole, turned in the ' direction of the amazed caddie and putted for the flag he was holding. Simpson had completely forgotten what, 1 a moment ago, he had asked the caddie to do, and really thought he was putting at the hole. Then he emerged from hi* trance. Finally, Duncan had a putt to win, but in the peculiar circumstances he refrained from holing it. AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS. Almost as much interest centred in the American Western amateur championship as did in the American amateur, and it was every bit as good a meeting. When the^draw was out it was predicted that Chick Evang would win his match against Jess Sweetser in the semi-final, and -would? then win the title.. This was based on the understanding that history repeats itself as, for a number of years past, with the single exception of Chick himself, at Kansas City last year, the player who has made the low score in the qualifying round of the Western championship has been beaten in the semi-finals by the man who has won the title. And this is what again happened this year. Evans was in the seventh place in the draw for match_ rounds; he met Sweetser, the medalist, in the semi-finals and won the match 1 up at the 38th hole, and the next day won the title from W. Hamilton Gardner. By winning the championship for the eighth time, Evans equals the record long held by John Ball, the nctod English veteran, for the number of times Ball has won the British ama--teur championship. ' But Ball won his title for the first time in 1888, twentyone years before Evans'first captured the' Western championship. Since- winning the title in 1909, Evans has competed eleven times, and has been successful on eight, losing-three, two to Mason Phelps and one to' Ned Allis. Sweetser, at the time of the Western meeting the: national amateur champion, showed them how to play golf on the first day by turning in a record score of 68, which he followed on the second day with a 75, his total being the lowest of them all. Captain Cartor, former Irish champion, was second with 71 and 74. The decisive match in the. tournament, and that on which' the championship depended, was in the semifinal between Evans and Sweetser. The match was one of the greatest in the i history of American golf, ranking with the great final in the national which I outlined in this column a week ago. Evans made the morning round in 69, one over the course record just estab-J lished by Sweetser, but this only gave him a lead of one up, for Sweetser did the round in 70. Sweetser had the best of it going out, and secured a lead of three up by taking the fifth, sixth, and seventh. To cap this they halved the eighth in two's, and Evans won his first hole with a birdie 3 at the ninth. Sweetser had gone out in 33 to 35, but on the way home Evans did the trip in, 34 to 37, and -was one up when. they went to lunch. Scoring in par and under took them over the next nine holes, with varying fortunes, but with Sweetser one up at the end of it. Telling the story of the next holes, an American writer proceeds: "The tenth and eleventh were halved. Chick then squared the match with a par three, Sweetser getting a bad pull on nig tee shot. Both had 3's at the next, Chick winning the fourteenth 4-5. Sweetser took the next in like figures. The sixteenth is a dog-leg hole, 395 yards. Chick cut across through the rough and duplicated his birdie on the first round by putting his 175-yard iron two feet from the cup, this time to take the lead, while in the morning he had snatched the hole to square the match. The next was halved in 3, and Chick was dormy one. Both got away fine drives on the 460-yard eighteenth, but Chick pulled his brassy second into a trap, short of the greon, while Jess was on in two, forty feet from the cup, whence he got a birdie 4 to Evans's 5, and the contest was squared. On the first extra hole, 385 yards, they both drove about 260 yards, but Chick was away. He pitched hole high, twelve feet to the right, while Jess fell a few inches short of the green. Sweetser ran his long approach twelve feet past the flag, and while Chick was dead in three, the Yale player sank the long putt for a half. The next hole is a drive from a valley, over a hill 150 feet high, down into a valley in front of the green, and then a pitch to a parapet green known as "the postage stamp," because of its comparative umallness, surrounded by deep traps. Sweetser drove his ball clean over the hill, straight as an arrow to within 100 yards of the 340 yards hole. Chick sliced his, and was twenty-five yards short in the edge of the rough with a downhill lie. He played it gingerly, and the ball, straight for the pin, hit the very top of the front trap and fell back into the gulch. Jess laid up boldly, and went over the green into a deep back trap. Evans chipped out ten feet short of the cup, while Sweetser's niblick carried him eleven feet past the pin. He putted back to within 18 inches of tho cup, and Chick was a trifle closer. The national champion stepped up to his ball and tapped it for the cup, confidently expecting a half, but the ball slipped slightly down the side hill and refused to go down, while Evans sank his, and won by a margin of 1 up in 38 holes, in one of the greatest matches ever staged between two great players."