HUTT WINTER CUP

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 23, 27 July 1927, Page 18

HUTT WINTER CUP

HAROLD BLACK WINS

THE U.S. OPEN CHAMPION

The Hutt Club's decision to hold a tournament during the Winter Show proved a wise one, as, though many outside entries were not received, chiefly because players could not get away to attend, the tournament was well patronised locally, and visiting golfers were-so pleased with the arrangements and the course that many other wellknown outside players will be sure to attend next year. N. Rout (Nelson) went out to lan MacEwan in the first round, finding difficulty in gauging the distances,' and also finding the turf of different quality from that of the Nelson links, which are at the seaside. D. C. Collins (Masterton) made a bold bid for the Winter Cup, a fine trophy donated by Messrs. E. W. Mills ana Co., but was defeated in the semi-final by H. A. Black, and the cup. will remain in possession of the Hutt Club for at least another year. The tournament would not have been so popular >a couple of years ago, but the Hutt Club has carried out a large part of the course improvements decided on, and now the course is in a condition which makes play enjoyable. The swamp at the old tenth has been filled in and drained, and where there used to be rushes and ooze there is now the beginning of a fine sward. This hole is no longer a dog-leg. The gorse which used to be the bane of all has

been grubbed out over nearly the whole * of the course, the fairways of which whave greatly improved through regular motor mowing. The greens are still a little uncertain, but they will be at-' tacked in due course. The meeting -nras unusual in the close •ontests in semi-finals and final, which proved all four competitors first-rank golfers. The difference between Harold Black, the winner of the cup, and his elder brother, J. L., is . Certainly raueh less than is shown in their handicaps, 2 and plus 2 respectively. When the last Hutt Club championship was decided Harold took Jack , (the holder) to the twentieth green, and he will be an even more formidable competitor J when the championship comes to be decided this season. Few golfers improve as steadily and rapidly as has H. A. Black. When a member of the old Johnsonville Club he was on a long' handicap, and played 8-6 at Mornington not so long ago. A modest winner and a cheery loser, he plays all the better when a hole or two down. Both he and his brother are very steady, their games varying only a stroke or two during a season. Starting off 3, 4, 3, Harold won the first three holes, but he missed a putt on the fourth, bringing his lead down to 2 up. The fifth was halved" in classy 3's. Jack took the sixth in 4, bringing Harold down to 1 up. The next six holes were halved in 5, 4, 4, 3, 4, 3. At the thirteenth Harold, forcing an iron: shot from an indifferent lie, put his ball into a tangle of big cut gorse. A hunt for the ball resulted in the turning over of much gorse by the cutters at work, on it without avail, and Harold had. played another, ball when the first ball was discovered near the outer edge of the gorse in a bush that had been turned over many times. Jack had played a poor second, but as Harold had taken seven, had an easy win at that hole in 5. The next two were halved. Jack won the sixteenth in 3, but Harold, taking the last two in 4's, won 1 up. Jack had a particularly atrocious stance for his second at the last hole. Harold Black's game with Collins, in the final, was disappointing after the fine golf which had been played by both the Black brothers and Collins and Wagg in the morning. Both finalists seemed to feel the strain, but that did not prevent the match from being an interesting-one, with flashes of firstrate golf interspersed with some of the bad holes. Some of the finest holes in the tournament were seen in the ganie between Sana Wagg and D. C. Collins, who were so evenly matched that Wagg took 37 to-go out against Collins's 35, but came home in 35 to Collins's 37. Collins started off. with 3,' 4, 3, 3, 4, but was then only 1 up, Wagg having done a 2 at the third. Collins 1 won the sixth and seventh in 4's to Wagg's s's, but Wagg won the eighth and ninth in 4's to Collins's s's, and was only one down at the turn. Collins holed a long putt for a 2 at the short water hole, but Wagg took the long eleventh and the twelfth iron-shot hole in 3 and 2, squaring the game. Collins did a. wonderful 3 at the thirteenth, and became 1 up again, but Wagg took a neat 4 at the next, and a perfect.4. at the long fifteenth, and stood 1 up for the first time. Collins took the next in 4, squaring the match, but Wagg won the next in 4, and stood dormie 1. The eighteenth went to Collins in. 5-6, leaving the match all square. The next .was halved in s's, and Collins, taking the twentieth in 4, won 1 up. v ■