GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 120, 23 May 1931, Page 20

GOLF

BY "CHIPSHOT" AN ENGLISH WIN

AMERICANS OUTED

DUNCAN IN FORM

Tlic chief interest, as tlieso notes gtf to press, is the victory of Britons in. I lie championships at Home. Both semifinalists in the amateur championship lire young golfers. It may bs that tho American team was non-plusscd, by thai absence of Jones, and that .the anxiety of finding out wiio tiiey had to beat was reflected in their golf. Duncan in Form. One of the most unpleasant surprises a golfer may experience befell A. D. S. Duncan at the iirsi tee in his match, with liana Wagg on Saturday t.t Heretaunga. With the old spliced allwood clubs which disappeared in favour of the socketed wooden head, it was not so unusual for the head to part company with the shaft, but such thinga have been comparatively rare of recent years. Duncan's driver broke at the socket, and the strange thing about it was that it was a steel shafted club, which would seem .to be as indestructible as such things can be. Driving with a brassie, Duncan was at a disadvantage, and was 3 down, at the eighth, having won only one hole. Reinforcements came to hand then in tho shape of a new driver. Duncan reached the ninth green, 227 yards, with it against a light breeze, and sank a fifteen-footer for a 2, while Wagg, who narrowly missed being in the bunker on the right, took 4 for the hole. Turning 2 down, Dunaan set himself to make up his leeway. He has gained considerable length in his tea shots as the result of keeping his right elbow as much into his side as possible, and with this change of style he is now one of the longest drivers in. the Wellington Club. Wagg drives no meaa ball, but Duncan owed him practically; nothing from the tee, and sometimes was past him. The tenth was halved, in 4's. Wagg's second at the eleventh, lay 70ft from the pin on the left-hand edge of the green, but ho sank the putt with a beautifully judged shot that would only just have passed the hols ■ had he missed, and was 3 up again. He missed a putt at the nest, whiilt Duncan took in 4. Wagg's second at the thirteenth was pulled a trifle, while Duncan was putting, a six-footer for a 3, which he would probably have sunk except for the fear of knocking Wagg into the half open hole, and Duncan was 1 down, and sto go. A better approach putt from an awkward spot at the top of the bank at the back of the green gave him the fourteenth in 3, and the game was squared. The fifteenth was halved in 3's. Wagg played a high ball with a tremendous carry at the sixteenth, but it dropped - practically dead with a bunker between it and the green, and, only just clearing the mound, his niblick shot got a kick on the downward slope that sent theball careering across" the green into the rough. A good approach enabled him to halve in 4. Lying below the high, mound of the bunker guarding the green with his drive, Wagg was short with his lofted approach, and short with the next, leaving him a long and impossible putt for a half, Duncan standing 1 up. Duncan's second all but ran over the bank at the back of the green at the eighteenth, but-again he played a masterly approach from the worse position, and Wagg could only halve in 4. Duncan's card read 543545662—40; . 444433444—34; 74. Wagg was out in 39, and back in 38. D. 0. Whyte's Return. .. D. 0. Whyte has played very little golf- recently, and' his card" of 74 on Saturday showed that tho rest has done him good. He was out in 444434454— 30, and back in 38, with a 6 at the tenth. L. Buist, the Hutt champion, was not playing at his best, and Whyte boat him, 5 and 4, in the interclub' match last Saturday. Douglas for Otago. E. S. Douglas, who has left the North Shore Club at Auckland for the Otago Club, is a professional who has had a considerable influence for good on the* game in New Zealand. He is a former open champion, and had a lot to do with the remodelling of Belmont. Playing at Glendowie recently Douglas established the best score for that new club ta date, returning a 70. In view of tha fact that the greens are only temporary, this is good work. Eeilly's 71. W. B. Eeilly, one of the young Belmont players, is getting into form again. Last Saturday, on the scratch mark, he was up on the Colonel, being out in 36 and homo in 37 —a nice 73. His card read as follows:—Out: 544444443—36. In: 453443644—37. Total, 73. Over the week-end, at Seafield, he returned a splendid card of 71, made..upas follows: —Out: 544544443 —37. In: 353343544—34. In the Line of Fire. On Saturday afternoon a spectator at the Soccer match at Waiwotu Received the full force of a powerful drive right between his shoulder blades; fortunately he had on a thick overcoat which minimised the force of the impact a little. This emphasises the necessity of people keeping & sharp look-out and taking heed of shouted, warnings when crossing fairways or standing in the line of fire. The Rules Again. Golfers, even tho best of them, are notoriously unacquainted with all the rules governing tho game. Recently at an important open meeting where many; noted players were gathered, says a southern critic, a player in a foursome championship (his handicap, by the way, was 5), from tho range of 21 yards (the measurement was actually taken at the time), hit the flag which was being held on the green by his caddie. Tha score was marked down with a penalty of two strokes, and on handing in the card the point of tho pc-nalty was brought to the notice of the committee as to whether the two-stroke penalty; • waa incurred or whether there was no penalty at all. Opinion was very divided upon the point, and argument waa both lively and warm. It was only after considerable debate that a modest sixteen handicappc-r informed the experts that they were all wrong, and that tha penalty was obviously one stroke, which, of course, was perfectly correct, as rule 9 for stroke play competitions rends; "If a competitor's ball strike or be stopped by himself, his clubs or his caddie, the penalty shall be one stroke, except as provided for in stroke rule 13 (1). Although, of course (he bnll did not strike the caddie Hut the flag, it must be held that anything which the caddie was holding at'the time constituted part of his person. The Ryder CupThe British Ryder Cup tram to meet America on the Scioto course, Columbus, in June, is gradually taking tangible shape. Originally there- were twenty-six 'nominees, but the last or! the series of trials at Fulwell on 2nd May, the number was reduced to eighteen, wrote George Greenwood in the "London Daily Telegraph" recently.