GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1932, Page 19

GOLF

iSr "ch'ipshot" ", - ■ NEW YEAR TOURNEYS

N.Z. CHAMPIONSHIP VENUE =i

CENTRAL. COURSE WANTED

1 Locally interest centres this week in tho Mirainar New Year tournament, in -which there are enough first-rata golfers to make tho championship semii finals and final most interesting. Many; outstanding players, however, -will not be taking part in it this year, and n«. doubt some of them, fon the sake of»,, change, arc visiting other New Year.. • tournaments. A mixed tourney is being - - played at Hokowhitu, and most clubs' with pretensions to good courses have . acquired the tournament habit. Miramar is in very fair order, considering tho long spell of warm weather; one or two good rains, mercifully shed in short" time, have helped to keep the grasa" ". alive. Next National Meeting—Where? • - "In the absence of requests from, more accessible centres it appears pro-! bable that next year's championship . meeting will be held at Auckland, pro-' bably on the Titirangi course," says "Slice," of the Dunedin "Star." "Then*' * is no doubt, however, that South Island ■ players generally would favour the choice of some nearer, course, such as, . for .instance, Heretaunga, that could. \ bo reached, with: a smaller expenditure' ■ of time and. money." f'New. Zealand." Golf Illustrated" writes: "Titirangi was" - passed over in favour of • Palmerstoa - North two years ago, and at the same ' time it was suggested that the claim* : of Titirangi to the 1932 meeting would - bef seriously considered. We hope that tho meeting will come to ' utirangi, which is a magnificent and pretty '' severe test of golf under any condi- •. tions, and especially good about September and October before the run gets ; too liberal. Titirangi is an example o£ the work of Dr. A. Mackenzie, tha - famous golf architect, and will giva food for choughs to those players from '- the South who have no seen it." It is quite true that Titirangi is a. ' long way from the South Island, but the same was true of Dunelin, when tk» New Zealand championships were play* - ed there, for Aucklanders. Sonth Is- : land players might favour the holding of the next national meeting at Here- ' taunga, as is suggested, but so far no ' decision, to apply for the championship there has been announced. During tho~ national tournament at Shirley, many." of the'Christchurch players, most of ". whom had made the trip to Heretaunga - in connection with the Tuson Cup, - said that they would like to see tho ' next championship on the Wellingtoa " Club's course, and there is n>. doubt that it would provide'most ideal sur* ' roundings. The question of accommodation would not be an insuperable - barrier, nor is the-course by-any^means"-" unsmted, with a few alterations. What ' makes Heretaunga so'pleasant to"play ' upon for the long handicap.man is thatthe fairways extend ovet- the_wholo - course. The "rough?' -is nevßt-*Uowe& - to become rough. Thus-it-is that the medium .handicap ,man does so well there. But when it comes to breaking 70, a test that stood untarnished fo? years at Shirley, there are not many men who can do it on Heretaunga, eveS with the absence of long rough. Tf the fairways were kept down to a chaia and a half or so wide, and the grass allowed to luxuriate elsewhere, breaking -70 -would be quite a task. ;J1 that would be necessary to make the bunk* • era formidable could be done in a com- " paratively short time. Even if they--r were pnly dug and raked, replacing tha " hard pan by soft earth, it would not" be so easy to get out of them as it is ' now. Then there is the, matter of- - length. This could be got * over quite - easily by putting tees back in most cases, without altsring the course-for - club members thereafter. The first and second are good holes now. Put- - ting the tee back to make the third - into a full iron hole would make it ' one of the hardest holes in New Zea- - land, with the water hazard'and tha - tree-bounded green, which is- already ' well bunkered. The fourth could easily- - be lengthened. The fifth could remaia - a nice one-shot hole, and if needed extra length could be had at the sixth. Tho * seventh and eighth are good two and . three shot holes, and the ninth, ono oi the prettiest holes on a landscape course, is all right as it is. The nest " four holes have the length and enough. - natural features, though these could perhaps be emphasised. In the four- - teenth and fifteenth there are two short holes that have to be played with both - judgment and nerve, while the last • tir<3^ \° ICS ar? all S°od- The seventeenth tee could be placed behind tha creeK, giving more length. None ofthe alterations to make Horetaunga a. stiff championship test need prevent " the course reverting to the comfortabla club standard afterwards, while the - expense would be negligible. Most of - the good scores put up on Heretaunga by visitors are in the summer. Seventy - is not so easy to approacu in October. - when the national meeting is held. The > desirability of perfecting*** recognised central championship course is becoming more evident every year. Tha • attendance- at national meetings wouia - itself make it worth whHe. Women's. International Golf. The first official international match. Britain and America will be played ia tho spring on a" course near London. The British Ladies' Golf Union hava received permission of the Eoyal MidSurrey Club, Eichmond, to - play the match on their course ia the third week m May. Gate-money will bo charged. The contest will be- played by foursomes and singles, on the lines of tha men's Walker Cup match. The women* international cvp1 has been presented s[., thf ,sist6rs M- and H- s- Curtis, of Philadelphia, each' of whom has wo* -E- S- chamPi°nship. As far back as 1907 Miss M. Curtis beat her sister in the final by 7 and 6. Miss 'Enid Wilson at, champion, will lead the British team, and will thus have an oppor- " tunity of avenging her recent defeat by Miss Helen Hicks, the American' champion. It is not improbable that Miss Withered and Mrs. Glenna Collatt Varo will meet again, after their historic encounter at St. Andrews nearly '• three years ago. - .' Teams of One. Dean George C. Bobbins, of Pottstown, Pa., believes golf is too mdi. vidiralised a game for youngsters, giving good competitors an undesirable sense of superiority over their fellows, so he bars the school course to all who are not members of the team or do Hot participate in some other spDrt. Per* haps ho has missed the point. It is when the golfer acquires an undesirable sense of superiority'over himself that the game shows .him where ho stands. • - - A "Greensome." , Mr. E. A. Hethariagtoa ana hi« £4-years-old'stepson, Cecil, an -amateur combination of the Mot© Mount Clnbj Mill-Hill, won the Middlesex County I Alliance Tout-name at at North Middle* sex, Whetstone. The competition', teas " i a 27-holes "greensome," an amusing" and not uninteresting form of golf permitting a partnership to-select'one-of-: their two drives with which to play 1 out the hole, {The wini>*cs?-scazA. —i~