HORNABROOK CHAMPION

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 75, 30 March 1932, Page 9

HORNABROOK CHAMPION

A ROYAL TUSSLE

TOURNEY WELL EUN

The Provincial Golf Tournament of 1932 ended yesterday, in warm but ideal weather, in the victory of J. P. Hornabrook, the young Wairarapa golfer, after a hard game with J. H. Drake/Miramar, who came "combatively in the last few holea ' and made the match very interesting. Hornabrook had rather the better of the same all through, but" he had the element of luck with him also at several holes. His win on the last green was deserved, however, because lie led uninterruptedly after the first two'holes, to win 2 up. The hot sun dried up'the greens, which were very fast in the afternoon. A gallery of Borne 300 followed the match. THE PLAY. Hornabrook won the first in 4-5, Drake over-running the hole with his approach tiutt, and missing the return, and the process was reversed at the nest, Hornabrook doing likewise. Hornabrook holed a thirty-five footer for a 2 at the third, and took the next in 4, Drake topping his drive, and taking 3 to reach the green, 'then over-running his approach putt, and . missing the return. Drake was wide with his iron at the fifth, but laid the next dead. This did not avail him much, as Hornabrook rammed down a putt from the edge of the green for-another 2, making him 3 up. Hornabrook. topped his drive at the sixth, and hooked the next into a tree, but by good luck hit the trunk" instead 'of. the branches, and rebounded into the. fairway. Drake's drive, with a trifle of hook, ran into the rough far down the fairway. Taking his iron, he hit the ball cleanly " from a bad lie, so well, in fact, that, it over-ran the g-een. Hornabrook's third was short, rake, playing from' behind the bank, put his ball.within five feet of the pin, and holed the putt for a 4, Hornabrook taking 5; (Hornabrook 2 up). Drake was wide of the green to the left with his second and short with his third, Hornabrook taking the hole in 4, and standing 3,up. Drake was just down the bank at the long eighth with his second. Hornabrook, evidently trying to save a stroke, went for the pin with his second, which finished pin-high to the left iv the rough. His third, chipped over the bunker, ran to the far.side of the green, but he halved in 5 with a fine approach putt. Horna* brook was on the ninth green from the tee,-but took three putts, ; Drake taking the hole in 3, though his tee shot was short of the green; Hornabrook, notwithstanding vicissitudes, was put in 35, Drake in 39. Hornabrook was 2 up at the turn.,■ Both missed long putts for 3's at the tenth,' and long approach putts from the left of the^eleventh green gave them halves in 4. Drake, chipping out of the rough at ..the twelfth green, put his third wide of the hole, while Hornabrook, putting from the back of the green, was short of the.-hole;,uphill. Drake missed a sevenJoo.ter, and Hornabrook one of less than thre§, feet, a half in s's'resulting. Drake hooted his drive into the rough on the left at "the thirteenth, but put a fine brassie. just short'of the green. Hornabrook was'on in 2, twelve feet from the cup. Drake was short with his run up, and Hornabrook's putt, which was short, stymied him, Hornabrook taking the hole in 4-5. Hornabrook, found the shallow bunker to the right at the fourteenth. There was ,no lip to the bunker, and perhaps he was justified in taking his putter for the shot, but if so he should have hit it more firmly, the ,ball making only three of the thirty yards required. He putted too hard with the next, and missed the return, Drake taking that hole in 3-5. Hornabrook'fl tee shot was too strong at the fifteenth, the ball all but finding the entrance drive at the back of the green. He overran the hole with his second, and missed the long return putt. Drake's niblick shot found the t bunker to the right >of the green. Taking his putter, he was too ladylike,' and, the ball remained in the bunker, the hole eventually being halved in s's. Drake had the honour at the sixteenth, and when he played a stinging' drive in his best style. down the middle, which found the green, Hornabrook, two up, and three to go, must have felt that he had to do the same, for he hit a screamer that finished somewhere in the watercress, put of bounds. Playing another ball, he did. so -well that the ball ran through the sixteenth green, and over the bunker beyond it, eventually conceding Drake the hole. Only lup and 2 io go, it was still anybody's game. To add to the excitement, Drake found the bunker at the seventeenth with his drive, while Hornabrook's drive was well up the bank to the left, though with the bunker between it and the green. Drake reached the green with his second, twenty feet to the right.of the pin. Hornabrook played a cunning run -up shot through the corner of the bunker to within three feet of the pin in 2. Drake, putting over a. bump, nearly holed his long putt. Then Hornabrook, with the game tingling in the shaft of his putter, missed the threefooter, and the hole was,halved in 4, and they went on. Drake hooked his drive at 'the eighteenth, but played a smashing iron shot out of the rough, that had the misfortune to run over the bank at the back of the green. Hornabrook had played a stinging drive, just short of the cross bunker, and when he played a wonderfully judged iron. shot that landed just inside the guarding- bunkers, and ran along to within k quite reasonable putting distance in 2, it could be seen that Drake, who needed a win to carry on, was practically out of it. Nevertheless he.played nicely over the bank, but when Hornabrook was dead in 3, .conceded the hole amidst applause for a well-fought fight. Hornabrook's card, with assumptive figures for-the uncompleted-holes, read:—452425 454, 35; 445455544, 40; total, 75. Drake's, on he same basis, read: 544634553, 39; 445535 445, 39; total,, 78. Few tournaments have proved more enjoyable to the competitors. Though there was a large field, the largest, and strongest yet seen at a provincial meeting everything went off without a hitch, largely due to the work of the secretary, Mr. George Swarm, who believes iri thorough preparation rather than in eleventh-hour activities. An efficient committee no doubt was also largely responsible. The course, though' fast, was in good order COMPETITIONS. The morning bogey yesterday was won by J.H. Drake (scr), 3 up. Next came A. T. Young (11), 2 up; H. K. Adamson (5), \ V?IJ- ??• Mawson (5), all square; G. A. Mills (5), all square; H. P. P. Blundell (7), 1 down; P. J. Fordham (9), 1 downJ. W. Ward (5), 1 down; J. Shelley (9) i down. / - . The bogey handicap foursome in the afternoon was won by H. P. F. Blundell and V. G, Rhmd, 4 up. The trophy for best gross scores in the qualifying round went to .Kana Wagg, The winner of the stroke handicap on Monday was H. P. F. Blundell, 76-9-67. Monday's bogey was won by A. T Young, 3 up. The Birnie Cup is held by G. A. Mills, w» lDS er o£ the 36-nole stroke handicap, 76-77-153 (12), 141. The runner-up was S. G. Longuet, 81-74-155 (12), 143.