Golfers and Their Game

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1934, Page 22

Golfers and Their Game

By "Chlpshot."

While pre-championship form is no indication o'f form when, the struggle for the title is on, there is much to indicate that the quality of the' golf at the excellent testing Belmont course in October will he of a very satisfactory standard. A. J. Shaw is turning out such regularly fine cards that it seems as though he will again be looking over the Open Cup when he makes his little speech at the close of the 1934 meeting. There are, of course, plenty of first-rate professionals who will try to ohviato this, but they will have, a difficult task. Shaw was never steadier,'; and' it seems unlikely that he" ■will -drop mqre'than a stroke in each of the aggregate rounds. On present form'he can afford to do this, but if he plays, a string of brilliant cards, as he is more likely to, he will bo hard to : catch. The amateur standard this year should also be high, and it niay prove to be a young golfers'' year. B. V. Wright is in fine form, and may hold tho title, but in almost every district there are brilliant youngsters, many of whom appear, to have just come to light, and it seems probable that all tho members of the Kirk-Windeyer Cup team last year will be pressed in one or two, if not all their matches for the Amateur crown. Heavy weather will.make Belmont formidable by slowing it up, long enough though some Of the holes are, but otherwise the course ', should be in better condition all round than it was in 1927, and if it is a trifle stiffer by reason of the. oxtra bunkering it will call for some spectacular recoveries when, as occasionally with all players, a shot finds tho rough or a bunker. Some of the rough is rough, .matted in its natural ferocity, and harflly an artificial note to reassure the trespasser, and off.the line shots occasionally find, amongst other terrors, lupins that have waved undisturbed for years. J Miramar course looks better this spring than for several years. ■There 1 is plenty of grass, and it is well spread, bare patches being small, and apparently are going to vanish when the weather gets warmer. Some fine play was seen there on Saturday by D. 0. Whyte, who turned in a 75 with a 7 in it, and a dead stymie at another hole. When he is hitting, them truly Whyte is one lof the most formidable players in Wellington, and on Saturday there was no fault to find with his game. Long drives, seconds on. a ruled line for the pin, mashies that; left him little to do, , and putts that were on the line all tho way provided crisp, stylish golf that was a pleasure to watch. H. A. BJack was temporarily off his game when he met Whyte, but made up for it the next day on the same course by doing a 72. It is often said that there is no golfer to touch A. J. Shaw, and his 67 on Sunday on this stiff courso, only two off the record established in summer by B. M. Silk, was a remarkable display of fine golf.

EYES ON BELMONT

KEEN EI&HT EOR- TITLES

a wood. This little adventure produced a '6, one of three in seven consecutive holes. Out in 42, Miss Wethered. was nine over 4's with thirteen holes played. If Miss Wilson had taken her chances, which she seemed incapable of doing, the match would have been virtually over at this stage. , Instead, she was only two up, a lead that was swept away in the deluge at the last five holes. Suddenly finding her putting touch—the distracted caddie must have offered a few words of advice—Miss Wethered holed a putt of six yards at the long fourteenth for a 4 to win the hole. Holing another at the next, the match • was square. Miss Wethered should also have won the sixteenth, •where she drove to the edge of , the green, a distance of 278 yards, but hit a weak run up. This was a half in 4, but at the seventeenth, a hole of 210 yards, played from an elevated teeing ground, she hit a glorious No. 3 iron shot within three yards of tho pin, and holed the putt for, her, third 2 of the match. ....... Dormie one, Miss Wethered also won the last; where Miss Wilson, in an attempt, to get .extra length with, her drive, sliced against a hedge. 'Generally, Miss : Wethered ; held the advantage'from the tee. The difference was not much,' but just enough to compel Miss, Wilson to, take a moro, powerful iron than her opponent for the second shot...' ''.' There was a good illustration of the difference in length at the twelfth, a hole of 510 yards played down wind, and with sloping ground for*the second shot. "Miss Wilson took a spoon and Miss Wethered a No. 3 iron, and both were over the green. In every, way, the more polished display was that of Miss Wethered, this being especially noticeable in the iron shots, which were hit cleanly and more decisively. The bogey of Bramley is 74, and the respective scores were: Miss Wethered 77 (back, in .35, two' better than the men's bogey); Miss Wilson, 78.

WENT ROUND THE COURSE

Never has a golf course received more tender'treatment than, the _ Australian Club's layout did when members of the Greenkeepers' Association played their first competition at the vitation of the club, says the "Sydney Telegraph." "I played round just behind them," said a member, "and there wasn't a divot hole to be seen*" In fact, some players went to extremes in their regard for the welfare of the tiirf by not using the fairways at all. One competitor painstakingly delved his way along the rough for a 62 out and 73 home. W. Fielding, of the New South Wales Club, won the best gross score (not mentioned) trophy, and H. Nolan (23) won the handicap by six strokes from E. BichardsoSi (15) and 0. Bowden (24) with a net 65.