PROFESSIONAL GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 56, 8 March 1937, Page 11

PROFESSIONAL GOLF

SHAW BEATS HAGEN

MATCH AT'MIRAMAR

In spite of a blustery northerly wind, good golf was seen at Miramar yesterday in the £50 match between A. J. Shaw, New Zealand open champion, and Walter Hagen, the American professional at present touring New Zealand with J. H. Kirkwood.

Both got away with good drives, but neither reached the green with his second. Shaw put his^chip a foot from the pin and ran down his putt for a win in 4. They halved the next in 4, and Hagen equalised with a 4 to Shaw's 5. Shaw won the fourth by sinking a f.ourteen-foot putt for a 3. Good chips at the next gave each player a 3, and Shaw took the next with a 3, standing 2 up. Hagen found the rough with his drive at the seventh, but played a perfect brassie to the green. Shaw was on the green in two, but .three-putted, and Hagen got one back. Shaw's magnificent teeshot at ijtke «?iiV\th covered the pin all the 'way and £nished 12 feet from it. Hagen had a difficult chip, but he stopped the ball well, and when Shaw overran the hole with his putt, and misse.i the return Hagen sank his putt for" a 3 and squared the match. The ninth was halved in 5, and the pair turned all square.

A twenty-foot putt was no trouble to. Hagen at the tenth, and he took 3, standing 1 up. Hagen's second at' the eleventh was very short, while Shaw was pin-high just off the green. Shaw's putt lipped the hole and he took the hole 4to 5. Faulty play by both players at the twelfth led to a half in 4, and they halved*the next. Shaw's teeshot finished seven feet from the pin at the fourteenth, and he sank his putt for a win in 2. ■ ' i.

Shaw drew 2 up with a 4 at the fifteenth, and when they halved the next he was dormie two. A weak chip cost Shaw the seventeenth, and he stood dormie 1. In spite of long drives at the last neither reached the green in 2. Hagen hooked his pin high to the left, and Shaw was also out in that direction. Shaw chipped up well, but Hagen's ball trickled to the edge of the green, and a half in 4 gave Shaw the match 1 up.

The scoring in the conditions was good, but the shots, around the greens were disappointing, and Shaw was not putting as well as usual. Shaw went out in 36 and took 72 for the round. Hagen took 36 for the outward journey and returned in 37.'