TITLE TO SMITH

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 92, 20 April 1938, Page 16

TITLE TO SMITH

N.I. CHAMPIONSHIP

1 HGRNABROOK BEATEN

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

PALMERSTON N., This Day.

The final of the North Island-ama-teur golf championship was played at Hokowhitu yesterday and it was/followed with intense interest by a gallery of close on 300 spectators.; The finalists were John Hbrnabrookj Manawatu,' open champion of New Zealand, and P. G. F, Smith, the youthful and stylish player from Akarana-.' ' The game was won by the Aucklander, who played consistently good golf to clinch the match 3 and 2 at the 34th;H

Smith is short and slim, but he can get tremendous pace on the club head and it was a treat to see him snap through with his irons. Swinging like a bit of whipcord, he was able to get great length with his wooden clubs, but the real feature of his game.was the monotonous manner in which his iron shots, from well out or from close in, finished near the pin. His approach putting was also very sound,, and it,was on very rare occasions that he gave anything away on the greens. Hornabrook, as a rule, can more than hold his own on the greens^ but yesterday he had a day off and his putting had him worried from the start. With the woods and irons he was wonderfully sound. When up against it he did not make the mistake of going for extra length, and he played par golf to the greens. There, however, ■ his trouble commenced, and he repeatedly left himself v/ith nerve-racking four-footers, which eventually made all the difference between victory: and! defeat; .. ' , , :. : ;; AFTERNOON ROUND. The afternoon round started with Hornabrook 2 down, but he managed to win the first two holes to be all square. The next was halved, but Smith went into the lead again at the fourth, when Hornabrook took three putts. The next hole was responsible for the best shot of the match, Smith's mashie third, which ended three feet from the pin. Unfortunately he failed to follow up the advantage .and,1 by missing the putt for a birdie, enabled Hornabrook, who had also missed a putt, to halve in fives. The next two holes were also halved, but Smith went to 2 up at the eighth when Hornabrook missed a three-foot putt. Smith ran down an eight-footer for this third hole in two during the tournament and turning for hSme led 'A up. Hornabrook retrieved his reputation on the green when he sank a spectacular twenty-footer to halve the tenth. The eleventh and twelfth were halved. Both players struck trouble at the thirteenth, which was halved, though Smith was lucky to get out so easily. Smith'sent his second out of bounds and Hornabrook's second terminated in the rough close to the trees. He likewise required four to reach the green. Smith was 25 feet away with his fourth,, but he prevented Hornabrook from holing his four-foot putt by laying him a stymie, the hole being halved. Smith won the fourteenth after Hornabrook found the bunker and took two to get out. This put Smith dormy 4, but he crashed at the fifteenth, where he was bunkered. It took him two shots to get out and Hornabrook was three down with three to play. He made a bold effort to survive at the sixteenth, but a twenty-foot putt was too much, and Smith, halving the hole, was the winner by 3 and 2.