GOLF.

Evening Star, Issue 14626, 24 July 1911, Page 2

GOLF.

THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP. A DRAMATIC'MATCH. Details of the amateur golf'championship at Prestwick last month have come to hand by the mail, and it will be seen from what appears below that the match between the two youths, Bruce Pearce, of Tasmania, and Charjes Evans, otherwise " Chick" Evans, of Chicago, proved to be one" of the most exciting of the of games. In fact, with one exception, it was the most exciting of all. "Evans," wrote a critic, after the second .day, "is obviously a splendid golfer with his iron clubs. He hits a ball with rare precision, and is as good a judge of distance and strength as one could imagine." And yet, later on, he was beaten by Bruce Pearce, the youngest and least regarded of the four Australian entrants, and in the event he lost by a defective iron shot. This is how the story is told by an expert:— The greatest sensation that the amateur gold championship of 1911 has thus far produced came at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon, when Mr Bruce Pearce, the left-handed- and almost unconsidered player from Hobart, Tasmania, gained a victory over Mr Charles Evans, jun., the Chicago golfer, who since his arrival in this country has so greatly impressed the critics by the excellence of his style. It was a desperate struggle, and Mr Pearce played an uphill game with rare tenacity of purpose. Mr Evans began in fine style, and I was 3up at tho seventh ho)e. His score for those holes was 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, 3. Better golf than that it would bo hard to imagine. Mr Pearce was playing well, but. he could not cope with the three-yard putts which Mr Evans holed on three or four consecutive greens. The Tasmanian never turned a hair when Fortune refused to help him. He recovered a hole at the ninth, when Mr Evans was bunkered. The latter, however, was again 3 up at the thirteenth, and at that point his victory seemed assured. The American missed a putt to halve the fourteenth, and that incident perhaps turned the course of tho match. After a half Mr Evans lost the sixteenth, where he made a very bad second almost into the cardinal bunker. He hooked his tee shot up to the seventeenth and was bunkered from his second, but was let off on the green by Mr Pearce, who took 3 putts. The American was now 1 up. To the home hole he again pulled his tee shot, and the ball landed in the pot bunker to the left. Mr Pearce was down in a perfect 3, and the game was square. A huge crowd followed the players to the nineteenth. For the first time since the beginning of the tournament Mr Evans looked anxious. His cleek shot from the tee was all right, but his approach met with an unlucky fate. It trickled over the green and into the bunker below, an earthen step. Meanwhile Mr Pearce was within 10 feet of the hole. Mr Evans looked glum as he took off his coat to play the bunker shot. It was an almost hopeless position. He required 2 to recover from the hazard, then he was close to the hole, but Mr Pearce had 2 to win. He laid his putt dead, and a moment later Mr Evans was congratulating the Tasmanian on a well-earned victory. Prior to this meeting Mr Bruee Pearce was not nearly so well known in this country as his brother, Mr Clyde Pearce, although the pair had held the foursomes championship of Australia. .. . . It is not too much to say that Bruce is the best left-handed golfer in the world, as well as a very dour fighter. The cable last week told us that Bruce Pearce had won the open amateur golf tournament at London. ST. CLAIR LADIES' GOLF CLUB. A bogey match for Mrs J. B. Dick's trophy takes place to-morrow. Mrs 'McCarthy plays Mrs Kahlenberg, Mrs Gilray.. plays Miss Park, MLss-j-Hegarty «pl u J' s "" Miss Fynmore, Miss Burt plays Miss Fotheringham, Mrs Hutchinson plays Miss Tame, Mrs Isaacs plays Miss N. Glendining, Mrs Ramsay plays Miss Nixon, Mrs Smith plays Miss A. Smith, Miss S. Smith plays Miss H. Taine, Mrs Dick a bye.

The final match for the English Amateur Championship was full of ups and downs. For a time Hilton looked as if he were going to have it all his own way. Ho was 3up at the 12th. Laseen, however, won four of the next five holes, and became 1 up at the 17th ; but a great putt by Hilton on the. 18th green brought matters level again. In*the afternoon Hilton putted weakly for a time, and was 2 down at the third hole ; but after his opponent also putted feebly, and Hilton drew level at the 9th, which ho won by the aid of a stymie. The 10th was halved, and then Hilton came with a rush, and won four of the next five holes, and with them the match, by 4 up and 5. The Invercargill Golf Club, at a special meeting held this we>k, unanimously decided to purchase 120 acres at Otatara for new links- It was resolved to finance the deal by raising £6OO in £5 debentures, half payable at once and the balance in 12 months. Over £3OO was taken up by those present. In the competition for- the Women’s Southern Golf Championship (America) a girl, aged 13 y;ars Alexa Stirling, astonished everybody by returning the lowest score in the qualifying round, and she followed this up by' capturing the approaching-and-putting competition, and by carrying lust place in the long-driving event.