GOLF NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 20653, 28 November 1930, Page 15

GOLF NOTES

[By “ Mid-I*on.”] ; i

After passing through a few anxious times during the 36-hole final of the Otago Club championship Dr Kenneth Ross earned last Saturday the right to have his name inscribed on the championship board for the umpteenth time. His oppouent ; young Jack Spence, gave a very fair disnlay, and had In been able to putt the result might quits possibly have be-' different. Up to tbs halfway stage Spence held his own, and possihh I'fin sliprhtlv ;e better of tbs play, but bis putter, with which he baa not been on very good terms all the season, lei him down, and enabled the doctor to prove once more that he is the most accomplished golfer and most formidable match player in the neighbourhood. Play commenced with modest s’s at the first, followed by two indifferent s‘s at the second. A half in 4 at the third paved the way for Dr Ross to draw first blood at the short fourth, where Spence was sadly off tho line from the tee. The fifth saw Spenco duff his mashie shot badly, allowing Ross to snatch a half in 5. Spence bin a beauty from the next tee, and, finding the green, squared the match with a meritorious 3. A fine approach at tho seventh enabled Spence to take the lead, which he augmented at the Monastery with a highly picturesque 3, where the doctor had already collected a neat par 4. In joyous mood “ youth ”• slapped up a high niblick to nestle against the pin at the Glen, but “ experience ” shoved down a 14-footer to share honours. Ross now got to work and clipped a point off his arrears at the tenth. Both players must have counted themselves monstrous lucky to find that they had achieved a half at Tipperary after holing out in seven strokes. Spence’s lead dwindled to zero at M‘Glashan’s t and at the thirteenth was converted into a deficit, where ha required three putts from comparatively short range. At Roy’s the doctor’s tee shot was a trifle exuberant in spite of the rain, snow, sleet, wind, and other forerunners of a Dunedin summer to which the players were being treated ; and with Spence wide to the right a half in 4 resulted. Pitching beautifully at tho fifteenth, Spence drew level with a perfect 4, but lost a great chance of taking the lead by taking three putts at the sixteenth and permitting Dr Ross to get away with a half in 6. Spence looked like being in trouble at the seventeenth, when he was called upon to negotiate a difficult stymie for a half. • He attacked it resolutely, and down went the ball like a rabbit. A half in sat the home hole found the players all square with lunch to go. v Three halves in four commenced the proceedings in the afternoon, but Dr Ross repeated his morning’s performance by annexing the short fourth. Both men negotiated the fifth in classic 4's. Once more Spence found the green at the sixth (indeed, his driving had been the feature of his game), and Dr Ross cam© to rest some 30yds short. Choosing a mashie and playing a perfect pitch and run shot, the doctor electrified the gallery, himself, and certainly young Spence, by sinking his ball for a 2. After this feat halves in 4 and 5 at the seventh and eighth were commonplace affairs, but Spence nearly provided another thrill by laying hia second at the “ Glen ” Sin from the pin. Rounding the corner with a lead of one Dr Ross went further ahead at Tipperary, and, after Spence had permitted him to halve M'Glashans by the simple expedient of taking three putts, tacked on another at the thirteenth, where Spence once more obliged with a similar default. The latter made an heroic effort at the fifteenth, putting his tee shot Bft from the pin. Dr Ross laid his approach close, but Spence failed with a half in 5 at the fifteenth, and another in a par i at the sixteenth failed to make any impression on the doctor’s lead. Undoubtedly Dr Ross earned the title, but as Spence is only twenty years or age he has any amount of time to collect a few championships yet. Thera are a number of young players who are coming to the fore iust now ? who have graduated from being caddies at Ra.l--macewen. Reilly, who played well in the New Zealand championships this year, is probably the best, with Spenco a close Second. Another to show up well recently is Balfour Ferguson, a young player, who hits a great ball from tbe tee and. as a recent round of 77 would indicate, is likely to improve with exeprience. G. “ Ploughman ” Latimer is another who lias been showing great promise, and recently, frohi tbe 14 mark, completed tbe round in 76. It is not easy to guess tbe attitude of Hie Dunedin golfers in regard to blinkers. Judging by the pitiful state of neglect in which tbe Balmacewen bunkers are maintained, one imagines that the committee, at any rate, has nothing but scorn for the modest excavations that adorn the landscape. It is probable that there are ho worse-kent bunkers in existence, search how you may, from Woop Wpop to Llanferfechan, than are to be found at Balmacewen. Adamantine floors, usually several inches submerged, ahd hewhiskered faces are their leading features, Straight faced ' ramparts and shallow pots, givin ga fair imitation of rabbit scrapes, are amongst the exhibits. But what strikes most forcibly is the general atmosphere of neglect and decay that the whole bunkering system conveys. It has been discovered that sand makes quite a good covering for the floors of bunkers.