GOLF NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 21623, 19 January 1934, Page 6

GOLF NOTES

[By Slick.] An important event in the Otago Club’s programme each year is the competition for the Bruntsfield medal, which is decided by two rounds of medal play, and the player who returns the best net aggregate for the thirty-six holes can virtually be said to be the unofficial club champion on medal play. This event, which was down on the programme for last September, was postponed until early this year, as the greens were then considered to be not good enough. The course is now in excellent order, and all but two of the greens are perfect. The present holder of the Bruntsfield medal is T. B. Ferguson, who, it will be remembered, made Dr Ross produce his very best to win the club championship. Consistency in golf is a question of grooving one’s swing so that each time the ball is hit it will behave in exactly the saipe way. One often sees a player hit a ball fairly correctly, and the ball leaves the club perfectly, but the test of a good golfer is not whether one can do a certain shot once or even twice, but to do it all the time. This is the theoretical aim—in practice even the world’s best have their lapses, but it is the most consistent player who comes out on top. Consistency is acquired by knowing how to hit the ball correctly and to eliminate one’s natural faults, and these objects are acquired only by dint of long practice and efficient coaching. /The importance of going to a professional can hardly be over-estimated, as it gives a player a solid groundwork, and all the practice in the world will not allow a player to perfect his game if his ideas are wrong. If one’s game develops a serious fault and one finds that lunches are becoming an expense then by all means go to the professional —he will doctor-you up. That many English golfers are inclined to insist far too strongly upon the difference between stroke play and match play is a contention advanced by a critic discussing stroke and match play in a recent article in ‘Golfing.’ The average American golfer’s attitude respecting this topic is, it is maintained, well worth considering. “To the American golfer the difference is for all practical purposes non-existent. When he is playing a match he is accustomed to hole out on every green and to record his score with exactly the same care as he /Would employ in a medal competition, while in a medal competition ho schools himself to play each hole against, the par of the course, just as h would do in a match. The mental attitude in both form's of play is practically the same.’’ Golfers who complacently declare that they are no. good at this card and 'pencil business are in the majority of cases those who are also indifferent -match players and are only successful in match play events when, they come up against opponents as unreliable as themselves) Many instances in first-class golf are quoted which show that a ,good ‘stroke player is also the man who wins his matches. ! ,

“ When people talk of the difference between stroke play and match play,’* the article states, “ they are really contrasting the 72-hole test of the open championship with the 18-hole matches of the amateur event. It is not the form of play that makes the difference, but the length of it. ' In the 18-holo matches ■of the amateur championship it is possible for almost anything to happen, but if you decided the open championship by eighteen holes of stroke play almost anything might happen there, too. The number of golfers who are capable of hitting the heights for one crowded round of glorious golf is legion.” The article also stresses the value of stroke play as a test when selecting teams for match play events, thus: “ The stroke play test is foolproof, because it is the only kind of test that puts a definite assessment on the value of the player’s game as a whole. A 72-hole trial discounts the one lucky or unlucky round, and tests the player’s quality on the most essential point—the ability to ‘ hold on.’ ”

contest at Inyercargill a month or two ago, and then) moving out of his class to meet Ted Oxley, the New Zealand light-weight champion, he had Oxley longing for the gong in tho last round, a points’ decision going to the champion, who was almost out on his feet. Franklin is right at the top of his form, and, being a rugged, aggressive fighter and a recognised crowd-pleaser, should prove, popular here. Whoever wins should certainly have first consideration for a tilt at Rayner’s feather-weight crown.

Canadian Boxer in Sydney. Billy Townsend, of_ Canada, the latest N.B.C. importation, arrived in Sydney on the Aorangi on Saturday morning. He will meet Jimmv Kelso at Sydney Stadium on January 22 (says a Sydney writer). The Canadian, who is twenty-four years of age, is also on his honeymoon, having married three months ago. The N.B.C. has angled for months to bring Townsend to Australia. The victor of Al. Foreman, Tod Morgan, and former world’s feather-weight chain- ; pion, “ Batt ” Battalino, he has won seventy-one knock-out victories in 132: contests. Originally a “ southpaw,” Townsend changed to the orthodox; style, but he still retains potency of punch in his left hand. He has had a great career during the last four years., If he fights up to the form that made him an attraction in New York City and Chicago. he_ should prove an even better money-spinner than Morgan to his importers. He weighed 10.4 on Saturday. He expects to enter the ring no heavier than 10-stone for Kelso. British Heavies Beaten. Two British heavy-weights failed in America over the holidays. Don M‘Corkindale, of South Africa, British Empire heavy-weight champion, losing a point decision to “ King ” Levinsky at Chicago (111.), and the English “ Carnera,” John Pettifer, was outpointed by a negro _ heavy-weight, Leonard Dixon, of at New York City (says a Sydney writer). M'Corkindale showed great gameness against Levinsky, fighting a fast final round in the tenth after having been the victim of seven knock-downs. The King, who is probably the hardest punching American heavy-weight, rattled the Springbok with punches to the head early in the fight, and M'Corkindale never recovered. The American tried hard to keep the Britisher on the canvas for the necessary lOsec; but M'Corkindale amazed a large crowd by beating the count and fighting back fiercely when he rose.

The winner is graded about fourth in the lists of heavy-weights. From a raw novice, he fought his way to the top by means of his hard and unorthodox punching. M'Corkindale, who in his American debut, heat a promising youngster named Patsy Perron, will be given a return bout with the “ King Fish.” as Levinsky is known owing to his previous profession of a fish porter. Pettifer’s defeat was not altogether unexpected. He arrived in America without much publicity, and with the intention of emulating the career of the Italian giant, Primo Camera, who is now official hen\ r y-weight champion of the world. Heavy punching by the negro beat the tall Englishman.

Infinitely Better Boxer. Describing the bout in which Len Harvey of Plymouth, took the British heavy-weight boxing championship from Jack Petersen, of Cardiff, on points in fifteen rounds, in London recently, an English paper says:—“Harvey was an infinitely better boxer than Petersen, his ringcraft, superb footwork, and clever tactics proving far too much for his opponent. He showed also that he had that instinct of attack which many had denied him, and after be bad let Petersen do all the leading in the first seven rounds he took his opportunity