NEARING COMPLETION

Evening Star, Issue 22354, 2 June 1936, Page 12

NEARING COMPLETION

MUNICIPAL GOLF LINKS GOULD BE OPENED IN SPRING BIG IMPROVEMENT IN ONE YEAR Started nearly five years ago, the construction of the municipal golf course is proceeding with more pace to finality. The work is now so advanced that, with a further speeding up, the course could be opened for play in the coming spring. There appears to be a desire in official circles to delay the opening until the autumn to give the fairways a chance of being well grassed ; but the public has become restive over the protracted operations and is anxious for an early opening. When Mr D. Tannock (superintendent of reserves) began the operations in 1931, the sceptics held that it would be impossible to make a course out of the sand dunes with a flourishing cover of lupins. Officially, it was stated at the outset that the work was one of considerable magnitude. But it was by no means an impossible undertaking, for the reserves department had cleared in the adjoining sandhills nearer to St. Kilda a spacious area now known as Chisholm Park, where bowling and croquet greens and lawn tennis courts have been laid down and are now largely patronised by the residents of the fast-developing Tainui From this wilderness of lupins and duties, the golf course has taken shape. 'Quite early in the operations, greens and tees were formed _ and fairways cleared. For a long time, the work appeared to the onlookers to be proceeding -at a snail’s pace, for shortly after a fairway was cleared of lupins, another crop, thicker than its predecessor,' arose, and the greens became patchy. Courses of top-dressing have made a marked improvement in the last two years and most of the greens are now ready for play, and the fairways have made a decided improvement during the summer'. The early grass planting was of fescue and clover, and now the co> ch grass is coming away, making a resilient'pad to give good lies in a course which, when completed, will undoubtedly be the best wet-weather one in Otago. DIG CONSTRUCTION WORK. The big work now going on js the top-dressing of the fairways on the fifth and sixth holes in that big section of the reserve where lupins were once rampant. Mowers have been used to cut the lupins and-their growth has been greatly retarded. The critics who held that a course would never be fit for play would now change their ipinds if they inspected this area. However, a considerable amount of construction work still remains to be done before the final touches, aided by machinery for rolling and mowing, can be put on the course. _ The first hole is a dog-leg, the- tee being at the sandhills entrance of Chisholm Park. The drive, accurately played, would reach to the right of ‘the children’s play appliances now in the park, and the second shot would be through the break in the loftv pines to the picturesquely situated green. The play appliances will have to be moved further back to the fence on the croquet boundary and a big sandhill bunkering, the approach to the green, will have to lie taken away,. The grass is still sparse on the third hnlo. where a sliced tee shot will spell a tall tally on the score card, as the ball will drop down a steep bank to the edge of the No. I fairway. The last hole is still the problem for the constructors. It is the longest on the course, extending from the boundary of-the Anderson’s Bay Cemetery above the entrance from Norman street to the Tahuna road. Massive, sandhills have yet to be removed to give an even direction to above the green, which, although blind, is the biggest and the best.

As designer and 1 supervisor of the course, Mr D. Tannock, whose original plans were approved by Mr E. S. Douglas, the professional of the Otago Golf Club, has throughout _ been convinced that when the course is opened it will give every satisfaction. He is pleased with the progress of the work, and when showing a ‘ Star ’ man over the links, he mentioned that if necessary the course could be opened in the spring. “ But 1 would like another summer before it is opened,” he said. The question, though, is whether or’ not the public will be patient.

Tbc exact cost of the links to date has never been made public, and Mr Tannock confessed that he could not even give the figure approximately. I l 'or a tune the charge that the eon--1 ruction was a waste of Poppy Day ■ndi a • :earcd to be justified, but the s a;e T.r.w rapidly nearing eomple•ion ie c • ;ry is ideal for golf, be.ng £. lice I of that at St. Andrews. whe,e golf was first played'among the dunes near the beach. The course promises to bo very sporty and far from easy to play over, the lay-out making full use of the innumerable natural hazards. A FUTURE EXTENSION, Perhaps too much attention has been paid at the cost of the links proper to the eighteen-hole putting green and the two pitch and putt courses, which are in perfect condition. .Mr Tannock brought back the pitch and putt idea with him from his visit to Scotland three or four years ago. These courses provide golf without driving, and are extremely popular and great revenue earners for the corporations near the congested population areas of Scotland. All that has to be done on the pitch and putt and putting courses is to place the cups in position. An eighteen-hole course in the future is projected, with the additional nine holes to be constructed in the long valley of sand dunes from near Lawyer’s Head right up to Hancock Park and back, past the Tahuna Showground, to Chisholm Park. The Ocean Beach Domain Board controls this expansive area, and it has not been approached up to the present for sanction for the enlarging of the course, Mr Tannock is of the opinion that when the extension is made in the future, the work will be carried through much more speedily than has been the construction on the Chisholm Park area, as no difficulties can be foreseen. This extension would provide holes of exceptional length, and would make the municipal links a real match course. It seems that the public will still have to exercise some patience in awaiting the opening of the links, and that should not be difficult now that the completion is within sight and can be advanced several months if necessary.