GOLF.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 21 July 1923, Page 9

GOLF.

The members have got into their stride again since the wet weather closure, and enthusiasm is keener than it has been at any time during the season. The course has settled down again to its former good condition, with the exception of one or two holes where the surface of the fairway still shows traces of the excessive wet. The sheep have marked the course pretty badly in some, parts, but that is rapidly disappearing. The competitions are attracting great emulation, and the result is shown in the increasing practice put in by many members. This should have its effect especially on the championship contests, which Mill commence before long. It behoves everyone to get into form for this, the outstanding event of .he golf season. Wellington, as well as other places, has been much amused in the record of their players being marked with a plus handicap up to plus 16. It was, of course, an obvious error, but some of the . golf critics in the Dominion have • made a good deal of fun of the incident. The Dominion writer puts it down to that convenient and. muchabused gentleman, the printer's devil. So far as one knows, it is the first time si:ch a tiling has happened, so that the paper has made a record. Golf is the latest cn^e in Awakino just now, says the Taranaki Herald, the links being in Mr. Wm. Black's paddock. it is interesting to read in Australian Life that Kirkwood says in the course or some interesting hints to players that '-the objective of practice is not so much to achieve correctness in making a shot as to acquire a sense of free-, -'loin from worrying about how a stroke is made." This bears out the theory uhat confidence in ability to play correctly is one of the secrets of good play. "The skilled player," he adds, "notes only the area of the teeing ground and. then the objective." An in between the tee and the green he ignores in the main. In other words, lie plays for the pin. Playing at Wentworth Falls (New South Wales) on June 1, Major Blake, with a following wind, made a remarkable drive of 3-0 yards. His bail finished 20 yards beyond a green distant i>4o yards from the tee. When Sweetser and Gardner, the Americans, were beaten in the first i-;">uiid of the British amateur champion-r-hip., the golf writer of the London 'limes (Mr. Bernard Darwin) had this to say: "The Americans are so good ■aid so dangerous that we cannot afford '.o feel sentimental over their defeat, but Gardner has so endeared himself to the British golfers that one may shed one little tear over his departure without it being suspected of being a crocodile tear." The Sweetser-Layton match he described as rather curious golf with two rather restive and high-mettled players somewhat frightened of each other. j When Jess Sweetser, American amateur champion, went under in the first . round of the British-amateur "championship,. Rice, the" well-known American writer, pointed out that he was the eighth American title-holder to lose in the first round of British competitions. Jerome D. Travers, who had just won two amateur championships in 1909, and Chick Evans met with a like f-ite in 1911. In 1914 Francis Ouimet, then American champion,, tried for the British title, but received his quietus in the first round, jack McDermot failed to qualify at Hoylake in 1911, and in 1920 Walter Hagen* American open champion, could not get a better place than fifty-fifth, in the British open. Guildford was outed by Tolley in the first round in 1921, and Gardner shared Sweetser's fate in this year's championship. . . . The Dominion says: Still another one has been added to the Wellington total; for the year. The new* member of the ■ •;Hole in One Club" is Colonel J. G. | Hughes, of Miramar Club, who putted : out with a mashie from the tee at "Potiki" hole during last week-end. | He was playing in a four-ball at the time. The flag can be. seen from the tee, but the hole cannot be, and as the four players caught sight of the green it could be seen that the ball was •not on it. No time was wasted in looking round the fairway. The customary convivial gathering is to take place this week-end. The "Hole in One Club" is. very conservative in its ; membership, and it is a long time now j since any lady qualified for a place with-! in the circle of those few who are the' envy of a thousand and one golfers, j It was rumoured recently that a lady j had done a- "one" at a focal club, but) I am informed now that the '-'one" had ' been parted from its partner, in itself'! an insignificant naught, but taken in! conjunction with another number making all the difference between disfinc- I tion and mediocrity. After the above! note was written I received advice that! N. D. Cox, a visitor from Timaru, play j ing on the Karori links last Saturday" I holed out his tee shot at the fourth I (100 yards) from the mashie. j There is a possibility that the women I | versus men match, which is a yearly! function about the time of the New j Zealand championships, will this year be played at Heretaunga". on.the week-j end preceding the championships. The. j amateurs v. professionals- match may [take place at Wanganui on the day be-< i fore the commencement of the cham- ! j pionships. i ! At the New Zealand Golf Champion-1 ship at Wanganui the principal items , in the programme will be: (a) The amateur championship of New j Zealand, in which the 32 players re- • turning the Best score in the four l qualifying rounds will play off by match y-play over 36 holes! i' (b) The opening championship of NewZealand, four rounds of stroke play, I open to amateurs and professionals. The : prizes, if won by professionals, will be -£25, £10, £5, for first, second, and . third. If won by amateurs, the win- | ncr of this event will be the holder for a year of the liandsome trophy . known as the Brodie Breeze Cup, and | will also be presented with a miniature • of the same cup, and trophies to first, [ second, and third. j (c) The professionals championship > match: The. eight professionals in the i open championship returning the lowest gross score will qualify and play off i over 36 holes each match. Prizes: s First £20, second £10. > j There will also be two handicap bogey ; competitions. and two handicap stroke J- competitions, and also four-.all bogey •: handicap, these five events being, 18- - hole matches. .. < i i Another interesting competition, "" which is played each year, will be the a iriter-club championship, for the trophy 1 presented by. the late E. Dennfs i O'Rorke. This is competed for by a teams of four players from each club, » aud the aggregate gross score of each 1 team for the fourth qualifying round i, for the championship will decide this tl event. it : 'Entries are to close with the secree tary of the Wanganui Golf Club or -.-Friday, September 7, 1923. ;