GOLF

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 234, 31 August 1935, Page 4

GOLF

LUSK WINS ROTORUA TITLE. Per Press Association. ROTORUA, Aug. 30. In the final of the Rotorua open golf championship to-day, H. B. Lusk (Auckland) beat R. D. Wright (Auckland) 3 and 2, in the final. In the Thermal Cup event for tile second 32 to qualify, G. Pott (Rotorua) beat A Walden (Rotorua), 3 and 2. . TITLE-HOLDER LOSES. RAINGER BEATS SEIFERT. ROTORUA, Aug. 29. The defeat of the title-holder, L. Seifert, by R. Rainger, was the principal feature of the third round or the Rotorua golf championship. Opportunities were frequently offered Rainger by his opponent’s failure with his woods, which lie frequently smothered, and by the waywardness of his irons at the shorter holes. However, Rainger also played very patchy golf, but mixed poor putting with two characteristic long ones which found the hole, and were a vital feature of his success.

Rainger slipped the lead gained at the opening hole on the fourth green. There he was on in 2 to his opponent’s 3, but putted erratically, eventually to stymie himself and lose the hole in 6 to 5. Seifert had established a lead of two at the seventh, but on the next green Rainger sank a 24-footer to win In a birdie 3, and then missed an opportunity of squaring the game by taking three putts at the next. At the long bole opening the second half Seifert hooked into the rough nnd lost the hole. Each took a hole following, but another raking putt at the thirteenth for 3 enabled Rainger to square the match. A splendid recovery by Seifert at the next, and three putts by Rainger, saw the Miramar player unexpectedly take the. hole. Fortune favoured Rainger at the following short hole, ns he bounced through the bunker where Seifert was trapped, and won it in 3. A good six-footer by Rainger to halve tlio sixteenth was followed by a poor attempt to hole a shorter one at the next, which would have clinched the game. Seifert here pushed his iron from tho tee to the wire, duffed his second and was lucky to get 4. Finally Rainger chipped dead at tho eighteenth to get the half and victory. Probably the most brilliant patch of

golf in the tournament was played on Thursday afternoon by the Auckland Club competitor, V. E. Wells, who reeled off four holes in ten strokes, says the Star. He whs contesting the semi-final of the Thermal Cup with the Rotorua player, G. Pott, and was in the practically hopeless position of four .down with five holes to play. However, at the two short holes, the fourteenth and fifteenth, he recorded twos

I and folilowed with a three, another ! birdie, at the hole across the edge ! of the lake. At the next, another slioi t I hole, he missed a two by the nan ow- ; cst margin, but the orthodox three was I a winner, and he squared the game This startling run came to an end when he sliced his tee’shot into the I trees at the final hole and lus opponent j won it and the match with a tour to | five.