COLT NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 160, 8 June 1939, Page 6

COLT NOTES

E. FLETCHER’S FORM. AT FEJLDING TOURNEY. (By ‘’Bunker.’’) E. Fletcher, of the Palmerston North Club, lias been playing good golf ol late, especially so during the Eeikling Club’s King's Birthday tournament. In the qualifying play Fletcher had a round in 76, and with his handicap ol 9, he tied with four other players l’or the best not score. Fletcher accounted for H. If. Farquliarsoii (Feildingj in the first round of the championship, and R. H. Sinclair (Manawatil) in the second round. After being dormy ■} on Fletcher. Sinclair lost:, three holes in succession to lie all square at the 18th. At the 19th Sinclair hit his drive into the trees on the left of the first fairway and in the dusk lost the hole and the match. In the semi-final against .1). A. Ha.rkncss (Palmerston North). Fletcher had a round of 7:1 which is par for tlie course. At the first hole he got a. bogov. at tlie short second a birdie 2. at the third a bogey, and at the •short fourth a birdie 2; this gave him a lead of four holes on Tlarkiiess which the latter could not reduce. Fletcher's card read : Out: n 2 4 2 4 6 -I r, 4—,’S6 In: 4 :i -i ;i 6 4.5 :i J—:s7 In the semifinal, >\. .1. Hya.nis (ITuti) heat A. I). Fiillerlon-Smitli (Marion). Eullertou-Sniith qualified first and was expected to win the chanipionshi p. lii the final Hyains beat. Fletcher J and 2, alter the former was dormy 4. Club Competitions. The second qualifying round and a stroke handicap will be played by the members of tlie .Manawatil Golf Club on Saturday. At Awatapu the Palmerston North Club will be engaged in a match against Shannon. Bobby Locke in England. Bobby Locke arrived in England on May ii. Unco a EoOU-a-year mining clerk in Johannesburg, be lias turned liiinseli into it £<TU(J(J-a-year golf professional. Locke is there on hi.s lourtli invasion. Mr Leonard Oates, a Johannesburg motor magnate, and Mr Teddy .Marks, a mining millionaire, who put up the .L’otlt) for him to play against Henry Cotton and R. A. Whitcoinliu last year, have unlimited money with which to hack him, a.nd there was £10(10 for the match with the open champion, Reginald Whitcombe. put up by Mr Nnrhert Erlcigli, the Rand mining magnate. Locke and Alfred I’adgham, who have linked up lor flic season, now throw out a challenge to all comers, four-ball or foursome. So (says a writer in an exchange) here is real money. We are back to the days of Walter Hagen, but with this difference; we have more top-class golfers to-day ; and there is no “beaten before we start 1 ' complex such as our professionals of a lew years ago were accused of, rightly or wrongly. Locke lias travelled 40.000 miles since he loft England last August. lie has acquired the open titles of Ireland. New Zealand. 'Transvaal and South Africa, the last two with the record low scores of 20*5 and 2(0. “The British Oik'H is so hard to win.” lie said, “and so many things can happen in the four rounds, that no player ever born should be loss than ten or twelve to one,” be said when discussing the odds at which lie was being favoured. “I doubt if’ Bobbv Jones was over n better bet than flint.” Meanwhile, a nice little problem awaits him. Ho usually carries 22 clubs. The new rule permits him only 14. Which of his seven woods for oxainnle. will he leave in the clubhouse ? “Birdies” in Golf. Crows are making golf dear in South Wales. ’They have stolen hundreds of balls from courses, and golfers are offering rewards for dead crows or eggs. The crows are so bold that they soar lazily above the players until balls have boon hit, then they dart down and snatch them up. The Chip Shot. The chip shot is ono to which haste or jerkiness of any sort will spell disaster. It must never l>o hurried, states Arthur Bell, a leading American golf tutor. Another important thing is to be sure you keep the clublieud low in both backswing and followthrough. The stroke is almost identical to the putting stroke and you know you can’t lift your putter head far ofl the green and -get away with it. fl you find you are apt to hurry tin stroke, Maine your right hand for it. ’That’s the culprit in all hurried shots in golf. Pig's New Diet. An incident not without its humorous sick 1 occurred on the Thames goll links recently, when a lady golfer, playing her first game there, drove a ball into tho usually empty piggery. This time there was an occupant of the pen who sampled this new diet and refused to let it go despite the persuasions of the fair golfers. Eventually, however, the pig chewed the hail, and finding it not palatable spat it out. As it was past playing, the local rules governing the point had to be consulted.