GOLF NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 120, 19 April 1940, Page 4

GOLF NOTES

J. DEMARET’S PLAY. LONGEST SPOON HITTER. (By “Blinker.”) ' J. Demaret, of Houston (Texas), who won the Masters golf tournament at Augusta (Georgia) recently, is the longest hitter of a spoon shot in Amer--1 ica. He hit four shots between 239 2 and 2-13 yards across a gully recently. L Demaret finished four strokes ahead of 1 Mangrum and five ahead -of Byron j Nelson in the tournament. Demaret began Ills association with golf at the age of seven years a.s a caddie, and when only a youth was a prominent player in Houston and later throughout Texas. Hole in One. Players holing in one stroke . seem to he practically an everyday occur- ’ rence, tor nearly every week-end some player in New Zealand does it. A St. ’ Andrew’s (Hamilton) player holed his , tee shot at the first hole, a distance of 170 yards, last Sunday. ■ Amateur Championships. Unlike New Zealand, Australia is holding championship tournaments this year. In the New South Wales tournament -V. N. Waterson, last year’s 1 champion, who defeated J. Eerrier, will lie delending his title. Eerrier, however, will he an absentee. Other , players of note who will be seen are D. .T. Davies, 11. W. Hatterslev (who toured New Zealand two or three years ago) and P. F. Hughes. Golf and Cricket. That golf and cricket can he combined easily was exemplified ut the ’ Akarana Club (Auckland) last week- ■ end when N. A. McMahon and C. Burke, provincial Plunkefc Shield representatives, had a gross round of 87 in a four-hall competition. The pair ’ qualified first with a net score of 70. I. 13. Cromb, the Canterbury and New Zealand representative cricketer, is an- : other player who is very good at both games.

Houston Country Club. Houston is famous in golf for something more than Demaret; 1 refer to the Houston Country Club, writes J. Eerrier, the Australian amateur champion. The Houston course, the best I have so far played on, is cut out of a pine forest, every fairway is treelined, anfl a high premium is placed on accurate golt. The country is pleasantly ■ undulating, with numerous creeks and other water hazards on the layout. It is expertly bunkered for all classes of players, from the champion to the limit goiter. Houston is not as long as other courses I have visited —it measures 6256 yards —hut is more testing than longer and more open courses. It forces a player to place his shots from the tee to avoid the fairway bunkers, and to be in a position to play his second shot straight to the flag. If one is out of position on the course and still on the fairway, the shot to the green is generally an awkward one over guarding greenside bunkers to the flag, which is mostly on a portion of the green sloping away from the player. The narrowing of the fairways about- 250 yards from the tees also keeps the long-hitter thinking, and not slashing out for the long drives. Off the fairway at the 10th hole, where I pulled my drive into the trees, I soon realised why Americans are straight off the tees. The hall was stymied h.v a dozen pine trees and lying in long grass. This taste of the rough cured me. The greens at the Houston club are fast, similar in pace to most American greens. Fairly undulating, they fully test a player’s putting a.tnTitv, as there is nothing harder to putt on than fast greens with a good deal of borrow on them. Freak Golf Shots. The unusual incident in the golf match at the AYaitikiri links, Christchurch, recently, when a golf hall driven by a player came to rest on the back of a live hedghog, recalls tho fact that golf balls have been known to behave in a freakish manner on

many occasions. The Golfer’s Handbook, commenting on a number of incidents, states:— “Halls have been accidentally driven into railway compartments of trains in motion and into 'vehicles passing or crossing golf courses. Such incidents are numerous in Scotland, where railway lines run alongside many links and public roads and cart tracks cut through the links. -Many instances are recorded of a ball played in a match dropping into the pocket or remaining in the clothing of one of the players or of some person on the links.” One incident concerns the feat of a County Cork player in driving his ball into tlie ear of a donkey. The donkey stood still until the players were within a few yards of the animal, when it took to its heel, tossed its head, and the ball went spinning to the ground. At Duddingston in 192-1 a ball became embedded on the back of a sheep. It was only after the sheep had been chased some distance that the ball was dislodged. In a match at Prestonrango in 1938 a player booked his ball at the second hole.. The player bad given up the ball for lost when, to bis amazement, a woman emerged from one of tile bouses adjacent and banded back the ball, which, she said, bad fallen down the chimney and had landed in a pot which was on the fire. One of the most unusual shots on record was executed at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1923, by a woman player. After an approach shot had landed in a bird’s nest, she climbed the tree in which the nest was situated, took a stance among the branches and played a pitch shot on to the nearby green. She holed out in one putt and halved the hole. It is a common occurrence for rabbits and birds to be killed by golf balls. The most astounding fatality to an animal through being struck by a golf ball ball occurred at St. Mnrgaret’s-at-Cliffe Club, Kent, in 1934. when the club professional killed a cow with his tee shot to the 18th hole. The player used a No. 2 iron for his shot, and was surprised to see the animal collapse after being hit on the back of the head. While on a tour with a British professional team in South Africa in 1930-37, Abe Mitchell, playing on tlie Hill course at Port Elizabeth, noticed that bis club struck something bard when he played his second shot from the edge of the rough at the first hole. Taking another swing he unearthed a tortoise upon which his ball had perched from the tee shot. Playing in a match on the Bala course in 1929, Bev. Davies Jones took his stroke at a ball which had fallen at the mouth of a rabbit bole. A rabbit appeared and was killed by the nrashie.