Magpie Makes Merry at Hokowhitu

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 238, 8 October 1936, Page 6

Magpie Makes Merry at Hokowhitu

SPOILED MANY SHOTS AND NEARLY RUINED A CADDIE.

On tropical golf courses wkero a heavily cut ball is likely to disappear over tho “jungle” and como to rest in a snake’s nest, there is usually a local rule under which the player can laruiu into the reptile with a niblick, or whichever club he prefers for that sort of job, without slipping strokes, and wheu the rattlesnake or Biack Mamba, or whatever it is, has turned vip its “toes,” ho can then lift ai>l drop without penalty. Of course, if ,fihc snake secs him first, it is a different story and there is a penalty. At Uokowhilu yesterday there was definite need of a local rule to deal with outside interference on the part of a magpie, which was a source of annoyance to the ladies taking part in the championship tournament, lie was a beastly nuisance on the putting greens for he would get in the line of the putts. He screeched—“woofed” might be a better word—when the players had just reached tho tops of their swings. And, to make matters as interesting as possible, ho swoopod just whenever he could do the most damage. On one occasion his dive would havo done credit to one of tho “war birds” for he scored a direct hit with the business end of his beak on the top of a perfectly good caddie’s head, drawing blood. It was suggested that he felt he was protecting a nest, but he operated over such a wide area that he might have had an interest in all the nests, or have been out for sheer love of tho game. Whatever the motive, the players hoped he would be “put on the spot” beforo the dawn of another morning.