GOLF TOPICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19675, 29 June 1927, Page 16

GOLF TOPICS.

NEWS FROM THE CLUBS.

CONSOLIDATING THE PLAY. PRAISE FOR REPRESENTATIVES. The fact that the season is well advanced and players have had ample opportunity to consolidate their golf possibly accounts for the exciting and keenly-contested games in the captain's tournament played at Middlernore on Saturday. A feature of the play, reflecting credit on the handicappers, was the number of matches which finished all square and had to be played again. W. B. Colbeck's long experience in competitions of this nature no doubt played a big part in his defeat of the youthful player, J. K. Lusk. Lc.sk is a' very promising golfer, and with youth on his side there is no reason why he should not follow in the footsteps of hir> uncle, H. B. Lusk. D. Robertson appeared to have no difficulty in defeating E. J. Richardson, on the 13 mark. Robertson his shown up conspicuously all through the season. J. F. Ewen made no mistake in defeating H. Tidmarsh. This eliminates the Tidmarsh brothers, a very formidable pair. In the play-of? in the match between H. B. Lusk and W. Geddes, Lusk played much better golf than on the previous Saturday. For a time Geddes found trouble with his iron shots. He should take a leaf from J,he book of B. Macky, < who is proving himself a master by the way he is coming through his rounds. The surprise of the day was the defeat of Dr. F. Macky by Harris. Macky ig capable of holding his own with the very best players, but is apt to be unsteady. Maungakiekie Club. As anticipated, the handicap matchplay competition at Titirangi for the Taylor Bowl drew a large field, 94 players entering and only two losing their matches by default. Thi3 year one or two players wont to frequent the Titirangi course have transferred their affections to that at One Tree Hill, but there is always likely to be a steady flow the other way, and some devotees of the Hill links were on Saturday among the Taylor Bowl contestants. That they did - not fare well is perhaps instructive: Blackburn, Spinley, St. George and Tolhurst, who must know almost every blade of grass at the Hill links, were all beaten by players of about their own calibre, a result suggestive of the value of lccal knowledge. It is certain that the hazards &\t Titirangi exact more condign punishment for mistakes in line and length, particularly length, than do those at ( the Hill; and the player with experience of these hazards knows better when to dare and when to be humbly discreet. There were few surprises on Saturday in the first-round games. In general, the longer-handicap men went down. A factor in the defeat of a number of these , , was the fixing of 15 strokes as the maximum limit for the competition. The loss of the accustomed advantage which the limit men enjoy meant gain for the lowerhandicap 1 men drawn against them; only two or three strokes it may have been, .but" enough to burden them with, a fatal sense of added incapacity. In golf the mental factor counts for so much that this loss of even a few strokes befo.-e the first tee-shot may well have seem<id greater than it realty was. No complaint reasonably lies against the arrangement. In any case, it operates mainly in the opening round, which eliminates players with very slender * chances of annexing a trophy won by consistent match play throughout several successive weeks. The first player to hole out in one on the new Akarana Club's links is G. Barr, who accomplished the feat at the short eighth during the week-end. Thp. eighth, by the way, is a very easy hole, The ground slopes gradually uphill from the tee and the green is free from bunkers. The club hopes to have a quintette , mower in about two weeks, and members can look forward to the long grass being cut away and playing conditions being considerably improved. Wonderful Putting.Arthur Duncan must stand as & living monument to New Zealand golf. _jj a r the golf correspondent of the Sydney Mail. He has been winning Dominion championships for well-nigh thirty years, and at J the moment he is still the holder of the amateur title. Moreover, his imprint is obvious in the game of the younger players who have climbed to the top , rung. Without the inimitable grace, T. H. Horton and L. Quin, fellow-members of the oversea team, have succeeded in absorbing a great deal of the *real essantials displayed by the older leader. In decisiveness and control of swing they axe scarcely his inferior, and of Duncans ( peculiarity in putting they have madi) : an invaluable asset. It is doubhul it a more formidable tno has ever been seen on a putting gri en. Their methods 1 are in direct contrast to those of crar most noted putters, who almost without ■ exception .adopt the upright stance; hut there is no question about the resulting i efficiency. They are deadly from any distance, particularly sure of the eight to ten "footers," and just as liable as not tq hole from the edge of the green. In achieving these astonishing results th» New Zealand plavers appear to put their weight on the right foot and crouch low over the bent right knee. More peculiar still, the left foot is placed well in front of the right, in the position that one would adopt for an intentional but ' exaggerated pull in a full shot. "One serious mistake that golfers make when taking .up the game fairly late m life is to set a certain style as a goal, says Francis Otfimet, in Golf Illustrated. "In other words, a man of fifty, seeing '■ Bobby Jones play, immediately decides to pattern his game on that of the Atlanta wonder. Not . all styles suit all players, however. The golfer should decide on the style best adapted to his build, and having found it should try to imitate it. not blindly, but intelligently. In othe': words, he should adapt j a style to his own game." Striving ior Accurp.cy. Accuracy combined with the necessary length is what is most wanted in our iron shots, says Abe Mitchell.- Length without accuracy is of no value whatever, and after much practising I am convinced the slightly open stance is the one to adopt. A slight alteration in the address, keeping the right foot up to the ball and letting the left foot find its own place in the order of things, will after a very little practice be found to improve the iron piay of many who at present find their play rather erratic. The Rose Bay course, Sydney, where members of the New 2lealand .team have been "playing, has a wonderful reputation, and many visitors have expressed the opinion that it is among; the best courses of * the world. The holes at Rose Bay, in their order, with bogey in parentheses, are as . follows:—294 (4), 423 ( 5), 162 ( 31, 410 (5), 365 (5), 139 (3), 526 (5), 265 (4), 386 (5), 369 (4). 400 (5), 382 (5), 480 - (5), 196 (3), 425 (5), 571 (5), 221 (3), 387 ( 5).