GOLF TOPICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19717, 17 August 1927, Page 16

GOLF TOPICS.

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS.

progress at middlemore.

MAUNGAKIEKIE CONTESTS.

RESULTS IN FIRST ROUNDS. Deplorable weather conditions marked the qualifying round of the junior championship at Middlemore on Saturday. Heavy westerly rain squalls swept the links at frequent intervals, which did not add to the comfort of the players. W. A. Phillips occupied the leading position with a round of 94.

Everv week now sees further improvements at Middlemore; bunkers have sprung up in every direction, and the changes effected are a true representation of Mr. Redwood's modern ideas of golf architecture. Those greens remodelled have been widened or lengthened as the nature of the shot requires. The two doglegged holes are first-class; for instance, the fifth requires a shot that thrills the player as he sees his ball go sailing over the arm of the Tamaki to an unknown fate round the corner. On Saturday several " disasters " were witnessed at this hole, some so terrible that the wonder was that the victims had heart to straggle on, cold as they were, to the finish. Phillips escaped lightly atthia hole. He had cause for grave alarm at the second, where he missed his drive and took 7. He reached the turn in 46, but suffered a sad reverse at the short tenth, which ccst him a 5. From here on he played more or less steady golf and finished in 48. D. Poison was playing well over the first half, which he did in 45 in spite of an Bat the ninth. With the easier half in front of him he started with a 4 at the tenth, but a mishap on the eleventh green appeared to upset his calculations, for he took three putts on every green but the last two. finishing in 50, a total of 95. Many remarkable fluctuations characterised John Ewen's round of 96. For example, he started with 6-4-8-4, and even went one better by taking 9 for the twelfth, yet he finished in 96, which speaks well for the remaining holes. Lusk's Power of Recovery. The first round of the club championship played on Saturday produced one exciting match. It was between H. B. Lusk and T. G. Kissling, who had tied for iast qualifying place the week before. Kissling is a player who hits the ball attractively with a quick, short swing. He has a good length from the tee, but his putting is not always what it might be, not that any fault could be found with it on Saturday.

Kissling was beaten 3 and 1 by Lusk because the last-named player showed himself, as he has done so often before, to be possessed of a wonderful power of recovery. It was sufficient for a hole to appear lost for it to bs won instead. These recoveries, together with steady putting, won him the match.

The Bartleet-Boddington match was very evenly contested up to the twelfth, where the match was all square. A lapse on Boddington's part saw Bartleet annex the next four holes, to win comfortably, 4 and 3. It was Bartleet's superior putting that was the deciding factor of the match.

Good golf was played by R. 0. Gardner in his match against C. A. Bowen, the game finishing on the seventeenth green, where Gardiner holed a brilliant S/ To win his match 4 and 3 Tidmarsh played steady orthodox golf, as a round of 82 showed.

W. S. Ralph started badly in his match with C. M. Gordon, and was 2 down at the fifth, which he lost after being on with his second. Ralph, however, won the seventh, eigh£h and ninth to be 1 np at the ninth. The tenth went to Gordon in 3, the next four holes being halved in bogey. Ralph won the sixteenth and seventeenth in fours, and had a sitting four at the last, which he was not called ou to hole, Gordon having played the odd.

Maungakiekie Championship.

Six out of the eight senior championship matches in the first round of the Maungakiekie Club were played at Titirangi on Saturday. Those surviving were S. Morpeth, W. L. Robinson, A. E. Robinson, J. N. Hunter, J. M. Hockin and R. McCrystall. They disposed respectively of Anderson, Martelli, Dacre, Thompson, Magson and Fisher. The two games not then played were those between George and Nelson, in the upper half of the draw, and T. A. Goulding and G. Fairburn, in the lower.

Generally speaking the expected happened in the matches played. An exception may be made of the Hockm-Magson match, in which the result was hara to forecast. So it proved to be, even after 18 holes. Magson going down at the 21sfc hole after a very "stubborn fight. W. L. Robinson and Morpeth big wins —6 up and 5 to play, and A. E. Robinson went one better —7 and 5. In the other two games the margin was comfortable—no more—for the winners. # Martelli, who has had a mercurial career at golf, now doing marvels and now very erratic, had an off day. He can hit a long ball and often does, but his line is unsure. This, combined with a proneness to slacken when things are going wrong, has time a«d again been his undoing. Dacre, too, showed an unsteadiness. Both of these losers were pitted against men of strong match temperament.

Losing to Morpeth, Anderson made as good a showing as his opponent let hirn. Morpeth's game just now is marked by great confidence, long hitting and deadly accuracy when the pin is within reach. It may be said for Anderson that probably few would have done so well against Morpeth, big as the margin was, for he knows the fine points of the game better than most. Good golf needs more than a course, a bag of clubs and a ball, and one suprema requisite Anderson certainly has. Junior MatcLes. The games among the juniors produced some surprises, especially in the section playing at One Tree Hill. Two notable wins were those of Rankin over Tuke, 4 and 3, and Wilson over Wiseman, 1 upRankin was on his game, and would have extended any opponent of his class. Wiseman's experience is nothing unusual for him, for he has frequently qualified for the junior championship, only to go down inexplicably in the first round. With an excellent style and a well-controlled shots he ought to have captured the championship before this. But golf is a game of strange happenings. At Titirangi, Joplin, McCullough, Ballin, and I. B. Stewart remain to contest the semi-finals on that course; at One Tree Hill Rankin, Wilson, Spinley and H. Worsley. The winners of the two junior finals afterwards play a 36-hole match, 18 at each course, to decide the championship.