GOLF TOPICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19745, 19 September 1927, Page 13

GOLF TOPICS.

MORPETH! AND HORTON, INSPIRATION V. TECHNIQUE. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL. Br T.URWAT. Hie final match in the New Zealand amateur golf championship was a victory for power and inspiration over science and technique. For nine holes at- the commencement of the 36 holes' match it iooked as if science, with its perfectlyplayed long iron shots, mashie shots and chip-shots, models as they were of rhythm and accuracy, would . certainly wear down the defence and the endurance of the opposition. At this stage of the game the power of Sloan Morpeth had not yet come under the sway of the genius which is his, thanks to his perfect- vision and his delicate touch. Repeatedly ho played powerful shots through the green, shots lacking the finish of Horton's, hut, nevertheless, achieving good results by the pin, so that in effect he ceded no advantage to Horton either in effectiveness or in morale. Morpeth was getting the results even at this early stage of the game, although his execution of the shots •nas not to b# compared with Horton's, except on the greens, where the essential truth of his vision and balance gave him the mastery. Indeed, when the long match was over the victor himself, like the real sportsman he is. came to me in order to point out that which I had been observing all through the match, namely, that Horton's shots through the green and up to the pin had been played beautifully, but that he had not been getting the results which he deserved with these shots. Sloan Morpeth won because he is a golfing genius, and my diagnosis of his success is that his great physical and personal power is controlled by a unique touch of inspiration which I call truth, and which comes to him through perfect eyesight and sensitive touch. This quality, this touch of genius, is the "something" which I hinted at in one of my daily reports before the final as the secret of Sloan Morpeth. George Duncan has the same secret, the same quality, and had more of it ten years ago than he has to-day at 44 years of age. This fact holds a lesson for the new amateur champion. He, too, must expect to hay® less of that inspiration, that "something," at 40 years of age than he now has so abundantly at 30. So it is up to hrm to achieve by degrees the technique and the science of the fully-equipped golfer whom he defeated so decisively. He must do thin if he is to win the championship a dor.en years after this, when he is Horton's age. For insrviration fades, alas, with the passing of the years end the power wanes also. Technique, however, remains after inspiration has departed. Comparison of tb* Play. This, of course, is no reflectic-n upon Sloan Morpeth's >;oU. On the contrary, often lie played more difficult shot* than Horton did; played them in his own powerful and inspired way, and got results at ieast as good as Horton'*. Indeed, most of the onlookers were thrilled repeatedly by Morpeth's fine results after playing powerfully from the rough, or neatly from a bunker, or with a driving iron from a position 220 yards from the green. But those who understood what was happening saw much more than the results. They saw the method, the swing, the manner of hitting the ball. They saw that Horton mnde use of the true method, the smoothest swing, the most accurate manner of hitting the ball—why ? Because he always played the shot in tho easiest way, relying not at all on inspiration. """. From a position 100 yards short of * plateau green Morpeth would play a running, leaping shot with a judgment of distance and direction that was uncanny; an inspired shot, hut not a scientific one; a difficult shot on the heavy undulating course. Rarely did he fail to leave the ball well placed by the pin. Horton, on the other hand, invariably played the easiest shot when he was iOO vards from the green. He played n mashie-nibliek, swinging smoothly and deliberately, and sinking the ball with just a suspicion of "bile." Pictures they were, these rnashio and mashie niblick shots. They sailed Wily through the air invariably dead on the pin. No need to judge the opposition of sodden turf and hummocks and banks. The hall soured over these, pitched on the Rreen, or just short, and quickly pulled up~a far easier shot than the other, One# the technique is mastered you can go in for mass production in this shot, and it is, I think, the prettiest and most effective shot in golf—nearly. The Decisive factor. I say "nearly" because the putt really is the most effective shot. This is admitted by a!!. "The man who can pott is a match for anybody," said old Willie Park, several tiroes open champion and or<* of the finest putters who ever sank a putt. That story wag repeated in the amateur final. Morpeth won on tb# greens. Horton, after playing like an angel op to the greens, made the angels weep with his putting. His sense of insecurity on the greens gradually invaded his consciousness when he played other shots and his game deteriorated as the second round of IS boles was played In a great match of this kind tho most important shot you can meet is a holeable putt on the first green. Horton had a six footer for a 3. Ha put the ball pati to the right of the hole. On th* second green, which he had reached perfectly with drive, bransie and chip-shot to withm 6ft. of the cap, the same proposition faced him—a 6ft, pu'.-t for a win tn 4 Of course, he was conscious of having missed that six-foot** on the first irr«ueti. It was harder than ever to hostf this one on the second. Again the hall slipped part on the right. Two ehftftcM gene at the beginning of the match! At ihe fourth it was 10ft. that was miaeed m the same way. At the ninth, tenth and eleventh, after faulties* shots to th« pm, Horton failed with putt* of 4ft, 10ft., and 4ft, respectively. That wag the deciding factor throughout the- match, The poise and the accuracy which characterised Hortoo's play off the tee and op to the pin dewrted htm on the green and appeared is Hloan Morpeth. So on* erwiid avoid noticing this. When Morpeth took hi* ai-aeae for a long run-up putt or for any kind of pot', he «u ali balance, ewe, confidence sod these feeiings, so essential for good putting, he, owed, I think, to his perfect eve and fce&sttirw touch, Ob the greens he was Uk* tho most delicately-attuned instrumesfc, asd he looked as if h* msgfei hoi* anything. Firmly he holed out firatt 3ft. on th* first green, after a run ap. He repeated thai en the fosrth for a wis, just n»itw«f from 40ft. at tb* seventh, grazed the cup at the tttotit from the same distance, should hare got. hw o*»y»4*t at the tenth for * 2, holed 12ft on the I.sth for a *nn. That is the story of the match, Morpeth *e»t tm doing that ami ail the tiise the hsl*w* and u»di which he felt « the potting green osmometer ted tb* jess# m cnsfl- ■ derate »»d j»wr to h*» tn the «th*e departments of the game His fcw| g»fr«e and his iron play, abeays g«d, bmmmtm bftter. He began to appear snehesttW# a* tvu. \ round ef she match pr« c«ed«d *(A hj« <namt.a»n«d and then «• i creased h .» I«*A ... . Mr.rr.*-'h Ar- *--«< tb* * ***»*< .hot - »M wmrmtk n g? «,,, t » ttve p : fi. IfeeKMi Had m l«« * La ,*<■< »■* a f"*7T *■ « j>» «*» n** dsdeawMt m«**• andte h m* zrjrzs'-•