GOLF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19527, 9 July 1925, Page 4

GOLF.

By Divot.

The Shirley links are undergoing a thorough preparation for the Now Zealand amateur championships which are to bo decided there in September. Various portions of the fairways are at the present time “ground under repair,” as they have boon subjected to a liberal top-dressing, and they will have benefited by the hoary soaking rain of last week. H- B. Solomon, playing at Hagloy last week, holed his tee shot at the ninth hole, 110 yards. This ,is the first “one” which, has been obtained at Hagley this year. The Hutt Club has carried a proposal for raising a loan of £IOOO for improvements. The beautification of the course by treeplanting and the removal of all goise are the next works to follow a general reconditioning of the course and the lengthening of four holds. By finishing equal second with Edward Kay in the British Open Championship, and by a week later annexing the Thousand Guineas tournament at Glen eagles, after a heroic struggle, Archie Compston, the North Manchester giant, hos jumped into the very first flight of golfers. Ho finished eighth in the Open Championship in 1920, and reached the semi-final in the Glenoaglea tournament in 1922. He was runnerup in the Leeds Thousand Guineas Tournament last year. Troon is bis favourite course, and the is his favourite club. In the Open Championship this year his golf was the most consistent, as he did 76 in the first round and 75 in each of the three following rounds. O. Johns, the professional at Purley Downs, won the Daily Mail £I2OO ment at Hollinwood on May 14 with a score of 293 for the four rounds, made up as follows:—76, 74, 69, 74. This is his greatest achievement in a golfing career extending over a period of twenty-four years. In 1909 he was third in the Open Championship, 'it nd the same year, when professional to the Southdown Club, ho became Sussex champion. Johns laid the foundation of his well-deserved success by means of a magnificent 69 in the third round. There were a few anxious moments in the last round, especially when he contrived to miss a putt of two yards at the sixth, and one no longer than an office ruler at the nest hole. Johns was visibly affected when corning to the last hole of all, and well he might be with so big a prize dangling before his eyes. He was at the bottom of the green with his second shot, ran a yard past the hole with his next, and played a “wobbling” sort of putt which never even looked at the hole. However,* as it turned out, it did not matter, for despite the frantic efforts of a dozen people none succeeded in catching him. Following Johns were Tom Williamson (Notts), G. R. Buckle (Edgbaston), and J. Advvick (Olton), 294; A. G. Havers (Coombe Hill), Edward Bay (Qxhoy), Abe Mitchell (unattached), and C. A. Whitcombo (Lanadown. Bath), 295; W. H. Davies (Preston) and K. K. Ballantino (Mansfield), 297; E. S. Douglas (Hobin Hood, for some years open champion in New Zealand) and W. B. Smith (Hadley Wood), 298; Archie Compston (N. Manchester) and Fred Robson (Cooden Beach), 299. On each of nine greens in the first round, which he did in 69. Kay had only one putt !

The long-expected duel between the lady champions of Britain and America, which has excited tho interest of tho people of two nations, ended at Troon on May 20 in tho victory of Miss Joyce Wethored by 4 and 3. “1 lost the match,” said Miss Glenn a Collett afterwards, "when I topped my drive to tho ninth hole. But Ido not suppose I could have won in any case, .because Miss Wethored played such wonderful golf that no ono in the world could havo beaten her. It was inhuman. Even Hagen and a good many others like him would have been hard pressed to have beaten Miss Wethored.” Miss Collett was more dazed than disappointed at her defeat, and well she might bo, seeing that her efforts to break down Miss Wetnored's defences were liko beating one’s head against ,a stone wall. “I am not ashamed at being beaten by 4 and 3,” added the American girl; “but, of course, 1 should liko to havo won. But that was impossible with Miss Wethored right at tho top of her form, making not the semblance of a mistake anywhere. It was too terrible for words.”

And so it was (writes Mr Greenwood in tho Daily Telegraph). As a matter of fact. Miss Collett topped two drives, tho other at tho long sixth hole. Both shots dived into broken ground covered with wiry bents. “This is a tiling I never do,’’.said Miss Collett, “and 1 cannot offer any reason why I did so to-day. It was just fatal for the reason that you cannot afford to miss drives or any sort of shot in fact against Miss Wethored.” That is perfectly true. In the whole of her career Miss Wethored has never given a finer, a more courageous, and a more scientific exhibition of golf. It was positively crushing, oven heartbreaking, in its effect, giving no possible loophole of escape. No lady golfer could have survived the avalanche, and a good many first-class men players ns well would hare been swallowed up in its onward sweep. A score representing level 4’s for 35 holes on a championship links with a crowd of 5000 excited people stampeding down tho fairways like a horde of savages and then packing themselves in ono solid mass round the players is a striking testimony, not only to the quality of Miss Wethored’s golf, but also to’ her wonderful nerve.

Most ladies would (Mr Greenwood adds) have been frightened to death at the very sight of such a crowd that lined both sides of the course, and, after the shot were played, dashed forward iiielter-skelter to the green. Miss Wotherecl is an amazing person. She played the shots is if not a soul was in sight, and she strolled after the hall oblivions to the fact that a vast, surging mass of humanity was pressing hard on her heels. For all tho emotion she displayed Miss Wethored might have been playing just an ordinary friendly round on a completely deserted course, instead of a match in which so much was at stake. Miss Wethored was never once off the course, never once in a bunker or within sight of one, and, with the exception of two missed putts, never made a single slip or a bad shot of any description. Most decidedly Miss Collet had nothing to be ashamed of. She played an uphill game with great pluck, and only once, when her rival holed the long putt for a splendid three at the railway hole —the eleventh — did the American girl show any sign of wavering. She knew then, if she had not known before, that her fate was sealed.

Professional and Amateur Golf Championships of England, America, Canada, and Belgium were all won last year with the “Spalding Red” Golf Ball.—Advt.