GOLF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19551, 6 August 1925, Page 4

GOLF.

By Divot.

The Otago Golf Club will stage a match at Balmacewen next Saturday against members of country clubs. The Kaltangata, Milton, Lawrence, Pembroke, and Port Chalmers Clubs will be represented by members, and it is likely that not fewer than 30 players will be engaged on each side. The Otago Club will not overwhelm the visiting players by selecting its strongest team, but an effort will be made to match the visitors against players with corresponding handicaps. C. A. Quane, playing at Shirley during the week-end, holed his tee shot at “Old Nick,” the seventeenth hole, 125 yards, and paid the usual penalty. Quane is (remarks “Jigger”) the fourth member of the 1925 Hole-in-one Club at Shirley. A familiar figure at the Shirley championship meeting will be Kapi Tareha, of Napier. Playing over Miramar recently he was driving miraculous distances, as, for instance, he was well up in the rough with an all-carry iron shot from the fourth tee. He may alwnys bo relied on to contribute the spectacular from the tee, and if he would seriously set himself to play a restrained game everywhere except on the green he would (“Chip-shot” suggests) soon be In the first flight of New Zealand golfers. E. S. Douglas, open champion of New Zealand on various occasions, qualified well up in the list in the British Open Championship competition six weeks ago. His score for the two qualifying rounds was 151. The lowest score was 146. Twenty-ode competitors qualified in 151 and under. Eighty-one players in all wore admitted to the match play rounds. The highest qualifying score was 158. Only 12 amateurs competed in the Open British championship. Five of theaey-a creditable proportion—qualified, these being Robert Harris, who won the amateur championship, only a few weeks previously, C. J. H. Tolley, C. H. Hayward (the Air Force champion), J. T. Cruickshank (the River Plate champion), and W. B. TOrranCe. „ 1 » James Barnes, of Pelham (New x ork), the ultimate winner of the British open championship, finished fairly low down in the qualifying rounds. So did Macdonald Smith, of Lakeville, who was widely regarded as the American competitor — American by adoption, since he is a Scotsman by birth—most likely to carry off the coveted title, “YVhat’s the use _of finishing first?” asked Macdonald Smith, “There’s no prize for it as there is in the United States qualifying rounds" And he and Barnes worked to a schedule, with just about the results that they desired. Kirkwood, erroneously classed as an American—since ho has not taken out naturalisation papers in the United States qualified in one stroke fewer than Macdonald Smith. . The best qualifying score in the British Open championship—l 46 strokes—was accomplished by Moses O'Neill, of Robin Hood (Dublin), who did the -best score of 71 in the first round on the Portland course and followed this with a good 75 on the Old course. He was a member of a record party of Leinster professionals who crossed the Channel for the championship, as a result of subscriptions organised in connection with competition hold by Leinster clubs—an enterprise which thus secured an early reward. Ho has been Irish professional champion for two years, and is (the Daily Mail says) Irish to his finger tips, and even to the tilted tip of fiis rougishly Irish nose. For second place Aubrey Boomer, the Jersey player who is attached to the St. Cloud Club, Paris; Archie Compston, of North Manchester; and Dick May, of Benton, Northumberland, were equal at 14V, For the first time in the history of the open championship a Gorman competitor put in an appearance. Ho was Wilhelm Zimmer, of Berlin, who came attired in a vivid green jumper, a very largo cap, and grey-coloured knickers of ample proportions. It was only necessary (says the Daily Telegraph’s contributor) to see W.ilhelm Zimmer play two holes t° know that his score would do infinite credit to a county batsman. Zimmer’s swing is so exaggerated that at the top the otubhcad is almost touching his loft heel. It is the same with the iron clubs, with the result that all sense of control is lost. The 36-holes final for the French women a open championship at La Boulio ended in a win for Miss Glenna Collett (Rhode Island, U.S.A.), the present Canadian and former American champion, over Milo. Simone Thion do la Cliaume (St. Cloud, Paris), the French Native Championship holder, and the present holder of the British girls’ championship, by 5 and 1. There are (writes “Chip-shot” in the Evening Tost) only two courses in the world where the Uoier-out in one is paid therefor in coin of the realm. One is at the Easter, Whitsuntide, and autumn tournaments of the Royal Ashdown Forest Club, in Sussex, where the favoured hole is the “Island Iloic.” It is a charming hole, and a gentleman who fell in love with it donated £5, the accrued interest upon which is to be paid to whomsoever may hole it in one. It is remarkable that ever since the endowment was made the interest has been stoalily mounting, for nobody has since holed it in one. At the Druids’ Hill Club, in the United States, a similar endowment exists in respect of the eighth hole.

Mr Ross Gore, who for many years past lias been the secretary of the Rose Bay Golf Club, Sydney, has had the misfortune to lose liis left arm. He developed a diseased bone in tho upper part of his left arm, and the only remedy to prevent the trouble spreading was amputation of the entire limb. The great esteem in which Mr Gore is held by the gulfing community of Sydney was evidenced a few days ago, when he wss presented with a purse of a thousand sovereigns, and given seven months’ leave of absence in order to visit England. Mr Gore was to have left Sydney last week, but owing to his health not being sufficiently restored the trip has been postponed. He is a member of a New Zealand family.

Tim Rules of Golf Committee considers that tlio method of handicapping by bisques in a four-ball match is contrary to the customs and character of golf. r J ho hole may be cither won or halved, and it is therefore necessary during the play of the hole to know exactly in what relation the player stands to his opponent. A mode of handicapping which deprives the opponent? of this mutual advantage seems to he foreign to tho proper conduct of the gamo. The question whether tho hole is lost by a player who look two clubs into a bunker, threw one down, changed his mind, and player] with the club (a mash ic) at fir A discarded, without having improved the lie, has been officially answered. The player does not lose the hole. A question standing to tho name of tho Royal and Ancient Golf Club concerned a player who made a stroke in a hazard but did not get tho ball out. Before playing his next stroke he smoothed with his club tho heel-marks made by his stance without improving the lie of his ball. Was any penalty incurred? To this the Rules of Golf Committee replies: “No, provided that nothing was done to improve the lie of the ball or assist the player m his subsequent play at tho hole.’ “George,” she sobbed, “I—l’ve got something terrible to toll you. . . . I I’ve been unfaithful to you!” “There you go again, confound it,” he spluttered. ‘Always doing something to put me off my game when you know I’m going golfing. Lengthen your drive by using the “Spalding'Red”—tho famous golf ball used by the British American Open Champions in 1924.—Advt.