GOLF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19764, 15 April 1926, Page 4

GOLF.

By Divot.

Mrs Dodgshun did not defend her title to the ladies’ championship of Canterbury last week. Had she done so, she should, on the scores, have had an excellent chance of retaining it. Millen Macbeth, formerly of the Si. Clair Club, was a competitor for the Auckland provincial championship. He qualified with a score of 172 lor the two rounds, for which the best scores were 157 by G. F. Gmison, 161 by U. F. Colbeck, 162 by 11. B. Lu»k, and 165 by W. 8. Ralph, in the first round of match play Macbeth, who is now at Te Aroha. beat Ralph at the nineteenth, but in the second round, after being 1 up at the turn, he was eliminated bv L. D. Wright, the ultimate winner. H. B. Anderson, one of the 16 players who qualified for the Auckland championship. did an excellent round in non-competi-tion play, his card showing 70—made up of an equal number of strokes out and in—or seven less than the bogey score at Middlemore. He was beaten in the first round of match play in the championship event. During the Easter holidays, E. Dalton, who assists Green, the club professional at Herctaunga. holed out in one at the fourteenth hole (188 yards) with a spoon shot. Bennett, a Marlborough player at the Nelson, holed out the fourth hole on the Tahunanui links in one. In the Wellington provincial chompionship tournament, A. D. S. Duncan avenged his defeat by D. 0. Whvte in the final for the championship of the Wellington Club, disposing of him handsomely in the first round by 7 up and 6 to play. A. E. Ekstedt, who was all along favourite for the championship at the Manawatu tournament at Easter, was disqualified for breach of the rules at the corresponding meeting last year. His list of Manawatu honours includes the open championship in 1922 and 1925, and the club championship in 1920. 1921, 1923, 1924, and 1925. The scores of the players who qualified for the Nelson provincial championship at Easter ranged from 170 to 186, and the competitors who qualified included players from Miramar, Hutt, Blenheim, Hagley. and Greymouth as well as from Nelson. The final, between Richmond (Nelson) and Evans (Hutt) resulted in a rather easy win for the former, the match being concluded at the thirteenth hole. Richmond was the winner also in 1922 and 1923. H. H. Hutchison, runner up for the Manawatu Easter «championship, was a member of the Otago Club several years ago. In the semi-final he defeated T inlay Saunders, the Wanganui champion, 5 up and 4 to play, doing the 14 holes in two less than bogev and holing out in 3 at no fewer than five holes. In the final against A. E. Ekstedt, the players were all square at the turn, and again at the fifteenth, but Hutchison missed his chance at the sixteenth. where Ekstedt won with a great putt, and the latter also took the next hole, winning by 2." Hutchison’s round equalled bogey and Ekstedt’s was 2 less. Hutchison had played a fine all-round game, this enabling him to hold his own against a redoubtable opponent, who was not home with his drive, hardly ever being on the fairway. Hutchison’s putting was magnificent, never letting him down until he lipped the hole at the sixteenth arid vital hole. The match was an extraordinary fine contest for the final, the issue being in doubt to the last hole, with honours to Hutchison, considering the ranking of the players, for while Hutchison has a club handicap of 2, Eksied* '« » nlus 2 nlayer P. Grey headed the list of the competitors who qualified for the Taranaki provincial championship with a score of 151, which was five strokes below the next best score—that of J. Goss, of Wanganui, the ex-New Zealand champion. Goss was defeated in the first round of match play by F. Quin, and Grey was eliminated in the second round by J. Quin. In the semi-final J. Quin, L. Quin, A. S. Hasell, and G. M. Chong constituted the field, which was reduced to L. Quin, ex-New Zealand champion, and Chong for the final. Chong was at no time up on Quin in this round, but Quin had never been more than one up to and including the ninth, where Chong drove two balls out of bounds,-and after this Chong was never able to get on even terms with his opponent, and the match terminated at the 17th, Quin, who had played the steadier golf, then being three up. The closest tussle in the provincial championship events that were played during the Easter holidays was that in the final, over 18 holes, at Auckland, which has been described as a Homeric struggle. The players were R. D. Wright, of the Auckland Club, and R. M. George, of the Maungakiekie Club. Half a dozen times or more (says the Auckland Star) the game was apparently thrown away by one or the other by some mistake, and then retrieved by a brilliant shot at the last moment. Thus the match wore on in sustained excitement practically from the fourth to the 22nd green, where Wright at last won the honours after one of the most stubborn championship finals ever played on the links. The features of the game were the excellent uniformity of the tee shots, and the inconsistency of both players in their other work, lapses up to and on the green being brilliantly recovered. In the early stages the advantage was with Wright, and it was not until they went to the 13th that George got in front. After the ICth had been played George was donny, and if he had holed a long putt on the 17th he would have secured a half and the championship. On the 18th he missed a short putt which would •still have- given him the game, and on the 19th he again dropped a chance on the green. The 20th‘was halved through Wright, in turn, missing a fairly easy putt. At the 21st, George was in an apparently winning position when Wright retrieved the game with a 20ft putt. At the next bbth werCj at the edge of the green in two, and their next left it a matter of a 12ft putt. Wright sank his, and George missed, with the result that Wright was the champion. C. B. Wight, who was runner-up this year for the provincial championship of Southland, has won the championship three times, and he would have won it again this year (writes “Cleek” in the Southland Times) had his game been what it was of yore. This is said without disparagement to Dr Hunter’s golf. Hunter won by pood steady play (excellent play considering the gale of wind), but Wight missed chances that he would not have missed a few years ago. He has not the same opportunities for practice now, and is not so steady. Time was when he chipped up to the hole from the edge of the green with unfailing accuracy, and if he had had his old command of the mashie chip-shot he would have won Monday’s final in the last half-dozen holes. On tne day Hunter was the better man and thoroughly deserved his win. Miss Maberly Beadel, who won the Canterbury ladies’ championship last week, is the champion ot the Shiiley links. Clearly, her success was no fluke, but she was hard pressed by Miss Olive Kaye, the young player from St. Clair, although, it seems, the latter had the misfortune in the second round to tear one of her finger-nails rather badly. From the accompanying list of the best scores, it will be seen that the majority of the players—all of them, in fact, except Mrs Godby, who returned the best card m the first round, but struck serious trouble at the eighth hole in the second—improved considerably in the second round on their performances in the first: First Second round, round IT. Miss M. Beadel 87 82 159 Miss O. Kay . ... .. .87 83 170 Mrs J. A. Cock 89 83 - 172 Miss Gwilha Shand ... 91 84 175 Miss M. Stevens 91 84 175 Miss R Cracroft Wilson 90 87 177 Miss M. H. Godby ... 85 93 178 Miss D. Chrystall ... 92 86 178 Miss D. Anderson ... 92 86 178 Mrs T. H A. Richards 93 88 181 Miss B. Cotterill 93 89 182 Miss V. Hutton 97 87 184 Mrs G. Kinpscote .. 97 83 185