GOLF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22710, 24 October 1935, Page 4

GOLF

Fy Divot.

FIXTURE FOR SATURDAY St. Clair —Four-ball bogey. Post entry. Monday —St. Clair Otatara Cup—two rounds medal play. Otago Diggers' Tournament. THE NEW ZEALAND TOURNAMENT The most important golfing event of the year concluded on Saturday with a moist unsatisfactory result in that nil the major national titles changed hands. The conditions on Saturday in Christchurch were perhaps not the best, and as a result the golf in the final of the Amateur Championship was not of that uniform high standard of play which had been witnessed during the preceding days. Ilornabrook's victory was by no means undeserved, since throughout the tournament from the opening day he played golf of a standard and worthy of a champion, and on the final day he left no doubt as to his superiority over Silk. The latter in the semi-finals survived a marathon game with Ferguson. This game, finishing all square on the eighteenth, went to the forty-first before Silk won the deciding hole. Actually Silk was lucky to win. as Ferguson failed to take advantage of

his opponent's bunkered drive at Land's End, the fortieth hole, through a grave error in judgment. Murray's win in the professional final against Shaw was probably one of the epics of the tournament, especially in his first nine holes in the afternoon. Murray, an old pupil of Douglas, thoroughly deserved his success in winning the triple crown —Open, Foursomes and Professional Championships. He is a finished golfer who, with youth on his side, will probably yet attain to even greater heights. DIGGERS' GOLF TOURNAMENT On Labour Day the Balmacewen golf links will be the scene of the second annual Diggers' Golf Tournament. Last year this event was held for the first time, and was an outstanding success. This year it is thought that it will be even more successful, as it is already known that there will be visiting competitors from a 6 far north as Christchurch and south to Invercargill, and the local interest is intense. The tournament will take the form of an intensive campaign of the Diggers under the command of " Colonel Bogey," to storm and capture 18 or perhaps 19 well-fortified objectives. The operations will commence at 8.30 a.m.. when rations- will be.issued. Diggers' tournaments are now held in every centre in Australia and Now Zealand and they are always well attended. It is reported from Australia that one such tournament was attended and no fewer than 400 returned soldiers, making it necessary to start at a very early hour in the morning. ST. CLAIR LADIES' CLUB Yesterday some very good cards were returned in the L.G.U. match played at St. Clair. The winning cards were:— Senior: Mrs M'Ewan, 80—1 C—73. Junior: Mrs Maxwell, 92—24—68. Mrs Maxwell's very fine card resulted in her reducing her handicap to 20. In conjunction with yesterday's match tics from two previous matches were played off, Mrs Watt winning both of them. The first was for Mrs Justice's trophy, when Mrs Watt tied with Mrs Scorgie, and the other was last week's bogev. the other lady in this case being Mrs Justice. NORTH OTAGO LABOUR DAY TOURNAMENT The North Otago Club are holding their popular Championship tournament on Labour Day week-end. Quite a number of local players intend taking part, and as the Awamoa links in Oamaru are in excellent order at the present time the tournament is bound to be a very successful one, not only in regard to the standard of golf but also because of the amount of enjoyment which will be derived from it by the competitors. There will more than likely be a strong contingent from Timaru and other South Canterbury clubs. The programme is a most attractive one, the major event being, of course, the North Otago Championship. In addition, there are teams' matches, handicap events and putting competitions. INTER-ISLAND MATCHES It seems a pity that the annual meeting of delegates at Christchurch should have decided to add to the already cumbersome programme of the annual national meeting yet another day for the interisland matches. It seems that quite a number of amateurs are precluded from taking part in this tournament owing to the necessity of taking at least a fortnight from work at a time which is usually not convenient to the majority of people. There does not seem to be any real reason why the inter-island teams' match should not bo played quite separately from tha tournament. As a result teams will no doubt be chosen from only those players who are taking part in the championship meeting, and it will readily be conceded that there is a possibility that the best players from both islands may not all be attending the meeting. OTATARA CUP COMPETITION It is expected that there will be a big field for the annual Otatara Cup competition on Labour Day. This event consists of two rounds of stroke play on handicap. It is usually found that a long handicap or medium handicap man usually wins this event, but some good performances have been put up by lowmarkers in the past, and this year might see a change from the usual result. NEW ZEALAND GOLF ASSOCIATION The monthly meeting of the council of the New Zealand Golf Association was held on October 7. The following new clubs, which bad duly mads application, were elected mem-

ber« of the association: —Renown Golf Club, Hmitly; Strathmore Park Golf Club, Wellington. A resignation was received from the Tapairu Maori Golf Club, due to nearly all of its members having joined up with other clubs. 1936 Championship Meeting.—A letter was received from the Hamilton Golf Club in support of their application for the holding of the 1936 meeting, and an application was also lcccived from the New Plymouth Golf Club.—The position now is that the following clubs have applied for the meeting:—Manawatu, Rapier, Hamilton, and New Plymouth. Amateur Status. —A letter was received from the secretary of the New Zealand Professional Golfers' Association enclosing a copy of a paragraph from a Scottish paper, and the council decided that it will consider every case connected with amateur status that arises on its merits. Defaulter.—An affiliated club sent copies of correspondence with one who had been a member of the club relative to non-payment of subscription, and the council had also written to the. person concerned asking for an explanation.— Considering all the circumstances, the council decided that it appears to be a case of hardship, and considers that the club should take a liberal view and deal with it at their discretion, A standard scratch w:ore of 71 allotted to the Waikaremoana Golf Club was confirmed*