GOLF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23689, 22 December 1938, Page 5

GOLF

By Divot

NEW YEAR TOURNAMENT Entries close to-day for the St. Clair club's New Year tournament. The prospects for this popular fixture are good, and it seems that there will be keen competition for the Dunedin Amateur Championship and strong competition for the various other events on the programme.

AN EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE It was a fine performance by young L. B. Whinam to win the Bruntsfleld medal, the next most important trophy in the Otago Golf Club's calendar, and he played very steady golf to come from behind in the second round of the competition and finish three $ strokes ahead of the first-round leader, A. H. Bovd, another young player. Whinam, who is only 21, has been a junior member of the club for seasons and he will not be a full member until next year. He excelled himself in this competition, steadying up his short game, which had not previously been his strongest department, and putting very well indeed. Whinam is a steady rather than a brilliant player, and this success should give him plenty of confidence. His aggregate of .449 was good golf under conditions that could have been better. J. A. Scouler was the only

other competitor to equal his second round of 75, but like quite a few other of the club's leading players, Scouler had left himself an almost impossible task by taking a 78 in the first round. Boyd fell badly away from his first-round golf, adding a 79 to his 73, and T. B. Ferguson, who was at the head of the field with Boyd after the first day, played more disappointingly still, doing an 80 on Saturday, i The handicap event provided an easy win for C. S. Reeves, and it will be strange if his card of 78—12—66 does not result in a handicap reduction. The fates seem to be against the playing of the last teams' match of the year between the Otago and St. Clair clubs. Rain put it out of the question again last week-end, and it will have to be held over. Saturday's business at St. Clair was the annual match between teams representing the captain and vice-captain, and the closeness of the finish—there was a margin of one game in favour of the captain's men—made the day a most interesting one. The years programme was concluded on a happy note in the evening, when the members of the winning team were the guests at a prize-giving dinner in the clubhouse. A POPULAR APPOINTMENT The appointment of A. C. Sherriff to the position of professional to the municipal course at Chisholm Park will be a popular one, and his enthusiasm, and modesty together with his

extremely promising playing ability qualify him ably for the position. As assistant to E. S. Douglas at Balmacewen, he burst fight into the limelight by his brilliant performance in the New Zealand Professional Championship last month. He was among the last four, beat some professionals of high standing to get there, and added to his young reputation in defeat at the bands of A. E. Guy. Just 21 years of age, Charlie Sherriff can be expected to make a success of his first independent appointment. BOBBY LOCKE UNDER FIRE It was not likely that A. D. (Bobby) Locke, South African, Irish and New Zealand Open champion, would be allowed to get off scot free with his comment when receiving his trophy at Balmacewen after the New Zealand Championship tournament last month. He expressed the opinion that New Zealand golfers could be expected to do well in Great Britain, and that the reputations of English golfers were largely the result of good publicity. The London correspondent of the Otago Daily Times quotes Mr Geoffrey Simpson, sports editor of the Daily Mail, en the subject as follows: "If Locke has been correctly reported, then he is a most misguided voung man. It is on the records that he has accomplished many fine things in South Africa. It was on the strength of those performances that he was welcomed here, given every encouragement, and, though I say it. a generous measure of publicity. In fact. Locke owes a great deal of his present position to the publicity he was given in' England, for he achieved very little durinsr his visits here. When Locke starts'beating England's leading golfers will be time enough for him to allege that their success is due to ' good publicity.' " AN AMAZING CARD George Naismith, the former national open champion, had an amazing card of 63 in a friendly fourballer at Riversdale a fortnight ago. That he bettered the course par of 70 by seven strokes was a feat in itself, but the way he compiled the figures must constitute a record that has never been equalled anywhere in the world (comments an Australian writer). Here is his remarkable sequence of 3's and 4's:— 34343434 3—31. 43434343 4—32. 63 COMPETITIVE PLAY There seems to be a growing feeling that far too much time nowadays is devoted to competitive play. Some clubs have even discussed the possibility of restricting the number of competitions during the season and holding the ordinary four-ball games among members (writes " H. W. S." in

the Sydney Mail). This idea Is more prevalent among the older clubs. But among the newer clubs competitions are the spice of life. One has only to stand on the first tee and listen to the good-natured banter among the competitors. There is not the slightest doubt that competitive play improves a player s game in time. With a goal the player must concentrate on the game, with the result that he has greater opportunities of discovering his faults and setting about rectifying them. Then competitive play has the effect of hardening him. so that he is not likely to wut under the strain of a hard-foughl match. Some may contend that the acquisition of such essentials is not in the best interests of the game. But as many see it, it is through competitive play that the best feature of the game are seen. It is as a builder of character, as well as an improver of a player’s game, that it makes an appeal. There are some who are perhaps over-zealous or over-keen in their anxiety to grasp the prize. But you will never eliminate this from human nature. , . Taken all round, competitive golf plays a very important part in the life of all golf clubs. Indeed, possibly 95 per cent, of club golfers look forward to the competitions at the week-end To deprive such an army of its competitions would be a very foolish step. Not only do the competitors bring revenue to the clubs, but they bring what is even more important—a friendly rivalry among members that cannot be assessed in shillings and pence. And they enable players to make more contacts which, after all, should be one of the aims of any club. Whilcombes for Golf.*