Brilliant Field Will Contest Dominion Golf Championships

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26285, 17 October 1946, Page 3

Brilliant Field Will Contest Dominion Golf Championships

During the next few days the Dominion’s leading golfers will put the finishing touches to their preparation for the first national championship since 1939, which will be played at the Hokowhitu course, Palmerston North, from Thursday, October 24, to Saturday, November 2. There is no lack of brilliance among the 82 amateurs and 24 professionals who will compete for the first postwar open crown, and only a very bold prophet would offer any prediction as to the result which will be decided when the fourth round is played on Saturday week. By their recent form, about a dozen amateurs and professionals have staked strong claims as Dossible title winners, and although Hokowhitu is now much more difficult than it was in 1930, when the championships were last played there, it will not be surprising if the winning figures eclipse all previous records. As was to be expected, the North Island will be much more strongly represented than the South, Wellington province in particular being represented by 22 players. From Balmacewen, Alan Boyd. Fred Dixon, and the veteran Alex Sime, who will be competing in his twenty-third national tournament, are on their way north, and their showing against the pick of the North Island will be watched with interest. J. P. Homabrook (Masterton) has announced that he will not defend the open and amateur titles which he won at Miramar in 1939. He has had few opportunities for regular practice this season, and as a consequence the tournament will lose some of its colour by the absence of the reigning champion. The Waitikiri scratch man. D. L. Woon, who is probably one of the best of the Dominion’s younger school of golfers, is good enough to cause. a boil up if he strikes his short game at Hokowhitu. Last Saturday he won the North Canterbury championship in convincing style. It was his eighth successive win in Christchurch senior golf. Like Boyd, he drives a prodigious ball, and apart from a

tendency to stab at medium length puts, he has all the shots. On performances to date this season five North Island golfers appear to have good chances of collecting the open title. They are R. H. Glading (Hamilton), B. M. Silk and A. R. Kitto (Wanganui), and W. G. Horne (Wellington), and the present professional champion and former open title holder, Alex Murray (Auckland). Glading, whom Kitto defeated by a substantial margin in the final of the North Island championship some months ago, has been in extraordinary good form in recent weeks. His performance in winning the Te Awamutu open tournament by 10 strokes from a strong field which included Murray and Andy Shaw was outstanding. Glading carded 72, 69, 73, 73, for a total of 287. The scratch score for Te Awamutu is 72, and Murray and Shaw must have been well off form when Glading bolted from the rest of the field. Among other amateurs likely to be prominent at Hokowhitu will be lan Ewen (Wellington), who set the course record of 68 at Balmacewen in 1938, G. P. Roberts, W. B. Reilly, and E. W. Thurgood. These Wellington scratch golfers have turned in some brilliant figures in interprovincial and club matches. Recent scores by K. S. Glendinmng indicate that the Manawatu scratch man will be a force to be reckoned with. He will have the advantage of playing in the national championships on his .home course. After heavy rain he went round Hokowhitu on a recent Saturday in 68—34 each way, in which he carded 5 birdies. Alex Murray stands out as the only professional on current form likely to beat the leading amateurs in the open championship. He and Glading have had some interesting duels, and it would not be surprising if they staged another next week. Since taking up an appointment at the Hastings Golf Club, Andy Shaw has had opportunities for practice which have been denied him for some years. His 284 at Hokowhitu in 1930 is still the best in a New Zealand open championship, and if he again strikes form he will keep the best of them very busy indeed.