GOLF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3671, 22 July 1924, Page 28

GOLF.

By

Divot.

Dr Ross contemplates an early visit to Australia, and it is his intention to avail himself of the opportunity of competing for the Australian amateur championship which is to be decided at Melbourne next month. “Bagy,” of the Evening Post, suggests that MTntosh, who arrived a few months ago from Home and is now permanently attached as professional to the Hutt Club, will probably occupy a leading position in the New Zealand open championship. MTntosh is hitting a tremendous tee shot, and his pitch and run approach shots are described as delightful. James Love played no fewer than six rounds of golf on June 25 for a wager at Milltown, near Dublin. He started at 4.30 a.m., and finished at 8.30 p.m. His total score was 557.

Roger Welhered, the holder, had to play for all he was worth in the third round of the Amateur Championship to shake off Martin Schunck, a young Manchester merchant, whose only previous performance of note on the links was to reach the final of last year's Cheshire Championship. Wethered won in (be end by 3 and 2.

One of the competitors for the Amateur Championship at St. Andrew’s D. Siraton Bruce, of Peterborough—played all his shots up the green right-handed, and then putted left-handed.

A hole in one in the British Amateur Championship is an uncommon occurrence, but one was secured this year at St. Andrew’s by E. Noel Layton at the Bth (150 yards), which he played with a mashie iron. Nobody actually saw the ball go into the hole owing to the bunker in front, but it was there all right when the players arrived. It is many years since anybody did a hole in the Amateur Championship. The last occasion is said to stand to the credit of S. Windley Smith at Hovlake in 1898.

The merit of Walter Hagen’s perform - ance iu accomplishing the final nine holes of the Hoylake course in an average of fours, which he knew to be necessary if he was to beat E. R. Whitcombe, becomes the more apparent when it is realised that they totalled 3460 yards. The lengths in yards are respectively 430, 200, 380, 165, 510, 440, 525, 400, 410, and they are all severely bunkered, while the out of bounds menace confronts the player at many points. The excitement was intense while Hagen played the last two holes. lie had a nice lie in the rough at the 17th, whence he played a beautiful iron shot, but missed a 12-footer for a three. He overran the home hole with his approach, but chipped back well, and then holed his eight-foot putt to a terrific ovation. The Daily Telegraph, describing the final scene, says: “In a. silence as of the tomb Hagen surveyed his putt for a full minute, and then banged the ball into the hole. It was then that his wife, deathly pale, rushed into his arms. Men and women grasped his hand, not because Hagen happened to be an American, but because they had seen the man with his back to the wall fighting with the courage of a lion.” There was only one American among the 201 entrants for the Amateur Championship at St. Andrew’s, and he —Francis H. I. Brown—went all the way from Honolulu to compete. Brown was born at Honolulu, his father being a Massachusetts man and his mother a native cf Hawaii, and he learnt his golf there. He won his match in the first round, although it was no easy test, for he had to meet Allan J. Graham, captain of the xtoyal Liverpool Club, who w 7 as runner-up for the championship at Hoylake three years ago, when he beat that most famous of present day United States amateurs, Bobbie Jones. In the second round, Brown was beaten under conditions which, one report says, were not very inspiring for a man from the islands where the pineapples flourish, for the atmosphere was raw and co-id, and rain fell in a steady downpour throughout the match. There was an international flavour about the concluding rounds for the Amateur Championship at St. Andrew’s. The eight players who survived to the sixth round comprised four Scotsmen (J. Caven, 1). 11. Kyle, W. A. Murray, and. R. Harris), three Englishmen (R. H. Wethered, E. F. Storey, and E. Holderness), and one Irishman (j. D. M’Cormack). Kyle, a golfer of St. Andrew’s birth and training, 27 years of age, who during the past two or three years has been in business in London, created a sensation in the sixth round by beating Cyril Tolley, o and 2. Over 6ft in height, indeed as tall as his rival and almost as powerfully built, Kyle held his own to the full in the long .game. With his many _ rapid and exuberant flourishes in addressing the ball, he looked to be all nerves. His putting was deadly in its accuracy. In the previous round he defeated Harry Braid at the 21st.

In the sixth round of the Amateur Championship the Scotsmen were deprived of the numerical superiority they enjoyed among the leading participants, while the three Englishmen who reached the sixth round all passed into the semi-final, in which E. F. Storey, captain of this year's Cambridge University team, beat R. H. Wethered, 2 up, and E. W. Holderness defeated W. A. Murray, 3 and 2. It was announced by cable at the time that the Amateur Championship was won by E. W. Holderness, who beat E. F. Storey, 3 and 2, in the final over 36 holes. Holderness has gained the title twice in three years—a great performance (remarks one writer) in a period which hitherto has been regarded as the era of Cyril J. H. Tolley and Roger H. Wethered. These two players have each secured only one victory thus far. The success of Holderness ought to be encouraging to the army of people whose opportunities of pursuing the game are virtually limited to week-ends, for, owing to his duties as a principal secretary at the Home Office in London, he is almost entirely a week-end golfer. At one stage in the final, with Storey, he was 4 down, and he started the second round 1 down. lie became 2 up at the Bth in the afternoon, but Storey went on fighting as tenaciously as ever and squared when seven holes remained lo be played. The issue still hung in the balance when, with 5 to play, Holderness stood 1 up. Then came the 14tli, measuring 527 yards, with two formidable bunkers known as “HelP' and the ’‘Devil s Kitchen.” This Holderness won, and after a halved 15th Storey failed to down a 6ft putt which would have carried the match to the 17th green. The better man won, but Storey in his first championship carried off a very big share of the honours. His long swing served him splendidly in driving, for he out-distanced Holderness

time after time by 10 yards or so. For a debutant of 23 who had never before played in the presence ot large crowds, he showed, too, wonderful composure, and in the final never looked in the least like “cracking.” There must have been at least 10,000 spectators, and this on a day when the match began in a cold mist from the sea and continued in a heavy downpour of rain.

It is stated that in the Amateur Championship at St. Andrew’s, H. D. G.liies was asked privately but pointedly by members of the committee not to use the tee nine inches high with which he has been experimenting for about a year. There was, however, no official condemnation of the high tee, and, playing in the first round of the Championship, Gillies used this tee, which consists of five inches of rubber tubing affixed to a stick of wood four inches long, at the bottom of which is a nail to enable the whole contrivance to bo stuck firmly in the ground. Within five minutes of his making his first drive, the following official notice was posted by the Koval and Ancient Club: —

The Eules ol Golf Committee hopes that golfers before making use of* abnormal methods of play or of abnormal implements will earnestly consider whether thev are acting in conformity with the spirit of the rules of golf, and in particular with the spirit of the regulations governing the form and make of golf clubs. The committee considers that it is much to be deplored that players, instead of trying to master the use of golf clubs, should endeavour to overcome the difficulties of the game by using implements which have never been associated with

Bowing to official opinion, Gillies there upon gave up using his 9in tec and its necessary accompaniment—the driver with the face 2? inches deep. He felt, he said, that he. ought to co-operate with the llule3 Committee’s endeavour to check freak methods. He was defeated in the second round of the championship. The programme , for the New Zealand Open and Amateur Championships, to be played at Middlemore (Auckland) from sth to 13th September, is as follows:

September 5-—Morning : Open Championship- - First, round, -and concurrently first qualifying round of Amateur Championship; afternoon: Open Championship—Second round, and second qualifying round September 6.—Morning: Open Championship— Third round, and third qualifying round; afternoon : Open Championship—Fourth round, and fourth qualifying round, and the C/Rorke Vase (inter-club cup).

September B.—Morning and afternoon: Professionals’ match, first round 36 holes. Amuteui Championship, first round, 36 holes play off. Also bogey handicap for amateurs not engaged ill Amateur Championship. September 9.—Professionals’ match, semi-fina. 36 holes. Amateur Championship, second round, 36 holes play off. Stroke handicap for amateurs not engaged. September 10.—Professionals' handicap match. 30 holes, stroke play. Amateur Championship, third round, 36 holes play off. Bogey handicap for amateurs not engaged. September 11.—Stroke handicap for amateurs September 12.—Filial Professonals’ Match, 36 holes', semi-finals, Amateur Championship, 3G holes; also four-ball handicap. September 13. —Final Amateur Championship, 36 holes. AX AMERICAN TOURNAMENT. NEW YORK, July 11. Brady won the Metropolitan Open Championship over 72 holes with a score of 29'2, M'Farlane being second with 29i and Farrell third. Kirkwood was twenty-fifth. NEW SOUTH WALES PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. SYDNEY, July 15. T. E. Howard won the State Professional Golf Championship. AN AMERICAN TOURNAMENT. NEW YORK, July 15. At Shawnee, Diegel won the tournament, with M’Farlane second, over 90 holes, being compelled to play 18 extra since they tied with 287 for 72 holes. Kirkwood was third with 288. A medal match was played on the Balmacewen Links on Thursday afternoon. The best scores were:

Mrs Callender Senior. 85 20 75 Miss Fynmore 94 15 79 Miss N. Glendining 95 10 85 Mrs Barron 100 15 85 Mrs Bat tray 104 19 85 Mrs Dodgshun 90 4 86 Miss Williams 107 19 8S Miss Gallaway Junior. 102 21 81 Miss Finch 118 36 82