GOLF

Southland Times, Issue 22074, 22 July 1933, Page 14

GOLF

(Bj

“Cleek.’

INVERCARGILL CLUB. July 29.— Four-ball bogey (A and B partners).

QUEEN’S PARK CLUB. July 22.— Canadian foursomes bogey. July 29.— Flag match.

Replace the turf. Replacing the turf means fitting the divot in and treading it down carefully- , _ Queen’s Park members play a Canadian foursomes bogey handicap this afternoon. Congratulations are due to R. A. Wilson on retaining the Smith Cup for the best aggregate in the two qualifying rounds for the Invercargill Club’s championship. At Otatara the first round of eliminating matches for the Invercargill club’s championships and the special trophy for 24-handicap players will engage the attention of those who came through the qualifying tests. The issue of the revised Rules of Golf is expected at Home any time now. The new rules will become operative from January 1, 1934. Owing to the sloppy condition of the course after a spell of bad weather fixtures were abandoned at Balmacewan last Saturday and the ladies could not play on Tuesday. Wellington golfers have been having a bad spin with the weather. For weeks they have had to play on very wet courses. They were hoping for better conditions last week-end, but their hopes were disappointed as heavy rain fell all day on Saturday. We in the south have fared much better. In fact the opportune rain which fell on Thursday of last week saved the staff at Otatara the work of carting water for the clubhouse tanks.

A bitterly cold easterly was blowing on Tuesday when the weekly match of the Queen’s Park Ladies’ Club was played, and the competitors found difficulty in keeping warm. The sealed hole match was won by Mrs Wilson with 44—7—37, and the best card in the Scott Cup round for B grade players was returned by Mrs Colquhoun, who had 107—26—81. A flag match will be played next Tuesday. On Tuesday the Invercargill Ladies’ Club played the monthly bogey match postponed from last week. Conditions were not pleasant; it was soft underfoot and a cold east wind was blowing. The best scores returned were those of .Mrs Sturman and Mrs Prain, each 7 down. On the count back over the last nine holes Mrs Sturman won. On Thursday the last- round for the captain’s prize was played under pleasant conditions. The best scores of the day were those of Mrs J. C. Prain, 113—31 —B2; Mrs Sturman, 102—17—85; Mrs Gilmour, 101—15—86; and Mrs C. F. A. Jones, 99—13—86. Mrs Sturman proved the winner of the prize, having the best three out of 4 nett scores, Mrs Jones being runner-up. Members are looking forward to next Thursday’s match, when bogey foursomes are to be played for the Jessie L. Prain Memorial Cup. The following week the -L.G.U. match will be played on Tuesday, August 1, owing to the golf ball being held on Thursday evening. For the fourth successive year John Burke won the Irish native amateur championship at Little Island on Sth June after nearly a week’s strenuous play. In the final over 36 holes he defeated C. J. McMullan 3 and 2. Burke established himself in a good position early in the* first critical round, for he went out in 33 strokes and was three up. McMullan went out in 36 and finished the round in 74, yet he was six down, Burke coming home in 35 for a grand round of 68. There was no holding Burke, who, taking 34 strokes for the first nine holes in the afternoon, had increased his lead to seven up, and the quality of his play may be judged from the fact that McMullan was one under 4’s for those nine holes. McMullan continued to fight well and won three holes in a row from the turn. Burke checked him, however, and was four up with four to play, but he lost the 15th, where McMullan negotiated a half-stymie, and then came the end, McMullan losing a ball and having to play three from the tee at the 16th. Burke was among the rocks and furze and took four to reach the green, but an inglorious half in seven, after 33 holes of brilliant golf, left Burke champion of Ireland. Burke played for Britain in the 1932 series of

Walker Cup matches. With J. A. Stout he was badly beaten 7 and 6 in the foursomes by F. Ouimet and G. Dunlap, but he halved his single with Jack Westland. OTATARA DOINGS, The qualifying rounds for the club’s championship have already been fully reported and there is no occasion to go over them again in detail. So far as the championship itself is concerned it was disappointing to find that none of the competitors could play two rounds under 80. Conditions on both days were almost ideal, much better than they were last year when the course was wet and the second round was played in wind and rain. R. A. Wilson’s 76 in the first round was something like the standard for the top men—good figures got by good golf, nothing flukey about it. A. Thom’s 78 was also “the goods,” though he should have been two or three strokes better. Both took 83 for their second rounds. Yet Wilson’s game, and probably Thom’s too, was very little inferior to that of his first round. It was just a matter of an odd stroke at two or three holes and a real disaster at the Outlook, where his second ran through into the deep bunker and the hole cost him 7. With Thom it was a matter of work close to the hole. The point is, however, that both these players should be able to play two qualifying rounds consistently when weather and course conditions are in their favour, and the reason why they don’t is to be found in the psychology of qualifying rounds. For the average club amateur they have always been a bugbear and he rarely does his best in them. He doesn’t like them and he is glad when they are over. The scores in qualifying rounds, speaking still of the average club amateur, are rarely a true criterion of the competitors’ ability. Take, for instance, the two 81’s scored by C. A. Masters both this year and last. Perhaps Masters is not now quite so good a medal player as he was a couple of years ago, but in ordinary play he will “break 80” with regularity without exerting himself. The queer effect which “qualifying rounds” have upon players was demonstrated at Otatara this year, as it has often been before, and it showed up in the intermediate scores even more than in the senior. The senior competitors’ scores were very much on a par with those of last year; those of the intermediate competitors definitely slipped. The juniors declined to be intimidated by the occasion and did excellently well, possibly because they tackled the job a little more light-heartedly. That, however, is also part of the psychology of qualifying rounds. There were several little personal incidents of the kind that almost invariably mark these proceedings. There was the case of an intermediate candidate who returned a good A grade score for his first round and an indifferent B grade score for his second. Also the case of the junior who played so well in the first round that he was near the head of the list and so badly in the second that he failed to qualify. All that need be said to these unfortunates is that they have nothing to worry about. The same thing has happened before countless times, and will continue to happen in the most uncertain and elusive of all games. Such experiences are part of the golfer’s education. He must learn not to be unduly elated when he reaches the pinnacles now and again, nor needlessly depressed when he is cast into the depths. He will always have far more company in the latter place than in the former.

Anyway the worries of the qualifying stages are now over and those who have come through the ordeal can now look forward to the really pleasant part of this championship business. There is no test in golf like the stroke round, but on the other hand there is no pleasure in the game greater than that of the man-to-man contest, single combat, blow and counter-blow. In every grade there is promise of interesting and enjoyable matches with the results very open. Most of the matches in the first eliminating round will be played to-day.

With five of the seven medal rounds of the season played the competitions for the Hogg trophy, the corresponding trophy in the B grade and the “ringer” in each grade are at an interesting stage. The Hogg trophy is awarded to the player who has the best net aggregate for four rounds in the fix monthly medal handicaps and the first qualifying round, making seven competition rounds in all. There is a similar competition in the junior grade. With two rounds still to be played, giving competitors two more opportunities to improve on their figures, the leaders in the A grade are:—

In the B grade the following are the leaders at this stage:—

In the “ringer” competition J. P. Butler has a lead of a single stroke among the seniors. The ringer card is made up from the medal handicap cards of each competitor for the season, each competitor being given credit for the best figure he has obtained at each hole and allowed full handicap. J. P. Butler’s card reads:—

His handicap of 14 gives him a net GO, but in the two medal handicaps still to be played he can obviously do better at the 10th, 11th and 18th to say nothing of the others, so that his final score is likely to be in the fifties. Other good scores are M. O’Dowda, 67—6—61; G. B. Meredith, 71—10—61; J. A. Doig, 75—14—61; W. Buchan, 74-12—62; W. Fordyce, 72—10—62; G. J. McHarg, 75—13—62; C. J. Davies, A. G. Seddon and J. H. Thomas have net 63’s, and J. S. Dick and H. Ritchie 64’s. In the B grade R. A .Douglas and J. K. Garrett tie with net 60’s. Douglas’s card reads:—

His handicap allowance is 19. Close handy to the leaders are E. E. Broad and B. W. Hewat, each, 77—16—61; L. B. Hutton and G. F. Tobin, each 79—18—61; A. E. Smith and H. M. Smith have net 62’s, and R. C. Stewart, H. A. Wilkes and H. E. Russell net 63’s. With two 60’s, four 61’s, two 62’s and three 63’s in the junior grade, and scoring just as close among the seniors, the “ringers” are going to provide very tight finishes. QUEEN’S PARK ACTIVITIES. Several matches fn the second round of the Holloway Shield competition at Queen’s Park have been played, and the remainder must be finalized by August 7. Results of recent matches are as follows: —J. Scandrett beat J. C. Kirkland, 4 and 2; G. McQuarrie beat D. Keane (who won by default from caps. Thus if A’s handicap is 14 and 1; R. Miller beat P. Clulee, 1 up. In the Canadian foursome at Queen’s , Park to-day the partners will play on i three-eighths of the combined handi- I caaps. Thus if A’s handicap is 14 and B’s 10 they will have 9 strokes against bogey, I

It is possible that the Queen’s. Park Club will this season run an. intermediate championship on the lines of that conducted by the Invercargill Club. There are a number of A grade players who have little chance of qualifying for the club championship but who could provide a decidedly interesting competition among themselves. These are the men with handicaps from 13 to 16 inclusive, and although one or two may return cards entitling them to qualify for the club championship, the majority would be out of it. The number of players on marks from 13 to 16 has been growing almost weekly, and they would no doubt welcome the suggested change as it would give them a better opportunity of reaching the match. play stages. It is assumed that if any intermediate qualifying rounds were good enough to qualify a player to enter the club championship, he would be permitted to do so. , The July medal handicap was played at Queen’s Park last Saturday, another big field turning out. Bain on the previous two days had made the course very wet, but apart from that the conditions were excellent for golf, and some good scores were registered. Three A grade players tied for first place with 70 net, namely, G. Robertson 84—14— 70, R. Kidd 84—14—70, and R. Miller 85—15—70, Robertson winning on the count over the last nine holes. He took 45 strokes for the first nine, but was going much better over the homeward run, which he completed in 39. O. G. Gilmour had another good round and with 83—12—71 tied for fourth place with H. Edginton whose card read: 8&—15—71. T. J. Gosling had 84—12—72, a lapse at a short hole robbing him of a chance of a possible win. J. R. Deal can usually be relied on to score somewhere about 80, and on Saturday he maintained his good form to card an 81, his handicap of 8 giving him 73 net. D. Cochrane (6) and R. A. Browne (7) were also going well, their gross figures being 80 and 81 respectively. Net 74’s were also recorded by G. E. Glennie, 86—12—74, and S. Blomfield, 90—16—74. Some astonishingly low net scores have been returned by B grade players this season, the low 60’s having been touched on several occasions. Another such score was posted on Saturday when G. J. Thompson, who defeated Deal in the first round of the Holloway Shield competition, left the field standing with the staggering figures of 86—24 —62 —a great performance for a man on the limit mark, a luxury he no longer enjoys. If he can retain anything like the form that score suggests he will certainly be a strong contender for the B grade championship. J. Dennis (17) was out again for the first time for some weeks and had the satisfaction of doing a round of 83. His 66 net would probably have been good enough to win under ordinary circumstances. G. E. Williams was playing much better than he has done this season and was third with 86—18—68. G. McQuarrie was round in 88, a mark he has been keeping fairly close to lately, and his handicap of 19 gave him a net 69, which tied with C. Rice’s 92—23—69. Others prominent were: J. F. Miller, 90—20— 70; J. Stevens, 92—22—70; S. E. Wootton, 90—18—72; A. E. McGrath, 92—19—73; C. J. McEachran, 97 —21— 73; O. Rice, 97—24—73; T. Double, 97—24—73; T. Nicholson, 97—24—73; N. Hannah, 98—24—74.

£750 TOURNAMENT.

A. J. LACEY WINS.

RYDER CUP TEST.

The £750 tournament promoted by the Yorkshire Evening News, played on the Temple Newsam course early in June, was of special interest because it was the last tryout of the “possibles” for the British Ryder Cup team before the team was finally selected. The qualifying list was headed by five Ryder Cup nominees as follows:— S. Easterbrook 71 68—139 Abe Mitchell 67 73-140 A. H. Padgham 73 67—140 C. Whitcombe 69 73—142 P. Alliss 70 72—142 Two more of them, T. Barber and R. A. Whitcombe, qualified eleventh with 147, and lower down in the list were A. J. Lacey and A. Perry with 151, and W. H. Davies and A. Dailey with 152. Ten of the 21 nominees failed to qualify, the best known of them being Arthur Havers and Geo. Duncan.

The two W’hitcombes, Alliss and Easterbrook went out in the first round of matches, in which the star event was a great struggle between Abe Mitchell and Henry Cotton, Mitchell winning on his merits 2 and 1. Of the last eight six were Ryder Cup nominees, viz. Lacey, Davies, Dailey, Mitchell, Padgham and Perry. In the third round Lacey put out Davies at the 21st. hole, Dailey (the victor at Roehamnton) put out Abe Mitchell 2 and 1, Padgham beat P. P. Wynne 2 up and B. Gadd defeated A. Perry at the 19th hole.

The final brought two Ryder Cup men in Lacey and Padgham together. They gave an exhibition of really good golf over 36 holes. Lacey won the first three holes and Padgham could never make up the lost ground. Lacey completed the first half in 72 to Padgham’s 76 and was 5 up. In the second half of the match Padgham had the better of the argument, playing 17 holes in 66 to Lacey’s 70. Lacey hung on, however, got a magnificent 3 at the twelfth (472yds) when it was badly wanted, and the match stopped at the 17th where Lacey won 2 and 1. A few days later the Ryder Cup team was announced as follows: —J. 11. Taylor (non-playing captain), P. Alliss, A. Dailey, W. H. Davies, A. J. Lacey, A. Mitchell, A. H. Padgham, A. Perry, and C. A. Whitcombe. Reserves:—S. Easterbrook, A. G. Havers. UNITED STATES OPEN CHAM. lONSHIP. JOHN GOODMAN’S WIN. AN EXCITING FINISH. Fuller particulars of the open championship of America played at Glenview, Chicago, last month show that the winner, Johnny Goodman, the young amateur from Omaha whose romantic, history has already been outlined in this column, established a strong lead by a record-breaking 66 in the second round and a fine 70 in the third. With three rounds played he had a total of 211 and a clear lead of six strokes from the next best competitor. In the end, however, he just won by a single stroke from Ralph Guldahl a young professional from St. Louis of whom nobody had ever heard, and then Gudahl missed a putt of four feet for a tie on the last green. In his last round Goodman took the huge and excited “gallery” with him and the heat was sweltering. What with the excitement and the strain of keeping in front, Goodman was subjected to the severest test the game can impose upon candidates for its highest honours, and when he used up 39 strokes for the first half of the final round it looked as if he might “crack,” as many players in a similar position had' done before. How he finished and how Guldahl just failed to tie is told in the following account from the Chicago Tribune Chronicle:— “With a poise beyond his years; the grit it takes to make a champion, and a putter charged with the magic of Bobby Jones’s famed Calamity Jane, Goodman wrested from a field of the country’s greatest professionals the crown they have held since Jones re-\ tired in 1930. He came home one stroke in front of Guldahl, who made one of the greatest finishes in the history of the open, but failed to tie by the margin of fifty inches of bent grass on

the 18th green, where he missed a four-foot putt, with 25000 dollars dependant on it. Craig Wood, a member of the Ryder Cup team, finished third with 290, followed by Hagen and Armour with 292, and Dutra 294. After his 66 in the third round (3234) the gallery followed Goodman but the pressure of being in the lead for two days commenced to tell on Goodman in the final. He took 39 for the first nine holes, while nearly every other competitor of front rank was pulling up strokes on him. Guldahl had done the first half in 35. Goodman began to find his bearings going home, however, and came through with four consecutive pars. His second shot on the fourteenth found a trap, and he took two putts to get down in 5. A six-foot putt for a birdie on the 511 yard fifteenth avenged that. He found another trap at the seventeenth, a 423yard hole, and came out of it with a 5. He reached the home green in two strokes, the ball dropping down eleven feet to the right of the pin. He got down in two for a par 4. Guldahl was fighting a stubborn battle to catch Goodman. He knocked down par after par, and dropped a birdie at the twelfth. Coming to the eighteenth ereen, with galleries fore and aft of him, the St. Louis boy found his ball in the trap at the right of the green. He made a fine explosion shot to within four feet of the pin. Then he missed his putt and the chance to tie. Craig Wood, who was to tie a few weeks later for the British open championship and lose the play off to Densmore Shute, was third with four magnificent rounds of 73, 74, 71, 72. Walter Hagen made a characteristic effort in the last round equalling Goodman’s record 66, but even with that great feat to help him he was five strokes behind the winner. Densmore Shute finished in thirteenth place with a score of 301. His day was to come at St. Andrew’s a few weeks later, when he became British open champion. T. P. Perkins, British amateur champion in 1928, who went to U.S.A., and turned professional last year was sixteenth on the list with 305. Last year he tied for second place with 289. The leading returns were as follows, the names of members of the American Ryder Cup team being marked with an asterisk:—

Note the position taken by Gus Moreland, another of America’s outstanding amateurs.

With Goodman’s win it is another proof that the top amateurs of the United States can hold their own with the best professionals in the severest of all tests—four stroke rounds. Moreland played No. 3 in America’s Walker Cup team last year. Partnered with C. Seaver he beat T. A. Torrance (the British captain) and John de Forest (British amateur champion) 6 and 5 in the foursomes, and in the singles he beat Rex Hartley 2 and 1.

G. B. Meredith 77 73 73 72—295 M. O’Dowda 69 70 82 75—296 w. Buchan 70 74 74 78—29S J. S. Dick 73 76 75 75-299 c. J. Davies 68 77 76 82—303 J. H. Thomas 75 75 77 76-303

J. K. Garrett 72 73 74 73—292 p. P. Wimsett 75 69 77 76—297 R. C. Stewart 77 71 77 7G— 301 E. E. Broad 74 73 77 79—303 H. M. Smith 70 71 81 82—304

Out 5 3 5 4 4 4 3 4 4—36 In 55352444 6-38-74

Out 65543535 4—40 In 44 3 63455 4—38—78 His handicap of 18 gives him a net 60. J. K. Garrett’s card reads:— Out 55644536 5—43 In 3 4 444445 4—36—79

Mr J. Goodman 75 66 70 76-287 R. Guldahl 76 71 70 71—288 *Craig Wood 73 74 71 72—290 *W. Hagen 73 76 77 66—292 T. D. Armour 68 75 76 73—292 M. Dutra 75 71 75 74—295 Mr G. Moreland 76 76 71 72—295 *0. Dutra 75 71 75 74-295 J. Farrell 75 77 72 72—296 A. Watrous 74 76 70 77—297 *L. Diegel 78 71 75 75—299 M. Smith 77 72 77 74—300 *Horton Smith 75 76 76 75—302 *Gene Sarazen 74 77 77 75—303 T. P. Perkins 76 72 81 76-305