GOLF

Southland Times, Issue 25312, 15 June 1935, Page 18

GOLF

(By

“Cleek.")

INVERCARGILL CLUB.

June 22.—Medal handicap. June 22—Cuthbertson Memorial Foursomes.

'QUEEN’S PARK CLUB.

June 22.—First qualifying round Holloway Shield. June 29. —Second qualifying Holloway Shield and monthly medal handicap.

No official matches will be played to-day.

The weather effectually settled golf last week-end.

On account of a heavy snowfall the Shirley course has been closed to play -this week.

Many golfers will go to see the Indian hockey wizards to-day. A new champion has turned up in the United States. There are probably fifty professionals in America with very little between them. The man that gets “the breaks” wins.

The British open championship begins at Muirfield on Monday week. Henry Cotton, the holder, is evidently in good form and will be hard to beat. He is temperamental, however. It is to be hoped that he gets a flying start. Oakmount, where the American championship was decided, is the course famous for its bunkers. The sand is raked into ridges with a special implement to increase the difficulty of getting the ball out. Apart from, the bunkers the course is long and tricky. Sam Parks won with 299 and no one else got even 300. James Thomson, who won the Melbourne Centenary open, was second with 301, and Walter Hagen was third with 302. Gene Sarazens score was 306. The scores suggest that the conditions were adverse and intensified the difficulties of the course.

Jim Ferrier, the Sydney champion, whose State handicap was recently brought back to plus one, played 26 rounds on various courses for an average of 70J strokes per round—remarkable golf indeed. Ferrier has just’lost the Queensland open championship to Von Nida, but there was only one stroke in it and that stroke could justifiably be attributed to “local knowledge,” Von Nida being on his own ground. All the other pros., including Bolger (Australian open champion) and Kelly (professional champion) finished behind .Ferrier. Von Nida’s score was 294 and Ferrier’s 295.

The South African open championship was a triumph for amateur golf. Having won the South African amateur championship the week 'before, A. D. Locke, a 17-year-old Transvaal player, went on to win the open with 70, 76, 75, 75, his total of 296 giving him a lead of three strokes, from J. W. Verwey, another amateur. Only once before had an amateur won the open title. The recent visit of a team of British women golfers to South Africa has resuited in a romantic marriage. One of the members of the team was Miss Diana Plumpton, one of England’s, best players. Mr Noel Sabine, of Nairobi, was so much intrigued by the pictures of Miss Plumpton published in South African papers that he postponed his leave for a week in order to meet her. Then they voyaged to England in the same ship and an engagement to marry followed.

It is an unfortunate thing for Henry Cotton that he cannot take his golf like any normal professional. It will be remembered that he refused to play for Britain in the Ryder Cup team some years ago because it would interfere with his preparation for the open championship. Now he has refused to play for England against Scotland for the same reason. No wonder that Cotton’s attitude mystifies an old campaigner like J. H. Taylor, one of the selectors of the Ryder Cup team. Taylor said that he regarded it as an honour to play for his country. “It would have been good practice for Cotton," he said, “and he could have rested on the day before the championship. We naturally chose Cotton in the expectation that he would lead England.” Cotton is unquestionably a great golfer and he may win the open championship again, but he will never be the figure in the game that Taylor himself was, and his contemporaries Vardon and Braid. Any of “the Triumvirate” refusing to play for his country because an open championship followed is unthinkable.

When the American winter series of competitions finished with the Masters’ Tournament, which Gene Sarazen won after his sensational “double eagle” 2 and a play-off with Craig Wood, nine players had won £4OO or more for the series. Biggest winner was Henry Picard, whose £lll2 averaged about £25 a round. J. Revolta (£781) was next, and then followed Ky Laffoon (£560), V. Ghezzi (£534), Harry Cooper (£526), Paul Runyan (£525), Gene Sarazen (£474), Horton Smith (£466) and J. Hines (£401). The performances of Laffoon, Cooper, Runyan and Sarazen in doing so well after missing a number of events while away on the Australian tour was particularly fine.

Miss Wanda Morgan, who won the British Women’s Open Championship the other day, was in dashing form in the final of the Kent county championship. Playing 13 holes in 47 strokes (five under par) she beat Miss Diana Fishwick 7 up and 5. Hitting the ball far and straight and playing an accurate short game, Miss Morgan reached the turn in 33 and was 5 up. The next two holes were halved, but Miss Morgan settled the issue with a two at the 12th and a four at the long 13th.

When John Woollam defeated Eric Fiddian in the final of the English championship last month there was a comment in this column on the poor golf played and on the problem which the English championship presented, since the winner was often considered not good enough for the Walker Cup team. Woollam himself, for instance, though he has won the championship twice, has not yet found a place in the Walker Cup side. In the morning round of the final Woollam took 87 strokes. In the afternoon a 5 for the last hole would have given him a 78, but even that would have been one over a bogey that from the point of view of the scratch player would appear extraordinarily liberal. Writing in the London Daily Telegraph, Mr George Greenwood observed that had one of the leading Americans been playing the match would have been over at the halfway stage. Under the heading “What Can Americans Think?” Mr Greenwood went on to say:—“lt is scarcely necesary to draw on one’s imagination in order to visualize what must be in the minds of the members of the American Walker Cup team when reading of the details of this amazing final. Can there be any wonder that the cup has never yet been won by Great Britain?” Yet Woollam and Fiddian are probably the

proud possessors of plus handicaps. This writer makes bold to say that America could put three Walker Cup teams in the "field, none including a player with a lower handicap than two, any one of which would beat Britain’s best team of so-called plus players. Until Britain gets her handicaps on to a basis which shows clearly just where her leading amateurs stand, and how much better they must become before they can hope for a Walker Cup victory, British amateur golf is likely to remain in the doldrums.

IMPROVE YOUR GOLF—EASILY. You can improve your golf tremendously if you use a Dunlop Golf Ball. It isn’t luck that the Dunlop has more successes to its credit than any other golf ball. Every ball is carefully weighed to the 200th of an ounce and specially tested for speed and resiliency by being shot from the tee at 200 miles an hour and the result automatically recorded. Choose the ball that Champions choose—Dunlop—the extralength golf ball, and thereby improve your play.—Advt.