NGAMOTU GOLF COURSE

Southland Times, Issue 23027, 22 October 1936, Page 9

NGAMOTU GOLF COURSE

CHAMPIONSHIP VENUE AN EXCELLENT TEST The Ngamotu golf course, the venue of the New Zealand open, amateur and professional championship, which begins to-day, was acquired by the New Plymouth Golf Club nearly 25 years ago and play was started there in 1912. The 18-hole course was laid out by the late F. G. Hood and was played on until about 1926. Certain alterations were then carried out, but it was realized that the course was not a suitable one for a New Zealand championship. About two years later Mr R. H. Quilliam, the club captain at the time, made a definite move to bring the course up-to-date. In 1929 Mr C. H. Redhead was engaged to draw up a scheme for a championship course. Mr Redhead after carefully considering the problem practically adopted the lay-out suggested by Mr P. Grey, a club member. He drew up a full system of bunkering and after the finance had been arranged the scheme was approved by a special general meeting and work began towards the end of 1929. The new reconstructed course was opened for play nearly a year later. The system of bunkering and several alterations have been carried out during the last 12 months by Major A. E. Conway and to-day the course provides one of the best tests of golf in the Dominion. The phenomenal growth of grass during the last two months has given a great sole to all the fairways, which will be slow, making the course of G 223 yards play at least 200 yards longer. From the point of view of playing length Ngamotu will be the longest on which the championship has yet been held. The course calls for the use of every club in the bag. For the average championship competitor there will be two or three seconds to be played with a brassie or spoon, three that will call for a two or three iron, three that require a number four, a like number needing a five or six and two for the mashie niblick. This, as can be seen, requires a mastery of all the clubs in the bag. Need For Accuracy. The first hole should not present any serious difficulties to a championship contender, but calls for a fairly ac-curately-placed drive as a bad pull goes over an out-of-bounds fence and a heavy slice makes the second shot to a peninsular green very tricky. A driver and a mashie niblick wil be all that most require. A gully over 100 yards across faces players at the second and it is goodbye to any topped shot. This hole plays its full 400 yards and all but the really I long hitters will require a wood for the second shot. As the green is tightly bunkered there are likely to be more fives than fours.

Slightly dog’s-legged describes the third, 375 yards. A small clump of trees on the left proves fatal to most hooks. The green is narrow but well mounded and is in the range of a mashie from a well-hit tee shot.

A great deal at the fourth, 395 yards, depends upon the wind. With a nortlx erly a comparatively easy drive and a mashie suffice, but with a southerly or westerly few will get home with two

full woods. The best line of play from the tee is slightly to the left. The wind again enters into calculations at the fifth, 390 yards. Out-of-bound fences extend right along both sides of the fairway. With a northerly the green can be reached with a drive and a mashie, but playing into the teeth of a southerly it will take even the long flitters two of the best to get home. A One-Shotter. The sixth, 185 yards, is the first of the one shotters. Once again the wind is a factor. The tee is well above the green and there is a creek about 40 yards short of the green. Any topped ball is usually gone for ever. Under ordinary conditions most will play this with a number four iron but should a southerly be blowing a wood will be necessary. The green is closely trapped with deep bunkers. It is preferable to over-club, as there is little trouble through the green. The seventh, 400 yards, is likely to cause players plenty of trouble, a slight slice on either the tee shot or the second will see the ball sail over the cliff out of bounds. A southerly wind makes this hole fully 70 to 80 yards longer. There are no bunkers at the eighth, 395 yards, but on either side are out-of-bounds fences and the green is cut out of the side of the hill. A pulled second might easily result in a six appearing on the card. This is a terraced green and the distance is rather difficult to judge. The ninth, 170 yards, is a new hole, constructed on the principle of the well-known Het Girdle at Gleneagles. The green is of the plateau type requiring a high shot with back spin. The club required varies from a five to a three with the different winds. Unlike many par five holes, the 10th 560yds, cannot be turned into a four by two mighty hits. An old creek bed, now a grass hollow, runs just in front of the green and this means that to reach the green in two even a 300 yard drive needs a second with a carry of nearly 250 yards. Sarazen made an attempt, but even he failed. An out-of-bounds fence extends along the right all the way. The boundary out-of-bounds fence penalizes any sliced balls at the 11th, 405 yards, but otherwise it is a straightforward two-shotter, usually requiring a number three or four iron second to a well trapped green.

The next hole, the 12th, 165 yards, is one of the few weak holes of the course. It is a one-shotter to a partially blind green with bunkers to the left and a blind bunker on the hillside on the right. It has no special features but it is easy to slip a stroke there. * A Good Hole.

Number 13, 380 yards, looks and is a splendid golf hole. There are an out-of-bounds threat on the right and a clump of trees on the left to penalize faulty tee shots while in front of the tee is an expanse of marine flax and lupin. Even when these are safely negotiated the player is faced with a testing shot to a plateau green with steep slopes away on the left and at the back. If a southerly is prevailing this calls for a full wood second and if the green is missed anything can happen. The last of the one-shotters is the 14th, 113 yards. This is a comparatively simple hole calling for a mashie niblick pitch, but the green is in a hollow surrounded by rough sand country and a network of bunkers, some of which are blind from the tee.

The 15th is a real dog’s-leg hole of 350 yards, extending round the right of a lake with an out-of-bounds fence on the right of the fairway. Most players will be in mashie range of the green after a decent drive.

The real difficulty presented by the