GOLF NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 23227, 16 June 1937, Page 14

GOLF NOTES

ROUGH WEATHER AT WEEKEND (By PAR) There will be no official match at Otatara on Saturday. The monthly medal handicap will be decided on June 26. At Queen’s Park on Saturday the field will be engaged in the June medal handicap. The drainage scheme at Otatara has proved so successful that the club has decided to extend it and to enter immediately upon new work which it is hoped will materially improve three of the most important fairways—Long Tom, Ridge, and Te Puke. When this work has been completed a big improvement in the state of the course in the winter can be expected, and its wisdom in spending more money on drainage will then be appreciated. Conditions for golf at the week-end were extremely unpleasant. The piercing south-west wind was the stiffest hazard experienced for some time, and playing into it became really hard work. At Otatara, where the Cuthbertson Memorial foursomes were played, every pair was well down on bogey. The winners, B. W. Hewat and R, R. Binney, must have received a pleasant surprise when they learned that they had won with a card of 11 down. Four pairs were three up in the fourball bogey match at Queen’s Park and after a count back W. J. Morgan and L. Raines were declared the winners. Among the visitors at Otatara at the week-end were the Governor-General (Viscount Galway) and his aide-de-camp (Sir Standish O’Grady Roche). It was unfortunate that his Excellency should have experienced such miserable weather, but he did not let that interfere with his enjoyment of the break from official duties.

Henry Cotton, the brilliant British golfer, and Densmore Shute, the American professional who won the British open championship in 1933 after a play-off with Craig Wood, are to meet early next month in what has been described as the world’s match play championship over 72 holes. The match will be played on two different courses —36 holes on each. While such a contest will no doubt create a good deal'of interest among golfers, it is hardily correct to call it the world’s match play championship. It will have no official standing at all, and if a world title were involved it is not likely that it would be decided in such a manner. It would probably be more correct to say that the match will be a test of golfing skill between a player nominated by the British Professional Golfers’ Association and a player nominated by the United States Professional Golfers’ Association.

WYNDHAM TOURNAMENT The tournament conducted by the Wyndham Club ast Wednesday was a most successful one. There was a big field, the weather was all that could be desired and the course was in good order. The late arrival of some of the competitors disorganized the starting arrangements, and as the leeway could not be made up it was dusk before the last of the players had finished. J. G. Niccol retained his title of Eastern District champion but only by a stroke, D. Crawford, a consistent Wyndham golfer, making a great bid to wrest the title from him. J. Henderson had things very much his own way in the intermediate grade, his golf both in the morning and the afternoon being much better than that of any other intermediate player. The junior championship went to D. B. G. Paterson, a steady Gore player. The titles were thus distributed between the Queen’s Park, Wyndham and Gore Clubs, a veiy satisfactory state of affairs. The handicap trophies were not so well distributed, being won by Queen’s Park or Wyndham representatives.

The success of Miss Jessie Anderson in the British women’s golf championship would be a popular one in New Zealand, as she gained a host of admirers when she was here with the British women’s team .two years ago. She took away with her the New Zealand women’s championship, the quality of her golf on that occasion indicating that the highest honours were not beyond her. Since then she has won the French women’s championship and the East of Scotland women’s championship. She reached the semi-final of the British championship in 1935 and 1936. FULLER REPORTS WANTED The meagre details cabled to New Zealand about the British amateur championship were mention by members of the council of the New Zealand Golf Association at their last meeting, and it was resolved to see whether anything could be done about getting the newspapers to give reasonably full descriptions of important events in Britain. Although the British amateur championship is an important golfing event, its news value varies, and, this is taken into account by the cable agencies. Last year, for example, the best amateur in Britain and the best in Australia were in the field and when they met in the final the interest in Australia and New Zealand was infinitely greater than if an Englishman and a Scotsman were meeting. The men handling the cablegrams, knowing this, sent out fuller particulars than they would have if Jim Ferrier had not been competing. This year there was not the same interest in Australia and New Zealand, and so little more than the bare result was cabled, byt even so a few more words describing the final would have been acceptable. An application for reinstatement as an amateur was before the council of the New Zealand Golf Association recently, but it was decided that the council must adhere to its definite rule, which is that it cannot consider an application for reinstatement until the expiration of three years from the date of the last act which would constitute professionalism. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews has informed the New Zealand Golf Association that for the future, caddies who accept cash prizes in caddies’ or in other tournaments, will thereby forfeit their amateur status. The Royal and Ancient Club pointed out that in this definition there was no age limit fixed as there was in clause two of the amateur definition, which clause deals with caddying; this latter was permitted up to the age of 18 years without affecting amateur status.

AMERICAN OPEN CHAMPION Ralph Guldahl, the new open champion of the United States, is by no means a new star. Four years ago, when the amateur, Johnny Goodman, won the American open at North Shore, Guldahl had a putt of three yards on the last green to tie with him, but missed it. Guldahl was then 20 years of age and already married, and family responsibilities compelled him to take a job as a motor salesman. Last year, however, he was able to take the field again as a competing professional and had his full share of success. He won the Radix Cup for the best professional average over the stroke play tournaments of the year. This year he was runner-up to Byron Nelson in Bobby Jones’s masters’ tournament at Augusta (Georgia) and the probability is that when the recent American open championship started, both Nelson and Guldahl were among the favourites. When the last mails left America

the following had been picked for the American Ryder Cup team: — Walter Hagen (non-playing captain). Gene Sarazen. Densmore Shute Horton Smith Tony Manero Henry Picard Johnny Revolta Both Nelson and Guldahl were among the probables for the remaining places, and it is a certainty that Guldahl has now been selected; we shall next hear of him in the Ryder Cup matches in England. These are to be played on June 29 and 30 at Southport and Ainsdale. If it is not already on the water the American team must be about to sail, and the members will constitute the “American menace when the British open championship comes up for decision at Carnoustie (Scotland) on July 5. BIG MONEY IN GOLF The hopes of a South African syndicate, who took a wager of £30,000 to £lOO that Bobby Locke, the young South African champion, would win the Transvaal, the South African, and the British amateur and open golf championships, were wrecked when Locke was defeated by Gordon Peters, 3 and 2, in the quarter-finals of the British amateur championship (says Hugh Anderson in The Australasian). The odds of 300 to 1 were good, but Locke was given a tremendous task. Had he won the British amateur title he would still have had a man-sized job to win the British open title, for which the cream of British and American players will compete in July. In 1930, when Bobby Jones made his famous “grand slam” of winning the British and American open and the British and American amateur titles, a small fortune was made by a syndicate who backed him to win the four events at long odds. The amount won on this occasion was never disclosed, but the sum has been estimated at figures ranging from £50,000 to £120,000. Possibly the South African syndicate, with wonderful faith in their 19-year-old champion, thought they might clean up the books” in a similar manner. While very large stakes have been played for in private matches on several occasions, the bigegst stake that ever depended on a professional match was in the 72-hole contest between Walter Hagen and Abe Mitchell in 1926 over St. George’s Hill and Wentworth. The stake was £lOOO. Hagen, who was 4 down at the end of the Wentworth section of the match, won by 2 and 1. Taking money values into consideration, however, the historic match in 1849 when Allan Robertson and old Tom Morris beat the Dunn brothers over Musselburgh, St. Andrews, and North Berwick for a stake of £4OO, takes a lot of beating. Larger stakes have been played for by amateurs, notably in the match in 1868, when Lord Kennedy played Mr Cruickshanks, of Langley Park, for £5OO a hole at St. Andrews.