GOLF NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 23335, 20 October 1937, Page 14

GOLF NOTES

INVERCARGILL CLUB’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

(By

PAR)

The last match on the Queen’s Park Golf Club’s programme for the season, a four-ball bogey handicap, will be played next Saturday and a week later the season will be brought to a close. There will be no official match at Otatara on Saturday. The Invercargill Club is holding an open tournament on Labour Day. Post entries will be received for a Stableford match in the morning and a fourball bogey handicap in the afternoon. Satisfactory entries have been received for the “diggers’ ” tournament at Queen’s Park on Monday, and as more are coming in from different parts of the province it is expected that at least 40 will be on parade with some part of their war-time equipment. The possibility of a professional tour • nament being held at Otatara in February was mentioned to “Par” by B. J. Smith, who discussed the proposal with leading professionals at Hamilton. It met with a favourable reception, and provided the necessary prize-money can be raised Southland golfers may at last have an opportunity of seeing New Zealand’s leading players in action without having to go north. It is understood that inquiries are being made by the committee of the Invercargill Club.

J. S. Lindsay, as anticipated, had no difficulty in retaining the championship of the Queen’s Park Club. His opponent in the final, G. E. Glennie, found him at the top of his form for the first 18 holes, which Lindsay did in 74, the best score returned at the park this season. It is not often that a golfer can produce his top form in a championship final, but Lindsay did, and it was no disgrace for Glennie to be beaten by such grand golf. Lindsay, who is a free, attractive swinger, handled the fiery greens much better than Glennie, and it was in approaching and putting that he saved strokes. A year or two ago Glennie could play' as well as Lindsay is playing now, but today it is a different story. However, Glennie is always a trier and sooner or later his turn will come a"ain. Now that Lindsay has clearly demonstrated . his superiority over his club mates, and at the same time that he can play golf of a very high standard, it is hoped that he will make a bid for the provincial title next Easter. STEAD CUP WINNER Miss Leila Rice, the young Wyndham golfer was the bright star of the Stead Cup tournament at Queen’s Park last week. On the last of three days’ strenuous golf she was playing better than ever, and at one stage during the final her figures would have had most men beaten. Her swing is short and sharp, but she hits a longer ball than the big majority of women. Her two shots to the eighteenth green in the morning were probably the best of the tournament. Her convincing defeat of Mrs J. D. Speirs, who won the Stead Cup last year and the provincial title last month, places Miss Rice in the forefront of women golfers in Southland. She has the distinction of being the first member of a country club to win the Stead Cup. The women proved just a shade too good for the men in the Ayson Shield match at Queen’s Park last Saturday, winning by ten matches to nine. Some of the men found the women’s handicap of a stroke at the bogey fours and fives and half a stroke at the threes far too much for them as their opponents played nearly as well as they did. It was an enjoyable fixture played in beautiful weather. INVERCARGILL CLUB The championship matches of the Invercargill Club are now well advanced, and it is possible that the junior final will be played next week-end. In the semi-finals of the club championship H. W. Rogers meets G. F. Deighton and M. O’Dowda, the present champion, meets R. A. Wilson. Deighton, who is on a handicap of seven, played his best golf since coming to Invercargill a month or two ago when he defeated A. Thom. He lost the first three holes and was two down at the sixth, but wiped out the deficit with birdies at successive holes—Elbow and Long Tom. He had another birdie at the tenth, another at the fourteenth and Thom knocked his ball into the hole at the fifteenth for a birdie 3. J. D. Strettell, who was a finalist last year, met O’Dowda in the first round this time and was again defeated, but put up a good fight. The latter can plav better golf than he did against Strettell, and will have to produce it in his next match. Wilson was too good for F. H. Hughes, but was also below his best form. The match between him and O’Dowda should be a great one. Two of the three intermediate matches played went to the eighteenth green, and it was only because of a weakness on the greens that H. M. Smith did not take G. R. Hanan further than the sixteenth. H. T. Thompson and N. H. Webb had a most interesting match. There, was little between them all the way, first one and then the other winning a hole. In his match with A. J. Skjellerup, N. Earl was four up with six to play, but Skjellerup took four holes in a row and very nearlywon the match. In the semi-finals Hanan plays Thompson and Earl meets the winner of the match between G. S. Thorpe and F. E. Holdgate. The juniors lost no time in coming to grips and as a result only the final has to be played. In the semi-finals A. H. Broad defeated F. O. Mac Gibbon on the last green and W. Strang had an easy win over A. R. Macnee. Mac Gibbon had his younger opponent straining hard, and had his putting been a little more reliable he would probably have won. Strang played golf much above junior standard in his match against Macnee. At the turn he was only four over bogey. He continued to play steadily and was five up with four to play. Broad and Strang should have an interesting final.

HAMILTON IMPRESSIONS

The Hamilton Golf Club’s links at St. Andrews were not as simple as they looked by the card, according to B. J. Smith, who returned last week after playing in the New Zealand championships. He said that the holes from 350 to 390 yards were by no means easy fours. Accurate seconds were needed; if they were off the line, too short or too far the player would find himself in trouble. All the threes were good holes and the greens, which were on the small side, were well guarded. Accuracy from the tee was essential if a player 1 hoped to have a chance of getting the figure he aimed at. Smith expressed the opinion that J. P. Hornabrook was unquestionably the best amateur in New Zealand, and said he was unlucky to have been beaten by T. H. Horton, whom he had defeated twice previously in almost the same manner that Horton beat him—by holing a chip .shot at a critical stage of the game. Smith described Horr.abrook’s second at the last hole in his match against Horton as the best shot he has ever seen. Under pressure, Hornabrook played a spoon shot to within two feet of the pin only to see his opponent sink a 15-foot putt for the half.

There was a number of young professionals coming on, but they lacked competitive golf. Some clubs were now allowing their professionals to play in the club competitions in order

to give them the play they needed. Smith said he was satisfied with his own form at the tournament. Since his return he has been playing first-class golf, his last four rounds at Otatara all being in the low seventies. His best was a 71. DUNEDIN’S MUNICIPAL COURSE The opening of the municipal golf course at Chisholm Park, Dunedin, is to take place this afternoon. The course is to be declared open by the Mayor (the Rev. E. T. Cox), who will be assisted by Mr C. L. Calvert, president of the Dunedin branch of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, which, through its Poppy Day fund collections, has enabled unemployed ex-servicemen to be employed on the course construction over a period of years. As the only councillor who is a golf player, Mr W. H. Shepherd is to have the honour of driving the ball from the first tee. The fairways are in good order, but in some parts they will be under repair on the opening day. All the greens, with the exception of the new first, are well forward. It was originally intended to play through the pines to the first green, but another green has been built nearer the tee, following suggestions of danger to children playing near the frontage overlooking the school grounds, and the new green will not be at its best for a while. Avondale (Christchurch) was honoured recently when the first South Island championships, to carry South Island titles, were played there, but the club is soon to have a still greater privilege—that of having as the guest of the course the Governor-General, Lord Galway. Lord Galway has written to a special committee of Returned Soldiers’ Association members that he will play in the open tournament for returned soldiers to be held on the Avondale course on November 7. HATTERSLEY’S BIRDIES H. W. Hattersley, one of Australia’s leading amateur golfers, returned the exceptional card of 68, including eight birdies, in a game at the Christchurch Golf Club’s course at Shirley last week. The score was four strokes less than the standard scratch score, and had he been | playing more carefully he might easily | have clipped several strokes off the figures he returned. Hattersley, who was playing with four members of the club, A. L. Macfarlane, P. H. N. Freeth, A. A. Boon, and P. R. Godby, played a game which was a contrast to his form at Hamilton, where he repeatedly failed to find touch with his approaches and iron shots through the green. He was able to play his irons to stop on the greens at Shirley, and was not hampered, as in the New Zealand championships, by the wind (says The Press). His round, compared with bogey, was:—

Hattersley reached the fourth green with a drive and a number three iron. At the ninth he sank a putt from the back of the green for a birdie 2. Trying a freak shot, he drove off one leg at the eleventh, hitting a ball more than 200 yards. His second found a bunker by the green, and, attempting a fancy shot with his third, he failed to find the green. At the twelfth, he carried the hill from the tee; at the fourteenth he was just short of the green with a drive and a number three iron; at the fifteenth he had three “putts”; at the sixteenth he was short of the green with his second, the ball reaching the hollow next to the green; and at the seventeenth and eighteenth he sank good putts for birdies. Hattersley, who is a member of the Australian Golf Club, Kensington, Sydney, will leave for England next year, and if he is back in time he may play again in the New Zealand championships. WARNING NOT TO BE HEEDED Miss Pam Barton, who at the age of 19 was the first player to win both the British and American golf championships, has decided to allow her book to be published in spite of the warning of St. Andrews (writes a London correspondent). But she has not made up her mind whether to accept any fees, and so forfeit her status as a competitive player. If she gives any money the book may produce to charity, her position in the game will not be affected. At the moment Miss Barton seems thoroughly out of love with the game. For two years she has both played and thought about golf ceaselessly, and she is now so weary of it that she has put away her clubs, and vows that she will not play again for six months. The strain, too, has affected her health, and she has been advised to take a long rest. Her experience is a familiar one so far as the champion is concerned, and she is not the first woman player to be driven from the links through the success she has achieved. Miss Joyce Wethered went through the same agony of mind, and the mobbing she was subjected to by the galleries at championships brought about her retirement some time before she commercialized her skill by undertaking a tour in America.

Miss Enid Wilson, too, was ready to quit competitive play when the bar was put up against her writing on the game. She was willing at any rate to accept the consequences, and I do not believe that she has ever regretted forsaking the scenes of her former triumphs. Occasionally she has since played in public matches, usually for charities, but the privacy which she now enjoys is a welcome relief from the turmoil which as a champion she was compelled to endure.

Out— 5 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 2—33 Bogey4 4 3 5 5 4 4 4 3—36 In— 4 6 3 3 4 4 5 3 3—35 Bogey— 4 4 4 3 5 3 5 4 4—36