BRILLIANT GOLF EXCITES “GALLERY”

Southland Times, Issue 23435, 16 February 1938, Page 14

BRILLIANT GOLF EXCITES “GALLERY”

Professional Tournament

At Otatara

(By

PAR)

In the 72 holes of the professional golf championship at Otatara last weekend Alex. Murray, the winner, had 24 “birdies,” 36 par holes, and 12 holes

one over par. A few more tournaments of the calibre of the professional event will go far towards making golf a “popular” attraction in this part of the Dominion. The “gallery” that followed Murray and Smith in the final round was properly worked up. The splendid exhibition of driving literally made the spectators gasp time and again. The sharp intake of breath and the “oh’s” of disappointment when Smith missed his three at the sixth, and Murray, after a lovely tee shot, was in and out of the hole for a two at the tenth, showed how keenly the game was being followed, and both players had repeatedly to acknowledge an outburst of applause.

Murray’s command of great length when he wanted it was shown by his play at the two long holes—Long Tom (486yds) and Eastward Ho (491yds). Not once in the championship did he require wood for his second shot. An iron always sufficed and more often than not his drive brought the green within reach of his number four. The president of the Invercargill Golf Club, Mr A. E. Smith, who presented the prizes at the conclusion of the tournament, was in his best form and his remarks to the audience and to the competitors were in his happiest vein.

The ball with which Murray played his great round on Sunday afternoon is now in the possession of an Invercargill golfer. Murray was looking for another putter on Friday afternoon, his own having become loose, and the player, who was at the club-house at the time, offered his. After a few waggles Murray said it would do and he used it throughout the championship. On returning the putter after using it to such good purpose in the fourth round, Murray expressed his thanks and' asked the player to accept the ball as a memento of the tournament. Murray actually did 67 with the ball—the finest golf ever played at Otatara—as he had incurred a penalty of stroke and distance when he took it from his bag on the first tee.

GREAT RECOVERIES The championship rounds were marked by two superb recoveries. The first went to the credit of Basil Smith. From the sixth tee he hooked his drive into the long grass in which flax and young trees have been planted between the sixth and tenth fairways. Paying the penalty of stroke and distance he played his third from the tee, hit a fine second to the pin and holed the putt, carding a bogey five despite two lost strokes. Alex. Murray did the same thing with his first drive of the fourth round. He pulled a long ball clean over the old clubhouse enclosure and the tractor shed into proper “tiger country.” The ball was lost and Murray played his third from the tee. His next stroke left him 12 to 15 feet from the hole and he sank the putt for a five, losing only one stroke to par. Some of the holes at Otatara, notably the fourteenth, fifteenth and seventeenth, gave most of the professionals trouble in one or more rounds. As far as distance was concerned the fourteenth was not a hard four; but there were far more fives than fours at that hole. Accuracy with both drive and second was essential if the player hoped to reach the green in two; even Murray, in the six rounds he played had five more often than four. The fifteenth was not an easy green to hold with approach shots, and fives were not uncommon there. Guy had six at that hole on Saturday afternoon. The seventeenth was no easy three, especially when the nor’-wester was blowing on Saturday morning. E. S. Douglas stood on the seventeenth tee on Sunday morning wanting bogey figures for 71. He had the right length with his tee shot, but it was off the line to the left. He took more pains over his second shot than with any other in the four rounds and then made a complete mess of it. He failed to get up the bank with his second, just reached the top with his third and was nine inches short of the hole with his next. He finished the round with 74 instead of 71.

LONG DRIVING There was some magnificent driving in the tournament. The two biggest clouts were probably those of Guy at the second hole (339yds), where he was past the pin, and Murray at the eighteenth (373yds), where he was certainly within 25yds of the flag. The seventh green, the “Elbow” (299yds), was driven repeatedly, and so was the tenth, the “Outlook” (286yds). At the latter green -Tom Galloway was once within six inches of holing out in one. At “Dunn’s Road” both Murray and Guy had drives that, had they been straight, would have reached the green (312yds) and Tom Galloway hit one to the dressed approach past the first bunker. Galloway, again, almost reached the first green, the “Nest” (319yds). The driving of the leading professionals delighted the spectators and so did some of their glorious iron shots. In the stroke competitions of the tournament only two scores under 70 were made, proving that the Otatara course, despite the lack of bunkers at some of the greens, is not as easy a course to play as it looks to be. Conditions could not have been more favourable to the players. The fairways were fast and in beautiful order and the length obtained with the drives made all the holes shorter than their yardage. The professionals were agreed that the conformation of the country made severe bunkering at Otatara un-necessary-many of the shortest shots to the pin calling for a careful survey of the ground and considerable skill in meeting the problem the contours pro-' vided. Experienced players thought that level fours, or 288 for the 72 holes, would go very close to winning. They were not far wrong. Murray’s winning score was 284, and T. S. Galloway’s 287 was the only other score under 290. Those who followed the players will appreciate the kind of golf that was necessary to get under level fours for the four Irounds—it was golf of real “class.”

From every point of view the professional tournament at Otatara was an outstanding success. The weather was brilliant throughout. Some of the competitors were here a week before the event began and all of them had arrived three days before for the purpose of getting in some practice. Day after day the sun shone brightly, and if there was any complaint against the weather it was that some of the days were too hot. Even the professionals from the far north felt the heat at times. ~he course was very fast, giving the

ball exceptional run. The greens, though burnt and bare of grass, were true and balls well struck kept to the line. In very few cases could the putter claim that balls that missed the hole should have gone in, and there was some excellent as well as some indifferent, putting. The competitors without exception expressed pleasure with the weather, the course, and the reception extended to them. Their captain, H. R. Blair, speaking at the presentation of prizes, sai<L that it had been a “red letter tournament” for the competitors. RECORD FOR COURSE The tournament served to establish, correctly and officially, the record for the course as it is today. The summer tee at the fifteenth was in use, extending the length of the hole from 297 to 332yds. The disks were behind the halfway mark on the tees, and with few exceptions the flags were placed well to the back of the greens. The scores were made in stroke competitions with strict regard to all rules—the only conditions under which “record” score can be accepted. So' the record stands at 69 in the names of Basil Smith and Alex Murray. Smith got his in the first round of the championship. His card was: Out—4 4 5 3 4 4 4 4 4—36 In —3 4345443 3—33—69 Murray, whose play was so impressive that a score in the sixties appeared to

be probable every time he went out, had to wait till the last round of the championship before he turned the trick. His card read: Out—s 3 4 3 3 4 3 5 4—34 In —3 5345443 4—35—69 Murray’s round included two lost strokes (he lost his ball from the first tee) so that his score “off the stick” was actually 67. The champion showed his power of recovery when, having taken five for the first hole, he “laid into” his drive at the second and to all intents and purposes reached the green (339yds). No doubt copies of both cards will be prepared and hung in the club house and it is safe to say that they will not be displaced for many a day. MEMORABLE FINAL ROUND For the final round of the championship Alex Murray and Basil Smith took “the gallery” and the spectators were well rewarded. To start with there was Murray’s lost ball from the first tee, and though he recovered wonderfully he lost a stroke to Smith. When he virtually drove the second green and was down in three he drew level. A skilful shot out of a bunker at the “Rushes” made a four easy. Smith failed to get a long approach putt up and needed five to get down, giving Murray a lead of one stroke. At the “Schoolhouse” Murray was in the sand in the awkward little bunker at the left of the green, but he came out beautifully and got the three without trouble. Smith, however, followed a perfect tee shot with a sound putt for a birdie two and i they were level again. “Dunn’s Road” gave the gallery a real thrill. Both hit long drives, Murray’s the longer, into the ditch near the women’s tee for the first hole, dropping the ball out without penalty. Both played perfect lofted shots over the bunkers. Smith, putting first, sank a good four yarder for a birdie three and then down went Murray’s which was not more than a couple of feet shorter. And so it went on—every hole full of incident. When word was passed on that Tom Galloway had taken 38 to the turn it was realized that, barring “a miracle,” the championship lay between Murray and Smith and interest in the duel was intensified. And a real duel it was until disaster overtook Smith at the fourteenth. When he entered a seven on his card there the championship was practically over, but the interest was sustained by Murray’s great finish. He played a lovely second to the fifteenth green, and the bad conformation of this green, which is the least satisfactory on the course, robbed him of a “sitter.” The ball jumped through. Murray’s shot back stopped at the top of the green but the putt was never going anywhere else but home. He hooked his drive at “the Knolls” but played a perfect second from the approach to the “Pancake” green and missed his three by a “whisker.” His approach putt at the “Pancake” was short by three yards but a difficult putt went slap to the back of the tin. Murray pushed his drive well out at the last hole and ridges and bunkers lay between him and the firiest green on the course. To pitch right to the green was to invite dire trouble—the ball might have bounced anywhere. Murray played short of the guarding bunker, then with a club whose head lay almost flat on the ground played a masterly stroke that gave him a thirty-inch putt for his 69 and he made no mistake with it. It was a memorable demonstration of skill in every department of the difficult game of golf.

GOLFING FILMS J. Lambie, the Hastings professional, entertained a number of local golfers and most of the visiting professionals with some moving pictures in the club house at Otatara on Saturday evening.

They showed prominent players in action at recent championship meetings, Lambie’s running commentary adding to the enjoyment of the entertainment. The most interesting part of his exhibition were films showing the styles of Archie Compston, the famous British professional, and Walter Hagen, the great American golfer. The pictures were taken at ordinary speed and in slow motion, and Lambie frequently stopped the camera at different points of the swing to enable the onlookers to observe the position of the hips, shoulders and wrists. Mr J. C. Brain, captain of the Invercargill Golf Club, thanked Lambie for providing the entertainment, which, he said, they had all thoroughly enjoyed.