GOLF

Southland Times, Issue 24003, 19 December 1939, Page 3

GOLF

LEMON WINS OTAGO CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP J. N. Lemon won the championship of the Otago Golf Club at the week-end by defeating the provincial champion, T. W. Wight, 1 up after 36 holes of play. Wight had shown his worth the previous day by defeating the experienced Dr K. Ross by 4 and 3, and Lemon had had a convincing win by 5 and 3, against P. J. Gill. Wight had the advantage of a good start in the final, but Lemon’s steadiness and accuracy eventually triumphed over Wight’s powerful hitting and occasional brilliance, though Wight staged a great fighting finish after his chances had seemed hopeless. In the morning round Wight was 3 up after they had played the sixth, where Lemon took three putts but after the seventh had been halved Lemon took four holes in a row and completed the course so well that he was home in 34 and stood 3 up. Wight seemed to have lost touch in the early stages of the second 18 holes. Lemon took the first in 4 and the third with a birdie 3 to be 5 up, but a grand birdie 4 by Wight at the fifth reduced the margin. Wight got another one back at the eighth, where Lemon found the rough, but Wight at the ninth pushed his tee shot into the thick rough on the right, as he had done in the morning and had to concede the hole to Lemon. The latter increased his lead with a bogey 3 at the tenth. Five down with eight to go, Wight seemed to have lost all chance, but he then staged a great recovery. A wellplayed 5 gave him the eleventh and he also won the twelfth where he nearly holed a long approach. A glorious second won him the thirteenth and he played brilliantly out of the rough to halve the fourteenth with a birdie 3. Now only 2 down, Wight seemed still a possible winner, but a grand chip shot at a vital stage enabled Lemon to halve the fifteenth. After they had halved the sixteenth Lemon was left at the seventeenth with a putt of a yard for a half and the title, but he missed it. He was nicely on the last green in 2, however, and Wight’s second was too strong and finished in a bunker. His last fighting effort was a brilliant shot from this position that stopped only a foot from the hole. Lemon, however, putted with his usual accuracy and a half in 4 gave him a well-deserved victory.