A Diary of Sport D GOOD WEATHER FOR GOLF

Southland Times, Issue 24162, 26 June 1940, Page 8

A Diary of Sport D GOOD WEATHER FOR GOLF

Stroke Handicap At

Otatara

CULLEN’S SUCCESS AT QUEEN’S PARK

By

PAR

After a week’s bright sunshine golf courses were in very good winter order last week-end. Saturday was an ideal golfing day, the weather being calm and the sky overcast. The Western District championships, which were postponed last month, will be played at Nightcaps next week-end. At Otatara on Saturday a fair-sized field took part in the June stroke handicap, but although conditions were favourable the scoring was nothing wonderful, many strokes being lost on the greens. A popular win was scored in the A grade by the club president, E. E. Broad, who went round in 87 for a net 73, one under the scratch score. His worst holes were the first and the eighteenth, at each of which he was two over bogey. G. R. Hanan had a good round of 81, his net 74 leaving him a stroke behind Broad. Hanan played finely through the green and at the turn was only a stroke over bogey. But over the next four holes he dropped five strokes, mainly through bad putting. He then settled down again and was only one over bogey for the last five holes. W. F. Poff and J. A. Thom had the best gross score, 80, and, with H. T. Thompson, they tied for third place with net 75’s. Thom would have broken 80 but for three-putting on two or three greens. Poff did not have a 6 on his card, but had 5 s at six of the bogey 4 holes. B. Mehaffey and S A. Bell were next, both with 82-6-76. • ■ .t C. W. Francis had an easy win in the B grade at Otatara on Saturday, and as a result of returning a net 72 his handicap has been reduced a stroke to 18. He had no holes over 6 in his round of 91, but four of the 6’s were taken at bogey 4’s. A. R. Macnee, who has been showing improved form lately, was second with 92-17-75. STABLEFORD AGGREGATE There was no official match at Queen’s Park on Saturday, but about 60 players took part in an unofficial Stableford aggregate handicap. Between them H. Rout and S. Jewiss scored 42 points and with the help of a combined handicap of 25 won by two points from J. C. R. Fleming and S. Robson. Two points further back came A. R. Cullen and E. R. Barnett and A. H. Hamilton and T. J. Dwyer. The singles knock-out competition has been completed at the Park, the winner being A. R. Cullen, who defeated J. J. White in the final by two holes. This competition, which was held up because of bad weather early in the year, was run on the two-life system, and in the ninth round F. W. Tunnicliffe still had two lives and Cullen, White and W. Gellatly one each. Cullen beat Tunnicliffe at the twentysecond after a grand match, and White eliminated Gellatly. Cullen drew the bye in the next round, in which Tunnicliffe lost his second life and was out of it. The latter did remarkably well to reach the ninth round without a loss. He is a steady player and has reduced his handicap from 13 last season to 8. . . , The winner of the competition, Cullen, is always a hard man to beat in match play. During the last two or three seasons he has figured prominently in tournaments in different parts of the province. He has a good style and, what is ’ equally important, the right temperament. Good progress is being made with the Holloway Shield competition at Queen’s Park, and only five of the 32 who qualified are left in. Results are as follows:— Second round.—J. Low beat H. Murphy; R. G. Scandrett beat E. Hargreaves; J. Ingram beat J. Boyd; A. R. Cullen beat E. R. Barnett; G. M. Thom beat D. Nesbit; G. H. Ball beat H. W. Norris; R. Kidd beat P. E. Rice; E. H. Bray beat F. W. Tunnicliffe. Third round.—Scandrett beat Low; Cullen beat Ingram; Ball beat Thom. The match between Kidd and Bray has yet to be played. NORTHERN COURSES Southland golfers are not the only ones who have to play on soft courses. According to a North Island writer many courses there were recently rainsoaked, the Manawatu Club’s links being water-logged. Some of the courses in Hawke’s Bay are in remarkably good order. Rain, he says, merely improves the Hastings course. In fact if rain fell all the morning and ceased at midday one could safely traverse the course in carpet slippers after lunch. Beneath the grassed surface, scoria abounds, and the water disappears almost as rapidly as it comes. Wellington’s leading courses, Miramar and Heretaunga, are in very heavy condition. Miramar is heavier than it usually is at this time of the year, and most of its bunkers are nearly full of water. This course is in serious trouble with its drainage, and members of the club state that the making of the airport next door to the course has blocked the drainage outlet to the sea, which in the form of Lyall Bay, is adjacent. The championship course at New Plymouth has absorbed a lot of rain, but the porous nature of the soil has enabled it to remain in very good order—much better order than could be expected of courses where a clay sub-soil holds the moisture. ODDS AND ENDS . Neither war nor threats of invasion has stopped Henry Cotton’s triumphant Red Cross campaign. A recent match at Sheffield, in which he was allied with Dick Burton, who holds the open title, against Percy Alliss and Arthur Lees, netted £lOOO. This brings the total from the series of matches to £15,000. Alliss and Lees won 4 and 3. Bobby Jones, in whose honour the Augusta Masters’ Tournament is held, after exciting his many friends with a brilliant 66 in practice a few days before the start of play, retired after 36 holes because of a shoulder ailment. He has suffered from this complaint for some time, but when the pain became acute he decided it was wise to withdraw.

Bobby Jones’s son is nearing 14. At that age the former emperor of golf was placing the wide base on his temple of golfing fame. Jones the Third, however, has no ambition to emulate the unparalleled record of his father, but the latter wants the lad to take up the game for exercise. John Montague, the fabled golfer of a few years ago, played in several of the Californian tournaments, but did not cut much of a figure. It may be recalled that he had the reputation that he could beat the better ball , of Jones and Hagen, could punch the ball out of sight, and hole putts from any angle on the green. It may be that the restriction of his golf clubs to 14 has affected his game, but he would not have room in his bag for the rake, the shovel and

the hoe with which on one occasion he played a match of one hole. Miss Pam Barton, British women’s champion and holder of both the British and American titles in 1936, and well known to many in this country through her visit here in 1935, joined up with the London Auxiliary Volunteer Ambulance Service at the beginning of the war. She says hex - “doings” are not very busy—till London is raided.

“We are all under the London County Council and under the charge of a station officer and a shift officer who work in the office all day,” she wrote recently. “There are three shifts with a personnel of about 25 each, 10 men and the rest women. We do eight hours each, starting 7.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m., then 3.30 p.m. to 11.30 p.m., and then the night shift which is 11.30 p.m. to 7.30 a.m.

“The week we are on the early morning shift it is our job to clean up all the sitting rooms, office and kitchen, and sweep out the garage while the men clean the cars. The girls get down to it on hands and knees with a scrubbing brush, and after that, in truly charwoman fashion, we have ‘a nice cup of tea.’

“We are sometimes sent out on drives to learn where all the hospitals and other ambulance stations are, also learning meanwhile the names of the ‘highways and byways.’ Our area is enormous, stretching from Hammersmith to Westminster, south to Battersea and to the north of Kensington. “Sometimes we are sent out with the regular accident ambulance from Western Hospital. This is a gruesomely exciting job, the idea being to accustom us to unpleasant sights. We also have, of course, first aid and gas lectures.

KNITTING AND BRIDGE “On more leisurely days (which arc frequent) we knit hectically for the services, and we have even taught the men to knit, scarves being their strong point. Also we have a bridge four which whiles away some long hours. Our meals are cooked for us by the women’s voluntary services. They give an enormous and very good lunch and dinner—two courses and coffee for about 1/-. . “We thought it would be fun to get up a small show, a revue of sorts with a few sketches, songs and a dance. So we started training, under the eye of one of the girls, as a chorus of eight We worked very hard and eventually a month latex - the big day came and instead of the show being done to about 30 or 40 people as originally thought, 300 turned up! We had a great evening and the show was a howling success. So much so that we were asked to take it around to various other stations. Our chorus turns we have done at the King’s Theatre for a charity show, and at the Lyric Theatre also. We did it one week-end to the troops somewhere in the country. “Our job is dull sometimes, and on a nice spring day it will be hard not to think of a green golf course in the country. But we have many a good laugh together, and ping-pong and darts seem to have taken the place of golf In fact, my proudest possession is the cup I won for throwing ‘a pretty dart.’ ”