GOLF

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1927, Page 4

GOLF

NEW PLYMOUTH CLUB

THE EASTER TOURNAMENT.

(By

“Stance.”)

Preparations are well under way for the tournament at Easter and everything points to this year’s gathering being a record one in every way. Two ex-New Zealand champions in I<eo Quin and Sloan Morpeth will probably be competing, and visitors are coming from as far as Auckland and Napier. The course is rapidly approaching list class order and the greens promise o regain their usual fine state. Extra labour is being used 10r the elearjng up of the bunkers but ao f ar no move has been made to improve the tiger country on the right of the 11th fairway. If Dr. Mackenzie could see this bit of rough he would just about throw a fit on the spot, and unless something is done before Easter, holds-ups are going to be as numerous as deputations to Cabinet Ministers, and opinions that people are expressing concerning the Dairy Pool will fade into insignificance beside those that will be given gratis of the new eleventh hole. The first Medal Handicap of the season took place on Saturday last and as was generally anticipated the scores were only fair. Chong’s 77-3-75 was a fine effort, and shows that this player is going to show us some of his best golf at Easter. He is hitting a longer ball with his wooden clubs than •ever before and his iron is just as good as ever. Last week a rival scribe produced a lot of figures and facts (?) tending to prove that “Stance’s” contention regarding the relative hardness of the bogie at Waiwakaiho was not correct. A searching examination of his statements, however, shows beyond doubt that his figures are based entirely on information taken from cards and not from actual experience on the links in question. For instance, he quotes Miramar as having a par of 72, when every one who has actually played on the course knows that there are four one shot holes, the 4th, Oth 11th, and 13th, and there are only two, the 17th and 18th, with pars of 5, and even about these opinions differ. This gives a par of two under fours or 70 according to my calculations. His par for Shirley is also two three strokes astray. At any rate this is immaterial. My contention that the bogie is two or three strokes too hard has not in any way been shaken ? The only courses where the bogie is anywhere near as close to par as on our course is on those courses where the bogie has been specially reduced for the New Zealand Championships. Why we should attempt to exalt ourselves and put our bogie on a png and, in some cases harder, than these is beyond the comprehension of this scribe. There is no course in the whole width and breadth of the Dominion that it is harder to take a score on than our own and no course where it is easier to drop strokes on, and yet we inadvisably try to make it still harder; and do this in the face of the modern tendency to make only the championship courses really hard and the holiday and club courses easier. Clubs in America almost had to close down until they came into line, and it is only because we have no opposition here that things like this can be got away with. However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and “Stance” is fully prepared to stand by the returns in the tournament next week. The following local rule comes into force from to-day:—“Ground covered by permanent grass, whether it is adjacent to, part of, or surrounded by bunker, shall not be regarded as bunker.” This means that a player may ground the club behind the ball on all permanent grass, but it must be remembered that stray weeds in a bunker do not constitute permanent grass. It would also be well if the committee could frame a rule dealing with balls lying close to the fences surrounding the tree enclosures. Many players are under the impression that one can drop back, but this is not so at present. It seems manifestly unfair that a player who has actually gone into one of these enclosures should be at least half a stroke better off than the man who has just ' avoided the out of bounds penalty. Again some clubs allow a lifting rule in this case and a definite ruling might prevent unpleasant incidents during, the tournament. THE NEW ZEALAND TEAM. On the evening of Monday last the Golf Council met to decide upon a team to visit New South Wales to do battle for the Kirk-Windeycr Cup in June. The team was originally to have been composed of four players, but apparently the task of narrowing the numbers down to this figure proved too much for the council for the number is now five, namely, A. D. S. Duncan, (Wellington), Dr. K. Ross (Otago), E. M. MacFarlane (Christchurch), T. H. Horton (Masterton) and L. T. Quin (Eltham). Taranaki golfers will all join in congratulating the latter on his inclusion, but he has fully earned the honour, no players showed more consistent golf at Miramar last October and his great fight against Duncan when ithe great veteran was at the top of his game and the luck of the game was dead against him stamped the Eltham man as a great player, and he will prove in Australia that he has few, if any, peers at the game in this country. BEATEN BY GOLF. That great golfer, J. H. Taylor, spoke at" an English Rugby football dinner the other evening. He has presented a shield, to be played for bv the Richmond and London Scottish chibs, and they play for it on his course at MidSurrey. Ainoug other things, he remarked dryly that he had always considered Rugby football the most strenuous of games, but that now he had seen Sir Joseph Napier, the Richmond full-back, swinging a niblick he awarded the palm to golf! J. H. Taylor went on to suggest a golf championship among Rugby football clubs, as a means of soothing the nerves after a wearing season. I do not know whether the effect would be soothing, but there would be some pretty good players entered. C. H. Pillman, the famous Blackheath and England wing-forward, is a fine golfer, as is R. H. Bettington, who won a golfing Blue at Oxford. O. D. Roberts, another England forward, is an excellent performer, and the longest driver of them all would be A. L, Graeie, the Scottish centre.