THE KIRK WINDEYER CUP

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1929, Page 5

THE KIRK WINDEYER CUP

COVETED GOLF TROPHY REVIEW OF THE POSSIBILITIES. COMING STRUGGLE IN MELBOURNE , (By “Stance.”) Next week New Zealand’s selected five players, Sloan Morpeth, .T. H. Horton, Dr. K. Ross, A. D. S. Duncan and J. L. Black, set off across the Tasman in quest of the most important trophy in Australian and New Zealand golf, the Kirk-Windeyer Cup. This will be the third contest in the history of the trophy and, from reports not only in this Dominion but also from Australia, the interest is going to far eclipse that evinced in the first two.

The brilliant form displayed in the recent New South Wales championships have considerably raised the hopes of the Mother State, and what with the extremely promising youngsters, S. A. Keane, D. Coonan, J. D. Stuart and Walter Smith,. together with experienced players of the calibre of E. L. Apperlcy, Hector Morrison,' C. H. Fawcett and Dr. Nigel Smith, they are going ti> put a yery formidable team in the field. The New South Wales Association does not intend to lose the coveted cup without a hard struggle and the ex penses of six players are being paid to Melbourne. At the commencement of these contests the Victorian Association was rather lukewarm, but the fact that the event is to take place in their capital city has thoroughly aroused their interest this time. The game has a very strong hold in Melbourne and they have a perfect galaxy of brilliant players, both young and old, to select from.

Ivo Whitton, of course, is a certainty. His recent great displays in Sydney have shown conclusively that he is playing better than ever and Whitton at the top of his form is the Bobby Jones of this part of the world. M. J. Ryan, the excricket representative, has been beating all and sundry in inter-club matches this season and is regarded as sure to be in the chosen four. The present State champion, W. J. Fowler, is also a player of class whose form this season has been of a very high order. If he makes a good showing in the championships, he is assured of a place.

THE FOURTH' MEMBER, Now for the other man. There is Alex Russell, an ex-open champion, considered by many the most finished golfer in the Commonwealth; W. R. Nankavil, the Australian amateur champion of 1927; F. E. Headlam and A. G. Schlapp, who played so brilliantly, in the inaugural contest at Rose Bay; A. W. Jackson, W. A. Edgar, F. L. Bulte and A. A. Hancock, to say nothing of several others. This is certainly a very formidable array of talent and it is small wonder that they are confident that the cup will find a new resting place. Now what of the chances of New Zealand? We have as our first man Sloan Morpeth, a player of vast possibilities and one blessed with the right temperament. He hits a wonderful ball off the tea and, what is more, he is wonderfully accurate with it when his great length is taken into consideration. His putting is another strong point and he appears to have that happy knack of putting down a long one just when it is most needed.'' A typical instance was on the seventeenth at Miramar in the foursomes during the last contest, when he canned a forty-footer and turned defeat into victory for his side. He also has wonderful control of his mashie and he can hit a long ball with this club. But now comes his only weakness—he appears to be rather ill at ease when he has to play a long second with an iron or a wood and is short far too many times for a player of his calibre. But this is not a fatal defect and practice with the crack Australian professionals, who play this shot remarkably well, should work wonders with him. In any case ho will need to be playing his best when opposed to either Ivo Whitton or young Keane. HORTON’S WEAKNESSES. Next comes the amateur champion, T. H. Horton, with his polished iron play. It is a real pleasure to watch the Masterton man in action through the green. His iron shots are dead on the pin three times out of four, and at Balmacewan last year • his woods were just as accurate. His wonderful brassie seconds into the wind at the eighth both in the morning and in the afternoon on the final day will dwell in the memories of those who witnessed them for many a day. But when he gets to the green it is another tale. Sometimes he can ■putt with the best of them but on others he. is almost pitiful to behold. The writer can remember him saying to Leo Quin during the last visit to Sydney when the Eltliam player was holing everything in sight, “If I could only putt like you, Leo, it’s only a shame what I would do.” And he ■was right. It has always appeared to the- writer that he has a tendency to press his elbows into his sides at times of stress and this, according to Bobby Jones, is the cause of half a player’s troubles with this club.

Dr. Ross is the only one of the team who has had previous experience of the Melbourne courses, he having competed in the Australian open there in, I think, 1924, when he was among the 1G qualifiers, only to be beaten after a wonderful game against Bruce Pearce. The little doctor is probably the hardest man in the country to rout. His game is a model of consistency, and with his oldfashioned palm grip without any overlap he keeps on hitting them down the centre, rarely if ever duffing a shot or going off the line. He, like Horton, is a little inclined to magnify the difficulties of three and four-foot putts. The grand old man of the game in New Zealand is the evergreen veteran A. D. S. Duncan, and a New Zealand team without him would never be quite complete. Though he may not be the player he was of yore he can still keep the best of them busy, and on the occasion when the team last visited Sydney he defeated the redoubtable Whitton every time they met, either in friendly or official matches, and last year he defeated one of Australia’s finest match players in Leigh Winser and put up a great fight against Len Nettlefold in the second round, succumbing only at the thirty-second hole. His only real weakness is his long iron shot to the green, hut his spoon is so -wonderfully accurate that he has not a great deal of need to use the offending iron. On the fast Australian greens hig putting is usually very steady and it is a pleasure to hear the delightfully clean, firm click when the putter makes contact with the tall

J. L. BLACK’S SELECTION - . The selection of J. L. Black to fill the fifth place was very popular throughout the country as it was generally felt that the Hamilton player had fully earned the distinction of representing the Dominion. He is not a particularly impressive player to watch but as they say in racing “handsome is as handsome goes,” and Black’s record shows that he can produce the goods all right. He is not by any means a big hitter but he is steadiness itself, more especially round the greens, and it is doubtful if there is a better, approach putter in the country. His run-up shot is well known and despite much criticism still works. With the big greens and smooth fairways that he will encounter across the water he should be able to justify his selection and being still a young man is sure to benefit materially by the trip. So much for the team, but now lor their chances of bringing back the lost trophy. It is claimed, and rightly too, that New Zealand won the cup at Rose Bay in 1027 by sheer merit and should •never have lost it last year at Miramar. .This .is right and yet it is wrong. In some ways the New Zealanders were lucky to win at Rose Bay. Not that on the day’s play • they did not deserve their win—'they did —but they were lucky inasmuch that each and every one of them on that day played right up to the top of his form and one, Quin, had a real day out and could do nothing wrong, while one of the Victorians, Whittori, could not manage to persuade his putts to go down. If one of the New Zealand men had cracked the team was done, but each played grimly, as though' the whole fate of the day depended upon his efforts, while the Victorians Russell, Headlam and Schlapp were all putting over the goods all the time.

Now as Miramar, last time at least, three of the eight players engaged had a day off and unfortunately for New Zealand two of them were on the Dominion side and the cup changed hands. The real question is whether the present team can, like that one of 1927, rise to the occasion and each and every one of them come to light on the fate' ful day. If so New Zealand has an even chance of bringing back the laurels, but otherwise there is only an outside chance of success because, in the opinion of the writer, golf, more especially among the younger players has made more progress in Australia, during the last two years than it has in New Zealand.

LADIES’ GOLF. MISS JOYCE WETHERED CHAMPION (From Our Own Correspondents.) i London, May 23. “Never again!” After having won the ladies’ golf championship for the fourth time, Miss Joyce Wethered was emphatic that she would not compete for the title again. There were no untoward incidents during the play at St. Andrews, but the event was obviously an ordeal for Miss Wethered. Before a bail was struck she was declared to be the certain winner, and all the time she knew that it would be so easy for her to fail. She might go out in one round, and find the game for no real reason going against her, and the strain of trying to play up to her reputation was almost unbearable. She got through to the final easily enough, and without any misadventure. Indeed, she won all her games a long way from home. In the deciding match her opponent was America’s erack, Miss Glenna Collett, and, to make matters worse, it was persistently pointed out that the women’s cup was the only one that had not been captured for America. Imagine Miss Wethered’s feelings when she found herself five down at the turn in the first round. She had never been in such a*' position before. It w'as startling to those who looked on, and, needless to say, most disconcerting to the player. But, whatever her feelings, Miss Wethered went on calmly, probably realising that Miss Collett was not likely to maintain the devastating golf which she had

shown during the play on the first nine holes. These nine holes Miss Collett had accomplished in thirty-four,, figures which even Hagen would have thought extraordinarily good. Playing steadily, Miss Wethered found her opponent coming back to her on the homeward half, and at the eighteenth she was only two down.

The play in the afternoon, which was witnessed by ten thousand people, was just as sensational. Miss Wethered not only quickly wiped off her arrears, but, by the time the twenty-seventh hole had been played, she was four up. It looked all over then. But Miss Collett made a magnificent fight, and took the game to the seventeenth green, where she was beaten by three and one. Miss Wethered now intends to go into retirement, and not in our time are we likely to see her equal. She is the Bobbie Jones of women’s golf. Indeed, on her form at St. Andrews, it is no exaggeration to say that she would beat many of the men who regularly play in the amateur championship, and, if she were to enter the open championship, sho would return scores better than those of half the professionals. It is really the supreme mastery which she holds which has driven her out of competitive golf. It was Miss Collett’s third attempt to win the prize, and she declares that she ■will come back again next year, . Hagen and the other American professionals have gone to Paris to compete for the French championship, after taking part in a £lOO9 tournament at Leeds. This was won by one of the visitors, Joe Turnesa, who defeated Herbert Jolly in the final of thirty-six holes. It was an amazing match. The better golfer, Jolly was usually in a strong position. Eventually he became dormy three —that is three up, with three to play. And he should have settled the result at the thirty-fourth. hole, but missed a putt of under two feet. Still fighting, Turnesa holed a putt of twelve yards for a three at the next, and he squared the match at the last hole, where Jolly was bunkered. The players thus had to go out again. Once more Jolly seemed certain to win, when h'e played a great second shot to within four yards of the flag. His American opponent, meanwhile, had pulled his ball to the very edge of the green. Turnesa holed this, however, and Jolly, missing from four yards, was defeated. Before going to Paris, Walter Hagen had the honour of being invited with Aubrey Boomer to play with the Prince of Wales. It was a four-ball match, which was played in private on the Swinley course, which belongs to Lord Derby.