GOLF EVENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1929, Page 4

GOLF EVENTS

NEW PLYMOUTH CLUB.

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON GAME.

(By

“Stance.”)

Of late the New Plymouth Golf Club competitions have not been favoured by the climatic conditions, and again on Saturday the Continued heavy rain caused the postponement of the second round of the Medley Cup. This will now take place to-morrow and the flag match will be postponed a week. The illness of the club’s secretary, Mr. C. H. Wynyard, necessitated the Captain’s v. Secretary’s teams match being put off to a future date. However, it is pleasing to be able to state that Mr. Wynyard is now well on the road to recovery and should soon be about again. The Coltman Cup competition is at last reaching its final stages. During the week-end G. Haughton and S. F. Burgess tried conclusions, the former winning on the fatal fourteenth by five up and four to plav. It is rather curious that Haughton has won the three games he has played in this competition at. the same hole. He now meets the winner of the W. C. Weston-C. Kenny match in the semi-final. In the lower half of the draw the winner of the Chong-Mackay match will face A. E. Conway in the other semi-final. If he maintains his present form Haughton should come out on top, but m games of this description one never likes to take up the role of a prophet. The annual tournament of the Hutt Club, which opened yesterday, is given additional interest on this occasion owing to the fact that the members of the Kirk Windeyer Cup team play in the qualifying ron: ds. In addition to these, H. A. Black, <l. C. Bidwell, D. C. Collins, R. Wagg,_J. Goss, H. P. Dale and many other prominent players are among the entrants and should be fully capable of testing out the chosen five. The team, of course, will leave to-day but the tournament will continue without them, the final stage being reached on Saturday afternoon. Rana Wagg is the present holder, but he will have to be playing his best to beat either Harold Black or Dave Collins. One of the English illustrated papers had a very fine photograph of Walter Hagen playing out of a bunker during Open Championship. The shot was a jerfect one and the illustration showed np one or two points very clear - ly. The first was that the club face at the finish of the shot was open, the second that the club head had followed straight through after the ball, and the third was that his right hand and arm had ' been straight and right behind the ball at the point of impact, these are three very important points in not only the playing of shots from bunkers but also for all pitched shots to the green with a. mashie niblick. It is essential that the club face be open and remain open after the shot has been played, and a very important point in the playing of this shot is the necessity for having the right arm and hand in the position before mentioned. Hagen is the acknowledged master of this type of shot—even Bobby Jones has admitted that he envies it—and players should lose no opportunity of studying any photographs -of the crack American. The° team to represent New South Wales in the coming.,Kirk.Windeyer Cup contest has been selected and the final four will be chosen from E. L. Apperley, C. 11. Fawcett, S. A. Keane, H. Morrison, •I. K. Harrison and W. R. Smith. The only surprise in this will be the inclusion of I. K. Harrison in preference to the youngsters D. Coonan and J. D. Stuart. Harrison on his own course, Killara, is almost unbeatable, but on other links he is not nearly so impressive and in the recent championships he failed to- survive the first round though, of course, it must be admitted he ran into a tartar in the shape of Ivo Whitton. Thoug.i W. R. Smith failed in the contest at Miramar, he has been showing good form again this year and has fully earned his place. Many, too, were surprised at the non-inclusion of Dr. Nigel Smith, fl fine player and hard man to beat in a match. Nevertheless it is a stiong team and one that is sure to give a good account of itself.

WEEK-END GOLF MATCH. WAITARA AND NEW PLYMOUTH. The teams and the playing .order for the week-end match between Waitara and New Plymouth will be as follows (Waitara players are mentioned first) W. B. Glasgow and W. H. Fuller v. H N. Johnson and F. S. Johns; P. Fuller and H. Wells v. C. H. Wyatt and J. M. Hine; W. R. Fuller and C. Sampson v. T. G. Thomson and S. F. Burgess; Hicks and N. Fookes v. R. H. Quilliam and A. Street; J. C. Sutton and E. George v. R. Greiner and G. W. Haughton; D. Purdie and L. Sole v C E. Carlson and J. T. Pavitt; J. Lawson and G. Wells v. S. Russell and S. Rowlands.

BRILLIANT GOLF. FRENCH AND GERMAN CHAMPIONS. Golf has attained a wonderful state of perfection. The scores which are now returned were not even conceived in the days immediately preceding the war. Before the start of the championship at Muirfield, J. H. Taylor, the veteran fivetimes winner of the event, declared that any one who did the four rounds on the Ion" testing course in 300 would win. If there was any wind, the best scoie would be over this total. As a matter of fact, in almost a gale, Hagen’s aggregate was two strokes a round lower than Taylor had forecasted. . . Before returning home to play in tneir own championship, the Americans went to Europe, competing in the Drench and German championship. The former competition was at St. Cloud Club, laiis, and, though it is not as long or as difficult as the best courses in tins country, it is up to the average first-class standard. Hero the scoring was marvellous. On the" first day Horton Smith, the twenty-one-vear-old American, played two rounds each of sixty-six. This was two strokes better than the _ record, and it seemed to represent the limit to the possibilities. On the next day, however Aubrey Boomer, who is the professional attached to St. Cloud, knocked this record into smithereens, going round in sixty-one. There has never been anythin" like this round in all the history of "olf.° The last nine holes were played in 28, being made up of two fours, six threes, and a two. But Horton Smith was always in a comfortable winning position, and, to celebrate his coming of iage, he won the prize from Boomer by a margin of five strokes. His total of

273 for the seventy-two holes is the lowest score ever returned in a firstclass competition, and there is no doubt that Smith already ranks as one of the great players in the game. After holing out on the last green, he was presented by Hagen, the American captain, with a large birthday cake illuminated by twenty-one candles. He is the baby of the party. From Paris the Americans went to Berlin, and here Smith made another brilliant effort to capture the German championship. This has been held during the past three years by Percy Allis, the Yorkshireman, and, though Smith set a very hot pace, the latter defended his title successfully. Allis had rounds of 70, 71, 70 and 74 against the young American’s 71, 69, 73 and 74. Allis, it may be remembered, tied for fourth place with Mitchell in the British championship, He is a stylist. Indeed, he is said to have the best swing of any player since Harry Vardon was at his best.