GOLF IN NEW PLYMOUTH

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1929, Page 5

GOLF IN NEW PLYMOUTH

MEDLEY CUP COMPETITION

SECOND ROUND DISAPPOINTING.

UNCERTAINTY OF RESULTS.

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The play in the second round of the New Plymouth Golf Club’s Medley Cup competition was rather disappointing. Though the course was heavy, more especially round the greens, it was in fetter order than on the occasion of the first round. The positions of several of the holes were chosen scarcely with judgment. The general standard of play, however, was much lower on Saturday and with the exception of R. Greiner’s 1 up the scores were a poor lot. Both the leaders, G. Haughton and T. V. Mackay, failed to reproduce their previous form but the former’s lead stood him in good etead and his five down saw him squeeze home by one holo from R. Greiner, who had been three down in the first round. Greiner was playing his mashie in great style on Saturday and this contributed in no small measure to his good score. This player is capable of turning on some good golf at times but seems to have difficulty in piecing his game together. He and Haughton were partnered against Waitara during the week-end. In the afternoon both were hitting them in great style and at no time gave their opponents a look-in. Pavitt’s two rounds in the competition were the result of sound golf and this player will prove a difficult nut to crack in the junior championship this year. Mackay had a day oil' on Saturday but during the week-end never gave Chong a chance in the Coltman Cup match. In receipt of five strokes he made every post a winning one and ran out a victor by seven up and six to play. He will meet Conway in the semifinal and a repetition of this form will have the club champion doing his best all the way. On the other side of the draw W. C. 'Weston carried too many guns for C. Kenny and will play G. Haughton in the semi-final. Both these players are showing golf well below their handicaps and an interesting game should result. A recent game played on the links at Waiwakaiho illustrated the old saying that anything can happen at golf. It was a mixed four ball with the two ladies receiving strokes at every other hole. One of the ladies was in fine form. She went out m 45 and started the homeward journey with 3,4, 3, and her side was in the apparently unassailable position of being five up with six to play. But then the other side came to light. The male member of the combination won the 13th with a four, then the lady holed out from off the green for a win at the 14th. It was then the man’s turn again and he collected the 15th by means of a-handy four and the side were two down with three to play. All played the 16th badly, but a four by the lady with the aid of a stroke reduced the margin to one. Then it was the man’s turn again, and he rose ito the occasion and squared the game at the 17th. To cap things off the lady came to light with another holed approach for a win at the eighteenth, and after being five down and six to play the side emerged victorious by the margin of one hole —a truly remarkable state of affairs. METHOD IK THE SWING.

Few people realise the great part that method plays in the game of golf. Some players, of course, can get amazing results from shots the playing of which violates all the generally accepted teachin<v—but only a very few and it seldom lasts. Usually they soon become lost souls searching for a lost shot and wondering how they used to play it. They seldom realise that the true reason was that the method underlying the shot was unsound and that it could not be /expected to’last. When speaking of method one does not mean that all play should be standardised and that evdryone should have the same swing and the same putt but merely that the essentials should bo the same. I'or instance, it does not matter much in the base of putting how one stands, but the blub head must come straight back from flie ball and go through straight after it, the stroke being played through the ball to give overspm. All the cracks obey this principle and if there was a better way they would have found it, but as they have not we must accept this method" as being the best. Again in the swings Bobby Jones does hot swing the same way as Walter Hagen and Walter Hagen does not swing ithe° same way as George Duncan, but all three start their swings the same way—that is. with a lateral movement of the hips. The hips and not the hands start first in a correct swing, and if any player persists in starting the swing with his hands he will take the club up too quickly and consequently his whole swing will be hurried, and a hurried swing was never any good. Similarly coming down, the movement commences ’with the hips again. Not that one in the case of the down-swing actually feels the hip start; one does not. The sensation in this case is a pressure on the right toe, or perhaps the inside of the foot, and this pressure starts the hip on its return movement and this pressure continues with little, if any, movement of the hands or arms until the weight of the body is transferred to the left foot, and then everything is put into the shot, hip, arms, wrists, hands and all. It is well ni"h impossible to press or hit too hard if°the effort is reserved until that weight is transferred. ' Of course the method of putting in the hit differs in every case, but the method of starting the up-swing and Starting the down-swing is the same ui every case. One must start the shot (correctly. If this is not done how on earth are we going to get a good shot? This Is what is meant by method in a get the two essentials right and the rest will work itself out with the Assistance of a little expert advice and some patient practice. IT. P. DALE’S VICTORY. Congratulations to H. P. Dale on his fine win in the Hutt club’s winter tournament where, in addition to headin the qualifying rounds, he carried off the major event as well. In the ‘I™ 11 *? Eg rounds he held his own with the members of the Kirk-Meyer Cup gam, two doing better and two worse than the Eltham player. In the fit st round of the match play he accounted ! for the Miramar player, 11. E. Aplin, by « un and 2 to play and in the second defeated R. O. Chesney by a similar

margin. In the semi-final, however, C. B. Thomas, who was once well-known as a slashing Rugby forward, gave him a bad fright, the game going to the 19th hole before the Taranaki boy finally triumphed. This 19th hole has never been a particularly lucky one for Dale, and it is safe to surmise that he would be particularly relieved and gratified when he annexed it.

VYllVll liiv.kv 21s it is very often the ease the final game was not a very brilliant one, both players, more especially Wagg, making inanv mistakes. Wagg was complete!) out 'of touch with his putter and Dale was not using this club with his usual accuracy. The first hole was halved in fives blit Wagg then took the lead when Dale failed to sink a putt at the second. However, the Hutt mini missed an easy one at the next and the game was square. Wagg was again weak on the green at the fourth and Dale took the lead. The fifth and sixth were halved, but Wagg mis-liit his second at the seventh and the E'ltham player increased his lead to two. A fine second gave him the eighth, and when Wagg was short with his second at the ninth Dale was four up at the turn. Wagg then showed an improvement of form. The tenth and eleventh were halved in par figures and at the 12th the Hutt man reduced the lead after Dale had been well astray with his tee shot. The 13'th was halved, but Wagg again failed with his second at the 14th and Dale was four up with five to play. However, he nearly threw the 15th away when he pulled his second into what appeared to be an impossible place, but his luck was in. The ball was lying beautifully clear and he got his five which gave him a half and the match.

Dale’s win was very popular throughout Taranaki as he has been competing in open tournaments for years past with the most exasperating luck, the only other open event that he has won being the Taranaki championship a year ago when he defeated A. S. Hasell in the final. His best performance in New Zealand golf was his fourth position among the amateurs at the last open championship at Dunedin.