IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1934, Page 10

IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

WAIWAKAIHO GOLF COURSE ELEMENT OF LUCK TOO GREAT. DISCUSSION OF THE POSITION.

(By

“Stance.”)

The application by the New Plymouth Golf Club to hold the championships at Waiwakaiho was declined by the New Zealand Golf Council on the grounds that the course was not suitable for an event of that description. This fact has proved anything but palatable to those who have had a great deal to do with the present lay-out, but it is no use disregarding the facts. Casting all local prejudices aside, there can be no doubt that the course as it stands has several rather serious weaknesses. The club is hopeful of securing the New Zealand event in 1936, and no time should be lost in putting the house in order. Briefly the main faults are: The construction of the first green; the third green is facing in the wrong direction; a hog’s back extends across the entrance of the fourth green, causing many wellhit shits to finish in the bunkers; the entrance to the seventh green is too narrow and the bunker on the left should be filled in; the 12th hole is unfair and is no test of a golf shot; two obsolete and useless pots in the middle of the fairways at the Ist and 15th holes have for some obscure reason been allowed to remain, having no merit whatever* from a golfing point of view and being only a source of annoyance; portions of the bunkers at the 2nd. 3rd, 4th, 16th and 17th holes are blind; there are too many slopes on many of the greens leading into bunkers; the plantations are nearly all in the wrong places. The trend of this statement is not intended in any spirit of sweeping condemnation. The general lay-out of the course is excellent and the country most suitable. Though the general system of bunkering is slightly out of date, it has its merits and the course generally provides a searching test. Nevertheless, as the course stands at present, there can be no question that luck plays far too big a part in every round and it is to eliminate this that these suggestions are made. GAME FOR PLEASURE. Golf is primarily a game for pleasure and it has always been a universally recognised principle among golf architects that the first hole should be either the easiest or the second easiest on the course. Half the pleasure of a round for any player is lost should he drop two or three strokes there. The first hole at Waiwakaiho is probably the hardest on the course and in addition to this , the shot to the green is always in the lap of' the gods. Not even the best of players with the best hit mashieniblick shot knows with any certainty the fate of his shot until the ball comes to rest. The trouble can easily be rectified by taking away all the ground on the right up to the bunker and building up the left and the back of the green so as to make a half saucer green on which any player pitching up his shot boldly will reap the desired result.

Everybody knows that the entrance to the third green faces the wrong direction and yet it has been allowed to remain so for nearly four years without any attempt to fill in the. 10 to 12 yards of the bunker on the right. The hog’s back on the fourth green has neither rhyme nor reason and only affects good shots. If the shot is pitched over this, it invariably goes through and if it lands on it, the resulting fate is nearly always the bunkers, which at this hole are almost completely blind. The peculiar slope to the right of the approach to the seventh * een makes it imperative for a long second to go perilously close to the bunker on the left and this pot is the graveyard' of many good and very few bad shots. There is certainly no excuse for its continued existence.

It is rather a hard thing to say but it is nevertheless true that the 12th hole has not a sirigle redeeming feature. If one plays a shot on to the portion of the green that is visible the chances are on the ball finishing in the bunker. The only chance is to play on to the part that cannot be seen and this is making a blind hole of it. Under the circumstances it would probably be best to scrap the hole altogether and make another on top of the hill. With the exception of the 12th hole all the work needed to carry out these much-needed adjustments could comfortably be carried out by the present staff with perhaps a little casual labour. When the work is finished the club could justifiably make an application to the council for an early inspection with a view to 1936 and then the club could go ahead with its preparations regarding the greens. Taranaki and the New Plymouth club desire a New Zealand championship at Waiwakaiho and the claim is a just one, but the championship will never come until the house is set in order.

Cape Egmcnt Golf Club. The Cape Egmont Golf Club will commence its first trophy match on May 27, when the first round of the Tahoma Cup will be played. This competition, which takes the form of a mixed four-, some on handicap, has had the conditions considerably altered this season. Two rounds of eighteen holes each will be played instead of one round as previously.