PADGHAM GREATEST

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1934, Page 6

PADGHAM GREATEST

GOLFERS MISS KAY SAW ONE YOUTHFUL GIRL CHAMPION. HOURS OF PRACTICE EVERY DAY. HARD HITTING AUSTRALIAN GIANT Impressions of great men—and women —in the world of golf to-day, from Henry Cotton to Miss Diana Fishwick and from Miss Pam Barton to. Ferrier, the giant Australian, were given by Miss O. Kay« Hawera, in a chat with a News reporter on her golfing experiences abroad. And of all she saw Miss Kay considers Padgham the greatest. The winner of the French championship and runner-up in the British, Pam Barton, a 17-year-old schoolgirl, was a remarkable player. All her shots were of great length and the results were obtained by consistent practice. Miss Barton’s golfing career was. being sponsored by a wealthy uncle, to whom money was no object in the building-up of the brilliant girl’s game. “Consequently,” said Miss Kay, she has three lessons a week from Archie Compston, the famous English professional, and practises for three or four hours every day.” ; Other- personalities of English women s golf met by the New Zealanders included Enid Wilson, the six-foot daughter of a Midland doctor, and Diana Fishwick, who won the championship in 1930. The two were primarily the cause of a “rumpus” which divided members of the L.G.U. at the championships. As the winner for the. previous three years of the championship, Miss Wilson had, when, requested by a women’s magazine which, showed photographs -of players, commented on the faults in the swinging and pivoting, etc., signing her name to the captions. Fpr this breach, she was ruled a professional and was not allowed to enter for the championship. Yet Miss Fishwick, with a six-year contract to the London News-Chronicle, was allowed to write whatever she liked about any golfer. Miss Fishwick was allowed to enter the championships, simply, because she was classed as a journalist. „ “There is a strong line "of division, was all Miss Kay had to say in comment on the case. . Another woman golfer Miss Kay saw play was Miss Poppy Wingate, the only woman i professional golfer in England, who regularly enters for all the men’s professional events, though with little success. Miss Kay watched Miss Wilson annihilate Miss Wingate in an exhibition match by four up and three to play. HENRY COTTON’S TRIUMPH. Miss Kay watched Henry Cotton triumphantly win the British open championship after 11 consecutive victories by American players. Cotton she thought a remarkable player but the best golfer she saw, or had ever seen, she considered was Alfred Padgham, whom she followed for a week when he won the Evening News £750 professional tournament on the Moortown course at Leeds. Of willowy build, Padgham had exquisite control of all his shots and his swing was exceptionally smooth and unhurried. She saw Joe 1 Kirkwood, the former Australian, and Gene Sarazen, the stocky little Latin-American,. in an exhibition and afterwards' watched Kirkwood play his celebrated trick shots, marvelling, as so many have done, that a man who could control his trick shots so well should not have won the greatest honours in world golf. She saw also George Duncan, the fastest player in the world—he never pauses to address the ball take four putts on one green and three each on the next eight and derived some comfort that, the mighty should have their lapses much as the veriest “rabbit.” And she did her best to see Abe Mitchell, the best, or one of the best, shot makers in the whole history of . golf, without success, the veteran having scratched; for all events. . In Sydney Miss Kay played with Jim Ferrier, the giant young New South Welshman, in the Australian foursomes, which they won. Ferrier, she considers, will have a good chance in'the centenary tournament at Melbourne, for he is a brilliant golfer. The two played morning and afternoon rounds in quest of the trophy and Ferrier smote the ball so hard that four new ones were required before the two rounds were completed. He hit the ball a terrific length, said Miss Kay, and despite the fact that he weighed well over 15 stone, had a cup of tea and a sandwich for lunch.