FAIRWAY AND ROUGH

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1935, Page 10

FAIRWAY AND ROUGH

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES GOOD SCORING AT NGAMOTU. NEWS FROM TARANAKI LINKS. 'Die new bunker at the eleventh hole at Ngamotu, which is now completed, is certainly a big improvement upon the others on the course. It is understood that the work of filling in part of the bunker on the right of the. third . green will proceed almost immediately. While this is being done it would be well worth the committee’s attention to give serious consideration to the question of bringing the bunkering of this hole up to date. Not a great deal of work would be required and the hole would certainly be improved out of all knowledge. These remarks apply with equal force to the fourth green. Now that the publicans’ tournament is over no time should be lost in closing the back of all the greens. This should be carried out immediately, the greens being either forked up or treated with the spiked roller, and then solidly topdressed and manured and the grass allowed to grow. The effectiveness of this treatment has brought the Eltham greens to their present state of perfection. New Plymouth club players must be prepared to resign themselves to necessity for at least a month and they, will then be able to reap the benefits and pleasures that come from a smooth, even putting surface. Some Fine Scores. Golfers have become so used to inclement weather during the winter that even the heavy hailstorm that swept the links at Ngamotu on Saturday afternoon had no effect upon the scoring in the medal handicap. For some time Ivan Parker has *been threatening to reduce his handicap and on Saturday he succeeded. The handicapper is not likely to overlook a nett card of 10 strokes under the scratch score of the course. Parker played steady golf for his round of 82. He was out in 41 and home in the same number. His only weak hole was the ninth, which cost him five. Other juniors to do well were H. P. Gray and J. O’Reilly, who is showing signs of returning to his form of some seasons back, when he was far from being a limit handicap man. Among the seniors K. F. Walker staged a return to form to tie with N. D. Wilson with a nett 72. Walker has been much below form during the winter, but should soon be back to his best. Wilson gives the impression that he should be capable of playing off a lower mark. Another to give indications of improvement was P. Smith, whose gross 90 was reminiscent of the form that carried him to victory in the Medley Cup event earlier in the season. It was also pleasing to find F. Quin and T. A. Thomson well up, as this pair should be prominent in the club championships in November. Fitzroy Championships. The first round of play in the Fitzroy championships on Saturday was productive of some sternly contested games, one of which had to go to the twenty-first before a decision was reached. J. Medhurst halved the first hole against S., Clark, but the latter then proceeded to score a row of fours that soon had his opponent in serious trouble. G. Richardson kept Cliff. Pullen busy almost all the way, but he had to submit at the seventeenth. Two solid match players in J. S. Rollo and H. Jacka staged a grim struggle that proceeded to the nineteenth'' before Rollo won. Though he displayed the left-hander’s tendency to hook his tee shots at times, Sam Holden carried too many guns for C. Hall, the game ending on the sixteenth green. J. Holden and J. W. Logan had an epic struggle, which had to go to the twenty-first before Logan sank a good putt that gave him the game. Against L Freethy W.. Short failed to produce tlie form that enabled him to take Jeffries to the last green, at Tarurutangi. Freethy gave him few chances and after establishing an early lead ran home a winner 4 and 3 C. Huxford, who has been playing consistently lately, never gave H. S. Wagstaff a chance and had an easy win. There was one big surprise in the junior event when the qualifying round leader, R. Hall, lost to H. J. Goudie, who had only just filled sixteenth place. Goudie as a match player is very different from Goudie as a medal player and he is likely to demonstrate that his win over Hall was not merely a flash in the pan. It is pleasing to see the progress that the yarrow grass is making on the twelfth and thirteenth greens, as it seems probable this grass will give all the greens a splendid surface next seasonThe seaside committee intends to proceed with a big scheme of transplanting the kikuia grass shortly, concentrating mainly on the second, sixth, eighth and eleventh fairways. When these are all properly covered the course should be in splendid playing order. Stableford at Westown. The Westown club staged its first Stableford handicap on Saturday when several fine points totals were registered. G. Elliott, with a stroke round of 81, put on 25 points which, with his handicap of 14, made 39. This is the best total yet recorded in a senior competition in Taranaki. He was closely followed by C. Clarke, who is playing consistently at present, and A. K. Smart, who tied for second place with 38. Among the juniors H. W. Brown and D. S. Sykes, with 39 points apiece, did best, though G. Sole was only one point behind. This form of competition proved very popular and another will be staged shortly. The serious work of the club’s year will be commenced on Saturday when the first qualifying round for the first club championship will take place. This is always of more than usual interest in a new club and it is always as well to give as many as possible a chance of taking part in the match play. For this purpose it may possibly be found advisable to ihake three grades—senior, say, 16 and under, intermediate 17 to 24 and the remainder as juniors. This would enable 48 players to proceed to the match play stages. Championships are dull affairs for those who do not qualify and for that reason the present tendency is to devise some method that will enable 60 per cent, of members at least to have a chance of participating in the match play. Surprises at Hawera. The first round of the senior championship at Hawera has already produced two surprises in the downfall of two former champions. J. Pease has always been regarded as a redoubtable match player, but he had to lower his colours to G. S. Fry, and H. G. ’ Whitehead, usually a consistent low-handicap man, was beaten by the improving McDonald at the nineteenth. McDonald, who showed promise at the Eltham tournament in June, is a player of possibilities. W. O’Callaghan has yet to play D. C. Ryan and on the form displayed by Ryan in the recent publicans’ events at New Plymouth, O’Callaghan will not have an easy task. Using the Irons. With club championships in North Taranaki in full swing players are all tuning up their shots. There should

therefore be much interest in Bobby Jones’ picture on the use of medium irons, to be shown for three nights at the New Plymouth Opera House, commencing on Saturday. This series has cieated great interest and the glimpses oi the champion’s methods are stated to have had the effect of improving many games.*