Splendid Performance

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21325, 20 April 1939, Page 12

Splendid Performance

A round of 71 off the club, his best effort at Highfield, was returned by J. M. Kerr, who won last Sunday afternoon’s card match at Highfield, with a score of four up. He was out in 36 and home in 35 —one under the standard scratch score. Kerr playing off a bogey handicap of six, won the first four holes and maintained his average. The morning card match was won by A. J. Allport, with a card of all square.

Australians Next Week Of further interest to all golfers will be the exhibition golf to be played by Von Nida and Cremin on the Timaru Golf Links on Wednesday April 26. Both are outstanding professionals of Australia who are now on their way to compete in the American and British championships. The exhibition will be conducted on new lines and made more instructional and entertaining and the players will explain as many of their strokes as possible before playing each shot.

Win for von Nida Norman von Nida, the Sydney golf professional, recently defeated Charlie Conners, the Victorian professional champion, at the 68th hole by 5 and 4 in a 72-hole challenge match for £5O a-side. It began at Yarra Yarra and ended at Kew. The standard of play was high, and there were many exciting interludes to thrill the galleries. With rounds of 71, 69, 73, and 52 for the 14 holes played in the final 18, von Nida was seven under 4’s for the 68 holes. Conners was square on even 4’s with 70, 72, 76 and 54 for the 14 holes. The best play was at Yarra Yarra, where Conners gave a mtignlficent display of long driving, outdistancing von Nida from 20 to 60 yards at times.

Vines Talks about Golf

Ellsworth Vines, the famous professional tennis player, expressing his views on golf said: "In tennis you have certain definite strokes and you turn your racquet this way (with gestures) if you want backspin, or that way if you want topspin. But in golf there are as many strokes as there are players, and a club for every different shot. I guess it’s the difference between the two sports which attracts me.” Vines, who has Improved his golf till he now averages around par, has certainly made a true statement. Golf, with its many varied and difficult strokes, requires a great deal more mastering than most sports. The average club player reaches a certain mark and finds it hard to improve, for he cannot spare the time to learn the finer points that go to make the differences between himself and the better players.

United States Club Production Club manufacturers estimate that nearly 3,500,000 golf clubs are made annually in the United States. There is still a large percentage of clubs made with hickory shafts; but the change-over to steel shafts made during the last six years has been mainly due to the steel shaft’s smaller wind resistance, less torsion or twist, and greater capacity for distance. These figures tend to show the remarkable growth of the game In the United States. It was recently estimated that there were more than 4,000.000 golfers in that country. A comparison of figures shows that each player on an average buys one new club per year.