GOLF

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17030, 2 May 1923, Page 3

GOLF

By “The Caddie”

FIXTURES May n - Hagley v. Kaiapoi. May 7—British Amateur Championships. 19 —Avondale v. Kaiapoi. Jtuie 34—British open championships. September —Manawatu Golf Tourney. September—New Zealand championships at Wanganui. AVONDALE OLUB. A team of ten golfers from the Avondale Club journeyed to Oliarteris Bay or. Saturday and played a match against members of the local club. Singles and foursomes were played, Avondale winning by 12 games to 3. Avondale won four out of the five foursomes and eight out of the ten singles, a very creditable performance. Later on in the reason a return match will be played, when Charteris Bay will be the guests of the Avondale Club. A meeting of the club committee will be held to-night to decide whether or not to play the first round of the Scales Cup on Saturday. If the first ?uund is postponed until May 12 then only practice rounds will be played over the links on Saturday, The qualifying round for the Harding Cup will be played on May 26. This contest is conducted on the same lines as championship matches, except that competitors play with their handicaps. thus giving the long handicap man an equal chance with the short limit players. CHRISTCHURCH CLUB. The club commenced the’ competition for the Boithwick Vase on Saturc»ay by playing off the first qualifying round concurrently with a stroke handicap. Fifty-two players took part in the competition, the best card for the day being returned by W. B. Purchas, who with a handicap of six sent in a net score of 72. He won the senior division of the stroke handicap, J. Dolph winning the junior with a score of 92 —14—78. The next lew weeks will be occupied with the running off of the Borfchwiok Vase competition the conditions of which call for two qualifying rounds of stroke plnj- on handicap, the best eight (net) to play off by match play on handicap. The Shirley i:nks have heen considerably improved by the recent rains and are now in splendid condition for pracHAGLEY CLUB. A large number turned out on Saturday for the first round of the mixed foursome for the I/ewis Cleek. No phenomenal soorea were returned, the best being one of two down handed fn by Miss B-. Wood and R. L. Ronalds'vn 9 both of whom have shown great improvement lately. The event is still very open. The second round will be played on May 26. Next Saturday a home and away match will be played with the Kaiapoi Club. Teams will consist of ten men a-side and the Hagley Club will so arrange matters that their best players will be evenly distributed between the two teams. The committee of the Hagley Club has received a request from the executive committee in connection with the jubilee celebrations of Canterbury College, to extend to the graduates the hospitality of its links on Tuesday. May 15. The Hagley Club has acceded to the request and in all probability a match trill be played between the visiting graduates and undergraduates of the College. A. J. Show, professional to the ch»b. has offered a trophy for the lowest net round on Saturday, May 12, cn the occasion of a medal handicap match. He has also offeved a prize for the ladies’ competition on Friday, May 11.

LADIES’ GOLF NOTES.

THE ROYAL AND ANTIEINT GAME OF ||

JOTTINGS. Clean your clubs and look as if you take an interest in the game.

H. Bid well, well known in Wairarapa golf circles, who defeated Arthur Dun can in the final of the Wellington Easter tournament, contemplates visiting Australia, to take part in the amateur championship. A golf olub has been formed near Takapuna, Auckland. The land acquired for the course is on the western side of the lake and very handy to the tram. Greens have already been laid down and the fairways are being rapidly put into condition.

A curios golf problem presented itself at Pinohurst, America, recently, when George P. Lemont, of Philadelphia, and G. W. Dodd, of Montclair, opponents in a four ball match, both played their putts at the same moment and the balls collided, with the result that Lcmont’s ball knocked Dodd's into the hole. The incident occurred on the home green and with the opposing sides all even. Ernest efforts to determine the winners of the match in a manner satisfactory to all concerned proved unavailing.

The American team which will defend the Walker Cup on the Old Course at St Andrews on May 18 and 19 will consist of Robert A. Gardner (cantain) ‘‘Chick” Evans, S. Davison Herron' F. Ouimet (all ex-amateur champions of l S.A.), H. R. Johnston, M. R. Marston, O. Kirby, G. V. Rotan, F. J. Wright and Dr O. P. Willing (states an exchange). The amateur champion Jess Sweetser could not go. He is still at Yale College, and the trip would interfere too seriously with pending examinations. ‘ Bobby ” Jones (in the opinion of some of the highest authorities the best amateur in the world today), who is at Harvard, and R. Knepper (Princeton) were not available for the same reason. The team is a strong one, however, and will thoroughly test the best British amateur that can be got together. Captain Gardner, known as one of the longest drivers in golfdom, has won the national amateur championship of U.S.A. twice and was runner-up in the British amateur championship, losing to Cyril Tolley, on the thirty-seventh greeu after going farther m the British event than anv other American except Walter J. Travis, who won the title in 1907. Evans is the only American golfer who ever won the amateur and open championship in one year, having performed that feat in 1916, with a record score of 286 for the open at Minneapolis, and by defeating Gardner, 4 and 3. for the amateur at Philadelphia. Evans carried the amateur title for two years through the war, and then dropped it in 1919 through defeat by Ouimet, 1 up, at Pittsburg, where Herron won the championship by defeating Bobby Jones, 5 and 4. Ouimet first sprang into fame by tieing and then defeating Harr\ \ ardon and Edward Ray, of England, at Boston in 1913, and took the amateur title in 1914 by defeating Jerome Travers, 6 and -5. Jimmy Johnston is another long driver. He has won the Minnesota championship twice, and played remarkably good golf at the St Louis national tournament two years ago in defeating Ouimet, only to lose to .Jess Guilforct, the eventual winner of that meet, because of a pulled bras si e which entangled him with .» tennis court. Marston and Kirby have figured prominently in tournament pla\ for some time. Kirby having won the metropolitan championship three times. Rotan has been classed as one of the leading players in the West, but has never got very far in national championships. Wright first became prominent as a resident of Boston by winning the Western junior championship at Chicago several years ago and sine*, removing to the Pacific coast has displayed fine golf on several occasions. Dr W illing is one of the best players in a coterie of good golfers developed in the Pacific Northwest in recent years, and made a fine impression bv the golf he played in the national championship at St Louis two years ago. The team of ten amateurs will be financed by the U-S.G.A. to the extent ot 1000 dollars a man. This allowance will be on a basis somewhat similar to the plan adopted by the British authorities when theiv team visited America last season—namely, travelling expenses over and back and during the time required for practice and competing in the international match. What the players do with regard to the British championships will be as individuals. CHARTERIS BAY LINKS. A men’s medal match will be played on the Charteris Bay links during the week-end. The lady members of the Charteris Bay Club will play a medal match on Saturday at Charteris Bay. The team of ten players from Avondale that visited Charteris Bay during the week-end had an easy victorv, defeating the home team by 8 games to 2 in the singles and 4 games to 1 in the foursome.

The Hagley Golf Club plaved the first round of the Lewis Club mixed foursome last Saturday, which resulted in Miss Rosmond Wood ami Mr R. L. Ronaldson being 2 down. Miss Cotton and Mr P. A. Laurie 3 down. Mrs Ronald Fisher and Mr R. Fisher 4 down, Miss Preston and Mr V. Hamilton 4 down. Mrs ('. F Smith and Mr P. C. Hands 4 down The monthly L.G.W. medal match of the Christchurch .allies’ Golf Club is being played at Shirley to-day. The. Home links Coronation medal match will be played by all the affiliated Tadics' golf clubs in New Zealand during the last week in May. and on June 1 and 2, the actual day of playbeing decided by each club’s committee. The flag match, which was played by thc Hagley Ladies’ Golf Club, for Miss Denshire's prize, last week, was won by Mrs Clark. Miss Bruce was second. The monthly bogey match which was played last Friday at Shirley, by the Christchurch Ladies' Golf Olub, was won in the senior division by Miss Marjorie Dixon with 3 down, and in

the junior division by Mrs Banks, 6

Mrs Banks’ win in the bronze grade of the monthly bogey match at Shirley last week, was a very popular one indeed. The Geraldine Ladies’ Golf Club played its monthly medal last week, which resulted in a win for Miss Fernie. Playing in ladder matches last week at Shirley, Miss Anderson beat Miss Beadel, Miss Dixon beat- Mrs Donald, Mrs Bristed beat Miss Cameron Smith, Mrs Stringer beat Miss Barbara Clayden. Mrs Olayden beat Miss Thea Bcsvrick. Miss Bristed beat Mrs Green by default. Miss Marjorie Dixon has consented to act on the committee of the Christ church Ladies’ Golf Club in place of Lady Boys, who has resigned, owing to her departure for England next Friday. A Canadian foursome, choose your own partners, and arrange your own opponents, will be played at Shirley next Wednesday, for which prizes are given by Mrs Donald The players in the competition, and their friends, will be Mrs Donald’s guests at afternoon tea- at the club house. Four more schoolgirls have been attached to the membership of the Christchurch Ladies’ Golf Club, viz:— Miss Mynette Watson. Miss Audrey Orbell, Miss N. Marrie, and Miss Stevenson. An unofficial medal match was played by the Avondale Ladies’ Golf Olub last Saturday, which resulted in a win for Mißs Saps ford. Mrs Cyril Stringer is making rapid improvement with her golf game. She has now reduced her handicap from 34 to 25. In a Wilkin Cup match this week Mrs Lawrence beat Miss Dorothy Anderson. The former is playing much improved golf. Also playing in Wilkin Cup matches Miss White-Parsons beat Mrs Robbie, and Miss Wilkin beat Mrs Robert F rancis. It is juat thirty years ago last March since the first- ladies’ open championship in England was won at Lytham and St Anne’s Club, near Liverpool, by Lady Margaret Scott. Never play when you are tired, ad feel that you have had enough of it Ji you do you will find that you cannot concentrate on your game and the result will be slackness, in which bad habits may be acquired, and remembered unconsciously the next time you go out to play and want to play well. So if you can help it. don’t play Avhen you are tired. To play well you want to feel keen, fit and eager. LAWN TENNIS v. GOLF. Lawn tennis is impossible between real good players and duffers, because the duffer is as helpless as a baby against a good man, and would hardly ever win a- point except by a fluke, and the game would be most uninteresting to the players. Such games as a rule are played for the exercise they give; but the duffer invariably gets the lion’s share of it. Now at golf the bad player is not hampered by the skill and ability of his opponent who places the ball into impossible positions. His ball is sacred from attack from anyone but himself, so that the difficulties he has to overcome are only those of his own making. GOLF TIPS. When practising always take out the club with which you play worst. In case you are compelled to wear glasses use rimless spectacles; the larger the lenses are the better. Never give in. Do not tear up your card until you know for a fact that you have no chance. Once “seven down ” won a bogey competition. Palm less mittens are much better than gloves, and keep the hands as warm. They should have three loops, one for the thumb, one for the first finger, and one for the little finger. Be very careful that you do not step either on the line o< your own or your opponent’s putt. She can claim the hole if you do. Never give way to the temptation to force a shot. For instance, if you cannot get up easily with a raashie always play an iron club. Never say anything before your caddie which would embarrass you if repeated. Remember the reply of the lad to the benevolent judge who kindly asked the small boy in the witnessbox if he knew the awful ness and seriousness of an oath. “ I should think 1 do! Yer Honour doesn’t seem to recognise me! I’m your caddie 111” It is a good plan to play with twp balls, especially in winter time, using them alternately at every other hole. Keep the ball not in use in a warm pocket. In this way the ball in play will be slightly warm, and so will possess great elasticity than it would ol it wore cold. Who minds his muscle and neglects his brains, Will lose in bunkers what in length he gains. The wise man ponders, ere he stikes a blow. How, why. and where he wants the ball to go.