GOLF TOURNEY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 600, 2 November 1932, Page 11

GOLF TOURNEY.

Nerve-teasers for N.Z. Champions. VISIT TO HERETAUNGA. ( Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, November 2. The New Zealand golf championships begin to-morrow at Heretaunga, and the various South Island competitors, including the Canterbury men, are already on the scene. A visit to the championship course shows that it is in very fine condition. The recent rains have worked wonders with the turf, which is luxuriant, close, and springy on the fairwa\',s, while the greens are at a fine pitch of perfection. The course is by no means too fast at present, and very dry weather will be needed to reproduce the lightning conditions a't Shirley last year, as the sole of turf is so thick. While recent alterations have not been extensive, some of the holes have assumed a good deal more character as the result. A Trap at the Thirteenth. An outstanding example is the thirteenth (453 yards), which has undergone a series of alterations during the last eighteen months. The new green is set much further back and to the left, making a dog-hole of it, and though the entrance should be wide enough for scratch men, others will find the trapping most efficient and by no means an easy two-shot distance. Shaw and Rutter will be pin-high in 2, but not everybody. It is a hole where the drive must be definitely placed to open up the hole. There are cross bunkers to catch a topped second, and the less said about the things that happen in the trees the better, though they are not so thick that wonderful shots cannot be played out of them sometimes.

The third green (157 yards) has been more thoroughly trapped in front. Surrounded by trees and rough on the other three sides, it will not be easy to stop on if the weather remains dry, otherwise it is just a nice one-shot hole frequently done in two. The seventeenth is a crucial hole in the stress of championship match play. It is now 354 yards, the tee having been moved across the creek, which is crossed by a bridge not far from the twelfth tee. The greatest nerve-teaser, however, is still likely to be the 120-yard fifteenth, with the green up the tall bank. Stream, flax, ditches, and watercress await the topped shot, while the greatest trial of all is to land just on the bank and roll down. In a strong wind it is all too easy to get into the bunkers behind the green or overrun it to the road.