TEST GOLF

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20274, 7 April 1934, Page 15

TEST GOLF

NEW ZEALAND TEAM BEAT N.S.W. Play in Singles. HORTON PROVES TOO GOOD FOR DOBSON. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, April 7. New Zealand defeated New South Wales in the golf test to-day and won the Kirk-Windeyer Cup. In all, the Dominion team won four matches to their opponents’ two. Good form was shewn in the singles matches. Results of the singles were, T. H. Horton (N.Z.) beat W. R. Dobson (N.S.W.), 3 and 2. P. F. Hughes (N.S.W.) beat B. V. Wright (N.Z.), 6 and 5. P. Hornabrook (N.Z.) beat E. L. Apperly (N.S.W.), 7 and 6. B. H. Menzies (N.Z.) beat C. C. Ruwald (N.S.W.), 10 and 8. The foursomes, played yesterday, resulted:— T. H. Horton and B. V. Wright (N.Z.) beat W. R. Dobson and P. F. Hughes (N.S.W), 1 up. H. M. Cutler and C. C. Ruwald (N.S.W.) beat B. M. Silk and J. P. Hornabrook (N.Z.). 2 up. Play was continued under ideal conditions at the Middlemore links, and there was a large attendance. The Aucklander, Menzies, who replaced Silk, scored an easy win and thoroughly justified his selection. In the morning round with Ruwald he was given confidence by securing a lead of 2 up at the tenth, and his golf thereafter was practically faultless. Ruwald fell into errors with both iron and driver, and Menzies won five of the last eight holes. He came home in 35, the scratch score and his round of 74 was 1 over scratch for the course. It was not until the fourth hole of the afternoon that Ruwald won a hole from Menzies, who was still 7 up. When the turn was reached, Menzies was dormie 9. He clinched the match 10 up with a 2 at the tenth. The round was completed, as the margin of holes will be the deciding factor should there be a tie in games. In Top Form. Hornabrook was at the top of his form and completed the round in the same figure as Menzies (74), which he might have improved on but for an occasional error with the putter. Apperley won only one hole, the third. He unaccountably missed two simple putts in the early part of the gams, but Hornabrook, with an almost unblemished performance, had his measure for the remainder of the match. Apperley and Hornabrook both missed chances on the green in the first four holes in the afternoon. Hornabrook won the fifth in three with a 2ft putt, and he also won the next. Apperley won the eighth in three, but Hornabrook was 6 up at the turn and became dormie 7 at the eleventh, as the result of Apperley hooking his tee shot. The twelfth was halved and Hornabrook won 7 and 6. Fine Putting. In the match between Hughes and Wright, the visitor was generally in a winning position after the sixth hole, from which point he played scarcely one weak shot His putting was excellent and outclassed Wright’s. His rhots to short holes were admirably ' controlled. Wright, perhaps, was not it his best and on the greens was not timing his putts as well as usual. He was hitting long and powerful tee shots, but the visitor matched him in this department. It was his sounder putting that gave Hughes a lead of 2 up at the end of the morning round. Hughes, in his match with Wright, gained and increased the lead by magnificent work round the green. He played the opening nine holes in 39, Wright taking 42. Hughes won 6 and| 5. His golf was impressive. A Close Match. The game between Dobson and Horton was notable in the early stages for poor green work by both. Two outstanding holes played by Dobson were the sixth and seventh. He sank 12 and 20ft putts for a birdie three and a birdie two respectively. Horton’s iron work was the admiration of the gallery, bis shots being in perfect line with the flag all morning. Dobson from under the pines on the sixteenth played a spectacular hole, getting his four from a bunker. There was not much between the two and all square fairly reflected the play in the morning. Maintaining extraordinary accuracy with his approach putts, Horton took the lead at the third hole in the afternoon and then won two more in succession, and at the eighth was 3 up Dob6on did well to save the ninth from a bunker, and in the next three holes reduced Horton's lead to two. The Xew Zealander again picked up at the thirteenth after taking four to reach the green. He had a life at the fourteenth. being perilously near to' being trapped in a bunker. Dobson lost the Hole by being too strong with an approach putt. Horton 2 up. Horton became dormy 3 at the fifteenth, his opponents visit to a bunker costing him the hole. The sixteenth was full of excitemeiu. Horton's drive was hooked into the trees and Dobson’s under the pines on the other side of the fairway. Neither could get in in two and a half in fives gave the New Zealander victory 3 and 2. The New Zealanders thus won the cup by four matches to two.

At the end of the first eighteen holes Dobson and Horton were all square! Menzies was 7 up on Ruwald, Hornawa°s°2 uS S o 6 A PP cr]£ y- Hughes was 2 up on Wright.