GOLF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19441, 29 October 1925, Page 4

GOLF

WELLINGTON LA lES’ TOURNAMENT PROVINCIAL CONTESTS. [Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, Oct. 28. There were exciting finishes in the semi-finals of the Wellington ladies’ provincial golf tourney. The best match of the day was that between Miss Gambrill and Aliss Jervis, which was won by the latter on the 19th green. Second Round. Afiss Jervis beat Aliss Withers, 2 up; Miss Gambrill beat Mrs Spiers, 3 and 2; Aliss Cato beat Mrs W’cston, 2 and 1; Aliss Chrystall beat Miss Watson, 3 and 2. Semi-Final. Miss Jervis (Hutt) beat Miss Gambrill (Wellington) 1 up; Miss Chrystall (Christchurch) beat Miss Cato (Napier), 6 and 5 Second Bogey Handicap. Misses Gambrill, Withers, V. Upham, and Harkness were all four down. RECENT GOLF EVENTS AMERICA'S FOREMOST AMATEUR (By Harry Vardon, Six Times Open Champion.) September has opened with a flood of interesting golf tournaments on both, sides of the Atlantic, and 1 think it can be said that Air Bobby Jones has accomplished the outstanding performance by winning the amtaleur championship of the United States for the second year in succession.

It is a desperately diffucult business to secure a national title on the links for two consecutive seasons. With competitors numbered by the hundred and the vicissitudes of golf—that element which the Americans call “the game breaking for or agtainst you”—so fickle, the likelihood of any mUn performing such a feat is small, no matter how great his skill. Even Mr John Bail never did it in the British amateur championship, although he won that event eight times altogether. Only Mr Harold Hilton in 1900 and 1901, and Air Horace Hutchinson in 18S6 and 1887—when players wore jaratively few —have gained the til it twice in succession.

Those who have been tolerant enough to read my comments on gilf may remember that, ever since I first saw Air Jones in action—which was at Toledo, Ohio, in 1920, when ho was nineteen years of age —I have described him as the finest player of his generation anywhere in the world, and, in a short time, ho has done a great deal towards justifying what many people doubtless regarded as a rather lavish tribute. In addition to those successes in the amateur championship of the United States, Mr Jones has been unmistakeably the best player in the open championship there during the past four seasons. In that period, he has won once and been runner-up on each of the other three occasions. When wo remember that professionals of the quality of Walter Hagen, James Barnes, and Alacdonald Smith have been among his many rivals, we have to confess that this is a performance of unique excellence and consistency. Friends of Air Jones who have been in Britain during the past few months state that he has made up his mind definitely to compete in our championships next season, land colour is lent to the statement by the fact that the United States Golf Association is due then to send a representative team of amateurs to this country. Mr Jones would be an indispensable member of such a party, and I believe that he htis already promised to join it. And be will be just as formidable a challenger for the open championship—which has been won exclusively by professionals since 1897 —as for the amateur honours. A Match-Winning Way Indeed, Air Jones may stand an even better chance of gaining the open title than of securing the amateur event. He is every bit as good as, if not better than, any of the three American professionals, Hagen, Barnes, and Jock Hutchinson, who have carried off our open championship in recent years, and the exacting test of 72 holes by scoring suits him to perfection. He has the ability and the temperament to maintain a high standard over a long stretch when he is playing the stroke game.

He seems latterly, too, to have developed the same gift in connection with the match game, wherein his temperament was once rather Ugainst him. The improvement is due, lam told, to the circumstance that he has ceased to think in terms of what his rival is doing when he is engaged in a match. Instead, he concentrates his attention on playing exactly as he would do in a scoring round—trying to bdat the par figure at every hole. Evidently it is a policy against which his opponents in America cannot stand. The only time they could beat him was when he tried to adapt his strategy and tactics to theirs. Now he simply ignores them, and seemingly rides allconquering over them. It may be a good deal harder for him to win the amateur championship here than it is for him to capture the corresponding event in his own country, for the reason that in our tournament every match prior to the final consists of only 18 holes. And in a match of this length, luck is always likely to play’ a big part. True he might be beaten over 36 holes, but certain it is that this measure is a proper test of the respective abilities of two golfers, whereas one round of the course lends itself to a fluky result. It is all right for everyday amusement, but anybody who says that it is sufficient for a championship simply does not know what it means to try and maintain a reputation at golf and bekt

down the effects of flukes on the part of a rival. Under the conditions that now govern the U.S. amateur championship, I do not know who is going to prevent Air Jones from winning for a good many years. Only 16 men—instead of 32, as formerly —survive the qualifying test of two rounds by score-pliay. He is about as certain to come successfully through this as the sun is to rise every morning, but, in the strenuousness of modern competition, anybody else might reasonably fail. It is significant to note that, in the recent championship, such famous players as Air Francis Ouimet, Air Robert Gardner, Air Chirk Evans, and Air Afax Marston did indeed fail in the eliminating rounds —the first time that so many prominent men have been counted out at this stage of the event. With every heat of the match-play consisting of 36 holes, the event is simply made for Air Jones, with his machine-like consistency and brilliancy. At Home It cannot be said that .recent events in the British Isles have produced lanything particularly new in the way of form, although Mr Geoffrey AlacCullum, who is not yet 21 years of age, must be congratulated on his performance of reaching the final of the Welsh open amateur championship at Harlech.

Mr MacCallum has been singled out for several years as one of the stars of the younger generation, and there can be no doubt that he hits the ball beautifully—with just that snap which marks the golfer who has faith in his power of control. Like his mentor, Abe Mitchell, he seems to bo a little bit dubious about his putting, Und dubiety near the hole is a terrible affliction, as I have learnt to the full during recent times. It is a good sign about Mitchell that ho won the open tournament at Moor Park, Rickmansworth, from which driving was eliminated, the play consisting of shots up to the hole —usually with iron clubs —land putts. In this event, Mitchell was better with his irons than in any other competition in which he has taken part. He says so himself. Given confidence of this sort, he is a class by himself among our professionals.