GOLF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 150, 27 June 1934, Page 4

GOLF

B» “SEAVIEW." t

Excellent weather conditions ruled for golfers in the district ccntly, though naturally the has been cold. That really does not matter so much when there is bright sunshine and a cheerhil outlook—and the clubs are doing as they should. * « ♦ • “Hero’s a health to the Rights,” chorused the losers in the annual match between tho Lefts and the Rights at Belmont last Saturday, when a happy gathering at tho 19th holo celebrated the victory in the true golf spirit and the level of Bell’s was steadily lowered. All first roqnd matches in the senior championship nt Belmont have been completed. IJist week-end J. Goss defeated J. M. Hussey 4 and 3, and C. F. Treadwell won from L. R. Wilson 2 up. The professionals four-ball match at Belmont over the week-end attracted a fair amount of attention and golf oi an excellent standard was provided at certain stages of the 36 holes played. Shaw was in good fortrf and did rounds of 71 and 72. At Shandon next week-end the amateuis Hornabrook and Horton will play their return match with Shaw and Mac- v intosli. It will be remembered that at Masteiton the amateurs finished 1 up on the other pair.

final sualifying round of the Castlocliff Golf Club’s championships 1 was played on the Corn foot Park links on Saturday, when the weather was fine but rather cold. L. Cathro heads tho senior division with 154, his aggregate being 20 strokes better than the next players. J. Wilson and I. Macneil, who tied for second place, made 174 each. Cathro’s round of 75 on Saturday is the best round to date on the Cornfoot Park links. The card is as follows: Out: 3453 5 444 5—37. In: 4 5 4 4 4 4 5 5 3—38. Bogey for the course is 75, as fob lows:— Out: 44535544 4—38. In: 44534 3 55 3—37. This is an outstanding performance when it is considered that at present there is very little run and the course is over 6300yds. M. Gilbert, a promising first-ycar player, carried off the Grieve Cup with a lead of five strokes from E. C. Penn. This is a handicap event, played in conjunction with tho three qualifying rounds. Gilbert’s total nett score was 223 for the three rounds. On Saturday next a four-ball best -1 ball match will be played. Seniors will be paired with juniors. Another of the popular mixed Canadian foursomes will be ployed over tho week-end. Players are requested to pick their own partners and opponents.

Early in May Misg Molly Gourlay, the well-known golfer and writer on the game, had an article in tne London Evening News in which she referred to the terrors of qualifying rounds, preparatory to the women’s open championship. “Most of us,” she wrote, “do not feci we are really competitors until we have surmounted this alarming business of qualifying. . . . “Disqualification for some unwitting breach of a rule, unplayable places iu bunkers, lost balls, out-of-bounds in the sea, putts that won’t drop—what an accumulation of horrors! Our only hope is to rise superior to these mental bunkers. . . . “The longer I play golf the more certain I am that there is something of the bully in the make-up of tne golf ball. Once let the thing sec you are afraid of it, and you will be at once in the position of the underdog, and kept there by the antics of an insig nificant sphere of rubber, which seems imbued by the spirit of all that is devilish!” Concerning Miss Bessie Gaisford’t defeat of Mrs. P. Gawn, a British international. in the first round of the ladies’ championship at Home, few details are given in tne latest newspaper files, but private advice is that in the third round, against the Irian champion, Miss E. Pentony, she played magnificently, and was dormy 2, losing only on the nineteenth hole.

“The only casualty among the over- » seas players was Miss Oliver Kay, tne reigning champion of New Zealand and Australia,” says a commentator, “and the strongest of the visiting challengers. She failed to live up to her reputation against Mrs. Andrew Holm, Troon, a former Scottish champion. Mrs. Holm co-ntrolled her shots splendidly in a wind that blew Miss Kay out of the championship, and also putted well, getting down with a single putt on five greens. When Mrs. Holm reached the turn in 37 and five holes up .diss Kay had no chance, and tho sturdy New Zealander was beaten at the thirteenth hole. “Never had Miss Kay seen a bunker until she played in this country, and, in fact, she knows far too much about bunkers. Hhe was beaten in the first round because she could not keep out of them.” (The concluding paragraph will raise many a smile in New Zealand ” golf circles.) A remarkable but autiieuticajcd story comes from a Nottingnamshire golf club. A member of the Rushcliffe Club was taking part in a match »e--cently, and his drive at the seventh teo —a distance of 175 yards—was a little wide of the green. The ball pitched into a narrow drainpipe, only three inches is circumference, laid In the faeo of a shallow bunker guarding the green. The ball was unplayable, and its owner lost the hole. Wishing to be sympathetic, his opponent said, “Well, the chances of that happening were a million to one against. However. I will remove all fear of its occurring again.” Thereupon nc plugged the entrance to the pipe with a divot. The next day the same player took part in an important cup competition against another member of the club. He again drove from the seventh tee —and again the ball entered the same pipe! On this occasion it actually entered through a smaller aperture made through the divot by a rat or some other rodent that had been trapped in the pipe!