EIGHT MILES GOLFING

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20248, 17 July 1937, Page 22 (Supplement)

EIGHT MILES GOLFING

HARD FOUGHT TITLE. TWO FEET PUTT DECIDES. FERRIER IN AUSTRALIA. Eight miles of golf Jim Ferrier and larry Hattersley played for the New south Wales amateur championship >n June 12, and Ferrier won in the ind by a putt of two feet, and Hatersley missed squaring by two inches, fhat was the “curtain” to the golf

JIM FERRIER. drama at Rose Bay which 3000 followers thought it worth trudging, running, scrambling and craning to see. Following a golf championship is almost as strenuous as playing one or caddying for the players. Unless you were fleet of foot or prepared to battle-ln when you got to the green, you couldn’t follow the last hole and hope to see the finale. Quiet as a Cathedrla. Around that last green arena tho stroke-by-stroke fans arrived gasping and breathless and broke the bamboo rods that held them back. Yet they settled down, as still as a cathedral congregation, so that you could hear the raindrops hit the bald head of the man in front who had taken his hat off so that you could see the gameThere was Jim Ferrier in his yellow sweater and his little navy beret topping off a figure that was big, boyish, and just 22—until he bent to putt, and his lips came into a thin line that made him older. He was 1 up, which to non-golfers means lie had won one more hole than Ilattersley out of 35. There was Hattersley, steady as most of the crowd wanted him to be, preparing to beat the hoodoo that this green seemed to have on him when he missed his putt on it in the first round. The green was wet and slow, yet- he putted short again—and Ferrier was N.S.W. amateur champion, 1937.

Caddies Knew. “I'm ashamed of myself,” Hattersley said afterwards. “Bad luck," Tom McKay, last year’s champion, said to him. “No, bad putt," he replied. He had no need to be ashamed his caddie, Tom Moore, said; and so did Ferrier’s caddie, Freddie Cousins. “I’ve never seen a better match,” said the latter —and caddies know. Young Cousins, small, 16, and fair-haired, carried 19 clubs, weighing 301 b. or more, in a bag nearly as big as himself, for those eight miles o! golf. He felt that Ferrier would win Hattersley’s caddie thought Hattersley played up to form. It was magnificent golf. AVhen Ferrier was sinking 20 fi. putts, a glazed-eyed man said: “If he sinks tills one I’m going home. 1 can’t stand it. I want lo give my clubs away and lake up croquet.” A short girl in a sweater said, at the back of Hie -crowd: “Tills is the first golf championship I’ve seen, and I haven’t seen any of it yet." Umbrella Bounce. And there were other funny things of sport drama not in Hie script— Hattersley bouncing a bail off the coloured umbrella of a spectator too close to Hie fairway—lds ball hitting a man and losing Hattersley 20ft. of run—the amazing accuracy of their play, so that they did not kill anyone along the narrow laneway of watchers—Macquarie Street doctors and municipal councillors sprinting like two-year-olds to get a view of a drive or a putt—Ferrier with his head bowed when he missed a “sitter” —Ferrier putting right on to the lip of the tin, and Hattersley’s ball slewing round the hole and not going in—Ferrier getting out of a bunker on to the green 100 yards away with more case than you would get a “bull” in a shooting gallery—Hie fellows who called out

“ Way for the caddies ” as a ruse to get to the front of the green crowds and the rain that wet you outside and the long, long beer at the “37th.” THE HAMILTON CLUB. MATCH PLAY COMMENTB. (By "Niblick.”) The first round of match play In the captain's and vice-captain’s matches was decided last Saturday. Several matches finished all -square and had to be replayed. There were thirty-two players In each Uvent and naturally every match did- not conclude as expected. The contests are much too open to permit of forecasts. There are several improving players who are certain to survive the early rounds. The season is now well advanced and only four weeks remain before the qualifying rounds of the club championships commence. The annual match between teams from the city and Ihe country clubs takes place on August 8. In view of the national championship meeting later on, the performances of the leading amateurs will be watched with interest. The South Auckland tournament commences on September 2 and this event Is sure to attract a number of intending entrants for the New Zealand titles. Improving the Links. The work of improving the links is still progressing smoothly and everything points to good conditions from the end of September. The alterations to the 13th green have considerably improved that hole and the large fairway bunker will shortly be reduced in size. As soon as the replaced turf on the 1 Oth fairway settles down, the new green will be opened for play. New tees are being made at the 3rd and Bth holes which should be Improved as a result. The tender of Messrs Lewis and Curling has been accepted for the alterations and additions to the club house and It Is expected that the work will be commenced Immediately. The contractors are required to hand over the work shortly before the end of August so that the added facilities should be available for the South Auckland tournament, BRITISH OPEN AND “WORLD TITLE” GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS. Henry Cotton, acclaimed as the world's best golfer, has now won the Britisli Open Championship twice in four years, playing flunlop throughout. R. A. Whitcombe, runne-r-up, also chose Dunlop—the ball of prodigious length and accuracy. Cotton, a few days later, crowned this achievement by winning the unofficial world's championship, over 72 holes by 6 and s—again played Dunlop— the ball chosen by champions.