GOLF

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20887, 19 August 1939, Page 23 (Supplement)

GOLF

(By “Fyfe Scott”)

THE HAMILTON CLUB SEVERAL IMPORTANT EVENTS NOTES AND COMMENTS Quite a number of interesting local golfing events were scheduled l'or the week-end and despite most adverse weather conditions were carried on with. First of importance was the teams match for the Edwin Blyde Cup, the teams consisting of a senior and junior lady and senior and junior man, the St. Andrews Club, the holders of the cup, being successful last year at Te Awamutu with Mrs H. McDonald and Miss Bruce and R. H. Glading and H. G. Loveridge. The only change in the Hamilton team this year was that P. Roach replaced Loveridge. Success was made easy for the Hamilton Club by R. 11. Glading. who returned a 70. As the tecs were all back, putting the course at full stretch, it was an excellent effort and three putts at the Ist and 14th did not make matters easier. The rest of the Hamilton te-am scored well and the result of the games was a win for Hamilton by fifteen strokes, Matamata being the runners-up and To Aroha third. The next event of importance was the semi-final re.play for the captain’s trophy, between R. McKinnon and S. Mayes, this time success going to McKinnon by four and two. Very Sound Golf McKinnon played very sound golf, reaching the turn in par figures to be four up and secured another win at the 12th to increase this lead to five. Mayes, however, recovered a bit from here and won the 13th and the 15th with a nice four. Another loss at the 16th saw the end, however, McKinnon being three over par at this stage. On the following day; under nearly the worst possible golfing conditions, McKinnon played C. B. Wake in the final and conceded him two strokes. Wake did not quite get hold of his tee shot at the first and McKinnon, getting his bogey, won the hole. Further bogeys at the second, third and fourth saw McKinnon increase his lead to three. The fifth was halved in fives and another hogev by McKinnon at the sixth saw him notch another win. The position was the same at the turn, Wake being five down. Unable to reduce this deficit the game eventually went to McKinnon by five and four. It was unfortunate that Wake should lose form with his tee shots. He has been driving well recently but his loss of form off the tees certainly got him into a lot of trouble in his final game and was responsible fo-r his not making a closer game of it. Pax Smith In Great Form All credit must go to McKinnon in his success in this trophy. He never played a bad game throughout the match play a*nd has had some very good figures this season. In the town versus country game he had a great run to the turn being out in 35 and has seldom been over 80 for any round. An open day for professionals and amateurs was held at Maungikiekie last Sunday, and, as in Hamilton, playing conditions were atrocious, if thing, being worse than in Hamilton. Pax Smith proved his worth by annexing the gross amateur event of the day. At the conclusion of the day he mentioned the fact that he had never hit liis shots better so it appears as if he were right on form for the Rotorua event. J. H. Young, who also participated, advised me that from this week he now joins the elect band and will play on plus 1, the Auckland province now having the only three <plus one players in New Zealand. In the afternoon two holes had to be cut out to allow time for players to get round. A. Murray’s Great Round Murray’s 63 for the sixteen holes was a brilliant effort under the conditions as the two holes cut out were the 11th and 12th both bogey threes. Bogeys at these holes would have therefore given him a 69 and shows that he is in great form for the Centenary events. For the Centenarv professional tournament, Auckland golfer rulers are very busy; only £2OO has been allocated Auckland by the Golf Council, but this will be raised to at least £SOO by their efforts. Thev definitely intend to hold a tournament worthy of Auckland and attract all the overseas professionals who will be competing at Wellington for the big purse. As the Auckland tournament is on Labour Day and the following day, October 23 and 24, this should give Waikato golfers desirous of seeing the top liners in action a splendid opportunity to do so.