HARD TO QUALIFY FOR CAPTAIN'S PRIZE AT AKARANA LINKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 215, 10 September 1940, Page 13

HARD TO QUALIFY FOR CAPTAIN'S PRIZE AT AKARANA LINKS.

Golfers revelled in the sunshine and conditions rapidly nearing perfect on Saturday. In a day of good scoring Akaran a members set the pace in the qualifying round for the captain's prize. With 16 to be selected for the match play no fewer than 14 played equal to, or better than their handicap. Just what waa required to qualify is evidenced by the fact that P. Quinn had a round of 76 (net 74) and missed on the count back. But it should never have been. Paddy's putt for a 3 on the fifteenth green hung on the lip, and he missed the next —a backhand fliok that 'hit the ground and not the ball. A 20-handicapper in M. G. Fort qualified top with a net 69, and T. C. Oonway (7) who had a similar result, can consider himself unlucky not to have won. the net medal competition, played in conjunction, Fort getting the verdict on the count back. The honours slipped from Conway's grasp at the fourteenth hole, where he carded a 7 at a 'bogey 4 hole. B. Booth (78) was another to break 80. There are only a handful of the lowest markers playing regularly at Middlemore, and A. w. Donald (4) had to turn on a first-rate performance to take the bogey competition from W. Wilson, Jun. Donald was square at the turn In 30 and came home in 34 to pick up only one on "The Colonel." He lost the one-shot thirteenth, and the sixteenth, but had threes at the eleventh and seventeenth, and a win at the fifteenth with his last stroke. His net medal was 09. That, too, was the score of W. WiaDn, Jun., who showed a fortnight ago that he was due for a reduction from 13 by carding an 80. On Saturday he took only one more. Perhaps this time the handlcappers will make amends for their previous leniency! The satisfaction of playing several strokes below his handicap was experienced by H. P. Williams, although he finished 1 down, while R. A. Wilson had a better medal round than his 2 down would indlcae. His medal was 76, the home half of 35 being featured by excellent recoveries around the green. The domination of A. R. Jones in stroke play at Otshuhu was broken when W. B. Eustace supplanted him at the top of the championship qualifying list. Eustace returned a 73 to gain a twostroke lead over Jones, who slipped to 79, which was the first round score of Eustace. The latter should knew all there Is to know of the Otahuhu course, for he has been stub champion on three occasions, the last two seasons ago. • • • • The four-ball bogey at Titlrangl was not as easy to win as the "Sports Edition suggested: T. A. Taylor and H. W. Sinclair were 4 up. not 1 up. as reported. That is just an average four-ball effort on the course, but it was not threatened, no other pair bothering to return a card. Partners were selected on handicap In A and B grades and this fact, combined with the abandonment of the elean-and-place rule, apparently kept the aeorlnc down. • e> • • A brilliant run home In 33. four better than the scratch score, by J. B. Shanly was the feature of the combined four-ball best-ball bogey at Maungakiekle. It proved a popular competition and resulted In about £10 being contributed to the Patriotic Fund. When Shanly and his partner, Mrs. Pegler, reached the turn they were 1 up, and Mrs. Pegler had done her part ably. She nearly holed a a at the third hole, where a 3 with a stroke gave her a win, and she added a good net 3at the seventh for another win. At the ninth both hit good drives and both had strokes, yet the hole waa lost. It was then that Shanly rose very nobly to the occasion and came home in 4. 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4. 4. This run Included four birdies, and a stroke at the eleventh made the fifth win. • • • • A former Dargavllle player. Dr. Orevllle. now a oeptatn on the staff at Papaktira, set a main for his fellew medicos at North Short recently. Playing off a 0 handicap, he had a winning Steblefoid si 17 and s medal round oi 73,

The remarkable scoring thU season in American open competition! reached a climax when R. Ouldahl won the Milwaukee Open with an aggresate of Ml. and a last tall: ofM. Hla was brilliant play throughout. <S. ST. M. 97—over the par 71 eourae—and yet with three round* played he waa three etrokea behind the leader. Johnny Buna, runner-up In the but British Open. Bulla's total of IST (it. IS. (6) set a new record for M holes for the American P.0.A.. but he slipped badly In the last round, requiring TS. Runner-up was Ed Oliver, 370, the player who was disqualified tor starting before his time In the American Open after he had tied with Lawson LitUe and acne aarasen.