Two N.Z. Girls In Golf Semi-Finals

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30956, 12 January 1966, Page 13

Two N.Z. Girls In Golf Semi-Finals

Two members of the New South Wales junior women’s golf team and two New Zealand juniors will fight out the semifinals of their match-play tournament at Waitikiri today.

Misses A. August and M. Ensor (New Zealand) and R. Wright and R. Bennett (New South Wales) each won two matches yesterday, but Misses August and Wright only reached the semi-finals after a hard struggle. Miss August was three down with three to play against Miss E. Blackmore (New South Wales) but fought back to win at the tv entieth. The rot set in for Miss Blackmore at the sixteenth when she chipped from 30 yards to within four inches of the cup, only to see Miss August hole her own chip from 29 yards. After a bad drive on the seventeenth, Miss August chipped to within eight feet and, after Miss Blackmore had missed from the same distance, sank a good putt. Miss Blackmore’s putt at the eighteenth ran around the lip

from six feet and she watched Miss August sink hers from four feet to square the match. A brilliant recovery over a tree enabled Miss Blackmore to halve the nineteenth but she missed a 12ft putt on the twentieth after being in a bunker while Miss August had a simple four-inch putt to win. It took a birdie on the twenty-first before Miss Wright could beat her teammate, Miss G. Robson. They were all square at the sixteenth and halved four holes before Miss Wright, who had been putting poorly, sank a 14-footer.

Although they are members of the same team, they had never played each other before and Miss Wright, who only began playing four years ago, has made rapid strides to the top. Four teams of four were contesting this match—New

South Wales, New Zealand 1, New Zealand 2 and a reserve four. The only upset of the first round was Miss H. Ballantyne’s defeat of the New Zealand player, Miss B. McTaggart, mainly by good putting. Results: First Round. M. Ensor (N.Z.1.) beat V. Stocks (R.), 9 and 8; D. Hames (N.Z.1.) beat H. Mowat (N.Z.2), 3 and 2: E. Blackmore (N.S.W.) beat S. Reeve (R.), 8 and 6; A. August (N.Z.1.) beat D. Fitzgerald (N.Z.2), 6 and 5; R. Wright (N.S.W.) beat L. Walker (R.), 5 and 3: G. Robson (N.S.W.) beat S. Caldwell (N.Z.2), 5 and 4; R. Bennett (N.S.W.) beat J. Lister (R ). 3 and 1; H. Ballantyne (N.Z.2) beat B. McTaggart (N.Z.1.). 1 up. Second Round.—Ensor beat Hames. 4 and 2; August beat Blackmore, at the 20th; Bennett beat Ballantyne. 3 and 2; Wright beat Robson, at . the 21st. Flight.—Mowat beat Stocks, 7 ■nd 5; Fitzgerald beat Reeve, at the 19th: Walker beat Caldwell. 6 and 5; McTaggart beat Lister. 2 up.