Great golfer remembered

Press, 6 July 1983, Page 32

Great golfer remembered

Fond memories of the great New Zealand golf professional, Andy Shaw, are held by Mr W. S. Baverstock of Christchurch. Shaw died in the North Island recently. Mr Baverstock was a noted cricket coach during his 33 years on the teaching staff at Christchurch Boys’ High School.

Shaw was the professional at the Hagley club from 1921 to 1925, just before he began his stunning run of successes in major tournaments, Mr Baverstock recalls. He remembers seeing Shaw on the green outside the clubhouse, practising chip shots to overcome stymies, a term now almost forgotten. A stymie was laid when one put one’s ball on the path between the hole and one’s opponent’s ball; in those days the obstructive ball was not to be marked. Mr Baverstock had one lesson from Shaw. It cost him 2s 6d for half an hour. But he did play with Shaw once. He had been knocked out of a cup tournament, and was "hanging about” the clubhouse when Shaw called him over and suggested that they should have a round. “It was a revela-, tion,” said Mr Baverstock, “one hole was 320 yards long. Shaw drove the edge of the green. “A Mr Phillips, a choir-

master at St Matthews Church, said that he had watched Shaw play with Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen at Miramar. Mr Phillips had heard Hagen say how much he admired Shaw’s iron play, and both Americans had asked Shaw to give them some tips.” Mr Baverstock mentioned having followed Shaw in a major tournament at Russley in December, 1929. In those days, he said, the fairways were pitted with sand areas, and the rough was “very rough” — with boulders and stones. At the sixth hole, some 550 yards long then, Shaw sliced his tee shot a little and was left in the rough, with dry grass two feet high, and stones. Shaw took a 2-iron and “I saw a miracle of a shot,” Mr Baverstock said. “He dug the ball out from those stones, and landed it two yards from the hole.” Mr Baverstock thinks that Shaw was a “grand chap” and said he was a great personality in golf. But Shaw only spoke once during the round they played together at Hagley. Mr Baverstock spent most of the round admiring Shaw’s proficiency. But at one hole, he himself played an iron over some tall trees. Shaw spoke. “Shot," he said. So it must have been.