NEW ZEALAND GOLF

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 87, 7 January 1935, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND GOLF

Standard as High as in Australia J. McLEAN’S VIEWS That the standard of golf in New Zealand is quite as high, if not higher, than that of Australia is the decided opinion of Jock McLean, the Scots champion, who is the star player in the visiting team of British amateur golfers at present engaged in an exhibition match against a team representing the New Zealand Golf Association on the Wellington Golf Club’s links at Heretaunga. He told "The Dominion” on Saturday that it was impossible to play golf on a course which was so baked by the prolonged drought as Heretaunga. “The best course in New Zealand is Shirley,” lie said, “and that is where the match between Great Britain and New Zealand should have been played.” He said the British team had not really shown any form in the Dominion ; they were here more on a sightseeing expedition, and had only played about one match a week. It had been quite a different proposition in Australia, where they had a strenuous programme to go through, and every member of the team was playing three or four matches each week. “You seemed to have had little difficulty in -beating the leading Australian amateurs,” it was suggested to him.

“I was playing good golf in Australia,” MeLean replied. “The only time I can play golf iswhen I can pitch my iron shots to the green, and know that they will stay where they are 'placed. It is absolutely impossible to stop shots on such hard greens as we played on to-day.”

“You must have found Balmacewen to your liking, when you recorded a 65 there,” the reporter put in. “I like the Balmacewen course,” he said, “but you must remember that the course had been softened by rain when we played there. It is possible to produce golf on a course on which you can stop your shots with reasonable certainty.”

He pointed out that he had been playing golf, with only the break caused by the voyage out to Australia, since March last.