GOLF TOURNEY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 90, 13 October 1934, Page 11

GOLF TOURNEY

THE" AMATEUR TITLE

SILK LEADS MORTLAND

(By Telegraph) (Special to the " Evening Post.")

WANGANUI, This Day

A spectacular 3 by tho Taihapo player Mortland finished tho morning round of the Now Zealand amateur golf championship, played today at the Bohnont links, again in ideal conditions. This reduced tho lead of his opponent, Silk (AVanganui), to 1 up, and there were expectations of a stirring contest when the final 18 holes were commenced in the afternoon.

Over the first nine holes there wag never more than a hole between the contestants, the Taikape player getting the due reward of a beautifully-played iron at the 9th, winning it and squaring the match. Mortland had tho only bit of luck in the outward half, stymy1 ing Silk when ho recovered,, from a bunker at tho 2nd hole. This put him 1 up, Silk making an abortive attempt to got his 4 over his opponent's ball. At the 3rd Silk was in and out of the cup with p, 9ft putt for 3, Mortland getting a scratchy 4- Both were off the fairway with their drives at the 4th, and though Mortland recovered best from the worst lie he missed a 2ft putt for a half in 5. At tho first short hole neither found the green with the No. 4 iron, and Mortland had to hole a 14-footer for a half in 3. The Taihapo player took the lead again with a splendidly judged pitch to the sixth green, only to lose it at the next, where he again failed with a putt of less than a yard. Trapped in tho rough with his drive at the eighth, Mortland made a poor recovery, and Silk took the lead. It was only temporary, for he took 5 to Mortland's 4 at the next, and they started home all square. Both were out in 39, Silk's figures being 454535445 and Mortland's 444634554.

Mortland got the first advantage" coming homo, with a 3 at the tenth, Silk being bunkered, and the AVanganui player deservedly won the next two with a 4 and a 3 respectively, his opponent being in the rough at Long Tom, the eleventh, and through the green at the next,,a. short hole. Silk was then 1 up. A ten-yard putt by Mortland, which hit the cup, gave the gallery a thrill, at the next hole, which was halved in 4 .

Sound though not brilliant play fol-, lowed in the next three holes, which were halved in the regulation 5, 3, and 5. Neither of the players could reach the fourteenth and sixteenth green in 2, but Mortland was rather unlucky not to' reap the benefit of better tactics at the pixteenth, Bunker's Hill, This hole was a full wood after the tee shots, and Mortland elected to play safe with his iron, finishing 15 yards in front of the green. Silk went boldly for the green with a spoon, and pushed it out in thq rough, and was trapped in sand. With the next, however, he recovered well and got his 5. His opponent had a four* footer for a win ia 4, but missed it, At tho seventeenth Silk increased his lead to 2 up, chipping from the edge of the green within a few inches of the pin, while Mortland hung on the lip of the hole with a 10-foot putt for a half in 4. Then followed Mortland 'a splendid iron to within four feet of the pin at the eighteenth, and he obtained a just reward by winning the. hole with a 3. _^_____