N.Z. GOLF TOURNEY

Evening Star, Issue 19658, 10 September 1927, Page 3

N.Z. GOLF TOURNEY

HORTON AND MORPETH IN ■: FINAL TWO SPLENDID SEMI-FINALS riHTOSH Wins PROFESSIONAL FIIIAL [From Our’Special Commissioner.] HAMILTON, September 9. Tho Hortou-Bell match Avas an example, right from the start, of the importance of securing the lead and the position of attacker. On the very first green 801 l hajl a slack run up, leaving him 4yds from the hole, Avhilc Horton Avas dead in 2. Gallantly Bell holed out Avith a bold putt that, caused the ball to rattle into the tin, _ ami gave him a hard half in 3. Again in the second, Avhere Horton had chipped from 20yds to the edge of the' hoie, Bell Aviis, left Avith a 3yds putt for a half. Ho holed it and felt more confident than ever. Having successfully repulsed Horton’s attack at these irvo holes, Bell won the third in 4 after Horton's chip shot left him a 2yds putt, Avhich he missed. The next four holes Avere halved in ordinary figures. At the long seventh Horton’s fine mashie shot to the green in a cross Avind pitched on the green and kicked sideways into a bunker, out of Avhich ho ployed :.n accurate chip. At tho eighth his own shot, second to the green, got the doAvn slope short of it and shot through the green into the heavy bunker, Avhich cost him two strokes. Horton gave up that hole. Bell 2 up. Horton punched a longj loav iron shot up to the ninth green against the Avind, the kind of shot that feAV other golfers here seem to haA-e in their bag, but be missed sft for a 4, and turned 2 down terßell, who Avas out in 39.

Tavo indifferent halves followed, and Bell AA-on the 380yds long twelfth, thanks to a great iron shot against the Avind to Avithin 4yds of the pin, Horton having pulled his second owing to a bad stand. Bell 3 up. There is a turning point in most matches of this kind. Bell’s courageous putts, holed at the first two .holes, were important to him all day. 'They gave him confidence. At the thirteenth, Avhich Horton approached Avith a deficit of throe holes, lie chipped to within 6ft of the cup after a fine second, and holed the putt for 4. Once again Bell had a perfect iron shot, Avith a slight dra-AV, which ho had played for, leaving him 3yds from the pin. He overran with his putt, and missed tho return putt of a yard, losing the hole. Horton Avas 2 doAvn hoav and attacking. This changed the aspect of the match, and both players felt it. At the short fourteenth Horton played a beauty of a run np putt, _ and just missed at 2. Bell overran with a long putt and missed the 3yds return, losing the hole in 4 to 3. Horton 1 doAvn. For the third time in four holes Bell played a. picture of an iron shot up to the pin at the 420yds long fifteenth, to which Horton replied with a 25yds run np to Avithin Ift, the hole being halved in 4. Still making the pace, Horton played a wonderful brussie shot at the long sixteenth, dead on the pin all the Avay. It pulled np 4yds from the cup. Bell's second faded towards the right, and bo pitched his third right on to this holloAV green instead of playing a running shot doAvn the bank. A pin foif; Hor/on in 4to 5. Tho game Avas then square. Both' AA-cro through the seventeenth' giden in' 2. After chipping back from the' - roilgh, Horton just failed Avith a 3yd putt, Avhjlo Bell holed 4ft for 4. Bell, 1 up. The eighteenth was halved in 5 after Horton had tiic upper baud all the Avay. Bell avus 1 up at lunch time.

At the start of the second eighteen holes Horton kept up his hot pace. At the first lie just missed a 6ft putt for a 2, allowing Bell ,to halve in A 10ft putt dropped at a pinch for him at the long second, giving him a win in 4 to 5, and squaring the match once more. At the third Horton played one of the sweet mid accurate approach shots which he has been producing so consistently, and he just missed a 3. Bell holed 4yds for his half in 4. After a fine iron shot to the long fourth, Horton put his run up 3ft from the pin, and won in 4 to 5, becoming 1 up. Horton took the fifth in 4, and lost the sixth. The seventh was halved in C, 801 l being stymied. A good 4 at the eighth put Horton again 2 up, and he turned with tin’s lead. Halving the ninth in 5, Bell won the tenth, and Horton took the eleventh in a good 4, to be 2 up again. At tbe twelfth, where the wind was against Bell, he played a perfect long iron shot up to the pin from 170yds. Horton replied with a .similar effort, and worked a half in 4. Horton kept his drive well away from the out of bounds fence at the next, but Bell went out and put his second tee shot on the brink of the same boundary ditch. Having played 4 bo gave up the hole, and went to the tee of the short fourteenth, 3 down. Here Horton’s mashie to the middle of the plateau green pitched and came back a yard, and, he holed the 12ft putt for a fine 2. This made him clonnio 4; but lie was a tired man, too, and took three putts on the fifteenth green. After a perfect iron shot to .within syds Bell van up well, and won the hole in a 4. The end came at the sixteenth (the thirty-fourth hole of the match), where Horton reached the green in 2, and got an easy half in 5,"’ Bell having topped his drive. Horton won by 3 and 2. This was a great match to see. Both players drove very well, but it was their fine iron play that captivated the understanding spectators. Beil played a, great number of magnificent iron shots, and Horton, if anything, did better still. In my opinion Horton : s the best, s’tylist, and the best player , among the amateurs in tin’s championship. You always bear the smack of the blow when he drives, and the click when he plays an iron club. No wonder he impressed t tbfe Australians. Those j sweet and accurate iron and niaside shots of Horton’s remind mo of Holdcrncss. This perfectiy-eqilipped •golfer meets to-morrow a golfer of power and personality, an athlete with the keen eye and the natural ability to play games, which is such a great asset. MORPETH BEATS SI ME. AVliy does the crowd always follow Sloan Morpeth? It certainly did follow him to-day, and it has followed on the other days also. There .is more than golf in the answer to that question, but the golf is all that I shall venture to mention. As a golfer ho is, I think, a combination ok great power, clear vision, and that sensitiveness of touch and of mind which makes for inspiration in this wonderful game. As an exponent of the game ho is n.ot the equal of Horton, but he has something which Horton and many other •■great golfers lack. George Duncan, brilliant, magnetic, confident, incalculable, also has that quality, but I have no name for it. The breaks were in favor of_ Morpeth to-day in his great match with Alick Sime, who started well, reaching the fifth in even 4’s to be 2 up, A missed putt of 4ft cost Sime the sixth, and he •halved the seventh and won the eighth in o and 4. At the ninth, where the Waikato is near, ho put’his drive into the river, and Morpeth won the hole in 4, turning I down. For . the next 'six holes-, .Morpeth played his'.best-golf for these figures: 3,4, 4,4, 3,4, winning. the eleventh

and fifteenth, where he was 1 up. Sime won the long sixteenth, thanks to good second; lost the seventeenth, where his second was short of the green; and haired the last in 5, finishing the morning round I down. In the afternoon Sime squared the match -it the nineteenth, but lost the twenty-first and also tbo twenty-fifth, where he missed a 4ft putt, _ while Morpeth’s ball wa.s slightly in In’s way. Sime 2 down. A great 4 at the 520yds-long seventh by thine left him 1 down. Again good halves in 4 at the next two left Morpeth 1 up at the twenty-seventh hole. At the ninth, Sime played a beautiful run up from the edge of the green round the run of the punch bowl hollow, to within Sin of the cup, while the ball remained almost in the way of Morpeth’s putt, of 4yds down the bill. That putt wa.s holed, however, for a hard half. At the eleventh Sime holed a 7yd putt for a good half sin 4. Both had' line seconds to tbe twelfth, at which Morpeth just missed a “ birdie ” 3. At the thirteenth Morpeth holed a 3vd putt for a 4 after two good shots through the green, while Sime failed at a holeable putt after the dicers .of the. crowd had died away. The South Islander got a holo back at t.ho fourteenth, where he got the par 3, and lino seconds to the long thirteenth gave them a half in 4. His usual fine ' brassio second left Sime short of the sixteenth green, and he pitched on to the green strong, as did Morpeth. A half in 5 saw them move on to the seventeenth toe', with Morpeth leading by 1 bole. The end came ’at the long seventeenth, when Sime left his yard putt an inch short of the hole for a 4. Morpeth got his 4 and won the njatch by 2 and 1, Sime made a great, fight all day, playing many fine second shots, especially fine brassic shots; but Morpeth’s powerful long game gave him an advantage. Sime’s brassie might.be compared- to those of Sandy Herd,- and his confident looking waggle is also reminiscent of that famous player. PROFESSIONAL FINAL. In the final of the professional championship MTntosh was going too hard for Butters. The Masterton professional is probably the hardest man to boat in match play in New Zealand. Butters, who is the professional at Miramar, was sometimes a shade unfortunate with his putts, while MTntosh putted, as he drove, very confidently. In the morning' MTntosh was

round in 74, with the following fignies: Out 38, In 37; total, 73. In the afternoon round Butters went to the turn in 37, while M‘lntosh was 33, two below 4’s. For the next five holes 31143 made M'lntosh 5 ‘up and 4 to play, so that he won the New Zealand professional championship, as he did last year. Details: — PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. ' FinalJ. D. MMntosh beat A. C, Butters. 5 up and 4 to play. AMATEUR CHAMP]ONSHIP. Semi-finals. T. IT. Horton beat N. Bell, 3 and 2. S. Morpeth boat A- Sime, 2 and 1. FOURSOME HANDICAP. The foursome handicap, was won by G. F. Colbcck and L. V. Bellingham after a play off.