CITY GOLF LINKS

Evening Star, Issue 23383, 28 September 1939, Page 14

CITY GOLF LINKS

EXTENSIONS AT CHISHOLM PARK FURTHER NINE HOLES NEAR COMPLETION ONE BELIEVED LONGEST IN NEW ZEALAND For a year the laying-out of the second nine holes of the Chisholm Park golf course has progressed steadily, and to-day the visitor to the sandhills running between Lawyer’s Head and Hancock Park, St. Kilda, cannot be other than impressed by the thoroughness of the undertaking. The nine holes are set down in that long length of sandhills lying between the sea on the one hand and Lawyer’s Head road and Tahuna Park on the other. When it was decided to continue the course along the sandhills it was realised that a long and arduous task lay ahead. The hills were densely covered with lupine, and at some points wero very high, and the area generally was of such an undulating character that it resembled a sheet of corrugated iron. The lupines had first of all to bo removed, and this was followed by the harder work of reducing the level of the sandhills and of filling in the hollows between, creating a more normal golf course level. Yesterday a visit was paid to the new course extensions by a ‘ Star ’ reporter, who was duly appreciative of the improvements made. MAKING A GOLF COURSE. This course, under suitable weather conditions, should he one of the most attractive about Dunedin, in the warm afternoon sun yesterday one obtained a most favourable impression of the healthy, clean surroundings, the tang of the sea air being present and mingling with the penetrating odour of young pine trees, which arc numerous. The site is idea! for golfing enthusiasts. Tees and greens have been laid down and are maturing nicely, the grass forming into compact lawns. Much of the fairway is still in a rough condition, but considering the original state the transformation is little short of remarkable. All sandv hollows which come into the fairway proper have been filled in with sand taken from the

• higher sandhills and then covered with clay and soil on which grass already is or will be sown. Much of this clay and soil has come from the Anderson’s Bay road, where excavations are proceeding for a storm-water drain. In return for the spoil sand has been carted from the golf course to the Bay road work. All spoil now likely to be needed on the I links has been conveyed there. Yesterday the ‘ Star ’ watched a particularly big hollow close to Hancock Park being filled in. , Hundreds of tons of sand were being taken from a high rise and dumped into this depression. When filled in a covering of spoil will consolidate, and in due course another stretch of fairway will be ready. This filling has to undergo a period of weathering before it is ready for final attention and the sowing of grass seed. Only the tees and greens have been treated with really meticulous care, v an over-all rough level having been obtained on the fairways, but this level will permit the use of motor grass cutters. DON’T FORGET THE BUNKERS. Original intentions had been to create a “rough” course; that is, a course good enough for play, but minus some of the little amenities which give increased pleasure to golf. It had not been intended, for instance, to construct artificial bunkers in the meantime, but everyone associated with the task has become so enthusiastic that already work on bunkers has commenced, and yesterday workmen seemed to be taking almost a delight in creating deep, sandy “ traps ” for young and inexperienced golfers.

i This enthusiasm for the undertaking ! has given impetus to the work in I general and creates the impression that ’ there is nothing slipshod or hasty about ; it all. The course, when completed, • will be a very great asset to the city, } and an 18-hol© sandhill course will bt> 1 something of a novelty for the Dos minion. HOLE IN ONE ON THE FOUR- : TEENTH? s When the course is completed the i entire length, including the nine holes ■ now in use on the land side of the I Lawyer’s Head road, will be 6,oooyds. ' The present nine boles are of a zigi zag nature, and 'the same ground is 1 covered through walking backwards and \ forwards, but the sandhills nine holes ’ will be almost straight, working from ' Lawyer’s Head to Hancock Park, and returning a short distance at the roar of Tahuna Park to rejoin the first hole in Chisholm Park. It is not yet definitely decided whether the first hole will remain in Chisholm Park, as at present, or whether the bole nearest Hancock Park will be made the first hole. It is likely that there will be a change; or there may be a partial change. That is, members may start at the present first hole, non-members starting at Hancock Park. This, however, will be decided in due course. Some of the holes on the new course will be very long, considerably in excess of anything in the present Chisholm Park section. If the links continue from’the ninth bole in Chisholm Park golfers playing what will become the fourteenth will have little chance of holing out in one. For the fourteenth, which will offer opportunities for some beautiful drives, lies in a valley between sandhills, and is a long, straight course to the fifteenth of exactly COOyds, believed to be the longest in New Zealand. About 80 men, employed under scheme 13, are working on the job at present under control of the City Council reserves department. It is not expected that the course will be opened to the public before the end of autumn, although it had been hoped that it would be available by Easter. All the heavy work will be finished long before then, but consolidation will not be completed. The lane from St. Kilda to Lawyer’s Head—an extension of Lovers’ Lane—will not bo closed, but will remain as. it is at present. The public, however, will use it at its own risk. Another track is being formed immediately behind Talmnn Park, and will run from

I Hancock Park, coming out again on i thp Lawyer’s Head road just past the t Hunt Club’s kennels, b , IMPROVEMENTS AT CHISHOLM ’ PARK. ? Steady improvements have been ■ made to Chisholm Park. The greens and tees are receiving constant attention, and changes for the betterment of the game are repeatedly coming into effect. J At the entrance it is difficult to be- > lieve that formerly here was a wilder- > noss of broom and lupine scrub. The ■ slopes of the sandhills have been neatly ■ terraced, and on them, and about the * club houses rows of sweetwilliains have I been planted out, picturesque garden i plots being the result. i Putting greens have been formed I along the roadside, and latterly small ■ bunkers have been built offering play- ■ ers excellent opportunities to practice putting and the solving of ways and means of extricating themselves from “ bunker attention ” with the least possible expenditure of effort and language. All things considered, the Chisholm Park course can stand comparison with older courses about the city, and its popularity is apparent almost any day of the week, and particularly at the week-ends, when hundreds make use of it. The extension to 18 holes should make_ the course even more popular than it is to-day. The services of the well-known professional, Mr Charlie Shorriff, are available to any desiring to make use of them, and he is on duty practically continuously.