GOLF NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 160, 6 June 1940, Page 12

GOLF NOTES

H. D. BRINSDEN BREAKS RECORD BRILLIANT RETURN TO FORM. (By “Bunker.”) With a brilliant score of 70 in the qualifying • round for the Auckland winter championship, which was commenced on the Akarana Club’s links on Saturday, H. D. Brinsden, of the Titirangi Club, not only ’headed the list of qualifiers but also broke the Akararta course record held by P. G. F. Smith, the former New Zealand amateur and North Island champion. Smith’s score was 71, two under paf. •During recent weeks Brinsden has not displayed the form/which characterised his play last season. Brinsden, who lias won the championship on three occasions, started off in grand style, scoring a birdie at the first hole. He followed this up with two more at the fourth and fifth holes but he slipped a stroke at the sixth, seventh and ninth. However, an eagle three at the eighth offset the strokes lie lost through his lapse and he was out in 35—two under par. On the homeward journev he carded birdies at the tenth; twelfth and” fifteenth, hut slipped a stroke at the thirteenth and • seventeenth. Brinsden’s figures, compared with the scratch figures for the course, are':

While Brinsden was playing such excellent golf,, P. G. F. Smith was also making a desperate effort to break his own record, but a sliced drive at the fourteenth hole, where his ball finished in a fairway bunker, cost him a six and thus liis chance of breaking the record became very remote. He was round in 72. Tlie final is to be played later. Golf Grip. The grip is the most important in this golf gfime. If a goll lesson only taught you a perfect grip then you have learned a lot. The number of people who try to play with their hands wrong on the grip is amazing. The club is soled with the club flat on the ground.- The shaft is not tipped ahead or back. The handle lies diagonally across the left hand so that it can bo held with a finger grip instead of with a tense palm grip. That would make it impossible to get any zip into the shot or to cock the wrists, or use the arms properly. The fingers of the left hand are turned over the shaft so that the shaft is held firmly, hut without- any tightening felt in the forearm. There is not much more pressure than you feel in holding a knife or a fork. This enables you to feel the club-head and get the idea of letting the club-head swing, with natural rhythm. The grip is stronger with the left hand than the right. The V formed by the thumb and forefinger of the left hand points towards the right shoulder. This gives your left hand placement that brings the club-head squarely into the hall at impact. The right hand forms a V on the top of the shaft. The little finger of your right hand lies on top and across the first finger of your left hand. This grip may feel awkward for a while, but practise with it' and you’ll soon agree that it helps your shots. Tf the ball is getting out to the right, slip your left hand over to the rirdit a hit; that will stop it.

Hole in One. While lie was -plaving the short eighth hole at the Orakei Club’s links in Auckland, J. P. McKinlev holed his tec shot, a distance of 158 yards. Week-end Competitions. On Saturday the members of the Manawatu Club will play the second qualifying round for the club championship. At Palmerston North the members will play the June bogey competition, on Sunday. F. W. Ward's Good Round. During recent weeks the Ward brothers have been playing very good golf, and if • they retain their present form they will be something to reckon with when it comes to the playing of the Palmerston North Club’s championship. Last Sunday, F. W. Ward was round in 74.—one over par for the Awatapu course. Had he not over-chipped at the seventeenth and not missed a 20inch put at the last green, he would have been one under par. He was putting for birdies at the first, second, third, fourth and ninth holes on the outward journev. His card read: — Out -.5 4 5 3 4 4 3 5 3—36. In: 4 4’ 4 55 3 3 5 5—38. Total. 74. Mounds in Place of Bunkers. According to a prominent New South Wales golfer who recently returned from the United States, American golf architects are beginning to eliminate numerous greenside bunkers in the courses they are constructing, and the time may not be far distant when most of tho now famous Arneri-. can courses will have very few hunkers. The modern, trend is to substitute big sloping mounds for bunkers, with the result- that-the game is not made easier. Most of the leading American golfers are adept at playing from bunkers, and are never worried by the possibility of taking more than two shots to get down from a, bunker. The huge mounds present a greater difficulty, for ia ball can “kick” in any direction once it lands oti a mound, with the result that a difficult pitchshot has to be played to greens that will carry greater undulations than in the past! Faster and more greens are also gaining favour among the leading players. The modern tendency to water the greens to such an extent that almost any player can “stop” a ball is deplored. It is thought that greater variety, demanding more skill, will be the outcome if mounds replace buhkers, particularly at the longer boles, and faster and more undulating greens displace those, of the spongy type so prevalent nowadays.,

A Technical Point. To play an excellent round of -72 to lead the field in a bogey competition and then be disqualified was the unfortunate experience of. L. Johnstone, of tho Akarana Club (Auckland) recently. He jilayed a few holes earlier in the day and thus committed abreach qf the rule which prohibits play on greens prior to the commencement of the round, break Shot,

Some time ago when A. C. Boyle was playing the short third hole at the Lakes Club (Sydney) he hit his' ball into the back of the cup. The ball remained embedded in the face of tho hole above the tin, the greater portion of it being below the level of the green. The pin was removed without interfering with the ball. The guestion' was: Had Boyle holed in one? To have the matter settled the Lakes Club wrote to the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews asking for a ruling. The reply from the late Henry Gullen, secretary of the rules of golf committee, reads; “It is quite impossible in the tpresent emergency to have questions considered by the rules of golf committee, but if my own view is of any use toV ou I would say that in my opinion the player whose ball stuck between the metal lining of the hole .and tho surface of the putting green has holed out.”' '

Scratch.—Out: 5 4 4 4 3 5 3 5 4—37 Brinsden.— -Out -.44432643 5 —3o Scratch.— In: 4 5 4 3 4 4 3-4 5—36 Brinsden.- - In: 3 5 3 4 4 4 3 5 4—35