GOLF

Otaki Mail, 5 February 1923, Page 3

GOLF

THE OTAKI CLUB. The annual general meeting of the Otaki Golf Club was held at the Druids’ llnil on Saturday night (3rd hist). There was a good attendance of members, the captain (Mr Atmore) being in the chair. The balance-sheet showed an increased overdraft, which was caused by part payment of the new rooms and the making of new holes. Mr Kirk thought the .Committee should carefully consider the financial position, and said lie did not think it possible to keep an eighteen-hole course in order with the subscription members uere paying at present. A discussion followed about the Indus having tiie management of their own competitions. •flie ladies present, however, preferred that the men’s committee should I,; a i'll go them, but that one of the commUtee should be authorised to express their views. This was agreed to and Dr. riliarp was appointed. Xiie following were elected officers for the ensuing season: —President, Ilf AY. li. Simcox (re-elected); captain. Air K. S. Simcox; hon. treasurer, Mr "■ H. Wills; lion, secretary, Mr E. Hopkins (re-elected); committee, Messrs O’Rourke. Atmore, Sievers, W. M. Simcox, and Dr. Sharp. A hearty vote of thanks was given the secretary and the retiring treasurer, Mr J. D’Ath, for their services to the Club, Secretary’s Report, Piie year it--' was a year of good yio gross in our Club’s history, and it is to h,' no pc I that progress "ill continue ilaring the coming seasons, and that 'tt ,j,j ll keep til" bciore us me endcti. our to make Utalu the greatest golfing rc.-ort in the Dominion. Tire new holes vc Jui.de ilie year before were open ioi play, and thotigfi tfi.- fairway wit.-, rough both members and visiting gulJ ei.- spoke in higii praise of the course, lhc chief criuesm by expcricncci golfers was that there were too man,' jnorl holes, four Committee have n mc.iied this by cutting- out “Century ' and giving “ the Spoon greater length. Members will, i am confident, be play ing on during the coming season the most interesting and sporting links in the Dominion. A good many of otu holes are what are called blind holes, that is to say the player cannot see the surface of the gievu "hen playing hi. appioach. Personally, and Mr Brooks agrees with me in this, 1 think those holes are a better test of golf than when the green, to be played to, iclearly to be seen, they require more kill, judgment and pluck, but there is a Along prejudice against them just uou in the golfing world and if no want our course lo be in the first rank no will have to eliminate as many as possible. Mr Arthur Brooks, the Hint professional, who won the open championship last year, was spending a holiday in Otaki; he rang me up and asked mi li. go round to the links with him. He c.v pressed great admiration tor our coin ?<_», and the possibilities of our gi’cut golfing country. He thoughl we ought io make our liuko into a champion eo.ii;.* “iv giving greater length.-? to the! hole; and catting out the blind once, j i'oar Committee decided to employ him J io li',' out the proposed course. This he i

diu :*.iu the members, after inspecting Ms cork, were very pleased with Ike propos>ud course, aud it now rosis witu tiiM present meeting to decide whet her the Club shall advance to the dignity of having a course iit as Mr Brooks, say. to play the championship of Nov 1 Zeeland on, or whether we shall be content io go on as we have, hitherto with, a course interesting to play over, but j nut considered by golf cm in the lirstcla?. Twenty-five years ago when i started golf -I,OUU yards was considered 0. good length for a course, and most links were about that length. since then, especially since the advent of the rubber-cored ball, golfors have been calling for more length and still more length, with the result that committees of clubs have had to be continually lengthening their courses. A few years ago our links were barely -1.000 yards, last year our course was 5,000 yards in length, the coining season we an ill play over 5,(500 yards, aud if we adopt the proposed championship course we will play *3,100 yards. During recent veurs we have badly felt the want

of a sitting-room in our pavilion; especially on match days with other -clubs we have been very* congested, ’talking the matter over with Mr Kirk last sea-

son he suggested convassing members for donations to build a new room, and he said he would give £2 to start, it. I was surprised and . gratified with the response that members gave to my appeal, and the sum of £SO 13s has been paid to the treasurer. A committee was elected at a special general meeting to pass a plan and erect the new room. Many* plans were .submitte l. most of thm excellent ones, but the

committee was bound not to exceed a ■cost of £IOO, and nearly all the proposed plans would have cost considerably more to carry out. A plan was at last decided upon and a prominent builder asked for kis tender, liis price being £l4O. The Committee thought it excessive and instructed me to build the room by day labour. I was fortunate in getting timber fairly cheaply from Ohakunc, and through the good offices of Mr H. Lethbridge in engaging a very c unable carpenter, he and Grey raade a very good job of the building which cost ns only £OO.

Owing to expenses having to be cut the architecture is not very pleasing. Members will agree the new room is a great boon to the Club, especially on match days. We played eight matches against other clubs, of Tillich we won five and lo : > three. The Manawafu CluK 'g'aV'? us a bad drubbing in Palmerston Norik. Sievers ‘being our only player to y'* ll hi. game, and they al&o beat us though V7Q put up a better fu'ht.

Against th* Hott, however. honors rrere S3*y, each fddo winning a. match, and

Iwe defeated L*vin on the three occasions on which we met them, and John- : onville once. The various competitions were all keenly contested and some good scores were returned notably by J. B. D ’Ath and Wills, who both improved their golf considerably during lhc season. Amongst the ladies Mrs Sharp, Miss Swabey, and Miss Booth showed the greatest improvement in their play. The championship caused u considerable amount of interest, and ,-ome very close matches were fought, 'flic veteran, W. H. Gray, by steadyplay, again won the men’s and Mrs K. M. D’Ailr, after a great struggle in the final round with Miss Quill, the ladies. As wo arc spending a considerable sum on the links your Committee felt we ought to economise by reducing the prize money in the competitions, and passed a resolution that they would be reduced for last season from 10s (id to •Is. This will make a considerable saving. Our Club has earned amongst visiting golfers a very high name for hospitality. A few years ago the credit of this was due chiefly to the generosity and hard work of Mrs W. H. Simcox; recently Mrs Percy Simcox has ably taken her place and has work ml hard and given generously to entertain our guests. The thanks of the Club are due to her and the other members of the catering committee for their ; strenuous and cheerful work, lhc lady players of the Club last season were a little dissatisfied with the attention they received from the committee. If they care to have their own committee and secretary the men will be very pleased, and I would suggest they meet aud discuss the matter amongst, themselves. Such ladies’ committee, however. should be elected by the commit tee and not by the general meeting, otherwise, there will be friction: il would not do to have two governing bodies in the Club. Tuo small “lances were held during the year, the first to act funds to buy chairs for the new

room, and the other to build a neu sign board. Both were thoroughly enjoym by those who attended and were sue cessful financially. The Committe have engaged Mr Arthur Brooks lo

a fortnight to give lessons to member.-, and he will be up next Monday. It is hoped th;il iis many members as possible will avail themselves ol his services as the play of our members should show a considerable improvement with couching. 'The thanks of the Club arc due to the president for a donation to the prize fund, which was alloted to the ladies’ competitions, also to Mr 11. Lethbridge for his services in rolling

the fairway of the new holes, to Mr Wills Tor work helping the professional during his visit, and also to Mr J. D’Ath for his capable and efficient work as lion, treasurer.