NEW ZEALAND’S WIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 74, 18 June 1927, Page 14

NEW ZEALAND’S WIN

KIRK-WINDEYER GOLF CUP DETAILS OF THE PLAY OUR MEN PLEASED EVERYONE “The Dominion men have pleased everyone by their style and excellent’ qualities as sportsmen. They take the good with the bad with unfailing good humour. It is an excellent thing to meet the men we have read about for so many years, and see what they can do.” This was the note of the Sydney “Referee” concerning the 2S[ew Zealand golfers who are now returning from an exceedingly satisfactory visit to Australia. The Australian mail brings further details of the matches played, from which the following notes are selected: FOURSOMES CHAMPIONSHIP The first really important fixture was the New South Wales Foursomes Championships, decided at Rose Bay. The field was an exceptionally strong one. Shortly after the commencement there was a tremendous downpour for about twenty minutes, and many of the greens were under water, but it soon cleared up and everything dried up very quickly. Duncan and Horton and Whitton and Russell shared the gallery, and though the former did well the latter had no luck and struck all the trouble that was going. A. D. S. Duncan and T. H. Horton led the field with an excellent 75, though neither of them was playing quite as well as they are capable of doing. Their score was: Out: 4,5, 3,4, 4,2, 6,4, 4 36 In: 4,5, 4,4, 3,6, 6,3, 4 39 The first mistake, except for a missed putt at the long seventh, was at the fifteenth, where they took three putts. At the sixteenth, Horton made a very fine drive, but Duncan foolishly elected to play short of the cross bunker, and missed his second, which accounted for the 6. Interest naturally centred in Duncan and Horton in the afternoon. At first it looked as if they would have no difficulty in maintaining their morning lead, for they started with 3,5, 3,4, but from then on they seemed to lose confidence. Horton played a good drive at the fifth, but with a slight pull, and found the bunker which extends somp distance fnto the fairway. Duncan tried for length, and was just short of the hollow to the left. This left his partner with a very tricky iron shot to the pin. Instead of playing for the green, he went straight for the bunker and the shot was really a magnificent one,, for he carried the bunker all right, and stopped dead just on the edge of the green, leaving Duncan a by no means difficult putt. He was short, and Horton missed the next, and they took 6. It seemed to unsettle them, for Duncan then pulled his mashie shot at the short sixth, and, after Horton, playing a perfect approach, missed a by no means difficult length putt. Horton missed a very easy putt at the seventh. After a magnificent drive by Duncan at the eighth, he lifted h\s head and pitched the ball into the bunker guarding the green, this hole costing them the 6. Their chances seemed to rapidly depart, and so it turned out to be.

KIRK-WINDEYER CUP The Kirk-Windeyer Cup matches were even more exciting than at first appeared. The New Zealanders scored a handy win in the foursomes in the morning, but in the afternoon all the matches were sternly fought, and the issue was doubtful. Word was sent out to Quin that the fate of the cup might rest in his hands, and the Taranaki man responded gallantly. A GALLANT EFFORT 'He was at the fifteenth then, and was one down. He planted a great iron on to the green, and then negotiated a half-stymie for a win to square the match. He followed this by holing a magnificent four at the sixteenth, a hole of 571 yards. He halved the seventeenth (225 yards) in three, and the last in five for a win which assured the winning of the cup. In the foursomes, both of which New Zealand won, L. Quin and Dr. Ross played machine-like golf, and had a stroke round of 73 —out in 37 and home in 36. Quin showed fighting spirit at the ninth, where he sank a 50ft. putt, to give his side the lead. He repeated the performance at the eleventh, a feat liable to upset the morale of any opponent. Quin’s putting was good all the way round, and perhaps proved the dominant factor of the win. In the other match New Zealand lost the first and won the next two, Horton’s iron play and putting being the deciding factor. Duncan sunk a 30footer to win the seve.nth, and make his side 3 up. The match was 2 up at the- turn, but the New Zealanders won the tenth and thirteenth, making them 4 up, a lead which they still had at the turn. FEATURE MATCH The match that was the feature of the compettiion was that in the singles, when Duncan defeated Whitton, the Australian champion. Duncan led off against Whitton in the afternoon singles and won the first hole with a 3. He was lucky to get a half at the second. He was bunkered from his drive, and his third shot was 30 feet from the hole, but Whitton, although trapped near the green, pitched out dead and partly stymied Duncan. Then he astounded the gallery by missing the simplest of short i putts. Another missed putt by Whitton at the short third provided Duncan with another lucky half. Whitton won the fourth, but Duncan became 1 up again at the fifth, with a beautiful long iron to the green. The sixth was halved and Duncan won the seventh. A 40-foot putt which brought another round of applause from the gallery made Duncan 3 up at the eighth. The ninth was halved. The New Zealand veteran had played beautiful golf to this stage. The tenth was halved, approach putt lingering on the edge of the tin, a narrow escape for Duncan. Whitton was similarly unlucky at the previous hole, where his approach putt hung on the edge of the tin. A long putt at the eleventh made Duncan 4 up and another win at the twelfth put him in an almost unbeatable position. A weak second by Duncan helped Whitton to a win at the thirteenth, his first since the fourth hole. Then he won the next, sinking a good putt from the edge of the green. Whitton had a rather lucky win at the fifteenth, when Duncan missed a four-foot putt. He was now only 2 down. The sixteenth was halved, each throwing away winning chances. The match ended at the seventeenth.' Duncan was short with his tee shot, and short with his second, but he holed a long putt and a bogey three gave him a half and the match, 2 up and 1 to play. Whitton won the last, and finished 3 down. The matches had to be played right out. as the aggregate of holes decided the results. In the Horton-Russell match Russell won the first hole in 3 to 4, and the next in 4 to 5. At the next Horton laid him a half stymie, which he failed to negotiate, and his lead was reduced to 1 up. The fourth was a half. Horton won the fifth and the match was all square. Russell sank a long putt for a two at the sixth* and led 1 up.

Another at the seventh increased his lead to 2 up. After leading 3 up at the turn Russell took three putts at the tenth, and missed a short one at the fifteenth, leaving Horton 1 down. The last three holes were halved, and the match ended with Russell 1 up. Ross and Headlam were all square at the eighteenth, and also at the nineteenth, and the match \yent to the twentieth.