STILL TALKED OF

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 156, 22 September 1927, Page 9

STILL TALKED OF

OUR TEAM IN AUSTRALIA THE STYLE OF APPROACHES Whether the New Zealand golfers learned anything in particular from Australian golf during this year’s visit in quest of the Kirk-Windeyer Cup, I do not know, but the Australians seemed to ha'# been duly impressed with the New Zealanders’ golf. Ivo Whitton, ex-open and ex-amateur champion, frequently refers to the New Zealanders in his remarks in the Sydney “Herald,” and among his writings have occurred the following: “It is interesting to know that the Australian Golf Union is giving its sanction to the . Kirk-Windeyer Cup, which is to be held in New Zealand next January. It is sincerely to be hoped that Victoria will make an effort to send a team to this very interesting meeting between the two countries. To some of the young players who are coming out it will mean a great deal for them to see such players as are the New Zealanders, and to get the differemt viewpoints of the game that one receives by going to another country. “I hope, also, that efforts will really begin to send an Australian team home to Great Britain for the Walker Cup matches in the near future.

“New Zealand did remarkably well in sending so many of their players over last year, and it will be a great disappointment to them if we do not reciprocate in doing our best to send our leading players there next year. “Gordon Balcombe, of Sydney, was telling me that they obtained a most excellent slow-motion picture of Arthur Duncan, the veteran New Zealand player, during his stay in Sydney, and that his swing, revealed by these pictures, is absolutely perfect. Duncan is now about 54 years of age, and it speaks wonders for his style that he should still be able to rank as perhaps one of the best amateurs in the British Empire.

“After having seen the New Zealand players this year in the Kirk-Windeyer Cup, I stressed the fact that leading amateurs in this country had a great deal to learn. In their shots of about 80 yards it has been the habit of leading amateurs in Victoria either to run through from this distance or play a pitch and ru*, generally landing short of the green, and relying on the good fortune on the kick that the ball gets as to whether it finishes close to the hole or not.

“Winner, runner-up in the Australian amateur championship, has aga.in demonstrated what a great asset it is to be able to pitch a ball up to the hole. It is very seldom that he pitches short of the green, with an approach of this distance.

“I am not quite sure how Winser plays this shot. I have watched him very closely, and he seems to take the ball very much cleaner than the amateurs here. There is no doubt he has proved that he is strokes ahead of us all at this shot. I should say, in comparing him with the other leading amateurs here, that between the greens he is not quite so strong, but with the great advantage that he has in this approach shot he makes up for whatever he may lack in other directions. “I hear from reports of people who have seen the leading Americans since the war that practically all of them pitch up to the hole in this way. There is no doubt that the New Zealanders play the shot in the same manner, and always gain strokes from this distance.”