Australian Holers Ignore Bad Omens

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 254, 17 January 1928, Page 9

Australian Holers Ignore Bad Omens

ARRIVAL OF TEAM KIRK-WINDEYER CONTEST If there is anything in super stitious beliefs the New South Wa’es golfers who arrived in Auckland this morning in quest of the Kirk-Windeyer Cup, will return to Sydney sadly disappointed. THERE were IS in the party, and it left Sydney on a Friday, which happened to be the thirteenth day in the month. However, the team is rather stronger than that which was unsuccessful against the Victorians to decide who should meet the New Zealanders in Sydney last year, and the members hope to find sufficient form to beat the local team on its own links. Dr. Sydney Jones is the captain and selector: and with McLellan holds the Australasian foursomes championship at present. Dr. Nigel Smith is the only representative who played in the cup matches last year, when he was No. ;j in the New South Wales team, and beat Russell (Victoria). 2 up. Mr. W. Smith is present runner-up to the Australian amateur champion, and came into prominence just after the cup matches. Dr. R. K. Lee-Brown is an ex - champion of the Royal Sydney Golt Club, and in the last four in the Australian amateur last year. These four comprise the New South Wales Kirk-Windeyer Cup team this year. Dr. Sydney Jones was in Now Zealand when the Dominion championships were played at Miramar, qualified for the amateur and was promptly put out by Mr. Arthur Duncan. ALMOST A NEW ZEALANDER Mr. “Wally” Smith happens to be almost a New Zealander. He was born in Australia, but was christened in New Zealand, to which country his father belongs. Mr. A. A. Rankin, president of the Newcastle Golf Association, is one of the members of the party. Handicapping will have to be arranged between the visitors and the New Zealand Council, the Australians being rated under the new scratch score scheme, which has been favourably discussed in New Zealand. While the team is in New Zealand a conference will be held with the idea of revising the conditions of the competition, the suggestion being that five men should comprise the teams, and that the result should de decided merely on the matches, instead of all matches being played out to the last hole and the result depending *»n the aggregate number of holes lost and

This afternoon the visitors are tho guests of the Auckland and Maungakiekie Golf Clubs at Middlemore. the team meeting Sloan Morpeth, New Zealand amateur champion, R. M. George, W. S. Ralph and R- D. Wright and others. To-morrow they leavo for Wellington, where the cup matches will be played on the Miramar links on January 30. The visitors were welcomed in Auckland by Messrs W. E. A. Gill and K«*n Duncan, of Wellington, and A. E. M. Rhind, of Auckland.