VISITORS CONFIDENT IN GOLF PROSPECTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 265, 30 January 1928, Page 9

VISITORS CONFIDENT IN GOLF PROSPECTS

N.S.W. V. N.Z. TO-DAY MUCH GOOD SCORING (Special to THE SUN.) WELLINGTON, To-day. Conditions are good for the decision of the destiny of the Kirk-Win - deyer Cup, all the matches in which contest will be played to-day. New interest was lent to the contest b3 r Nigel Smith’s sudden return to form over the week-end.

At Miramar yesterday he did a 70. equalling Morpeth’s course record. It now proves that Lee Brown did not wish to qualify for the preliminary tourney because he had not had much golf, and the card which he destroyed in the qualifying round was a good one. That he is in form a round of 74, yesterday, attested. With W. Bobson available, New South Wales are confident of their chance for the cup. SATURDAY’S GOLF FINAL GRANT BEATS MORPETH (Special to THE SUN.) WELLINGTON, Saturday. The features of to-day’s golfing events at Miramar were the defeat of the amateur champion, Sloan Morpeth, by Bonald Grant, of Christchurch, who was, in turn, defeated by Dr. Ross, Dunedin, in the final, Ross having beaten Sime in the morning, and the announcement of the New Zealand team to meet New South Wales. The team is as follows: Sloan Morpeth, Auckland. Kenneth Ross, Dunedin. T. H. Horton, Masterton. Donald Grant, Christchurch. The little between the four semifinalists was indicated by the fact that the Morpeth-Grant match went to the 23rd, where Grant was successful, and the Ross-Syme match finished at the 22nd, the galleries being treated to sensational finishes in both cases. Ross went on to win the final comfortably, 4 and two. Morpeth was dormy 2 in his match when the gallery deserted to watch the other semi-final, and thereby missed the sensations in one match that they gained in another. Grant, fighting to the last ditch, hit a screaming drive to the 17th, followed it with a pin-splitting iron, and holed out a three—two under a par on a 470 yd hole. He followed this with a 4 at the 490 yard 18th, and the match went on to the 23rd, both making desperate saves until the end came with Grant sinking his first putt on the 23rd for a win in one under par. Morpeth was uneasy on the greens all the way, and the Christchurch man, in spite of continuous hits to the rough, played magnificent recovery shots, and was leading 1 up at the 9th. Morpeth then gradually assumed the lead, and appeared to have the in hand when Grant produced the sensations at the 17th and 18 th.

In the other semi-final Ross and Syme, in an exhibition of par golf, had a great fight. Ross was in the fortunate position of holding the lead throughout, and Syme could only wait for a break. The break never came, and Syme started out to beat brilliant scoring. His putting became in itself a feature of the game, and after being 2 down at the turn he squared the match at the 15th. Ross scored at the next, but Syme put on an eagle 3at the 17th, and a brilliant 4 at the 18th after being bunkered, and the match went on, Ross having also a 4 at the 18th. The great fight against Morpeth had apparently taken it out of Grant in the morning, and though he gained a place in the Dominion team he went down to Ross in the final in the afternoon. Ross was never up against it. He went out in 38 to be 3 up. He took the lead at the fourth, where Grant missed an 18-incher, then winning the fourth, where Grant’s difficult pitch from the rough went over the green into a bunker. At the seventh the Christchurch man laid himself a stymie, after two perfect shots which should have won him the hole, and at thei eighth he had another trying pitch, and did not get dead. Grant got the tenth on a momentary lapse by Ross, but lost the next on a poor second. The thirteenth went to Grant on a missed putt by Ross, but thereafter Ross, who played very sound golf throughout, held his opponent down, ending with a stymie on the fifteenth green, which left him dormie three and gave him the match, which was inevitably his, somewhat sooner than it would otherwise have been.