Morpeth Leads in Provincial Golf

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 323, 7 April 1928, Page 7

Morpeth Leads in Provincial Golf

SEASON OPENS PLAY AT MIDDLFAIORt

Dominion to-day with all oentr.s 1 handicap tournaAuckland's print - vincia championship more. All the past champions, including Morptii the present X» Z« - land amateur chain pion and holder of the provincial title in 1914 and 1915, being in actionThe defender of the title was H. i>. Lusk, who beat R. I». Wright for it last year. W right had held the title previously and the other ex-holder was Rex George. As a result of this morning's play Morpeth and Wright led the field \s uh 73 and 76 respectively. Following the drought conditions, the fairways were as hard as beards, though fairly even. All the rough had been cleared out. The greens were exceedingly good under the circumstances. They have been sprinkled fairly continuously and a month ago were top-dressed and treated with sulphate of ammonia. Loose top-dressing on the outer edges beat some of the players with their approaches. MORNING RESULTS

Morpeth started away 4 3 4 3. and. thanks to a tip or two from Moss la to in tho week, had pot rid of a persistent slice and was annihilating distance with his tee shots, most of which wer on a perfect line. His mashit shots were not nearly so good. Bad kicks at the tifth and sixth lost him strokes, and In* finished with a ~n t' 10th; including three putts, and was out in level fours. He started his homeward run with 3 4 3 4 4. but at the 16th. he sliced into the trees, and played out too well, putting his ball into the plantation behind the green and taking a six. This robbed him of any chance of reducing the official record of 71. held by Arthur Duncan and R. D. Wright. He finished in 73 to lead the field. Rev. George was also well on his wood, but was offering high prices for tips on how' to play a mashit*. He was the best part of 20yds off the line half a dozen times from 50yds outside. He could not do better than 83. Lusk was at sea on the green, and left himself too much to do with his | second putt on at least six occasions. When he required three more after rearbing tho green. His long game | was good and he was reaching the green in the figures all the way round. Wright was very patchy with the luck of the game fairly evenly distributed. A few shots bunkered by bad kicks and a few' topped drives that seemed to run for ever, marred his results, but he managed a 76—40 out and 36 home. K. C. Bartleet, not quite so efficient in golf as in tennis, nevertheless finished with a 78. and was among th. ltaders. One ball out of bounds, a five at the short seventh and two shots to get out of a bunker at the 17th proved that the rest of the round sawgood scoring. Western and Plumley had similar scores. The latter had a good chance of being much better, but a couple of holes spoiled him.

Tl»e best scores this morning were Sloan Morpeth (Titirangi) 7 J R. 1>. Wright (Middlemore) .. .. .. .. 7 K. Bartleet (Middlemore) H. Plumley (Middlemore) 7* T. J. Western (M id die more) .. .. .. Tv II. D. Tidmarsh (.Middlemore) .... «:* H. C. Lusk (Middlemore) 7** W. S. Ralph (Middlemore) s»* B. H. Menzies (Middlemore) ...... Hi H. L. Rees (Middlemore) ........ HI W. Macbeth (Middlemore) H.1 T. A. Gouldiner (Titirangi) HI H. Wiggins (Middlemore) «1