VICTORIAN GOLF TITLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 733, 5 August 1929, Page 7

VICTORIAN GOLF TITLE

THREE NEW ZEALANDERS QUALIFY iVO WHITTON LEADS FIELD MELBOURNE, Sunday. In the Victorian amateur golf championship To players competed yesterday on the Commonwealth links in the qualifying rounds. It is tl\e most talented field which has yet appeared in an Australian amateur championship. loan Morpeth (New Zealand) was favourite lot the event, and his first round of 81 justified the choice. His hard drives were appreciated. Vh< normal par for the course is 72. but the abnormal conditions that prevailed would make it five strokes harder. In his second round Morpeth did not reproduce this form. At the ninth he hooked his drive into an unplayable lie, and the hole cost him 10 strokes. Later he took two sixes, finishing with SS. Dr. Kenneth Ross (New Zealand) in the outward half of his first round played convincingly, and took 3S. He sank a six-foot putt for a 3 at the second hole, which is 401yds. long. He came home in 44. total 82. In his second round he commenced weakly, but settled down and took 90 and was among the 16 players who qualified. T. H. Horton (New Zealand) although his play was stylish, was out of form in putting. He missed putts of 2ft. Twice the ball went in and out of the hole. In his second round he started brilliantly with three •’birdies” at the first four holes, but he weakened toward the finish. His rounds were 87 and S 5. and he qualified. J. L. Black (New Zealand), with scores of 92 and 91. was among the notable failures, lie could not in either round stilce anything like form. The 16 players who qualified include 10 Victorians, three New Zealanders, two New South Wales players, and one Tasmanian. ivo Whitton, with 161. led the field.