On the Links Notes for Golfers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 742, 15 August 1929, Page 14

On the Links Notes for Golfers

By

SLOW BACK

Auckland Golf Several of the local clubs are busy at present with their championships. The Auckland and Alaungakiekie Clubs are leaving these rather late in the season to give the courses a chance of recovering from the winter. If it can be managed—and we know of cases where it cannot—it is probably much the best plan. Our Auckland courses are probably at their best about the beginning of September. By that time, as a rule, the muddy conditions have departed, and the ground has firmed up enough to give a reasonable but not extravagant run, while the greens are not only well grassed, but soft enough to enable the approach to be controlled. Of course, those clubs which do not cut their courses are wise to get their chief events off before spring starts its usual luxurious growth. Among the outside clubs, Rotorua and Waiuku are getting on with their championships. W. Morrice, who helped to provide such an exciting final in the tournament last year, seems to be showing very good form. To defeat M. D. Carr by such a margin as 6 ana 5 argues pretty useful golf, as the said M. L>. Carr can usually account for most of the visitors who happen along. Morrice has a compact and effective style, evidently modelled on good professionals, and he will be very hard to beat in the coming Rotorua tournament. S. E. Carr should be the other finalist, but there is still room for surprises in the semi-finals. At Waiuku, Dr. Howden, W. S. Colbeck and T. Bloomfield have all survived so far. One of the Auckland Club members who played at Waiuku lately told me that Dr. Howden was as dangerous an opponent as one could meet at Waiuku. Then Colbeck has just won the Franklin championship, which marks him as pretty formidable. I hear the doctor’s handicap is a real joke. Otahuhu sent a team to Middlemore and did really well. The weatjber was very showery and objectionable, but the Otahuhu men were not worried. In defeating W. S. Ralph by 2 and 1, L. J. Croxson proved that he has reached very nearly to the first class. Ralph’s handicap of 1 is no flattery, and he plays to it very consistently. B. H. Menzies gave H. Plumley a really good game, and was only narrowly beaten. E. L. Bartleet lost to W. B. Eustace. Bartleet, good player as he is, ought to have his style overhauled. He has one or two risky habits, especially in his footwork. On the total, Middlemore won by 6 games to 4. Another team from the Auckland Club went down to Glendowie and just managed to come out square. C. Allcott in the top match just defeated the formidable R. O. Gardner, who is always very hard to beat in the wet. The last four players saved the situation for Middlemore. A very interesting private match was played at Middlemore between teams representing the old boys of Christ’s College and Wanganui College. Though the top men of Wanganui looked the stronger, they were far from having it their own way, and on the total, singles and four-balls, Christ’s College won by 10| to 7&. There were some useful net scores returned last Saturday. At Waitema.ta, J. Hogan had 71, 5 —66, M. O’Connor 77, 10 —67, and M. Bailey, 93, 24 — 69. At Glendowie, a humorist, T. Martin, returned a card of 93, 30—63. Considering the conditions, and that scratch scores are up quite two strokes for lack of run, these scores are rather cheerful for the back-markers to contemplate.

Tranied Dogs There is no doubt that dogs can readily be trained to recover lost golf balls by scent. At Aberdovey, in North Wales, the sandy ridges between some of the fairways were covered pretty thickly with very dense scrub, and If a ball went in it was, normally speaking, lost. However, one of the members had a spaniel which had developed the art of smelling them out. The dog retrieved one for me in less than a minute from the heart of a dense mass of bushes, and I was told that he recovered hundreds in a week. The other day at one of our local courses I saw a dog which had not been properly trained. A woman was trying to practise, and the wretched thing would rush after the ball, chew it, and not give it up until violently assaulted with a club. Unfortunately, dogs have sometimes been trained to carry out the dishonest purposes of their sneakthief owners. At Rose Bay, where some of the fairways line the road, a certain type of blackguard with an intelligent mongrel dog sometimes lies in wait for a ball to appear, and sends the dog in for it. I myself saw this done openly in the sight of a couple of players. The dog’s owner was a lusty brute of Bolshevik tendencies, who asserted that when his friends got into power, the golfers would lose more than a few golf balls. It took time to get a policeman, and he had disappeared by then. I have been told recently of a case at one of our big clubs, where a collie appears from outside the fence, and runs off with balls, presumably to a hidden owner. We want to nip this in the bud. The best way is to lie in ambush and shoot the dog, or perhaps leave a loaded titbit for him at the usual spots. These sneak-thieves are hard to catch and not easy to get convicted. Penalties When the latest code of golf law was drawn up in 1921, the experts tried to put all the penalties on the same footing. It was a laudable attempt and deserved better success. They provided an alternative to the lost hole in match play, and so far made a useful addition, but unfortunately provided so great a penalty that in nine cases out of ten the hole is lost anyhow. Then they gave power to committees to remit the penalty stroke for “out of bounds,” a concession almost all clubs whose fairways a.re close to the “out of bounds” country have taken advantage of. But, strangest of all, they left the waterhazard rule—drop behind for one—as it was. So the uniformity has come down to this. If a ball is hit into water 200yds away, it may be dropped lor a penalty of one, the loss being then the equivalent of one stroke and not distance also. But if the ball was hit into a patch of rushes or grass find lost for five minutes, the penalty is stroke and distance —that is, two strokes. Then, again, if a ball is hit out of bounds on a course where the penalty is remitted, the loss is one stroke, but if it is unplayable or lost just inside the fence, the penalty is stroke and distance. The fact is the penalty is too great. First it is usually far too severe a punishment for the crime, and secondly iit means in match play that the hole :is over. Karl Behr, the American golf architect, considers that a penalty of loss of distance should cover them all—that is, a penalty of one stroke. The Midland Golf Association passed a resolution in favour of the same one stroke universal penalty. And if it Is not presumptuous to mention it, I myself think that it is far the best solution of the difficulty. * * * Kirk-Windeyer Cup Again New South Wales are the holders of the Cup. The first match played in Sydney in 1927 was won by New Zealand, the team being A. D. S. Duncan, T. H. Horton, D. Ross and L. Quin. In January, 1928, a New South Wales team consisting of Dr. Lee Brown, Dr. Nigel Smith, W. R. Smith and W. R. Dobson won it

at Miramar by a margin of holes, the matches being equal. Our team was S. Morpeth, T. H. Horton, Dr. Ross and D. Grant. The match whose result we have just received was played at the Metropolitan Golf Club’s very beautiful course at Oakleigh, Melbourne. Though not so long and exacting as Commonwealth, Metropolitan is much more attractive. The fairways are divided by belts of low trees, so that a very pleasant privacy is obtained. The fairways and greens are beautiful, and, given accuracy, good scores should be obtained. The course has been lengthened since I played on it, about four years ago, but then players of the first class should have been doing 75 or even better. A match between Victoria and New South Wales last Saturday decided by a very narrow margin that New South Wales should carry the burden for Australia. At this distance we rather thought Victoria would be our opponents, but the absence of Ivo Whitton, through illness, may easily have made the difference. The matches were of 36 holes, both foursomes and singles, a new departure. When we lost both the foursomes on Monday, it did not look promising. Morpeth and Black were 3 up with 9 to play, but Morrison and Harrison put in a great burst to win by 1 up. The other foursome was all square at the end of the morning round, but after lunch Apperley and Fawcett played very well and won comfortably. On the whole the figures were not inspiring, but wet greens seem to have affected the New Zealand men’s putting. The loss of both foursomes was very serious, leaving hardly any margin in the singles, and it was this fact that lost us the Cup. Morpeth has no luck in these matches. At Miramar Dr. Lee Brown went mad and produced unbeatable figures, and now E. L. Apperly plays wonderful golf against him. Apperly has been in the champion class for over 20 years. He used to specialise in pulls and slices, but of late years has contented himself with less spectacular methods. His first round was 72, and, though Morpeth made a great attempt he could not get within reach, and was finally well beaten. In beating C. H. Fawcett by a comfortable margin, Horton excelled himself, as Fawcett is one of the soundest players in Australia. Black had a good win over S. A. Keane, perhaps the most promising of the New South Wales colts, and Dr. Ross squared with Morrison. At the last hole Ross laid what looked like a stymie, but on a measure he was found to be inside six inches, so that Morrison got his half and saved the game. The form of our men seemed better in the singles than in the foursomes. At least they made a good fight and the margin was very small. PAPAKURA LADIES Following is the draw for the first round for the Parker trophy to be played by members of the Papakura Golf Club on Saturday: Langford v. Gilmore, A. Henderson v. Gray, V. Elliott v. Pavitt, J. Elliott v. Matheson, Hutchinson v. T. McLennan, Smith v. H. Spencer, R. Spencer v. Beams, Tilston v. Biair, Brooks v. Pegler, L. Spencer v. Bridgman, Olsen v. D. McLennan, S. Wilson v. G. Henderson, Watts, a bye. EVERSLIE LADIES Following is the draw for the first round of the club championship to be played by members of the Everslie Ladies’ Golf Club In conjunction with a bogey match for Mrs. Lever’s trophy: Miss J. Little v. Mrs. Goddard, Mrs. Busing v. Mrs. Bilkey, Miss M. Smith v. Miss R. Arbuckle, Miss O. Wright V. Mrs. Lever. Following is the draw; for the first round for the junior trophy, players in this section also competing for Mrs. Lever's trophy: Mrs. Boles v. Miss A. Derbyshire, Miss F. Callis v. Miss G. Rushworth, Miss I. Turner v. Miss J. Wilson, Mrs. Richardson v. Miss B. Cosgrave, Mrs. Wardell v. Miss A. Cole, Miss B. Agmen Smith v. Mrs. Lacassie, Miss G. Derbyshire v. Mrs. Bethune, Miss M. Francis v. Miss O. Slack, Miss M. O’Neill v. Mrs. S. D. Rice. Mrs. Mcßae v. Miss E. Clearv. ' GLENDOWIE The following is the draw for the Canadian foursomes match to be played by members of the Glendowie Golf Club on Saturday next: H. O. Thomson and A. Churchhouse v. Q. Radley and F. Restall: A. Stedman and K. Barstow v. H. G. Thomson and G. Warren; K. Brookfield and E. Colebrook v. 11. Jefferson and J. Stedman; N. Harrison and M. Miller v. N. C. Snedden and A. C. Johns; S. C. Woods and A. Wilson v. C. J. Lovegrove and C. Hewson; A. Sutherland and J. R. Rendall v. N. Ching and J. Hall; E. Whitley and V. Johns v. Wolfgramm and T. Upton; H. Goodwin and A. Sloman v. A. O. Horspool and R. Edmonds; L. Harrison and P. White v. U. A. Forgie and F. Faram; F. Hintz and T. Russell v. two others The second round of the championships will be played, the draw' being: C. Biernacki v. Dr. Horton. E. Hutchison v. P. Niccolls, F. Trice v. G. Kissling, A. Duthie V. C. Allcott, H. Wright v. D. Morrison, W. Laxon v. E. J. Richardson, L. Keys v. W. Mathiesoh, C. W. Garrand V. D. Tunks. The third round of the putting competition will also be played. PUKEKOHE The following is the draw for the qualifying round for the Kohn Cup, to be played at Pukekohe on Saturday in conjunction with the second round for the Livingstone Cup: McWhirter v. Schlaepfer, Roulston, senr., v. Drake, Sellar v. J. Roulston, junr.. Coyle v. Maddison, Payne v. Short, Hoskings v. Charlesworth, Anderson v. Kissling. Findlay v. Pike, Foster v. Ferris, Spooner v. Duncan, Wells V. O’Loughlen. N. Stuart v Roose, Townsend v. Campbell. Crosbie v. Bailey, Munro v. Snell. Field Porter v. another. The draw for the ladies’ matches for the Livingstone Cup on Saturday is as follows: Mrs. McGeehan v. Miss Jefferis, Miss Kensington v. Miss Dick. Miss Backhurst v. Miss Duncan. Miss Jamieson v. Mrs. L. J. Bayly. Miss Montefiore v.. Miss J. L. Bayly, Miss Scott v. Miss Allan. Miss Fulton v. Miss Lyne, Miss I. Stuart v. Miss Cleary, Miss Armstrong v. Miss Sellar, Miss A. Johns v. another. OTOROHANGA The draw for the bogey match on Saturday is as follows: Gilberd v. Morley, Simms v. Alexander. Howarth v. Parr. Hudson v. K. Liddy, Selbie v. B. Symes, Johnston v. Falconer. Prescott v. Irvine. Leigh v. R. A. Symes, Kerr v. Merrin. Love v. another. Ladies.—Miss Tierney v. Miss McCreadv, Miss Briggs v. Miss Kerr, Miss Hobson v. Mrs. B. Symes, Mrs. Lawson v. Mrs. Farmer. Mrs. Craig v. Miss Mossman, Mrs. Skinner v. Miss Hoyle, Miss Reehall v. Mrs. Morley, Miss M. Hitch - ings v. Miss Glover, Mrs. Patterson v. Mrs. Hitchings, Mrs. Cook v. Mrs. Corbett, Mrs. Eveleigh v. Mrs. Parr, Mrs. Alexander v. Mrs. Irvine, Airs. Ellis v. Aliss V. Langkilde, Aliss Quin v. Aliss Ware, Miss Laws v. another. The draw for the Ladies’ Golf Union medal round is as follows: Mrs. Smith v. Aliss Hitchings, Airs. Austin v. Airs. Sims, Airs. Cowern v. Miss Barker, Mrs. Franks v. Aliss Wills, Aliss Symes v. Aliss Hopkirk. TE AROHA The following team will represent the Te Aroha Golf Club against Waihi next Saturday: Alen: J. Somers. J. Kenny, W. Cullen, W. Wyllie, A. Currie, AI. Mahon, A. Kenrick, F. W. Bliss, F. Wild, R. L. Connolly, J. Johnson. R. D. Johnston. Ladies: Mesdames AlcGlashan, Hunger. Kenny, Bliss, Meikle, Willis, Dempster, Frear and Misses Frear and Hedge.

ROXY

“THE DONOVAN AFFAIR’’ The whole world loves a mystery, as ! is evidenced by the many newspaper accounts •of reallife mysteries, the magazines with fictional accounts of crime and its detection, and the bookstore counters piled high with thrillers. There is no form of literature more entertaining, more stimulating or more effective as a means of relaxation. The vogue .has always been pronounced, but this year the popularity of the thriller in every form of expression has reached new heights. The magazines are filled with serial and short stories of this description and prizes are being awarded for solutions to mystery puzzles. The stage has been the medium for innumerable plays and the films have had their innings for seevral months past. No stage drama of the detective or mystery order has been more consistently successful than “The Donovan Affair.” Owen Davis' sensational play. An adaptation of this famous success has reached the screen, via Columbia Pictures, as an all-talking vehicle, and is now at the Roxy Theatre. The Roxy programme includes a number of other all-talking features, including a record of the running of the English Derby, a novelty entitled “Screen Snapshots” and a sound gazette.

RIALTO AND REGENT, EPSOM

“LONESOME” A complete tour of Venice, the Coney Island of the Pacific, will be enjoyed by audiences viewing- “Lonesome,” the new picture at the Rialto and Regent, Epsom, Theatres. “Lonesome” is a sweet, wholesome love story of a clean American working youth, an d asimple, unsophisticated working girl The scene of their holiday pleasures was fixed at a summer resort. The fun house, the witching waves, the rolling barrel, the slide for life—all are visited by the pair-in-love. and with them travels the übiquitous cameraman, recording faithfully every step in the quest for amusement. The second big attraction on this evening's programmes will be the silent version of the film “Interference,” which created such a sensation when presented as a talkie recently. “Interference” is a dramatic story of London society life, starring Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook, and William Powell.

GRAND AND LYRIC

NEW PICTURES TOMORROW Tlio programme which has been shown at both the Lyric and Grand Theatres during the past week will be screened for the last time this evening. This includes the film “The Far Call,” an exciting sea story of the Pacific, starring Leila Hyams and Charles IVforton, also excellent supporting pictures. An entirely new programme will be screened at both theatres from tomorrow. The chief feature will be “Beggars of Life,” an unusually interesting story of the tramps on the roads of America, filled with dramatic incidents concerning a girl murderer, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen. and Wallace Beery have important roles.

APPLAUDING THE TALKIES

. The habit of applauding silent pictures died many years ago. Rver sine the last of those blood -and-thunder serials, which were so popular year? ago, hand-clapping has been conspicuously absent in the picture theatres o: New Zealand. To some extent the habit is returr. ing with the talkies, and it is no uncommon event to hear applause in tr. movie theatres of Auckland and otbeNew Zealand cities. There is no doubt that the increase realism of the talking film is responsible for the return of audience applause. The audience seems to that the players are actually with then that the actors are live things and n>merely shadows. Applause has nete died out on the stage because t~' actors are always there to hear it.