SUPERB GOLF

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 944, 10 April 1930, Page 7

SUPERB GOLF

HAGEN IMPRESSES AT MELBOURNE SHORT PUTTING ERRATIC The first match of the Hagen-Kiik- j wood season was played at Metropoli- j tan on Friday, March 13. in brilliant I sunshine, and before more than 1.000 ] enthusiasts (writes H.C. in the “Aus- ! tralasian”). The course, in apple-pie | order for play, was a delightful spectacle, and elicited from “Sir 'Walter’’ expressions of very high praise. The greens were much slower than those ; he has been used to and this no doubt accounted for the fact that on several occasions he was not •'up” with Ills j putts. For some unknown reason they j cut out stymies and thus not only de- i prived the play of i an essential part j of a match, but, from the mectn - tors’ point of robbed it of muca interest. Moreover, they might have been helped to some of the simple putts they each unace o u n t a b 1 -\\ missed had there been a stymying ball there to cate the line and induce the club head'* to travel along it. For now and then both players snapped at the short ones like novices. It can be said at once of Hagen that his golf from tee to green was simply superb, indeed, up to the best expected of him, and that in spite of an injured left thumb that was far from healed up. Had it been the other thumb no harm could have accrued. On the contrary, it might have benefited his game. As to the play, Kirkwood, after his harassing experiences in Sydney, seemed incapable, except in fits and starts, of playing his usual magnificent game and at the start, at any rate, his shots were strangely awry, chiefly on the pull side. He sliced a drive at the third hole into the scrub, but all the other shots, up to the fifth hole, including a missed short putt at the second, trended leftward to the loss of several strokes. The rounds were 73 and 76, made up as follow: Ilagen: 4, 3. 4,4, 4,2, 5,5, 4—35; 4,4, 4. 5,4, 2,4, 6,5 —3 S. Kirkwood: 4,4, 6, 4. 5,3, 4,3, 4—37; 5,5, 4,4, 4,3, 4,5, 5—39. Hagen missed four short putts that he probably would have holed had he been playing for a title. VICTORIA MATCH The second match, an all-day one. played at Victoria on March 15, found Hagen still suffering from his burned thumb. It was bandaged and stowed away in a stall, but it formed an obvious handicap. He was apt to wince and slightly to interrupt the fluency of his follow through. I noticed him do this on the 10th tee in the morning, where his drive was very short and in the i rough on. the right. Rather virulent j hooks at the eighth and at the home j hole in the first round also seemed to i have their origin in the same trouble. ■ It was therefore phenomenal that he j should have scored a 71 in the afternoon (over a 6,535 yards course) which, j had they been playing a stroke round, would almost certainly have been a 09 for stymies intervened on three occasions, twice when the putt seemed sure. In the forenoon Kirkwood, in something like his best form, went right a way from Hagen, to be three up at the sixth hole. He was playing so well, too, that even allowing for Hagen’s better staying powers his victory was quite a likely thing, especially as the sore thumb would probably become worse in the rough and tumble of a tight finish. However, Hagen wiped off his arrears before lunch, although, losing the last two, he became saddled with a twohole deficit to wipe off in the final round. STARS OFF COLOUR On Monday, March 17, the tourists played a four-baller against Arthur Lo Fevre and Reg Jupp, defeating them by 3 and 1. The displays, except that of Kirkwood, were rather poor for such artists. Le Fevre and* Jupp, clearly over-impressed by the importance of the occasion, found themselves three holes down before they got into their stride, and they were never able quite to recover that lost ground. | Hagen started out like a lion, his ! long game for three holes being a de- | lightful spectacle. The n faltering, he found the hedge on the left with his ' drive to the fourth, and a bunker on the other side with that to the fifth. But his skill in recovery kept his figures in something like shape. Tie was 39 out, but improved on that coming back, although the second is the longer half by 200 yards. His green j work was uncertain, although after ' every putt, whether successful or not, ho played two or three imaginary balls for practice, no doubt with the object of finally getting his swing into a groove.