On the Links

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 990, 5 June 1930, Page 6

On the Links

Notes For Golfers

By

SLOW-BACK

Auckland Golf i The ladies have been playing their | Coronation Medal matches, which, bej sides their local application, are also New Zealand L.G.U. affairs. I noticed that at Shirley last week Miss Maberly Beadel did 79, 7 —72, which should be hard to beat. At least none of our Auckland ladies so far seems to threaten it. At Middlemore, Mrs. Robertson, 88, 14—74, easily led the field by six strokes, and the best net score at Glendowie was 82. The Captain’s Prize match at Middlemore has now reached a very interesting stage. In the semi-finals H. Plumlev meets R. G. Rainger, and E. L. Bartleet meets Dr. Abbott. The success of the low-handicap men is very noticeable, and these four in particular are all hard-bitten match players. Rainger had a severe struggle with H. Tidmarsh, and won only by a putt on the 19th green. The George Cup, which has been played for nearly 30 years and which was presented by the late Seymour Thorne George, was very fittingly won by W. B. Colbeck, the donor’s son-in-law, with a card of 1 up. At Titirangi the Taylor Bowl competition, handicap match play, is getting well forward, being now reduced to the last eight. A notable disappearance in Saturday’s round was H. D. Brinsden. who was defeated by H. A. Broadbent by 2 and 1. The accompanying medal match went to H. M Rogerson, whose card read 85, 13—72. Pupuke has made a start with their Captain’s Prize mat£h, but the field is still too large for any prophesying. Glendowie put on a ladies-and-men match on Saturday, and a very even contest was the result. Several matches were square, and the margin in most cases was very small. Altogether 15 matches went to the last green out of a total of 28, but on the final total the men had the advantage by six games. * * * As Others See Us A. A. Hancock, of the Victorian KirkWin deyer team has been contributing some articles to a Melbourne weekly, giving his views on New Zealand players and courses. He was not severe on T. H. Horton, and he also let down Dr. K. Ross pretty lightly, but he dismissed J. L. Black rather shortly and gave E. M. Macfarlane a bad time. Hancock is a good golfer and was considered fourth man in a strong Victorian team, and this to some extent gives him a right to speak; but a critic should have powers of observation and deduction, which Mr. Hancock does not appear to possess. Black, though he did not produce his best in Christchurch excepting on the greens, is a sound and correct golfer, and why his style should be spoken of as nonexistent is a mystery. We in Auckland saw his fight against Sloan Morpeth in the final of the 1929 Provincial Championship, and I for one could find little fault with either his style or his performance. Poor old Ewan Macfarlane would be put down by anyone seeing him as a 10-handicap man; he slices his approaches and hopes for kicks off mounds and things to get near the hole; he hoods his club-face and depends on a cut across the ball to straighten out the shot. If anyone is looking for some amusement —at a price—let him go to Shirley and tackle this 10-handicap man. He will find that despite his pecularities, E. Mac. will go round Shirley in 70 to 73 with painful regularity; he will find him putting for two at all the short holes: and if he looks closely he will find that the “hooding” or turning in of the club-face is a mannerism that is corrected before the back-swing starts. The sliced approach will be found to be the common slightly cut shot that J. H. Taylor and others played—that shot that is played to the left of the pin and pulls up sharply on pitching. And last, if anyone can believe that such a rough golfer could win both his singles and both his foursomes in the recent series, he is more credulous than most of us.

A Courageous Undertaking More than one attempt has been made to establish golf courses on the fine golfing country that lies behind the New Brighton Beach at Christchurch and extends in places two or three miles inland. Two factors have hitherto prevented any great success being achieved —first, want of money and, second, want of knowledge. The club with the resources is at Shirley, which is on land, from the golfing point of view, not better than second-class. The sand-hill country is comparatively cheap to buy, but it would be a fairly costly job to shape it and to get grass. The Avondale Club deserves the greatest credit for going about the work in the right way. Their old course was quite undistinguished, being blind and generally weak, but the members first of ail agreed to find something like £3,000, and then decided to call in a golf architect to do the job. C. H. Redhead gave them a plan of reconstruction and the main part of the work is now finished. It was necessary to tear down sand-hills and ridges and to fill gullies. The contractor used a mechanical grab which lifted about two cubic yards at a time, and many thou-

sands of tons of sand w ere moved, i'he result is that the country now has much the appearance of an English seaside course, and blindness has been totally eliminated. Good soil had to be spread to take the seed, and this was obtained near-by. The grass is now sown, but the dry autumn made things so late that not much result can be expected before the spring. In a year's time there should be a very charming course at Avondale. The length is not great, about 5.900 yards, but the golf will be of excellent quality. The bunkering is excellent —certainly the best in the South Island—and, if the grass takes as well as is hoped, there will be no more pleasant course in Xew Zealand except Rotorua. There is little chance of failure as they have a copious water supply for both greens and fairways. Loose Impediments There is probably no rule of golf so frequently broken as that dealing with loose impediments—one should rather say “rules,” as there are two dealing with the matter. The first, Xo. 12, . gives the procedure to be followed through the green—that is, not on the green—and Xo. 28 refers to cases on the green. The cases may well be | considered together. First, we must understand exactly what a loose impediment is. The definition says that the term denotes any obstructions not fixed or growing, and includes dung, worm-casts, snow and ice. Such things as guide posts, implements, teeboxes. etc., can be moved under Rule 11 and do not come under this head. The crux of the thing is the description “fixed” or “growing.” Stones embedded in the ground must be considered “fixed,” and a dead grass-stalk, unless loose from the plant, must be considered as “fixed” or “growing.” Loose impediments are removable under two conditions, and only two. First, any loose impediments (not being in or touching a hazard) may be removed, if it is within one club’s length of the ball. Second, any loose impediment on the putting-green (i.e., within 20 yards of the hole and not in a hazard), may be removed irrespective of the position of the ball. As to the method of removing the impediment. Through the green “removed” is the word used, so that it may be lifted or scraped aside with a club provided no change is made to the lie. On the green, however, more care is needed. “Dung, worm-casts, snow and ice may be scraped aside with a club,” but in the case of anything else, such as leaves or twigs, the impediment must be lifted —not flicked aside and certainly not touched with the club. The old method of brushing the line of the putt with the back of the hand is strictly illegal—yet I have seen it done in an amateur championship final. At Last! Few even of the most patriotic will grudge “Bobby” Jones the British Amateur. His marvellous career has included so many great successes that it would seem a pity if this last star in his crown were denied him. By common consent the four greatest events in the golfing world —excluding international team matches —are the British Open and Amateur, and the American Open and Amateur. The British Open “Bobby” has won twice, and the American Open three times. He has held the Amateur Championship of America four times, and now he completes the list by annexing the British Amateur. Jones is undoubtedly superior to any other amateur in the world, but he never did approach the 18-liole test with confidence. To win this year he had to win seven 18-hole matches to reach the final. He had one or two narrow escapes. His countrymen, G. Voigt and H. R. Johnstone, took him to the last green, and C. J. H. Tolley was beaten only by one putt on the 20th after being stymied. The Jones-Tolley match appears to have developed into something of a farce owing to about 15,000 spectators making normal golf impossible. Toward the end, at least one spectator was hit by one or other of the competitors’ balls at every hole. R. JEJ. Wethered fought well in the early stages of the final, but apparently, couldn’t hold the mechanical certainty of the American. OTAHUHU LADIES’ CLUB Following is the draw for the L.G.U. and C grade match to be played by members of the Otahuhu Ladies’ Golf Club in conjunction with the first round of the eclectic on Saturday: Miss A. Whyte v. Mrs. Moflitt, Miss Percy v. Mrs. Chapman. Miss Sutherland v. Miss E. Hill, Mrs. Boyce v. Miss Carnachan, Miss Mellsop v. Mrs. Shaw. Miss Dreadon v. Mrs. Currie, Miss E. Whiteley v. Miss B. Wyllie, Miss C. Wallace v. Miss Richards. Miss Cutforth v. Miss Parton, Miss X. Katz v. Miss M. Hill, Mrs. Heather v. Miss Lloyd-White, Mrs. Valentine v. Miss Denize. Miss E. Katz v. Miss O. Whiteley, Mrs. Cox v. Dr. Rowley, Miss Leonard v. Miss Tims, Miss Blakey v. Miss Carnachan, Miss Wills v. Miss Reynolds, Mrs. Richards v. Miss Simminds, Mrs. Massey v. Miss Buchanan,

Miss Whyte v Miss Muir. Miss Ellett ! Hynes, Miss Wyllie v. Miss Clark. Mrs. Connell v. Mrs. Wallace. OTAHUHU CLUB The following players will represent the Otahuhu Golf Club in a teams match against the Glendowie Club, to be played on the Glendowie links during the week-end:—L. J Croxton. B. H Menzies W. B. Eustace. H. J. Levy. J. B. Simpson, R. G. Moflitt (captain) A. P. Eustace. A. F. Burnett. C. RReader. T. Easter brook, K. R- Kay. B O. Heather. Reserves: J. Logan. C. Biggs. MAUNGAKIEKIE LADIES’ CLUB Following is the draw for the third round of the C grade eclectic match, to be played by members of the Maungakiekie Ladies’ Golf Club at One Tree Hill today:—Mrs. F. Alpe v. Mrs. A. Stewart, Mrs. Abbott v Miss McCormick, Mrs. O’Xeill v. Mrs Dudley. Mrs. E. Jones v. Mrs. Rawson, Miss X. Self v. Mrs. Paterson. Miss C. Creamer v. Miss X. Bennett. Miss A. Palmer v. Mrs. Wallis. Mrs. Bright v. Mrs. Will, Mrs. Hope-Johnston v. Miss L. Paterson. Miss W. Lamb v. Mrs. Keys. Mrs. Bennett v. Mrs. McKinnon, Miss E. Thompson v. Mrs Ford. Tme bogey handicap match, postponed from yesterday, will be played in conjunction with the first round of the eclectic match, to be held on Tuesday next, for a trophy presented by Mrs. James Paterson. EVERSLIE LADIES’ CLUB Following is the draw for the L. medal handicap, to be played by members of the Everslie Ladies’ Golf Club on Saturday:—Mrs. Lever v Miss Little, Mrs. Finlay v. Miss Derbyshire, Mrs. Johnson v. Mrs. Goddard, Mrs. Wardell v. Mrs. Rice. M:ss Agrnen-Smith v. Miss O’Xeill. Miss B. Rush worth v. Miss Turner, Miss Francis v. Miss J. Derbyshire, Miss Colo v. Miss Wilson, Mrs. Busing v. Miss Callis, Miss Smith v. Miss Cosgrave, Miss Wright v. Mrs. Bilkey. Miss Thomas v. Miss Rush worth. EVERSLIE CLUB Following is the draw for a medal handicap match for the captain trophy to tie played by members of the Everslie Golf Club next Saturday:—Beechy v J. O’Xeill, Brewer v. Wardell, A. S. Smith v. Hogan. Dykes v. Rice, Hobson v. Rhind. T. G. Smith v. McDonald. Busing v. Lever, F. Parker v. L O’Xeill, F. Page v. Leitch, Goddard v. Searell, Kelleway v. Deehan, G. J. Wilson v. X. Johnson, Egan v. Foote, Anderson v. Richardson, Ferguson v. Finlay. P. J. Parker v. Brown. Widdowson v. Prince, Alford v. another. PUKEKOHE CLUB The Pukekohe Club will be represented by the following in the annual match against Maungakiekie at One Tree Hill on June B:—Coyle, Brosnahan, Lawson, McWhirter, Kissling, Schlaepfer, Maddison, Payne, Anderson, Charlesworth, Shore, Johns. Roulston junr., Sellar, Hosking and Pike. AKARANA CLUB Members of the Akarana Golf Club will play a bogey competition on Saturday, partners to be drawn at the clubhouse.