On the Links

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1020, 10 July 1930, Page 6

On the Links

Auckland Golf Saturday \yas about the worst day for our golf matches we have had this winter. Conditions varied at the different courses, but they were unpleasant at all. Steady rain all the morning began to lighten a little by lunch time, and the more venturesome put on their waterproof jackets and sallied forth. At Middlemore the afternoon, though moist, was not bad for golf. It was possible with the judicious use of an umbrella to get round fairly dry. The rain was more persistent at Titirangi, where most of the players got thoroughly wet. Some of the clubs postponed their matches, but a few were played. The two big football days make it a little difficult to find times for postponed events, as no doubt we will all be at Eden Park on those days. At Middlemore the bogey match was postponed as was the inter-club game with Glendowie. The Glendowie team turned up all right, hut only informal games—mostly four-balls—were in dulged in. Dr. Abbott and H. Plumley decided to play off the final of the Captain’s Prize match, and a very interesting game was followed by a dozen or more spectators. Considering the conditions the golf was quite good. Some of the greens had water lying on the surface, and this made putting rather a lottery, it being sometimes impossible to get a dry line to the hole. Plumley’s win by 2 and 1 is his second success in this event, and was well deserved. Off the tee there was little to choose between them, but Abbott’s approaches found the bunkers too often, and Plumley had a slight advantage on the greens. R. O. Gardner has been showing excellent form lately. One day recently, when the conditions were slow and heavy, he went round in 73 and 76. Moss is playing consistently just about 70. The qualifying round for the Ballin Cup was played at Titiratigi, and in spite of the rain 8S competitors took part. The best net score was 75, by W. P. Baker off 14, and the best gross score was 84, by C. N. Jacobsen and H. D. Brinsden. The 32 best net scorers play off by match play. Glendowie, with their best team away at Middlemore, played a medal handicap, and F. Kronfeld had an easy victory with a card of 94, 25—69. At Pupuke L.

J. Minogue won the monthly medal with SO, 9 —71. R. H. Greville and L. G. Ansell being one stroke worse. To prove that the women are no more afraid of the rain than the men, both "VVaitemata and Akarana held mixed foursome medal matches and quite good fields turned out. Newcomers in Big Golf Why should Britain and the United States have a monopoly of the big international golf events? The answer is too easy. No other country could hope to compete. • In the British Open and Amateur, certainly the most international of all golf events, there have been a few Frenchmen and one or two other Europeans, one or two from the Argentine, and an occasional representative from South Africa and Australia. With the possible exception of Jose Jurado, of the Argentine, no dangerous competitor from outside these two countries has yet appeared. S. Brews, of South Africa, and R. Stewart, of Australia, have both competed in the Open, Brews, who was originally from England, having some success. The result of Stewart’s visit was the strengthening of the conviction that even our best antipodean golfers were below international form. Hagen's visit rubbed this lesson well in. Perhaps in days to come Australia and New Zealand will be strong enough to send teams to compete for the Walker Cup, but the time is not yet. It is quite useless to hope for any great advance until we ‘get the models and the experience. The more great players who come our way the bettor, for we can learn from them much that we cannot learn from each other. An invitation to a team of British amateurs to tour New Zealand and Australia would be a very good piece of work.

Sticky Greens Once again I realised the other day that golf must be played with the head as well as with the clubs. The greens with the recent rain have becenie holding and sticky, with some parts softer than others. Having played chips with the mashie for some months, I couldn’t realise that the time had come for a change. After missing quite a number and having blamed the state of the ground vigorously, I remade the discovery that I was playing the wrong shot. “Bobby” Jones put the thing very neatly when he said that the way to play a chip was to aim for the edge of the green, and use the club which would just run the ball to the hole. The preference ought to be given to a straight-faced club than the mashie, if there is room to pitch in and pull up. “Bobby” prefers the mashie iron, but many players like to use the No. 2. The ball must as a rule be pitched into the green if possible, the choice of club being dependent on the distance from the edge of the hole. But that being done, it is safer to run the ball off a low shot than to pitch it. There is a shot with the mashie or even the mashie-niblick which will keep the ball low and make it run, but it is not easy. The Australian players in Christchurch at Easter nearly all made what local players called the error of chipping with mashie-niblicks. A Man’s Shot E. M. Cockell, writing about the Walker Cup in “British Golf Illustrated,” describes one shot played by “Bobby” Jones. He did not follow Jones round, because the crowd made it almost impossible to see anything of the play, but he planted himself at the 10th hole to see this one particular shot. It was the second shot Tor the hole, and had to, be played from a dip in the fairway to a well-' guarded green, about an iron shot away. * The wind was strong from the right, and player after player found trouble usually on the left of the green. Then came Jones. Ho hit a firm iron shot with a little fade from left to right, just enough to hold it up against the wind, and it finished near enough to give him a putt for a three. Cockell says that when lie, saw that shot he knew that at least two matches would be lost by Britain —the single and foursome in which Jones was engaged. Most of the players seemed to play out to the right for a slight draw with the wind, but the wind usually took charge, and the ball ran across the green into trouble. This shot with just enough cut to hold it into the wind is a master shot. The ball will drop like a stone, and hardly move however fast the green. I once had the good luck to follow IL. H. Hilton round Sunning-

Notes for Golfers

By SLOW-BACK

dale during the 1913 match for the “Golf Illustrated” Gold Cup. Norman Brookes was standing by me when Hilton played a very perfect example of this shot. He had had a hard passage in the second round, but good recoveries had saved him several times, and he was still in the picture. At the strongly dog-legged 17th he hit a fine drive to the foot of the slope, and then had an awkward shot of about 180 yards to play with a strong wind slightly against him from his right front. He cut the ball up with a spoon, and laid it stone dead for a three. Only the few great ones can bring that shot off regularly, though many get it occasionally. It is a case of just cutting the ball enough to let the wind hold it straight. The divot will point slightly left, and had there been no wind the ball would have sliced perhaps 20 yards. It would be the ideal shot at the third hole at Rotorua, with the wind from the right. Many of the great professionals can play the shot, and of the amateurs C. J. H. Tolley uses it habitually when conditions are right.

The Walker Cup “British Golf Illustrated” has of late become the real outspoken critic, and has developed a ferocity foreign to its earlier policy. A very striking leader gives a few reasons why we again lost the Walker Cup. The writer considers that all the talk febout “will to win” and “ability to play superlative shots” is sheer bunkum. These are his four main reasons:—(l) “The American golfer’s game is built on such lines that he does not leave himself the necessity for playing superlative shots.” It is the British golfer who plays the superlative shots, but in the nature of things they cannot come often enough. (2) “The next reason is found in the American’s consistency in the swinging of his clubs.” He has a real style and does not depart from it. "The British amateur is about six strokes worse than the leading professionals, and he should find out why.” (3) “Our courses want tightening up." Sandwich was child’s play to our visitors. (4) “The appointment of our Selection Committee and the method of selection must be carefully scrutinised.” Social qualifications and past reputations must be scrapped. “If the disgraceful showing of our team at Sandwich brings about a reformation in our methods of play, our methods of selection and our golf architecture, we shall be more than pleased.