LOCAL BOY WINS BAY OPEN GOLF TOURNAMENT

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 67, 26 August 1965, Page 1

LOCAL BOY WINS BAY OPEN GOLF TOURNAMENT

Pat Watson, of Taupo, won the Bay of Plenty boys' open golf championship at Springfield yesterday afternoon.

In the final, he had a comfortable 5 and 4 win over K. Somerville (Rotorua). In the semi-final, Watson beat the Auckland Freyberg Rose Bowl player, B. Rafferty, who is handicapped on plus one, 2 and 1. The match was a tremendous contrast in styles. Watson, a magnificent hitter of the ball, was as much as 50 yards in front of Rafferty with the wooden clubs, but Rafferty's accuracy with his, short irons kept him in the game for the greater part of the round. Watson played some of his finest golf throughout the tournament. He led the qualifiers with a round of 73, had comfortable wins in the first two rounds of matchplay, was round in 72 to beat Rafferty, and covered the course in 70 — including a two-stroke penalty — to win the final. It was almost an allTaupo final. G. F. Fearn, after being second qualifier with 74, won his first two matches comfortably. He lost his semi-final against Somerville yesterday morning at the 20th. A third Taupo player in the tournament was B. Halverson, who qualified in the second 16 with 86, but was

beaten in the first round of match-play at the 19th. Fearn and Watson will play in the South Auckland open championship which starts at Hamilton tomorrow.