GOLF.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1920, Page 7

GOLF.

NOTES AND COMMENTS- "

The season will be officially opened by the New Plymouth Club this iitternoon, when mixed foursomes will be played. Players will choose their partners and opponents, and post entries will be received.

This year's Dominion championship meeting lor ladies will be held at Shirley

(Christehurch), commencing on Septern ber 20.

The Coronation Medal competition will take place in New Zealand this year during the third week of June. The clearing of the "whiskers" around the twelfth green at Waiwakaiho is to be put in hand at once. It will be a distinct improvement to this interesting hole.

A suggestion has been made to hold a Taranaki championship meeting for ladies. t The matter is now before the ladies' committee of the New Plymouth Club, and proposals will be drawn up shortlv.

The first ladies match of the season at Waiwakaiho will be played on Tuesday—a bogey handicap, for which, players will choose their opponents. Miss Brewster (the ladies' captain of the New Plymouth Club) has donated a cup to be known as the Brewster Challenge Cup. It will be played for by an event which will be open to all lady members of the club.

Watts, who has been professional to the Wellington Club for a number of years, is going to tour provincial clubs this year. An effort should be made by the Taranafci clubs to secure one or mora visits from Watts, as he is recognised ;as one of the best professionals New ; Zealand has had, and there are many beginners (and others!) Who would benefit by'his tuition. The subject of professionals reminds one of the prospect of a visit from ; Kirkwood, the brilliant and young Aus- ; tralian professional. He is willing to tour New Zealand if sufficient support is promised, and the New Plymouth club would be well advised to get in touch with Wanganui and Wellington with the object of arranging for Kirkwood to visit Wanganui and New Plymouth while travelling from Wellington "to Auckland. The prospect of the Dominion ladies' championship meeting being held h»re next year is full of interest to all members of the New Plymouth Club, and the hearty support of the men will no doubt be accorded the proposal. The matter is not altogether in the New Plymouth Club's hands, because the venue is decided by a vote .if all the Clubs, which will be taken at this year's meeting at Chnstchurch, but it i s known that many of the leading lady golfers wish to come to New Plymouth next year. Such a gathering will be good for golf in this province, and it will be good for the town.

But what is of really more moment to New Plymouth golfers is the fact that the. meeting will serve as an incentive to the club to put in hand bunkering and other improvements without delay. :*ha>t this work is necessary has Ion" been recognised by the club, but, as with all athletic organisations, the war has added to the club's burdens, and its purse Is not -io robust and healthv as one might wish. The Auckland"Club has also found that the very desirable combination of an up-to-date course and a plentiful exchequer is not easy to attain, but they hav e decided to carry out improvements at the cost of further weakening their finances, rather than bo content with the links in their present condition. ~

Many interesting suggestions for improving the Waiwakaiho links were made by visitors to the Easter tournament.but most of thom-notably the bunkering and the extension of the course along the foreshore-simply confirmed the ideas already held by the club. One visitor asked how many men under thirty were members of the club and be was told there were not many! At first one might have wondered what this had to do with improvements to the course. Wei), the point is that golf is becqming a very expensive game, and the visitor contended that the ideal course is one where the possibility of a player losing a ball , s reduced to a minimum. He used the fifth hole as an illustration, pointing out that the swamp should be drained, leaving a difficult banker and doing away with the. vexation of many lost balls. The same principles, he thought should also be applied to he sixteenth. -Another suggestion was that he rough" behind the twelfth green sh ould be cleaned, and the green shifted further back. The reasof for this ,s that many shots now pkyed cor«ctly on to the green run through into he rough," whereas, with the suggested h a 10 \V h0t plfl - ved accnratfly on ~»+« X ? prßSent *"«* WOU W run up to the spot where the new hole would «*• As Mr. Gillies (of Hamilton) re end of the tournament the club can emin7o,? enmflVetotpn^w in^. ■ "t the foreshore is full of splendid possibilities. n»enaia