GOLF.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1922, Page 3

GOLF.

WEW PLYMOUTH CLUB. Before leaving New Plymouth for Dunedin, the members of the New Plymouth Golf Club presented Mrs. Currie with a morocco traveli ling bag and Miss Currie with a solid silver manicure set. In making the presentation members referred to the good work done by the recipients during the time that they had been in charge of the club’s catering at Waiwakaiho, and regret was expressed at their departure. GREAT GOLFING FEAT NEW ST. ANDREWS RECORD. DUNCAN’S REMARKABLE ROUND. In the calm of the evening George Duncan accomplished the most'wonderful feat that has been perfonmed in all the history of golf, wrote the special correspondent of a London paper from the famous St. Andrews links recently. He went out to play his last round in the £lOOO tournament with the poorest prospects, being as many as seven strokes behind the leader, but, striking his brilliant streak, he played superbly, and, finishing in 68, broke Jock Hutchinson’s record for the course by as many as two strokes. He came to the last green followed bj, 2000 people, and, as his ball lay four yards from the pin off the approach, they raced into position around the four sides. Then there was a moment of silence as Duncan knelt behind his ball to study the line. He was as cool and collected as he was on the first green. With his incisive style he struck the ball. On it crept on the fast-running turf, and suddenly it disappeared. Caps were thrown in the air, and the cheers must have startled the sober folk of the grey old city. Before Duncan had time to lift his ball out of the hole he was hoisted shoulder-high and chaired off the green to his hotel, 50 yards away. And now, at 8 o’clock in the evening, there is a ring of men, .old and young, standing at the street corners, discussing what they rightly declare to be a feat that unay never be equalled again. At his best as he was this afternoon, even Harry Vartlon was not Duncan’s superior. But no one was more conscious than he that he had been lucky. It was at the 17th hole where- he was in dire peril. He got so far with his drive that he felt he could put the ball nt the foot of the green with a spared spoon shot. Intending to cut the ball slightly, the slice was not pronounced enough, and, when almost up to the green, the ball was in dead line for the pin, but there was the dreaded hunker, and, even if he were not trapped, there was the more dreaded road further on.

One calamity or the other seemed certain to befall him. At the last moment, however, the ball swung away a little, and. striking the shoulder of the bunker, its flight was not only checked, but it actually bounded the other way, and ran along the green to within four yards of the flag. Then Duncan holed the putt. His wonderful record score was: Out: 3. 4, 4. 4. 5,5, 4,3, 3—35. In: 3, 4. 3,4, 5, 4. 4,3, 3—33. As for the blemishes—there were really one or two—Duncan was short with his spoon shot at the fifth, he took three putts at the sixth, and was short and wide with his tee shot to the eleventh. Duncan’s prize was £3OO, and never was one won so sensationally. He seemed hopelessly out. of it; indeed everyone expected S. Wingate to finish first. He has the consolation, though perhaps a poor one, that he was tbe steadiest and most consistent golfer during the two days. He fell away during the last round to the frank disgust of his caddie, the father of Jock Hutchison—a grey-bearded man who rebuked Wingate for every trifling fault and yet was an invaluable helpmate. Ray finished second, and all day his golf was excellent. A few "Don’ts” for golfers:— 1. Don’t fail to learn, and strictly observe the rules and etiquette of golf. It pays. 2. Don’t talk too much. Golf is a game of silejce and thought. The greatest abomination is a golfer who talk's from the first, tee to the eighteenth. 3. Don’t walk across the lines of your opponent's putt. Either go behind it or on either side of the hole. 4. Don’t allow your head to rise or fall during the swing. 5. Dont take your eye off your ball—never. 6. Don’t lose your temper. If you lose your temper, you lose everything—self-control, selfrespect. judgment, decency of language—and, of course, the hole, and probably the match.