SCOTT AND GALLACHER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9534, 5 July 1909, Page 6

SCOTT AND GALLACHER.

The advent of a player such as Gallacher, of the Governor-General's household, into the ranks of Australian amateur golf must be as welcome as it is noticeable, and coming, a» Gallacher does, from the neighbourhood of the very Mecca of the game—St. Andrew's renders his credentials all the more valuable as affording some sort of rsliable line whereby to judge the respective standards of Australian and Home golf, remarks "Mid--Iton" in the Melbourne "Argus." It was fortunate, therefore,'that in the New South Wales amateur chamapionship,GaHacher should have b.een drawn to meet M. Scott, perhaps today the best exponent of the game in, Australasia." That everyone in and Sydney appreciated this , meeting was made certain by the crowd of ladies and men who went out to Kose Bay, and, in the teeth of a south-easterley eale, and driving rain, followed every stroke of that great match. Rain-sodden before they had gone four holes in the morning, they went through it all, and were glad of the chance to get soaked, again in the atfernoon. At the start of the game both men seemed to feel the importance of. the occasion—it was the first time Greek was to meet Greek, and they knew it—consequently for the first few holes the play suffered accordingly. It was mostly apparent in the short game, but Gallacher was the first.to.find his feet, and at the end of fourteen holes it looked very black indeed for Scott. He was consistently outdriven from the tee; indeed, his opponent's driving was miraculous. We have been accustomed? to think Scott at l.east twenty or thirty yards better from the tee than anyone yet seen, and his king, low shot has been the envy of every player of all the States, and naturally it created something in the nature of a panic to see Gallacher, with a high, towering ball,, getting twenty or thirty yards beyond Scott into the teeth of the gale. The St. Andrew's man must have wonderful strength of hand and wrist. For instance, he finds no difficulty with a quarter iron shot, in getting 110 or 120 yards. But after the tee shot Scot always had a little the best of it in the approaching, but more especially on the green. True, for fourteen holes Gallacher ran down his putts from all distances with equal confidence, but he could not keep it up, while Scott Varied little, and improved as hole ny hole went by.'Besides, he watched the strength of his greens far more closely than his opponent, who, during the afternoon game especially,

was nearly always a long way short with his approach putts, .while Scott was nearly always lying dead. It may interest* golfers here who have not yet had the opportunity to see Gallacher play that his style, with its wide distance and fine forceful method, is strongly reminiscent of Leslie Hyland, but there is no suspicion of looking up from the ball or even so much as a move ot the head until the ball is wll on its way. His swing, too, going back is quite even and almost slow. As a mat?h player, too, ha is generous almost to a fault, and frequently knocked Scott's ball away from the hole without masking him to put it out where the shot was quite missable. But, taken all in all, the onlooker was driven to the conclusion that unier severe weather conditions Scott's command of low flight and consummate generalship still leave him unchallenged amongst ,the amateurs at any rate. It was a memorable match, and if anything better is likely to be found at the Australian amateur and open championship meetings at Sandringham in September, it .will be worth going a long way indeed to see.