MISS COLLINS WINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 October 1938, Page 6

MISS COLLINS WINS

N.Z. GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP. SOME BRILLIANT PLAY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH. October 20. Competing for the first time in a national tournament, Miss S. Collins, of Featherston, won the New Zealand women’s golf championship today when she beat the Tasman Cup representative, Miss Jean Horwell, Timaru, 2 up despite a determined and gallant fight by the southern player, who at one stage was five down with eight holes to pffiy. Better golf by women players has never been seen 1 on the New Plymouth course and possibly not before in a national title final. Both players carded 76 in the afternoon round, one stroke over bogey and three better than the 79 recorded by Miss Collins in the morning, at that stage the best score ever made by a woman on the course. In the afternoon she completed the first nine in 37, one under bogey, carding bogey figures at each hole save the second, where a birdie four went down. Coming home she had one or two lapses and took 39, two over bogey. Miss Collins’s card read:— Out: 444543553—37. In: 554444454—39, 76 Miss Collins was hitting with remarkable power throughout and usually held a slight advantage. She hit one or two loose shots, but she invariably recovered wonderfully, and Miss Horwell was never ahead. Miss Horwell was not quite so sound going out in the afternoon, but on the inward nine holes she struck a patch where par figures or better went down on her card for seven successive holes. She was generally too strong with her short work around the greens, and at times nearly went through with mashie shots, but the opposite was the case occasionally with her putting.

The new champion is a daughter of Mr and Mrs D. .C. Collins, of Featherston, both of whom have reached the quarter-finals of national tournaments. Her father is equally well known as a New Zealand representative cricketer. Her grandmother, Mrs W. E. Collins, was a finalist in the women’s national championship, and her aunt, then Miss Vida .Collins, won the New Zealand championship in 1910 and 1912. The winner of the 1938 championship has won the Wellington club title and the Wairarapa championship, but had not before entered for a New Zealand championship tournament. To do so,' she and two other competitors drove to New Plymouth in a motor truck that is used on her father’s farm because her car was not large enough to ■hold all the gear they wanted for a cottage they occupied at the beach during the tournament.