DRAMATIC FINISH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1938, Page 7

DRAMATIC FINISH

BRILLIANT EXHIBITION GOLF YESTERDAY LOCKE BEATS HORNABROOK. NEW ZEALANDER’S GREAT RALLY. There was a dramatic finish to an exhibition golf match played at the Lansdowne links yesterday afternoon between Bobby Locke, the 20-year-old South African who defeated "Top Hat” Henry Cotton in the Irish Open Championship, and John Hornabrook, of MaSterton, New Zealand Open Championship title-holder. Coolness and confidence personified, Locke played brilliant golf with merciless regularity and he completely dominated the match in its early stages. He showed no signs of cracking up when he was three holes to the good at the fourteenth, but Hornabrook then revealed his fine fighting qualities and staged one of the most sensational recoveries ever seen on a New Zealand course. He took the next two holes with birdie three’s. The gallery of over 200 was tense when, at the seventeenth. Hornabrook shaped up for a thirty foot putt and a gasp of amazement went up when he “rang the bell” with a beautiful shot. Locke meantime was four feet away from the pin. He deliberated over the shot. He gently breathed into his right hand —his only outward sign of strain or nervousness throughout the match —putted and missed. Locke outdrove Hornabrook by .40 yards at the last hole and he was 12 feet from the pin with a grand second. Hornabrook missed a fifteen-foot putt by inches and Locke sank a beautiful twelve-footer to take the match 1 up.

SUPERLATIVE GOLF. It was superlative golf all the way. Locke, a charming personality, was magnificent. He - seldom outdrove Hornabrook, but so well were his chip shots and approaches placed that his putting was akin to shelling peas. He never bustled and he never overhesitated, but his quiet confidence and coolness —difficult to reconcile with his years —and his exquisite mastery of all shots, made the game at times look ridiculously simple. Anywhere within striking range his accuracy :was absolutely deadly. Like a true champion, he revealed his best when the odds were against him, At the thirteenth he placed a wonderful running chip shot to within two inches of the pin after being well in the rough. At the last hole, when Hornabrook was making bis remarkable last-minute run, Locke came again and he sent the ball sailing straight as a die to within 12 feet of the pin with his second and never looked like missing his winningputt. Hornabrook lost nothing by his defeat. Locke’s brilliance and command of the game had the New Zealand champion struggling over the early stages, but even so Hornabrook was always within striking distance. Time and again the luck of the game was against him with his putts, but when the pace was full on he steadied and sank several splendid shots. The course was in splendid order but the drying greens made them difficult to play and the matter-of-fact manner in which Locke handled them was sufficient to upset any opponent.

TREMENDOUS DRIVE. Locke started off with one of the longest drives seen at Lansdowne, but Hornabrook took the hole 4 to 5. The next two holes; were halved in bogey four’s and three’s, but Locke broke even at the fourth, when he played a great chip shot from wide out and then sank a flve-foot putt to win the hole with a birdie three to his opponent’s four. Hornabrook at that stage experienced the first of a series of “bad-luck” putts. Hornabrook was nicely placed at the fifth, but Locke came to light with a splendid running chip shot with a No. 4 iron and the hole was halved in 4’s. Locke was again brilliant on the green at the next hole, but Hornabrook, undismayed, sank a grand putt to square the hole in 4’s.

They were both on the green with (heir seconds at the seventh but Hornabiook was over strong and Locke took the lead with a neat putt. The next was halved in bogey three’s. Locke was short with -his second at the ninth and Hornabrook ran right through. Full of confidence, Locke holed out and went into a two up lead. Locke went out in 34, three under bogey, and Hornabrook took 36.

Both players were on their game at the tenth, which was halved in four’s, and Locke took the next 4 to 5 after- Hornabrook’s putt had lipped the cup. Hornabrook was on the edge of the green with his second at the twelfth and the South African was short, but he made amends with a clever chip shot to ten inches of the pin. Hornabrook again just missed his putt and the hole was halved in fours. At the thirteenth Locke drove clean through into the rough and Hornabrook settled in longgrass a. foot away from a tree. Locke sent in a great curling chip shot, but Hornabrook followed suit from a much more difficult location and the hole was halved in three’s. The next was halved in bogey four's. HORNABROOK’S TURN. The complexion of the game then underwent a complete change. It was now Hornabrook’s turn. He took the fifteenth hole with a birdie three and after driving 330 yards at the "Gulch." won that hole with another birdie three. Locke was now one up. Locke outdrove Hornabrook by thirty yards at the seventeenth but Hornabrook made it honours easy when he sank a glorious thirty-foot putt. Locke missing a four-footer, his first serious 'lapse of the match. Locke made no mistake at the eighteenth. He drove beautifully and was within 12 feet of the pin with his second. Hornabrook did not fare as well and he missed a fifteen-foot putt with his third. Locke rattled the cup with a dead true shot to take the match one up.

Locke went round in 68, one stroke better than Gene Sarazen’s effort on the same course last year, and Hornabrook took 70. three under par figures. The South African, who was welcomed by Mr G. W. Sellar, president of the club, later gave a most interesting demonstration and lecture. PRAISE FOR HORNABROOK. Interviewed after the match, Locke said: "Hornabrook is the most promising golfer 1 have yet seen in New Zealand. He is a veiy fine player and would do well in England. I was very impressed with his putting ability. His recovery over the final stages was wonderful and incidentally r

be is a 100 per cent chap.” Locke commented most favourably on the Lansdowne links and surroundings and was loud in his praises of New Zealand hospitality.