Off the tee: Waikato harks back to its golden days

Waikato are ready to make a determined effort to wrest the Freyberg Masters Trophy from Auckland when the national over-40 tournament is staged at Lochiel, Hamilton, next month.

Ironically, the seeded draw means the two sides will not meet during the round-robin of 15 provincial teams from November 3.

Auckland won the title last year on home territory at Whitford Park and they will again have a strong team with Arthur Parkin at No 1 followed by Mike Barltrop, Grant Smith, Mike Leitch and Richard Fry.

Waikato's team is stacked with names familiar from their glory days in provincial golf. Andrew McKechnie is No 1 ahead of Phil Hunter, John Gatley, Alan Smith and former Olympic eight gold medal-winning rower Wybo Veldman.

The teams were due to meet in a quadrangular tournament with Bay of Plenty and North Harbour last weekend at Huntly but Sunday's play was rained out. Auckland finished narrowly ahead on games after wins against Bay of Plenty and Harbour on Saturday.

Ironically both of those teams have former Auckland representatives at No 1, Terry Cochrane for the Bay and Tony Treen for Harbour.

* * *

Jan Stephenson's outburst at the proliferation of foreign players, in particular Asians on the LPGA tour in the US, coincided with her own venture into a foreign environment.

The veteran US-based Aussie played in the Turtle Bay Classic on the men's Champions Tour.

The 51-year-old completed the 54 holes in 26 over par, finishing equal last with Bobby Mitchell. Hale Irwin won with an eight-under-par total.

Stephenson has suggested that a quota system be set up for foreign players on the US tours, citing the difficulty of communicating with some reluctant to speak English.

* * *

New Zealand Golf has retained the same quartet that finished third in the Asia-Pacific tournament in Australia to contest the Southern Cross Cup International in South Africa next month.

Brad Iles (Wellington), Mark Smith (Bay of Plenty) and the Waikato pair of Mat Holten and Brad Shilton will compete in the international quadrangular tournament from November 5-7 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

The Kiwis take on Australia, South Africa and Argentina in the biennial matchplay event, last held at Wairakei.

Australia have won both previous events.

* * *

Just to show how easy the game of golf really is here are a few recent holes-in-one courtesy of Sports Illustrated:

* Henry Watson of Pittsburgh had two holes in one on the first nine of the Fox Chapel Golf Club. He used a five-iron on the 207-yard third and and a four-iron on the 192-yard sixth.

* Ray Hines, 65, and wife Ruth, 62, had holes in one during the same round at the Shoal Creek course in Kansas City. He finished with a 76. She had an 84.

* Andrew Jeans, 5, and his brother Kyle, 12, had holes in one within eight days on the Greenbriar Woodlands course in New Jersey.