1957 golf success noted

Don Sutherland with the Humphries Cup, finally engraved after almost 60 years since he first won...
Don Sutherland with the Humphries Cup, finally engraved after almost 60 years since he first won it at the North Otago Golf Club. Photo by David Bruce.
A mistake made almost 60 years ago on a golf trophy has been corrected and Oamaru man Don Sutherland has finally been recognised as the 1957 winner.

That was a surprise at his 72nd birthday party, when his daughter Megan Armour and her husband Dugal produced the trophy with the engraving corrected.

''I didn't know. It was a big surprise,'' he said.

He also had to drink a gin and tonic from the cup to celebrate.

The trophy was the Humphries Cup at the North Otago Golf Club, first presented in 1927, to the winner of a 36-hole matchplay contested between the two top qualifiers in the senior championship.

Mr Sutherland, then 15 years old and playing off a four handicap, beat scratch golfer, the late Les Domigan, in an off-the-stick contest on September 29, 1957.

But, for some reason, Mr Domigan's name was engraved on the trophy.

That was until this year when, with the club's agreement, Mr Sutherland's name was engraved next to 1957.

He also won the trophy over three successive years from 1959.

Mr Sutherland played golf until his early 20s, including competing in a New Zealand Open when he was 17 years old and still at school and in the final pairing with Bob Charles in the Caltex 1000 in the 1960s.

david.bruce@odt.co.nz

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