GREAT GOLF STRUGGLE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2217, 1 August 1914, Page 7

GREAT GOLF STRUGGLE

VARLQN & TAYLOR THE OfEN CHAMPIONSHIP OF 1914 The history of the world's golf championship, £ii event of nfty-iour yoara' standing, contains no parallel to the remarkable climax which was reached on. the Prestvviok links oh June 19, when, with nearly a hundred men, the elect of the qualifying rounds, competing in the ftial 'stage, the last round resolved itself into a duel between Harry Vardon and John Henry Taylor, who by a truly amazing whim on the part of the fates were drawn together (says E. E. Howard in the "Daily Mail"). A greater battle of the links one could hope never to s'ed again, and when in the end -Vardon ;had gained his sixth . ohamjrionship, and gained it right worthily by showing tremendous grit and wondrous skill in the most trying test imaginable, one could not help feeling Sorry that Taylor had cracked under tho Strain of the afternoon round. _ Spectators crowded on to the'course iii huge battalions. There fere nearly 5000 people fott&wing Vardon and Taylor in the morhirig, and the,.special trains that came from Glasgow and other places -during the afternoon brought heavy additions. Ten -thousand is not ah. excessive estimate, and only the person who has attempted fo follow the game in such circumstances can realise what such a crowd means.-'.'

Taylor fakes the Lead,

TheJ , started in tie morniilg with' their totals reading ,Vardoa 150 and Taylor 152, but Vardoh teat a stroke of his leadat .the ißeccndi Where he: tailed at a, putt of eighteen inches; It looked like a sign'of the return 'of hie old malady—bad' putt'ing-Hrat hr- did .not allow it to shake his aid he. •had a.5 against a.6 at the third..' Taylor suffered a piece of had 1 luck at: the fourth, where, after h& had Been hunkered from the -tee) his approach hit a spectator oh "the legs an inoiderit which probably, prevented the 'ball from going on the green. He was plainly upsot, and with much reason. He told the people in\a terse sentence just what Be thought of them. ' ._ J ■ Vardou wGs how playing his own inimitable golf arid leading by four strokes; but Taylor was fighting grimly, and he got doWn a two-yards putt to recover a stroke.'at the fifth. He was bunkered at the sixth, but. secured a 2) which meant a gain of /two strokes, at the seventhj where he laid his drive of 200 yards four feet from the pin and holed'the piitti Thus the battle proceeded, '■■ Taylor alternating the brilliant with the indifferent, and Vardon E laying almost'faultless golf. Vardon it two magnificent wooden club shots to the ninth ja hole of .446 yards, and had a putt for a. 3, which, however, he missed. Much.might have happened at this point, : for Taylor was bunkered, but again his doggedness came to his help. He made a great pitch and obtained a 5. VaVdon-took a 4, so that on tlio half-round there was only a-Stroke in it, for Vardoa out in 37 as against 37-and waS How | leading by ' three, strokes on the aggregate. \ . It was'a fairly comfortable position, but iii half.an hour a bompletff chahge came oVer th'e'Situaticra. Vardon start ed pulling, and Taylor, inspired by the possibilities bora of his rival's newly developed weakness. Settled down to play his best golf. Vardon lost a stroke at the' tenth through getting into the bunker to thS left of the green from his brassy,.aiid two strokes' at the tenth, ■' whereiihis .iron , 'shot pitched pluirip into the bunker again to the lett. It was so completely buried in .the corriof of the hazard'tha't Mr. P. Leslie Balfour-Melville, tlie umpire, Vi had to scrape sbirie of the sand away iu order to enable Vardon.ttf'eee-the top of the The men were now level for the chanv ! pionship/and ai <iver-"strang ruri/up at the teteerith put Vardon a stroke he-, hind for the first, time. From that point he was'fightitig hard against adversity, and on the whole he did well to'finish ii 6 more than two strokes to the had. His composure had .temporarily dese'rted him aiid he.could hot hit his apprbiSches with the'.easy confidence, and quiet hicieiftness that usually ihaft his golf. He was b"unk.ered in front of the fourteenth green from a pitch, aiid was little , more than halfway up with his approach to the sixteenth'. He_ recovered a stroke with a splendid drive and run-up at the 'jißhteentli, but Taylor, with a round of 74 and an aggregate of 226"foii tlie three-rounds, .found himself leading Vardon by two strokes.

Taylor and a Photographer.

The fourth hole in the last round will go dovrn. to posterity as the one at which the championship of 1914 was won and last...'. Here it was. that Taylor lost the hole. . . ' , . Hβ had started just aboiitas well as Qoiild be exrjected in the circumstauces. Both ho and Vardoh were; plainly full of and on the lirst green they took three putts.each. Vardon, who. was at the back of. the green, from his'pitch, .■required .a 6, and thus lost' aUother stroke. Th'e'puttiug was' jiist the same at the . 6hort second;" where 4's were recorded'. Then came' a'n incident which perhaps marked the beginning of the, end. : As" Taylor was' driving from the third tee lie was put off the shot by a photograpliof, and to a man in tho state of nervous tchsioii, which possessed both players in. the trying struggle such, an iiitemipt'ioii was bound to. bo . disturbing-. Taylor never, really settled down after.it. H'e had a 5, but)dropped d stroke, Vardoh seciiring a splendid 4. His tee slidt to the fourth was bun- : kefed on the Tight,- .-but the ball was lying, well—indeed, frohi just ,siich a plSoe in , .. the m'brning Vardoii had reached the green.. Taj'Jor, however, made a sad bungle of the ehot.~ Ho put it on to. the bank of the burn, aiid ,from' there "he ti'itjd to carry, the corner of the stream and to reach tho .g'feen. It looked an ordinary shot, bi.it, Taylor was highly strung now, ,arid hitting the ball too high he landed'it' , in the' burn, Thus ho was out of b'ounds. Dropping anothor ball, he'werit over the greenj bind by the, timo' that he hbled but he liiid taken 7. y.ardoh was down in -a. 'perfect 4", so that at this single' hole-he had wiped out his deficit of two and regained the lead. Taylor, still.perturbed, only just got over the Hin\alayas at the fifth and was short of th' 6 green. He had a fouryards" putt for a 3, and sent it four, yards jVast—truly a pathetic proof, of the state of his-nerves. Ho tooK v s; but ■Yarddn w4s down iii 4 and two strokes '. in front.' ..'.-.. . ■ ■

' Frbrii that point he had a firm grip on. tho championship, unless luij-bouy in another part of tho course, playing under less conditions and without the worries of a surging crowd of many' thousands of spectdtbrs, could make the m<sst of his opportunity. Vnrtlon. however,was' playing too well. Ho fetched the turn in 39 to his partner's '14, and gained a stroke at each of the tiext two holes.-

Taylor was noiv out of the hunt, Vardoh took 5 for the i sixteenth—Tftylor recovered two strokes here, but tney came ,too late. . . , It was certain that Vardon would vrin, and finishing with two 4's he had q round of 78 ana an aggregate of 306, a Tiishet total than anybody had expected to seb at the bend of the , list, litifc.a fine one in the circumstances iti which this extraordinary championship was played. So Vardoii, the greatest golfer,that the world Ims ever known, stands alone as _ the cbiiquoror in six open championships.